The Vocal Fries

Have you ever wondered why swearing feels so good? Carrie and Megan explain what counts as swearing and why it's so fun to swear. They also discuss what types of words become profane over time and how swearing varies across languages and cultures. Also, they swear a lot. gasp

We're an indie podcast with limited resources, so we could really use your support. You can set up a monthly recurring donation at patreon.com/vocalfriespod. The $5 a month level gives you access to our monthly bonus episode, as well as a Vocal Fries sticker and a shout out on the podcast! But you can contribute as little as $1 a month and have our undying gratitude!

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/vocalfriespod/, on Tumblr at https://vocalfriespod.tumblr.com/, and on Twitter and Instagram at @vocalfriespod.

Threads us @vocalfriespod
Bluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.social
Email us at [email protected]

Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

3 Listeners

The Funnest Episode

The Vocal Fries

03/12/24 • 57 min

Megan and Carrie talk with Dr Anne Curzan about her book Says Who? A Kinder, Funner Usage Guide for Everyone Who Cares About Words.

Trump's brain

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Email us at [email protected]

Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

2 Listeners

Writing Beyond Writing

The Vocal Fries

07/15/24 • 53 min

Megan and Carrie talk with Tim Brookes about his newest book, Writing Beyond Writing, what writing is, his journey to caring about Endangered Alphabets and his favourite scripts.

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Email us at [email protected]

Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

1 Listener

I Ain't Messing With You

The Vocal Fries

06/28/21 • 56 min

Carrie and Megan talk with Deion Broxton about his Baltimore accent, his career and speech therapy, and going viral.

We're an indie podcast with limited resources, so we could really use your support. You can set up a monthly recurring donation at Patreon. We have mugs now at the $15/mo level! The $5/mo level gives you access to our monthly bonus episode, as well as a Vocal Fries sticker and a shout out on the podcast! But you can contribute as little as $2/mo and have our undying gratitude!

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/vocalfriespod/, on Tumblr at https://vocalfriespod.tumblr.com/, and on Twitter and Instagram at @vocalfriespod, and our website is www.vocalfriespod.com.

Threads us @vocalfriespod
Bluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.social
Email us at [email protected]

Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

1 Listener

Don't be an *, be a 🐈

The Vocal Fries

03/13/23 • 57 min

Megan and Carrie talk with Rachel E. Gross about her book, Vagina Obscura, and the language we use to describe pregnancy, vaginas, cervixes, etc.
Whale vocal fry:

Background on phonic lips

Threads us @vocalfriespod
Bluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.social
Email us at [email protected]

Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

1 Listener

Uneffing the Binary

The Vocal Fries

05/14/24 • 61 min

Megan and Carrie talk with Drs Kris Aric Knisley and Eric Louis Russell about their book Redoing linguistic worlds: Unmaking gender binaries, remaking gender pluralities, gender, critical linguistics, trans linguistics, and uneffing all things.

Sperm Whale "phonetic alphabet"

Threads us @vocalfriespod
Bluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.social
Email us at [email protected]

Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

1 Listener

Grammar Not-zi

The Vocal Fries

09/18/17 • 42 min

Carrie and Megan talk about prescriptive grammar, grammar peeving, and how most of the rules you were taught about English were made up by a few white dudes way back when. Turns out, prescriptivism is racist, classist, and ableist, and enforcing these rules kinda make you a jerk. They also discuss how they had been trained in high school to be prescriptivists, and how linguistics helped them become less biased.

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/vocalfriespod/, on Tumblr at https://vocalfriespod.tumblr.com/, and on Twitter and Instagram at @vocalfriespod.

Threads us @vocalfriespod
Bluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.social
Email us at [email protected]

Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

1 Listener

Everybody Hertz

The Vocal Fries

09/09/19 • 71 min

Megan and Carrie talk to Dr Lisa Davidson, Professor of Linguistics at New York University, about the terms used by journalists to describe language and accents (and why they are so often problematic).

We're an indie podcast with limited resources, so we could really use your support. You can set up a monthly recurring donation at www.patreon.com/vocalfriespod. The $5 a month level gives you access to our monthly bonus episode, as well as a Vocal Fries sticker and a shout out on the podcast! But you can contribute as little as $1 a month and have our undying gratitude!

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/vocalfriespod/, on tumblr at https://vocalfriespod.tumblr.com/, and Twitter and Instagram at @vocalfriespod, and our website is www.vocalfriespod.com.

Threads us @vocalfriespod
Bluesky us @vocalfriespod.bsky.social
Email us at [email protected]

Thanks for listening and keep calm and fry on

1 Listener

Uppity Women

The Vocal Fries

07/15/17 • 32 min

In this episode we discuss the dreaded vocal fry. We explain what vocal fry actually is, who uses it (cough everyone cough), and why we judge only women for using it. Carrie and Megan ask you to stop judging women for using vocal fry - it's a proxy for sexism and anyway, it's everywhere.

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/vocalfriespod/, on Tumblr at https://vocalfriespod.tumblr.com/, and on Twitter and Instagram at @vocalfriespod.