In this podcast episode, Adrian Johns digs into the complex history of reading, from America's Reading Wars to today's fights over book bans.

In new research, MIT linguists explore how human language handles leaps from the here and now.

Language model AIs seem smart because of how they string words together, but in reality they can’t do anything without many people guiding them every step of the way.

Project leaders at the MIT Language Acquisition Lab say their research could shed new light on the nature of language learning.

A new study finds that even when asleep, the sounds babies' hear play a role in their language development.

How did the letter x get its enduring role as a symbol of the unknown? A mathematician explains why it’s hard to say for sure.

Giving AI any degree of executive control could be dangerous for humans.

ChatGPT can be very useful – if you shift how you view it. The first step is to stop thinking of it as a chatty search engine.

People with a common history – often due to significant geographic or social barriers – often share genetics and language. New research finds that even a dialect can act as a barrier within a group.

The author of a new book breaks down how understanding why some words are more powerful and convincing than others on this podcast.