John McWhorter on Linguistics, Music, and Race (Live at Mason) | Conversations with Tyler

John joined Tyler to discuss why he thinks that colloquial Indonesian should be the world's universal language, the barbaric circumstances that gave rise to Creole languages, the reason Mandarin won't overtake English as the lingua franca, how the Vikings shaped modern English, the racial politics of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, the decline of American regional accents, why Shakespeare needs an English translation, Harold Arlen vs. Andrew Lloyd Webber, whether reparations for African-Americans is a good idea, how living in Jackson Heights shapes his worldview, what he learned from his mother and father, why good linguistics students enjoy both Russian and Chinese, and more.


Recorded February 17th, 2020

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[BlueBaron]

What a sparkling and intelligent conversation. How dare the interviewer thoroughly prepare for a formidable guest this way? I'm used to deeply troubled YouTubers winging it and using interviews with accomplished subjects to share their personal insecurities in awkward ways. But this...this stunned me! Sarcasm aside, outstanding interview. Thank you!

[SvenErik_Lindstrom]

Finnish mentioned! I am from Finland and I love John. This was also a really fun interview - and I have a heard a LOT of interviews with him. I should start listening to John's language podcast too.

[explrr]

Guessing this from early 2020...
Quite good. Thanks!
Long term follower and big admirer of both men.
Not sure if i missed this in my podcast feed or had just forgotten.

[aaroncfriedman]

I would love to hear John talk about the poetry of Frank O'Hara, who had a poetic love affair with nyc