House Names

Michael Rosen talks to Dr Laura Wright about her new research on popular house names.

• 28 mins

Metaphors for the Past: From Dinosaurs to Victorian Values

Michael Rosen on how we talk about historical eras in order to define how we live now.

• 28 mins

PR - How Not To Do It

Michael Rosen on the words used in PR that have been rated as the most annoying. Iconic...

• 28 mins

Roald Dahl's Language

Michael Rosen on a new Roald Dahl dictionary collecting the amazing words he invented.

• 28 mins

Snuck and Sung: Irregular Verbs

Michael Rosen explores the verbs that are called irregular, and how they came to be.

• 28 mins

Andrew Graham-Dixon on the naming of art movements

Michael Rosen and Andrew Graham-Dixon on the naming of art movements and what it tells us.

• 28 mins

Punctuation

Michael Rosen talks to Keith Houston about punctuation symbols and how they came to exist.

• 28 mins

Break Ups and Brexit

The language of making and breaking relationships.

• 28 mins

Lost Words and Secret Connections

Michael Rosen on discovering lost words and finding hidden linguistic connections.

• 28 mins

Directions: North South East and West

Michael Rosen uncovers how people talk and think about directions in different languages.

• 28 mins

Small Talk

Michael Rosen talks to psychotherapist Philippa Perry about the importance of small talk.

• 28 mins

Snotrils and Jumpolines: Kids' Invented Words

Michael Rosen on the creative use and misuse of language by children.

• 28 mins

Reading: The Science and the Pleasure

BBC LovetoRead campaign: Michael Rosen on the pleasure of and the science behind reading.

• 28 mins

Susie Dent on Language

Michael Rosen talks to Countdown's Susie Dent about her love of words and language.

• 28 mins

Words Roadshow in Birmingham

Michael Rosen discusses interesting family words and phrases with listeners in Birmingham.

• 28 mins

Pet or Pest? The revealing words we use about animals, and dog names

Michael Rosen on the language we use to talk about animals - and the names we give dogs.

• 28 mins

Intonation: The Music of Speaking

Michael Rosen explores the tunes we sing when we are speaking, without even realising it.

• 28 mins

Emoji: The Future of Language?

Is emoji really the world's fastest-growing language? Michael Rosen finds out.

• 28 mins

Like, Totally Awesome: The Americanisation of English

Michael Rosen on the Americanisation of English, with Lynne Murphy and Matthew Engel.

• 28 mins

Frenchified: The Influence of French on English

Michael Rosen and Laura Wright find out how much of English comes from French roots.

• 28 mins

How Countries Got Their Names

Michael Rosen and Dr Laura Wright find out how countries got their names.

• 28 mins

Jacqueline Wilson talks to Michael Rosen about language

Tracy Beaker author Jacqueline Wilson talks to Michael Rosen about her love of language.

• 28 mins

Cucks, snowflakes and virtue signalling: the new US political lexicon

Michael Rosen asks George Lakoff about the new political words coming out of the US now.

• 28 mins

The Postbag Edition

Michael Rosen answers listeners' language queries from the Word of Mouth inbox and postbag

• 28 mins

Game On: The Language of Video Games

Michael Rosen and Laura Wright find out how video games influence language.

• 28 mins

David Walliams on writing for children

David Walliams talks to Michael Rosen about writing children's books.

• 28 mins

Eat My Words: How to Describe Food Flavours

Michael Rosen asks Andi Oliver and Niki Segnit how they describe the flavours of food.

• 28 mins

Malorie Blackman on Language

Malorie Blackman, author of Noughts and Crosses, talks in depth to Michael Rosen.

• 28 mins

Are we all speaking football?

Lifelong Arsenal supporter Michael Rosen talks football cliches with Adam Hurrey.

• 28 mins

Autism and Communication

Michael Rosen finds out what can be learnt about communication from people with autism.

• 28 mins

Wild Words

Robert Macfarlane tells Michael Rosen about his 'word-hoard' of endangered nature words.

• 28 mins

Language and Our Genes with Dr Steve Jones

Michael Rosen talks to Steve Jones about language and our genes.

• 28 mins

Pub Names

Michael Rosen and Dr Laura Wright explain how pubs got their names.

• 28 mins

Hello! Is it me you're looking for? - The art of greetings

Michael Rosen and Laura Wright start a new series with hellos and greetings.

• 28 mins

Michael Gets Voice Training

Vocal coaches Gillyanne Kayes and Jeremy Fisher give Michael Rosen a thorough workout.

• 28 mins

Best wishes, kind regards or none of the above?

Best wishes or kind regards? What is the new etiquette for written communication?

• 28 mins

Naming Diseases

Michael Rosen and Dr Laura Wright explore how diseases are named.

• 28 mins

Language and Gender Identity

Michael Rosen talks language and gender identity with CN Lester, author of Trans Like Me.

• 28 mins

Haggard Hawks

Michael Rosen is joined by Paul Anthony Jones of popular etymology blog Haggard Hawks.

• 28 mins

Words Apart

Michael Rosen asks if we are living through a crisis of language in public debate.

• 28 mins

Not My Type

How do fonts change the meaning of a message? Michael Rosen is joined by Sarah Hyndman.

• 28 mins

Naming Emotions

Michael Rosen talks to Tiffany Watt Smith about the words we use to describe our emotions.

• 28 mins

Me, Myself & AI

Michael is joined by Tom Hewitson, conversation designer for the likes of Siri and Alexa.

• 28 mins

The Words That Saved Me

Sally Bayley talks to Michael Rosen about how words came to her rescue during childhood.

• 28 mins

How to talk like a Samaritan

Michael Rosen talks to the Samaritans about how language can help people in crisis.

• 28 mins

Shop Names

Michael Rosen and Laura Wright look at the history behind and wordplay used in shop names.

• 28 mins

Stephen Fry and Michael Rosen talk language

Stephen Fry talks to presenter Michael Rosen about their mutual obsession with language.

• 28 mins

Give 'em an inch... imperial and metric

Michael Rosen and Laura Wright talk to Rob Eastaway about imperial and metric measurements

• 28 mins

Lane Greene on Editing

Economist Johnson language columnist Lane Greene talks to Michael Rosen and Laura Wright.

• 28 mins

Multicultural London English

Michael Rosen and Dr Laura Wright talk Multicultural London English with Ismail Einashe.

• 28 mins

T-Shirt Slogans

Michael Rosen discusses slogan T-shirts with Amber Butchart and Caryn Franklin.

• 28 mins

Communication and Dementia

Michael Rosen finds out how best to communicate with people with dementia.

• 28 mins

Raymond Williams' Keywords

Michael Rosen talks to academic Colin MacCabe about Raymond Williams' book Keywords.

• 28 mins

How to talk funny with Elis James

Michael Rosen talks to comedian Elis James about how to make language funny.

• 28 mins

Demystifying the language of the courtroom

Family law barrister Lucy Reed talks to Michael Rosen about the language of the courtroom.

• 28 mins

Solving crime with forensic linguistics

John Olsson talks to Michael Rosen about how he uses authorship analysis to solve murders.

• 28 mins

Talk of the Town: How Places Got Their Names

Michael Rosen and guests explore the origins of the UK's town and village names.

• 28 mins

Dyslexia

Michael Rosen talks in depth about dyslexia with expert Professor Maggie Snowling.

• 28 mins

Listen and learn: how to make better conversation

Michael Rosen talks to the authors of The Talking Revolution about improving our dialogue.

• 28 mins

Biscuit Names

Michael Rosen and Laura Wright look into the weird and wonderful world of biscuit names.

• 28 mins

Jeffrey Boakye on black-related words

Jeffrey Boakye talks to Michael Rosen about exploring black identity through language.

• 28 mins

The Language of Comics

Michael Rosen explores the visual language of comics, with comics theorist Neil Cohn.

• 28 mins

Romani

Damian Le Bas talks to Michael Rosen about the Romani language.

• 28 mins

The First Language

What was the earliest language and how did it evolve? Michael Rosen investigates.

• 28 mins

Raymond Antrobus

Michael Rosen meets acclaimed poet Raymond Antrobus.

• 28 mins

The most powerful word

Michael Rosen explores the strange history of 'The', the most influential word in English.

• 28 mins

Glyn Maxwell

Michael Rosen explores the sound and rhythm of English with poet Glyn Maxwell.

• 28 mins

Vikings

Michael Rosen discovers how the Vikings changed English.

• 28 mins

Philosophy in English

Michael Rosen looks at philosophy in English, from John Locke to corporate slogans.

• 28 mins

Gabriel Gbadamosi

Michael Rosen meets London-born writer Gabriel Gbadamosi, to talk Dickens and dialect.

• 28 mins

The Language of Science

Michael Rosen looks at how English is used in Science.

• 28 mins

Anglo Saxon

Michael Rosen explores the origins of English in the Anglo-Saxon world.

• 28 mins

Metaphors

Michael Rosen returns to explore how metaphors shape our lives with author James Geary.

• 28 mins

Communicating Climate Change

Michael Rosen talks to George Marshall about how best to communicate climate change.

• 28 mins

Lying

Michael Rosen talks to Professor Dawn Archer about how we might tell when someone is lying

• 28 mins

NHS language use

Michael Rosen on how the NHS chooses words on its website and in consultants' letters.

• 28 mins

Real Talk

Michael Rosen talks to conversation analyst Elizabeth Stokoe about the science of talk.

• 28 mins

Sindhu Vee

Michael talks to comedian Sindhu Vee about her life in language.

• 28 mins

The power of telling stories

Michael Rosen talks to storyteller Clare Muireann Murphy about the wonder of stories.

• 28 mins

The Language of the Pandemic

Professor Tanya Byron examines the language of Covid-19 with author Mark Honigsbaum.

• 28 mins

The language of power and inequality in education and leadership

Jeffrey Boakye talks with Iesha Small on the language of power and inequality in education

• 28 mins

Words Used About Women

From hussy to bossy, spinster to slut, Professor Deborah Cameron on words used about women

• 28 mins

Othering through the centuries: Translation to acronyms

Sabrina Mahfouz talks to Tobi Kyeremateng and Katherine Harloe about othering in language.

• 28 mins

Talking to Strangers

Professor Tanya Byron sitting in for Michael Rosen on talking to strangers.

• 28 mins

Black masculinity and language

Jeffrey Boakye on the language of black masculinity in a post-colonial world.

• 28 mins

Protest Slogans

Sabrina Mahfouz talks about protest slogans with Siana Bangura and Zoe Buckman.

• 28 mins

Talking Disability

Talking disability with Samantha Renke

• 28 mins

How to Disagree

Michael Rosen and Darren Chetty explore ways of disagreeing that could help to unite us.

• 28 mins

Being a Polyglot

Michael talks to Alex Rawlings about being a polyglot

• 28 mins

Adam Bradley: The Poetry of Pop

Adam Bradley joins Michael from Los Angeles and talks about the poetry of pop

• 28 mins

Bulls and Bears: animal metaphors in business language

Michael Rosen asks why there are so many terms related to animals in the business world.

• 28 mins

Hilary Mantel in conversation with Michael Rosen

Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall, talks to Michael Rosen about her life in language.

• 28 mins

LGBTQIA+ slang

Chloe Davis, creator of The Queen's English dictionary of LGBTQIA+ slang, talks to Michael

• 28 mins