• 12:00pm -The Linguistics of Name-CallingwithGeoffrey Nunberg
  Sticks and bones may break your bones, but namescanalso hurt you. And language gives us surprisingly many ways deride, hurt and demean – from a subtly sneering intonation to hurtful and offensive names. How does such language work? And why is there so much of it around these days? Has our acerbic political culture ushered in a new era of name-calling? Or is name calling a phenomenon as old as language itself? John and Ken welcome back linguist and NPR commentator Geoffrey Nunberg, author ofAscent of the A-Word: Assholism, The First Sixty Years.(buy tickets)

• 3:00pm -Truth and Other FictionswithAlexis Burgess
  Most of us think that we know the truth when we see it. But what exactly is truth, anyway? Philosophers have offered a blizzard of different answers - ranging from truth as correspondence or coherence all the way to the view that truth is a matter of pragmatic utility or just a compliment we pay to the things we're prepared to believe or to say. But what is thetruthabout truth? Is there really such a thing? Or is truth itself a fiction? Join John and Ken as they explore the fickle nature of truth with Alexis Burgess, co-author ofTruth. (buy tickets)