Why Do Slurs Hurt? And More Questions About Cussing

After Beyoncé and Lizzo both retroactively removed ableist slurs from their recent releases, we wanted to learn how some words start out or become offensive, why they're hurtful, and whether marginalized communities can 'reclaim' words used against them. Two linguists join us to explain: Dr. Deborah Tannen is a professor of Linguistics at Georgetown University, and author of That's Not What I Meant!: How Conversational Style Makes or Breaks Relationships; and Benjamin K. Bergen is director of the Language and Cognition Lab at University of California, San Diego. Plus, listeners call in to tell us about their experiences with hurtful language.