Ben Schott: An Unexpectedly Essential Guide to Language

Podcast: The Book Club (LS 49 · TOP 0.5% what is this?)Episode: Ben Schott: An Unexpectedly Essential Guide to LanguagePub date: 2025-10-07Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationhis week’s Book Club podcast is Ben Schott. The author of the world- (or downstairs-loo-) conquering Schott’s Original Miscellany returns with Schott’s Significa, a deeply reported and constantly surprising book in which he uses the private languages of various communities – from gondoliers to graffiti writers and from Swifties to sommeliers – as a way of understanding their worlds. Ben tells me about how the project came together, how he was inspired by the folklorists Iona and Peter Opie pinning the butterfly of playground games – and why doing the shoe-leather reporting yields results that you could never get from Google or ChatGPT.Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more.For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcastsContact us: [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Spectator, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.