Episode 11: Cancel Culture

08/17/20 • 55 min

“Cancel Culture,” or the purposeful derailing of another’s career, reputation or even life is becoming an epidemic in America. Why now? Where does this attack mentality stem from? Boycotting is a form of protest but Cancel Culture seems to go beyond the protesting of a person’s product or service – it protests the person; denying the leeway to make mistakes. And many of the words or actions that act as the impetus for cancellation are not even offensive to the masses but, rather, the outspoken minority. What are the pros and cons to this trend that has gained so much momentum? And where does the balance lie?

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Episode 10: The Cynical Party

The use of words is an action that could stand to utilize a bit more conscious thought. Words can lift up, tear down, soothe or start a fight. Even the seemingly innocuous words can have damaging effects on our goal if we don’t understand how they land on the people we are addressing. Both Doug and Armand give a multitude of examples from today’s society – both the words used and the resulting effects.

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Episode 12: Tim Bottorff Interview: Sex, Slurs, & Scrabble!

What’s a word’s worth anyway? Well, these days it’s more than the “Q” and the “Z” combined on a triple-word-score! Or so describes one of the top Scrabble players in the country, Tim Bottorff. A mild-mannered librarian by trade (well, not so mild – he’s the Rosen Library department head at the University of Central Florida,) Tim puts on his linguistics and etymology cape at night and takes the English language by storm. And playing Scrabble on the competitive circuit (yes, there is such a thing) is only the beginning. For almost a decade, Tim has volunteered his time and talents to the dictionary committee of NASPA (North American Scrabble Players Association) which involves keeping up to date on the almost 200,000 words in the tournament players’ list. Why is this topic on The Purple Evolution Podcast? Listen to find out! The sex and slurs might have you thinking twice about your grandmother’s Scrabble.