2023-04-20
45 分钟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. Note: The swear words in this episode have been bleeped out. To hear a version of this episode without the bleeps, go to freakonomics.com.
Hey there, it's Stephen Dubner.
This episode of Freakonomics Radio is about swearing and therefore it contains a lot of swearing.
As is our custom, we have bleeped these swear words out.
So this episode contains a lot of bleeping.
If you don't want to hear those curse words even bleeped, now is a good time to find a different episode of Freakonomics Radio to listen to.
Or maybe you want to hear the curse words without the bleeping.
In which case you should go to freakonomics.com where you will find the unbleeped version of this episode.
As always, thanks for listening.
Lately I've been using my phone a lot for dictation.
I will dictate emails, texts, and occasionally a note to myself, like when I think of a question I want to ask.
In an interview for this show the other day, for instance, I dictated into my phone something like talk about the first time you did such and such.
But the phone didnt render my dictation as talk about.
It said f about since when did the voice recognition on my phone start using the f word?
It struck me that swearing, or whatever you want to call it, profanity, blasphemy, curses and slurs, expletives and vulgarities, it struck me there seems to be more of it now than ever, and often in places you wouldnt expect.
So today on freakonomics radio, is it true that theres more swearing than ever?
And if so, what does it mean?
We will hear a little history.
These are like people in the king's retinue.
We'll learn why we don't know as much about swearing as you might think, he said.
You know that swearing research you're doing is not a good idea for tenure.