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How Cult Leaders Use Language

Season 4 Episode 6 | 10m 58s

What do Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Hitler have in common? They were all obsessively studied by Jim Jones, the cult leader who convinced and coerced more than 900 members of his "People's Temple" to commit suicide in the Jonestown Massacre. All these figures are known as "charismatic leaders," people who inspire intense devotion or emotional attachment.

Aired: 06/19/24
Extras
How did we get from written words scrunched together without any spaces or symbols to punctuation?
What are folk etymologies?
Is TikTok ruining language?
We're gonna have to ask you to go ahead and watch this video. "
It's one of the most contentious debates in linguistics!
The ways we use negation in language can be pretty complex, even AI can’t seem to make sense of it.
Join us as we try to figure out how our body parts got their names.
Children are sponges for language acquisition. Which leads us to ask the question: how much does TV
We already know that English borrows from everybody, but can it be considered a Creole language?
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How did we get from written words scrunched together without any spaces or symbols to punctuation?
What are folk etymologies?
Is TikTok ruining language?
We're gonna have to ask you to go ahead and watch this video. "
It's one of the most contentious debates in linguistics!
The ways we use negation in language can be pretty complex, even AI can’t seem to make sense of it.
Join us as we try to figure out how our body parts got their names.
Children are sponges for language acquisition. Which leads us to ask the question: how much does TV
We already know that English borrows from everybody, but can it be considered a Creole language?