Herd of Turtles (Rebroadcast) - 3 November 2025

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A Way with Words

Education, Language Learning, Society & Culture

4.6 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 November 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

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Summary

Some college students are using the word loyalty as a synonym for monogamy. Are the meanings of these words now shifting? Plus, a biologist discovers a new species of bat, then names it after a poet he admires. The poet? Nikki Giovanni. Also, warm memories of how a childhood library card becomes a passport to new worlds. And: for a spell vs. cast a spell, thaw vs. unthaw, twice-cooked cabbage, a brain teaser in celebration of the great Stephen Sondheim, Dankie op'n plankie, right as rain, a turd of hurtles, a revolving s.o.b., and tips for writing historical fiction. Hear hundreds of free episodes and learn more on the A Way with Words website: https://waywordradio.org. Be a part of the show: call or text 1 (877) 929-9673 toll-free in the United States and Canada; elsewhere in the world, call or text +1 619 800 4443. Send voice notes or messages via WhatsApp 16198004443. Email [email protected]. Copyright Wayword, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Sean has had some good ideas over the years.
0:05.0	But using Canva was a really good one.
0:08.0	Sean designed some social posts to promote his friend's car boot sale.
0:13.0	They looked good.
0:15.0	Really, really good.
0:17.0	Next thing he knows, someone came and bought the lot, including the car. Now Sean doesn't know
0:25.5	how he's going to get home. Thanks, Canva. You're listening to Away with Words, the show about
0:32.4	language and how we use it. I'm Grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett. Here's a trivia question for you. What well-known
0:40.2	U.S. poet has a species of bat named after her? Well-known U.S. poet has a species of bat named after
0:48.2	her. Is this a joke or is it real? No, no, it's real. I don't know.
0:54.6	Who?
0:55.9	Well, it's Nikki Giovanni.
0:58.2	Nikki Giovanni?
0:59.7	Yes, over her long career, she earned a whole lot of awards like the Langston Hughes Medal.
1:05.2	She was nominated for a Grammy for Best Spoken Word album.
1:08.7	But she also has a species of bat named after her,
1:12.7	micro-nictorous Giovannii. Because in 2004, Robert Baker, who was a biologist at Texas Tech,
1:21.7	there in Lubbock, discovered a new species of micro-nictorous, and this is a bat that's also
1:27.3	known as the leaf-nosed bat.
1:30.1	And he was a huge fan of Nikki Giovanni. And he wrote at the time, I decided to choose
1:35.8	someone whose life work I respected immensely, but that I'd never had contact with. It was a way
1:40.9	of going outside of my own world. So Robert Baker wrote to Nikki Giovanni,
	...

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