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Taboo words

Linguist Geoff Nunberg looks at why some words are considered off-limits.

06:01
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Other segments from the episode on December 9, 2003

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, December 9, 2003: Interview with Tony Kushner; Review of a new collection, “Nat King Cole: The Classic Singles;” Commentary on language.
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34:22

Playwright Tony Kushner

Kushner adapted his epic Tony-award winning play Angels in America into a screenplay for HBO (broadcast this month in two three-hour parts). The play is set in New York in the mid-1980s during the midst of the AIDS epidemic. The HBO film is directed by Mike Nichols and stars Al Pacino, Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson. Kushner also has a new semi-autobiographical musical Caroline, or Change at the Public Theater in New York.

Interview

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08:03

Madoff: A Scoundrel Or A Sociopath?

Linguist Geoff Nunberg considers the proper terminology for describing white-collar fraudster Bernie Madoff, from the Dickensian "scoundrel" to the plebeian "scumbag."

Commentary

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