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Thinking about the sometimes violent rhetoric coming from football coaches with a look back at “bountygate.”

An introduction to ChatGPT and its effects on society.

A look at the etymology of the term “Christmas” and saying Merry Christmas vs. saying Happy Holidays.

A look at how Gen Zers find the thumbs up emoji passive aggressive and other emoji talk.

A look at the history and evolution of the term “piggyback”.

A quick look at puns, the Punslinger Finals, and a song about love and crossword puzzles.

A quick look at the literary and rhetorical devices of personification and anthropomorphism.

A look at pop culture body movements like the Dab, the Floss, and the Griddy and what they possibly communicate.

A look at how Russian nationalists see the Ukrainian language as “little Russian” but Ukrainians know it to be a distinct language.

A look at the new naming system for Covid-19 variants and why a place-based naming system isn’t best.

A look at the neologism (new slang term) “cheugy”. Wait, is it cheugy to be doing a podcast episode on “cheugy”? Probably.

A look at how cuss words are different than regular words and how cussing helps us tolerate pain.

A look at the power and influence of reviews.

A look at why composition classes became mandatory at most U.S. colleges and how they have changed over time.

A look at the idea of people being “connected but alone” as they use their smart phones and social media on a regular basis.

A look at some of the discourse used by Trump that led to the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

A look at the racial comedy used by some comedians and thinking about the possible positive and negative impact to society.

A look at some words and phrases used to motivate people during sports and working out.

A look at Rutgers University’s English Department’s new policies on race, racism, and Critical Race Theory.

In this episode I talk with two guests about topics from the previous nine episodes including vehicular rhetoric, Covid (mis)information, how to communicate when breaking up with someone, and a few other topics.