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Word of Mouth

Series exploring the world of words and the ways in which we use them

Radio 4,292 episodes

Episodes

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The Story of A-Z
Michael Rosen journeys down the A-Z on an alphabetical odyssey with linguist Danny Bate.
08 Jan 2026,28 mins
Julia Donaldson: A life in language
The Gruffalo author tells Michael Rosen about her writing, reading, speaking and listening
02 Oct 2025,28 mins
It's not what you say, it's how you say it
Michael Rosen on clichés, pragmatics and how language is used to connect us beyond words.
25 Sep 2025,28 mins
The Language of the Manosphere
Michael Rosen hears how words are used as weapons against women
21 Sep 2025,28 mins
Crash Bang Wallop: The Sound of Words
Michael Rosen and Dr Catherine Laing discuss words that sound like their meanings.
11 Sep 2025,28 mins
How to Persuade a Courtroom
Michael Rosen talks to defence barrister Joanna Hardy-Susskind about courtroom language.
04 Sep 2025,28 mins
Keeping My Family's Language Alive
Michael Rosen asks Samantha Ellis about the language spoken by her mum and dad.
28 Aug 2025,28 mins
Speech difficulties
Michael Rosen asks what happens to people's sense of identity when speaking becomes hard.
21 Aug 2025,28 mins
The Art of Listening
Michael Rosen talks to Dr Haru Yamada about how we listen, and how we can do it better.
12 Jun 2025,28 mins
Lists
Michael Rosen and linguistics researcher Jo Nolan discuss the joy of making lists.
05 Jun 2025,28 mins
The Welsh Language with Huw Stephens at the Hay Festival
Michael Rosen talks to Welsh radio and TV presenter Huw Stephens about the Welsh language.
29 May 2025,28 mins
The language that changed the world
Michael Rosen hears about the origin of all Indo-European languages from Laura Spinney.
22 May 2025,28 mins
The End of the Full Stop?
Michael Rosen and Christian Ilbury discuss how online chat is changing how we punctuate.
15 May 2025,28 mins
Street Names
Michael Rosen talks to Philip Seargeant about where our street names come from.
08 May 2025,28 mins
Old English, New English
Michael Rosen on the Old English words used in daily life then and now, with Hana Videen.
20 Feb 2025,28 mins
Talking Cockney
Michael talks cockney with Andy Green and Saif Osmani from the Modern Cockney Festival.
13 Feb 2025,28 mins
Creating Languages for Film and Television with Professor David Adger
Michael Rosen asks a linguist how he invents new languages for TV series and films.
06 Feb 2025,28 mins
Politeness with Louise Mullany
Professor Louise Mullany talks politeness, and how it governs every sphere of our lives.
30 Jan 2025,28 mins
Jackie Kay on the Scots language
Jackie Kay has written a book in Scots and tells Michael about her love of the language.
23 Jan 2025,28 mins
The Language of Genetics
Adam Rutherford joins Michael to unpick the knotty language we use to talk about genetics.
16 Jan 2025,28 mins
Susie Dent's World of Words
Susie Dent joins Michael to talk about her lifelong fascination with words and languages.
09 Jan 2025,28 mins
Social media language
How language is used on platforms like Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter/X.
03 Oct 2024,28 mins
How Animals Talk
Michael hears about how animals communicate, and why, from zoologist Arik Kershenbaum.
26 Sep 2024,28 mins
A Poet Writing in Three Languages
Poet Nabeela Ahmed on being multilingual.
22 Sep 2024,28 mins
Fine Distinctions
Eli Burnstein talks about fine distinctions between words.
12 Sep 2024,28 mins
Former astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield on the language of Space exploration
The Canadian former astronaut and author talks about communicating Space
05 Sep 2024,28 mins
The words we use about getting older and why they matter
How we talk about getting older can affect how we age. Michael hears from Dr Lucy Pollock.
29 Aug 2024,28 mins
How babies learn language
Professor Julian Pine on how babies learn language.
22 Aug 2024,28 mins
Little Green Men: the secret rules of word order
Michael explores the mysterious rules of word order with linguist Dr Laura Bailey.
13 Jun 2024,28 mins
Word of Mouth with Michael Morpurgo at the Hay Festival
In conversation with Michael Morpurgo at the Hay Festival.
06 Jun 2024,28 mins