Word Weavers: Sylvia Wright

Womanica

Acast Creative Studios

History, Society & Culture, Education

4.3 • 920 Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2025

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sylvia Wright (c. 1916-1981) was a writer and humorist who coined the term “Mondegreen,” a noun used to describe the result of mishearing a word for another word or phrase. During her career she was an editor for “Harper's Bazaar,” and published several works of her own.

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This month, we're talking about Word Weavers — people who coined terms, popularized words, and even created entirely new languages. These activists, writers, artists, and scholars used language to shape ideas and give voice to experiences that once had no name.

History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn't help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.

Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we'll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.

Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Sara Schleede, Paloma Moreno Jimenez, Luci Jones, Abbey Delk, Adrien Behn, Alyia Yates, Vanessa Handy, Melia Agudelo, and Joia Putnoi. Special thanks to Shira Atkins.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Soledad O'Brien, and on my new true crime podcast, Murder on the Tooth Path,
0:05.3	I'm taking it back to 1964 to the cold case of artist Mary Pinch O'Meyer.
0:11.5	She had been shot twice in the head and in the back.
0:14.8	It turns out Mary was connected to a very powerful man.
0:20.0	I pledge you that we shall neither commit nor provoke aggression.
0:24.4	John F. Kennedy.
0:26.3	Listen to Murder on the Toothpath with Soledad O'Brien on the Iheart Radio app,
0:31.2	Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.
0:40.0	I want you to ask yourself right now, how am I actually doing?
0:43.5	Because it's a question that we rarely ask ourselves.
0:46.7	All of May is actually Mental Health Awareness Month, and on the psychology of your 20s,
0:50.7	we are taking a vulnerable look at why mental health is so hard to talk about.
0:55.5	Prepare for our conversations to go deep.
0:57.5	I spent the majority of my teenagers and my 20s just feeling absolutely terrified.
1:03.1	I had a panic attack on a conference call.
1:05.5	Knowing that she had six months to live, I was no longer pretending that this was my best friend.
1:09.1	So this mental health awareness month, take that extra bit of care of your well-being.
1:12.8	Listen to the psychology of your 20s on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:22.5	Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Wamanica.
1:32.5	This month we're talking about word weavers, people who coined terms, popularized words, and even created entirely new languages.
1:40.3	These activists, writers, artists, and scholars used language to shape ideas and give voice to experiences that once had no name.
1:52.1	Today we're talking about a woman who articulated the indecipherable experience of hearing something incorrectly, and liking that misquote more than the original.
	...

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