The Science of the Bloody Obvious | With Danny Bate

What happens when we stop taking language for granted and start paying attention to everything hidden inside it?

In this episode of Echoes of Meaning, we speak with linguist and writer Danny Bate about the many ways language connects us to thought, history, culture, and one another. Our conversation moves through etymology, the evolution of languages, the relationship between words and how we understand the world, the limits of interpreting people and cultures from the past, and the role of public linguistics in making these ideas accessible beyond academia.

We also discuss Danny’s approach to writing and his book, Why Q Needs U, in a wide-ranging conversation about the strange, complex, and deeply human thing we do every day: communicate.