The following podcast contains explicit language.

From New York City, this is Lexicon Valley, a podcast about language.

I'm John McWhorter and as my listeners know, now I don't do politics.

On Lexicon Valley, we're supposed to be happy down here in the valley, but I must say that

I found what happened during the Kavanaugh hearings just awful on countless levels.

And I know that many listeners may feel differently and I thoroughly respect that.

But I'm still stuck here with my feelings.

And I just couldn't come in today and do a show about how old cartoon characters talk.

And so because Lexicon Valley still is not under my watch, a political show,

I'm not going to do a linguistic analysis of the hearings, etc.

But my mother once told me that the way I dissociate as she put it, what she meant was the way

that I get through something that bothers me is that I run off and I play the piano.

And I guess that was true back then.

And I think I also dissociate in that way by obsessing with the linguistic constructions

that people use rather than the substance.

I mean, in an odd way, focusing on language can bring you away from things as much as it can

let you burrow into them.

And on this, I must admit that what went through my mind of late was how interesting one word is

that really got around amidst this controversy.

For that.

I like beer.

I don't know if you do.

...