John McWhorter’s Lexicon Valley has been one of my favorite podcasts for several years. His general topic is linguistics and McWhorter makes it all educational, humorous and even musical. This is McWhorter’s side gig. For his day job, he is a professor of English at Columbia University.

In this particular episode, McWhorter takes a look the origin and meaning of some of the words and phrases we use to discuss today’s racial reckoning, words and phrases such as “Black,” “white,” [capitalizations are intentional] “defund,” “Black Lives Matter” and “Karen.” If you haven’t yet experienced Lexicon Valley, this episode is a timely one: “Defund Karen: On the insults, acronyms, and sloganeering of America’s racial reckoning.”