First words and last words get a lot of attention. But how did words get to have such a place of prominence? What would we see if we focused on interaction instead? A new book looks at words, gestures, and silence at the beginning and end of life. Daniel has a chat with the author of Bye Bye I Love You, Dr Michael Erard.
Timestamps
- Cold open: 0:00
- Intros: 1:05
- News: 6:59
- Related or Not: 35;54
- Interview with Michael Erard: 47:56
- Words of the Week: 1:33:32
- Comment: 1:45:46
- The Reads: 1:49:43
- Outtake: 1:56:01
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This time we are ordering the names using the Scream Cipher from XKCD. It’s a substitution cipher in which every letter is replaced by some variant of A with a diacritic, and it just looks like screams.
https://xkcd.com/3054/
I used a very nice tool called the Scream Cipher Translator made by Matthew Watkins
https://scream-cipher.netlify.app
and then I alphabetised it
and your position in the list depends on that.
- Andy B (Aâa̲a̦ Ȧ)
- Andy from Logophilius (Aâa̲a̦ a̮ȃåǎ Ăåa̋åa̯a̰ảăảäã)
- Alyssa (Aăa̦ããa)
- Aldo (Aăa̲å)
- Amir (Aǎảȃ)
- Ariaflame (Aȃảaa̮ăaǎá)
- Ayesha (Aa̦áãa̰a)
- Amy (Aǎa̦)
- Elías (Áăíaã)
- Nasrin (Âaãȃảâ)
- Nikoli (Âảạåăả)
- Nigel (Âảa̋áă)
- Sonic Snejhog (Ãåâảa̧ Ãâáa̓a̰åa̋)
- Stan (Ãāaâ)
- Steele (Ãāááăá)
- O Tim (Å Āảǎ)
- sæ̃m (ãæ̃ǎ)
- Tony (Āåâa̦)
- Termy (Āáȃǎa̦)
- Tadhg (Āaa̲a̰a̋)
- Laura (Ăaäȃa)
- Luis (Ăäảã)
- LordMortis (Ăåȃa̲Ǎåȃāảã)
- Larry (Ăaȃȃa̦)
- Linguistic C̷̛̤̰̳͉̺͕̋̚̚͠h̸͈̪̤͇̥͛͂a̶̡̢̛͕̰͈͗͋̐̚o̷̟̹͈̞̔̊͆͑͒̃s̵̍̒̊̈́̚̚ͅ (Ăảâa̋äảãāảa̧ A̧a̰aåã)
- Lyssa (Ăa̦ããa)
- Manú (Ǎaâú)
- Molly (Ǎåăăa̦)
- Margareth (Ǎaȃa̋aȃáāa̰)
- Meredith (Ǎáȃáa̲ảāa̰)
- Mignon (Ǎảa̋âåâ)
- Wolfdog (Ȁåăa̮a̲åa̋)
- Whitney (Ȁa̰ảāâáa̦)
- Rach (Ȃaa̧a̰áă)
- Rene (Ȃáâá)
- Rodger (Ȃåa̲a̋áȃ)
- Ben (Ȧáâ) is here
- Kevin (Ạáàảâ)
- Kathy (Ạaāa̰a̦)
- Kristofer (Ạȃảãāåa̮áȃ)
- Keith (Ạáảāa̰)
- Ignacio (Ảa̋âaa̧ảå)
- J0HNTR0Y (A̓0A̰ÂĀȂ0A̦)
- Jack (A̓aa̧ạ)
- Joanna (A̓åaââa)
- Chris L (A̧a̰ȃảã Ă)
- Chris W (A̧a̰ȃảã Ȁ)
- Canny Archer (A̧aââa̦ Aȃa̧a̰áȃ)
- Colleen (A̧åăăááâ)
- Felicity (A̮áăảa̧ảāa̦)
- new this time! Faux Frenchie (A̮aäa̽ A̮ȃáâa̧a̰ảá)
- Fiona (A̮ảåâa)
- PharaohKatt (A̯a̰aȃaåa̰Ạaāā)
- Hedvig (A̰áa̲àảa̋) is here
- Helen (A̰áăáâ)
- Diego (A̲ảáa̋å)
- Daniel (A̲aâảáă) is here
- gramaryen (a̋ȃaǎaȃa̦áâ)
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Become a Patron!Show notes
Lunarbaboon
https://www.instagram.com/lunarbaboon
[🎁] Gore Vidal Dies at 86; Prolific, Elegant, Acerbic Writer
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/01/books/gore-vidal-elegant-writer-dies-at-86.html?unlocked_article_code=1.6k4.vzhR.IErb2fqqb5rC&smid=url-share
Did You Know: Using Swear Words In Google Search Disables The AI Function
https://says.com/my/tech/swearing-at-google-searches-breaks-its-ai-feature
“Just give me the f***ing links!” — Cursing disables Google’s AI overviews
https://arstechnica.com/google/2025/01/just-give-me-the-fing-links-cursing-disables-googles-ai-overviews/
Language prediction in monolingual and bilingual speakers: an EEG study
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-57426-y
Whalesong patterns follow a universal law of human language, new research finds
https://theconversation.com/whalesong-patterns-follow-a-universal-law-of-human-language-new-research-finds-249271
[$$] Whale song shows language-like statistical structure
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adq7055
Zipf–Mandelbrot law | Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipf–Mandelbrot_law
Bye Bye I Love You: The Story of Our First and Last Words, by Michael Erard
https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262049429/bye-bye-i-love-you/
https://www.penguin.com.au/books/bye-bye-i-love-you-9780262049429
Michael Erard, 2023. Beyond Last Words: Patterns of Linguistic and Interactional Behavior in a Historical Sample of Dying Hospital Patients. OMEGA – Journal of Death and Dying, (86) 3.
https://doi.org/10.1177/00302228211000938
‘Coffee Badging,’ New Coping Trend To Get Around In-Office Mandates
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanrobinson/2023/09/29/coffee-badging-new-coping-trend-to-get-around-in-office-mandates/
Jingle Halal Song | TikTok
https://www.tiktok.com/discover/jingle-halal-song
ahmedlovesbread,
Muslims don’t celebrate Christmas but some of us are in “Jingle Halal Mode” which means we will accept your invitation to your Christmas party to drink your eggnog and eat all the gingerbread cookies you can offer. My karaoke song is “rocking around the Christmas tree” (Brenda Lee version, all the others suck)
https://www.threads.net/@ahmedlovesbread/post/DD49Of2y715
What is a Dunkelflaute?
https://www.next-kraftwerke.com/knowledge/what-is-dunkelflaute
Scream Cipher Translator
https://scream-cipher.netlify.app
Transcript
Coming soon.