Word For Word with Sophia Smith Galer

Word For Word is a podcast about storytellers and the languages that made them.Each episode, award-winning journalist and author Sophia Smith Galer sits down with writers, artists and creators to explore the words behind their work: the languages they grew up with, learned, lost and gained that formed their imagination and creative practice.New episodes weekly.

Word For Word with Sophia Smith Galer is a society podcast hosted by Sophia Smith Galer, with 8 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Sophia Smith Galer hosts Word For Word with Sophia Smith Galer, a society show with 8 episodes published.

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  Episode #7

  The languages that shaped Roy Bualuan

  Apr 14, 20261h 2mS1

  <p>Roy Bualuan - better known online as human1011 - grew up in Indiana with Lebanese Arabic, French and English in his life.</p><p>He studied physics at Notre Dame, picked up Modern Standard Arabic as a language requirement, and emerged from that first class with a surprise: the Arabic he'd grown up with and the Arabic he was now being taught were almost entirely different languages.</p><p>In this episode, Roy and Sophia get into the sociolinguistic patchwork of Lebanon - where French, English, and Arabic code-switch in the same sentence - as well as his linguistics...

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  Episode #6

  The languages that shaped Zing Tseng

  Apr 7, 20261h 6mS1

  <p>Zing Tseng - journalist, author, and co-host of BBC's Good Bad Billionaire - grew up navigating Mandarin classes in Singapore, a Cantonese-speaking home, and the glorious linguistic chaos of Singlish. </p><p><br></p><p>In this episode, she and Sophia trace the languages that shaped her: from a teacher who told her "foreigners speak better Chinese than you do," to discovering, decades later, on a trip to her ancestral village in Xiamen, that she was far more fluent than she'd ever believed. </p><p><br></p><p>They get into why Singlish is a Creole (and why that ma...

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  Episode #5

  The languages that shaped Susie Dent

  Mar 31, 20261 hourS1

  <p>Dictionary Corner's secret weapon isn't English - it's German!In this episode of Word For Word, lexicographer, broadcaster and word detective Susie Dent joins Sophia Smith Galer at Casa Italiana in Clerkenwell to talk about the languages that made her - and made her one of the most trusted voices on the English language in Britain.Come for the etymology of "muscle" (hint: squeak squeak) — and stay for the revelation that diarrhoea and the River Rhine share the same root.Susie reflects on growing up defending her love of German to a grandmother who lived through the war, how a...

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  Episode #4

  The languages that shaped Hind Hassan

  Mar 24, 20261h 8mS1

  <p>Speaking Iraqi Arabic opened doors in the field - while her Hull accent raised eyebrows in the newsroom.</p><p>In this episode of Word For Word, multi-Emmy award-winning journalist Hind Hassan joins Sophia Smith Galer to talk about how her languages have shaped her life and work.</p><p>Hind reflects on growing up as an Iraqi in Hull and shares how speaking Iraqi dialect transformed her reporting on the ground - unlocking trust, intimacy, and access - while her Hull accent exposed the class biases embedded in British media.</p><p>The conversation moves through Arabic diglossia...

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  Episode #3

  The languages that shaped Sathnam Sanghera

  Mar 17, 20261h 8mS1

  <p>Sathnam Sanghera can remember pretending to speak English on his first day at school, lest he give away that he could only speak Punjabi. Today, he’s the prolific writer behind numerous works including Empireland, Empireworld, The Boy With The Top Knot and Marriage Material.</p><p><br></p><p>In this episode of Word For Word, journalist Sophia Smith Galer speaks with the author and broadcaster about how language, empire, and migration intertwine. Sathnam reflects on growing up between Punjabi and English in Wolverhampton, and realising later in life how deeply empire shaped the language he writes in.</p>...

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