ChatGPT Has Ruined the Em Dash
Slate Debates
Slate Podcasts
4.6 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 23 August 2025
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Candice Lim and Kate Lindsay get into the war between em dashes and artificial intelligence. Back in 2024, what started as a developer question became an all-out grammar war, with the use of em dashes becoming a possible indicator that something was written using ChatGPT. In the past week alone, several writers have published their defenses of the em dash and how we shouldn’t let ChatGPT ruin our favorite keyboard shortcut. However, the em dash may be a symptom of a bigger issue: have our AI detection skills gotten worse? Or, are we all doomed to be tricked by a hyphen or two?
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This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, Candice Lim, and Kate Lindsay.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, I'm Candace Lem, and I'm Kate Lindsay, and you're listening to I see why am I. |
| 0:18.5 | In case you missed it. |
| 0:20.3 | Slate's podcast about internet culture. |
| 0:22.8 | And Kate, is Christian Girl Autumn canceled? |
| 0:34.1 | As of this morning, I am happy to announce that Christian Girl Autumn is continuing as planned. |
| 0:43.2 | Let's all clap. |
| 0:44.3 | Thank God. |
| 0:45.5 | Oh, right. |
| 0:46.1 | You can't really clap because, yeah, Candice is coming at you from a sort of blanket for a dungeon situation right now. |
| 0:52.6 | Yeah, yeah, yeah. |
| 0:53.0 | Yeah, I'm under a blanket because |
| 0:54.9 | there is some construction happening around my house and therefore I needed to move rooms. It |
| 1:00.7 | was unexpected. Therefore, if I sound different, I am so sorry. But we're chugging along. |
| 1:06.0 | We're chugging along. We're just kind of nice and cozy for fall. It is. it is. Because obviously we were talking about Caitlin Covington. |
| 1:13.1 | Caitlin Covington, how would we describe her? |
| 1:15.1 | Internet icon. |
| 1:16.3 | Internet icon. |
| 1:17.7 | And so you probably recognize Caitlin Covington from these quintessential images of influencers in the fall, like with like burnt orange and brown and she's like |
| 1:29.1 | tossing leaves and that those images and that style imagery became known as Christian |
| 1:34.7 | Girl Autumn. In the years since, she's really kind of ran with it and does these annual |
| 1:41.1 | fall photo shoots. But a few days ago ago she gets on TikTok and posts this video |
| 1:46.9 | um hi guys this is my fourth time recording and just don't know how i'm going to tell you guys that |
... |
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