Word Bomb
Latest Episodes
BIPOC: Can a term be too inclusive?
The acronym BIPOC has been around for years-but in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and BLM protests across North America this summer, it's been thrust into the spotlight. Is this hot-button term inclusive or homogenizing? Does it signal solidarity
Sex: The words and the bees
Now that we've got your attention: Pippa and Karina investigate how sex drives slang creation in the English language. With Jonathon Green, one of the world's leading lexicographers and author of Green's Dictionary of Slang, they take a trip through steam
Expat: A passport to privilege
Why are some people living abroad called "expats" and others called "immigrants" or "migrants"? Is it simply semantics, or something much deeper? In this episode, Pippa and Karina decode the politics, power dynamics, and privilege behind these loaded term
Organic: Farm to label
Karina and Pippa take a trip down the grocery aisle to peel back the "organic" label. The organic food industry is booming-but is it all marketing and markup at Whole Foods, or the future of sustainable farming? A tightly regulated industry, or ripe for f
Cancel: Dispatches from the culture wars
2020 is definitely #cancelled, but who can cancel who, and where does boycotting end and cancelling start? Pippa and Karina data-mine Twitter, sort through the endless op-eds, and debate the catharsis and consequences of call-out culture. Online and IRL,
Karen: Calling cops and naming names
Pippa and Karina talk to an entire chorus of Karens and break down the memeification of this now-infamous first name, from the baby boom to Black Lives Matter. Women weaponizing their whiteness have never been so easily called out-but how did one of the m
Republican: Grand Old Party in the U.S.A.
Pippa and Karina take a quick break from doomscrolling to ring in the U.S. presidential election with an episode on the word "Republican." From res publica to revolution, from the party of Lincoln to the party of Trump, identifying as Republican has gone
Nice: A journey into the friendzone
Pippa and Karina follow this surface-level word straight into one of the darkest corners of the internet: the manosphere, complete with Nice Guys, good boys, incels, and MRAs. How did one boring, overused adjective become the ultimate red flag? "Nice" is
Hustle: The millennials aren't alright
Millennials are often called the "hustle generation." They're famous for side gigging, bootstrapping, and burning out. But what really is hustling, and where did it come from? This week on Word Bomb, Pippa and Karina meet hustle culture at the source, inv
Latinx: Solving for x in a binary world
In this episode of Word Bomb, Pippa and Karina examine the myriad of modern ways to self-identify as Latin American. Joined by a Chicanx psycholinguist and a Venezuelanx performer, they dig into divisive debates and far-reaching colonial history to see wh