Episode · Freakonomics Radio · 2023-04-20
Books mentioned on 540. Swearing Is More Important Than You Think
Every language has its taboo words (which many people use all the time). But the list of forbidden words is always changing — and those changes tell us some surprising things about ourselves.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Why We Curse
Discussed“If I ask you to give the answer to the title of this one book of yours, "Why We Curse," why do we? How answerable is that question?”
Where to get it
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Holy Sh*t
Discussed“Moore is the author of a book called Holy [ __ ]. A Brief History of Swearing.”
Where to get it
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The Stuff of Thought
The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature by Steven Pinker is a cognitive science book that explores how language reveals the workings of the human mind, touching upon topics such as swearing, metaphors, and social taboos.
Discussed“Question: you've got this kind of euphemism treadmill that Stephen Pinker talks about where it starts off as a bad word, but then people use it more and more, and then you get used to it, and then it falls away, and then you need to come up with another bad word.”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (1) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
Own book Woke Racism
“I write a column for the New York Times, and my most recent two books were, "Nine Nasty Words" about profanity and "Woke Racism" about race and cultural issues.”