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Fresh AIr linguist Geoff Nunberg

In memoriam: Geoff Nunberg

Fresh Air remembers its longtime language commentator, who died on August 11, 2020. He was 75-years-old. 

 

Since his debut on Fresh Air in 1987, Geoff recorded hundreds of segments for the show, discussing how pop culture, technology, the business world, and politics keep changing our language, and the ways in which language evolves over time with each new generation. His "Word of the Year" selections were eagerly anticipated by Fresh Air staff and fans alike. This collection includes a small sampling of some of our favorite Geoff Nunberg segments from his many years on the show.

 

We miss Geoff enormously. He will always be a member of the Fresh Air family.

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52:30

Lone star ticks are covering much of the U.S. Here's what you need to know

(1.) Journalist BURKARD BILGER is a staff writer for The New Yorker. In a new article titled The Tick That Hunts Down its Hosts, Including Us, he reports on what we know about how the tick operates, how it has multiplied and vastly extended its territory and how it affects the people it feeds on, and the latest ideas about how to limit the infestation and treat people with alpha gal syndrome which the tick causes. BILGER is also the author of the 2023 book Fatherland, about his German grandfather, who joined the Nazi Party, but worked with the French resistance.

52:30

The Perfect Moment' makes the case that culture wars have 'completely eaten America'

ISAAC BUTLER is the author of The Perfect Moment: God, Sex, Art, and the Birth of America's Culture Wars. It focuses on the religious right attacks on certain books, art and film of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. His previous books The World Only Spins Forward - about the play Angels in America. And The Method, about the history of the acting technique known as the method. We recorded the interview last Thursday. (THIS INTERVIEW CONTINUES INTO THE SECOND HALF OF THE SHOW).

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