Is “Algospeak” D@ngerous?

On today’s episode, Rachelle Hampton is joined by Alexia
Fawcett, a PhD candidate in linguistics at UC Santa Barbara
and Kendra Calhoun, an assistant professor of linguistic
anthropology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Calhoun and Fawcett wrote a presentation titled, “They edited out
her nip-nops: Linguistic innovation as textual censorship avoidance
on TikTok,” which explored both the ways in which and the reason
behind why users have developed language like “unalived” and
“seggs.” And while these neologisms originate on TikTok, their
increasingly-wide adoption is causing concern among observers who
notice a perhaps unnecessarily-broad softening of language across
social media. This podcast is produced by Se’era Spragley Ricks,
Daisy Rosario, Rachelle Hampton and Candice Lim. Learn more about
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