Ready to launch your business? Get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs. Shopify

is specially designed to help you start, run and grow your business with easy customizable themes

that let you build your brand, marketing tools that get your products out there. Integrated shipping

solutions that actually save you time, from startups to scaleups, online, in person, and on the go.

Shopify is made for entrepreneurs like you.

Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup.

You're listening to Away with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I'm Grant Barrett.

And I'm Martha Barnett.

In the late 18th century, the English term mudlark

was a rather grim one. It referred to people who scavenged for usable debris in the cold,

stinking, tidal mud of a river because they didn't have any other means of income. Today, mudlarking

is more of a hobby, and it's the

subject of a book I'm really enjoying by Laura Mecklam. It's called Mudlark, in search of London's

past along the River Thames. It turns out that much of the River Thames is title, which means that

twice a day it pulls back to reveal its secrets. And Meeklam has found

all kinds of things over the years, everything from ancient Roman jewelry to modern engraved

wedding rings, and you've got to wonder how somebody lost that, or maybe they got angry and

threw it in the river. But there's so much history in each one of those objects.

One of my favorite examples is the fact that she's always finding these little clay pipes.

So I'm talking about tiny clay pipes. And the reason they were tiny is because tobacco was

initially very expensive when it was first brought to Britain. And she also finds a lot of Elizabethan style pins

...