Two word lovers walk into a bar. They talk passionately about the most permanent characteristic of language: its infinite capacity for change. As they leave the bar an hour later, they realize the world outside is now different and — mysteriously — they have run out of vocabulary to describe it.

Join John McWhorter, columnist for the New York Times, and Ilan Stavans, a consultant to the Oxford English Dictionary and editor of the new anthology The People’s Tongue: Americans and the English Language, as they explore, in a lively public conversation, how the English language and the United States change, sometimes concurrently, sometimes in spite of each other.

A book signing with Ilan Stavans follows the program. The People’s Tongue will be available for purchase in Present Perfect, the Planet Word gift shop.

Source: Planet Word Museum.