August 4, 2025 edition
Paid subscribers get access to my entire interview with John McWhorter. The paywall for this episode will be lifted in a few weeks. If you can’t wait to hear the whole conversation (and you shouldn’t wait!), become a paying subscriber here.
Remember: John is one of several speakers who will be at the Unspeakeasy coed retreat in New York City October 11-12. This is a rare chance to meet and talk with him and your other intellectual heroes in a beautiful, private, off-the-record setting. Click the “book now” button to find out more and to register. Right now, you can get $700 off the price using code NYC1800 at checkout.
Episode Notes:
Author, New York Times columnist, and superstar linguist John McWhorter returns to the pod to catch us up on what’s been on his mind now that the Woke Emergency is over . . . or is it over? We talk about how figures like Robin DiAngelo and Ibram X. Kendi have receded from the spotlight. We then move on to more pressing questions topics, such as whether New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s “I vs me” confusion disqualifies him for the job (I say yes), whether a smart person would say “stupider” or “more stupid,” when it became acceptable to say “anyways,” and why kids today have substituted “based off” for “based on.”
We also discuss John’s long-running conversations with economist Glenn Loury on The Glenn Show and how their divergent views on the Trump phenomenon have changed (and also not changed) the dynamics of their discussions. John reflects on Glenn’s 2024 memoir and explains why he would be reluctant to expand the personal writing in his columns into an entire book. (Listen to my interview with Glenn here.)
Finally, we talk about the definition of a public intellectual and ask why so many people with microphones now count themselves as such. Would a legendary public intellectual like Susan Sontag have adapted to the YouTube era? What John has to say might surprise you.
Guest Bio:
John McWhorter writes a weekly newsletter for The New York Times, is a professor of linguistics at Columbia University, and the author of more than 20 books, most recently Pronoun Trouble, Nine Nasty Words, and Woke Racism.
John’s May 2021 interview on The Unspeakable.
The Racism of Antiracism: A Conversation With John McWhorter
John McWhorter teaches linguistics and music history at Columbia University, is the author of more than 20 books, a contributor to The Atlantic and the host of the Slate podcast Lexicon Valley. If you're a fan of The Unspeakable, you may know John best from his commentary around issues of race. Since 2007, he has been in regular conversation with econom…
Housekeeping
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