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A Way with Words is an upbeat and lively show about language examined through culture, history, and family. Language debates, variations, and evolution, as well as new words, old sayings, slang, family expressions, word histories, etymology, linguistics, regional dialects, word games, grammar, books, literature, writing, and more.

A Way with Words

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A one-hour edition of the popular afternoon radio newsmagazine delivering breaking news mixed with compelling analysis, insightful commentaries, interviews and special features, and transforming the way listeners understand current events and view the world.
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Weekend All Things Considered

A one-hour edition of the popular afternoon radio newsmagazine delivering breaking news mixed with compelling analysis, insightful commentaries, interviews and special features, and transforming the way listeners understand current events and view the world.

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Science

Colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (red) heavily infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (yellow), isolated from a patient sample. Image captured at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland. (Science Source)
NPR
Health Care
Medicine
Public Health

Omicron is spreading at lightning speed. Scientists are trying to figure out why

The burning questions: What makes this newly identified variant so transmissible?. And what does it mean for preventing spread?

5 years ago

In this image released by NASA, Arianespace's Ariane 5 rocket with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope onboard, lifts off Saturday, Dec. 25, 2021, at Europe's Spaceport, the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana. The $10 billion infrared observatory is intended as the successor to the aging Hubble Space Telescope
International
Space

Space telescope launched on daring quest to behold 1st stars

The $10 billion infrared observatory is intended as the successor to the aging Hubble Space Telescope.

5 years ago

Save Download Preview Hands of woman baker kneading dough on table
The Pulse

Handmade Tales

As a materials scientist, Anna Ploszajski was trained t ...

Air Date: December 24, 2021

Listen 49:17
A member of Project Recovery combs through the debris of a downed aircraft found in the Pacific Ocean off Palau. (Project Recover)
Delaware
History
Military

University of Delaware oceanographer’s quest to find servicemen lost at sea featured in documentary

The film presents the work of Mark Moline and Project Recover, a collaborative trying to repatriate the remains of those still missing from World War II.

5 years ago

Sam Kean, author of The Icepick Surgeon: Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science. (Little, Brown and Company Publishers)
Radio Times
Biology
History
Medicine

Icepick Surgeon: Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science

Dr. Walter Freeman performed lobotomies with an ice pick through the eye socket....and other stories about doctors who do evil scientific deeds in the name of medicine.

Air Date: December 23, 2021 8:00 am

Listen 49:29
Delta smelt at rearing facility
The Pulse

The Species We Save

Humans have long tried to mitigate their own destructive impact on the planet through conservation efforts. Often, those efforts are atta ...

Air Date: December 17, 2021

Listen 48:48
Two people share an embrace while surrounded by the damage left from a tornado
NPR
Environment
National

The exact link between tornadoes and climate change is hard to draw. Here’s why

The link between tornadoes, like the ones that hit Kentucky over the weekend, and climate change isn't as clear as it is for other extreme weather events.

5 years ago

Blue Origin's latest space passengers from left, Laura Shepard Churchley, Dylan Taylor, Michael Strahan, Cameron Bess, Lane Bess, and Evan Dick pose for a photo in front of the booster rocket at the spaceport near Van Horn, Texas, Saturday, Dec. 11, 2021
Media
Space
Sports

Michael Strahan flies to space with astronaut’s daughter

The Amazon founder's space company launched the former football player and co-host of ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Saturday morning from West Texas.

5 years ago

Saul Griffith is the author of Electrify (photo/Clayton Boyd)
Radio Times
Energy
Environment
Explainers

Electrifying everything: some optimism for climate change

Saul Griffith's hopeful and realistic action plan for fighting climate change while boosting the job market is to electrify, electrify, electrify.

Air Date: December 10, 2021 10:00 am

Listen 49:12
A rendering of a brain breaking apart into small pieces
The Pulse
Addiction
Behavioral Health
Biology

Amnesia, Opioids and Why We Forget

In 2018, Owen Rivers woke up in a hospital bed after a fentanyl overdose — and could no longer form new memories. It was a terrifying e ...

Air Date: December 10, 2021

Listen 49:32
A gas well pad in the Tiadaghton State Forest. (Marie Cusick / StateImpact Pennsylvania)
Energy
Environment
Pennsylvania
StateImpact Pennsylvania

State report shows strong natural gas production growth in 2021

After a bruising year in 2020, natural gas production and prices in Pennsylvania are on the rise this year.

5 years ago

A human head shaped by colorful pixels of light
The Pulse

How We Process Information

The human brain has an incredible capacity for processing information, from sensory data, to casual conversations, to everything we hear ...

Air Date: November 26, 2021

Listen 48:10
Auditory processing disorder refers to any failure along the pathway, from our ears into our brains. (carloscastilla /bigstock)
The Pulse
Biology
Technology

Trouble understanding, but your hearing checks out fine. What’s at play?

Researchers are strategizing ways to discover whether auditory processing disorders are at play.

5 years ago

Listen 12:24
(Syntheticmessiah/BigStock)
Environment
Outdoors

Why do we love the way autumn smells? It’s not about pumpkin spice

That brisk, crisp, slightly sharp scent we associate with the fall is the smell of leaves, trees, and plants decaying through the season.

5 years ago

NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins (L) waves at the audience during during the astronaut graduation ceremony at Johnson Space Center in Houston Texas, on January 10, 2020. - The 13 astronauts, 11 from NASA and 2 from CSA, are the first candidates to graduate under the Artemis program and will become eligible for spaceflight, including assignments to the International Space Station, Artemis missions to the Moon, and ultimately, missions to Mars, according to NASA. (Photo by Mark Felix / AFP) (Photo by MARK FELIX/AFP via Getty Images)
NPR
International
National
Race & Ethnicity
Space

Jessica Watkins will be the first Black woman to live and work on the space station

5 years ago

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