Today is about laughter, changes in language and how the history of each is important to us as a nation.
We’ve got one last best-word-of-the-year list to address before we can fully commit ourselves to 2026. Word Nerd Emily Brewster, senior editor at Merriam-Webster, takes a look at the democratic word nominations and selections of the American Dialect Society.
At Smith College, a history professor is offering a course this year that is part examination, part exploration and part autobiographical. Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor is teaching a class titled "Richard Pryor’s America," which looks at his life, innovations, influence and her memories with him as his daughter. The course precedes a forthcoming book that tackles the same subject matter. We speak with the historian and author about her personal journey to teaching this class and the intersections of that voyage with a certain notorious and important word.
