@JohnHMcWhorter Profile picture

John McWhorter

@JohnHMcWhorter

Columbia linguist, weekly at NYT, biweekly Lexicon Valley podcast and Glenn Show. 9 NASTY WORDS and WOKE RACISM in 2022. Earlyish next year: PRONOUN TROUBLE!

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This is the perfect introduction to Charles Ives and why so many see such value in what he did. Ives can be a little hard to keep up with at first; this doc takes us by the hand. youtu.be/LUMu1qisXoM


Off the chain. Blew off the roof. I was going to skip it bc I saw the past two NYC productions. But it outdoes the past two bc it has to, and becomes God. Every damn number is celestial. Pre-finale ovations are actually deserved. This must go to Broadway. nycitycenter.org/pdps/2024-2025…


Biden meant Trump's supporters. No apostrophic analysis makes sense (the comedian is his "supporter")? And no, I'm not trying to placate those who didn't like my exoneration of Rich Lowry on the N-word, which I stand by (I wrote on it @JoinPersuasion). The facts on this one are…


I'm often asked how Orwell's "Newspeak" and counsel about clarity can guide us today. "Not much," I have always thought, disappointing my interlocutor. This excellent piece gets at why. Reality is too messy for Orwell's lucidity. theatlantic.com/culture/archiv…


The marvelous ⁦@RelevantTones⁩ had four composers write luscious modern classical pieces inspired by one of my first books, The Power of Babel. I am touched and honored! And interviewed by them, between performances of the pieces. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rt-…


We really got into it this time. Coates' new book (Glenn esteems it, I do not at all) was just the spark. This got into what black thinkers should even be about. If future folk listened to 5 of our talks since 2007 I'd hope this would be one of them. youtu.be/ALb81ASTjiM


Glad to announce the second podcast about MasterVoices' Strike Up the Band night next week is up. Me and @bob_mankoff on, as it were, "Strike Up the Satire!" youtu.be/wBzqB0fjoNo?si… via @YouTube

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Dokoupil asked questions anyone who wrote that book would know were coming. With some attitude. Heavens?!?! Calling his questions obnoxious -- or racism -- is pearl clutching.

Since Ta-Nehisi Coates’s CBS interview, @JohnHMcWhorter says, “there’s been no end of discussion about journalistic ethics and personal bias. But the outrage and concern generated on Coates’s behalf doesn’t help him. It brutally condescends to him.” Read: nyti.ms/4hcHrUW



So happy about this.

I will be appearing with John McWhorter (@JohnHMcWhorter) at The Helix in Dublin, Ireland, on both 15th and 16th November. John is a distinguished linguist and cultural commentator, whose work I hold in high regard. The 15th is sold out, but tickets are still available for the…

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Listening to "Preparing Gershwin's 'Strike Up the Band': A Journey Through History, Humor, and Music" at buzzsprout.com/2412999/episod…


The 1st of 3 podcast episodes I have hosted about @MasterVoicesNY's upcoming performance of the Gershwins' Strike Up The Band. First: the show's historical context (1927), with Maestro @TedSperling and the music theatre expert I've read for eons, Laurence Maslon!…


She should be neither fired nor even sanctioned for saying mean, unreflective and even false things about black people. We can take it and still be our best selves. Anyone who thinks we can't is assuming blackness is weakness. It isn't. nytimes.com/2024/10/03/opi…


Folks, I can't put it down. And I hated him!'

Glad you’re liking “Reagan: His Life and Legend”!



Wait, Coates drops this book plus there's this profile of him. God, this means @GlennLoury and I have to discuss it. Which means (&*@%!) we have to READ THE BOOK! I've been so enjoying Max Boot's Reagan bio and the comprehensive Bloom County volumes. First World Problems, yes.


This.

JD Vance “has done exactly what my detractors had assumed I would,” @JohnHMcWhorter writes, “riding the book to fame and fortune provided by people with partisan and even hostile right-wing opinions.” Read: nyti.ms/3TzKCMz



Next week @laradownes and I will be exploring American pop's moments of birth down at Joe's Pub. If I weren't in it, I would attend it. I know that doesn't really make sense but you know what I mean.

Join @JohnHMcWhorter and me at @JoesPub on Thursday 9/26 at 9:30pm for music & conversation about this unpredictable American life, celebrating my new @PENTATONEmusic album THIS LAND, w special guests @Theo_Bleckmann & @vuyosotashe 🎶🗽 Tix publictheater.org/productions/jo…



A closer-up analysis at ⁦@LanguageLog⁩ of what made it sound the way it did. languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=66030


I second this. He said "Haitian mai-gr ..." as a slip of the tongue for "migrant," carrying "Haitian"'s "ay" sound into the following word. People do this in ordinary speech now and then. And no, I'm not "downplaying racism." We just need to look elsewhere for it than here.

I’ve known Rich for a long time. There is no chance that this was anything but a tongue tied moment. That word is alien to his character. Rich is a good man.



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