Genre: Talk Show

Special: Changing Country Music

Black, female and shaking up Country music Americana-folk singer Lady Nade explores the roots of Country and Americana and its debt to black music. And she reflects on her own place in a genre that is only now starting to confront its history.

The Splendid Table: Turkey Confidential

Thanksgiving is full of high expectations, a huge menu and a house full of guests – which can make for a stressful day or two in the kitchen. That’s why holiday cooks, hosts and eaters tune into The Splendid Table’s “Turkey Confidential” on Thanksgiving morning. Francis Lam takes calls and comes to the rescue of Thanksgiving cooks, kitchen helpers, and inner guests during the biggest cooking day of the year.

Cambridge Forum

Cambridge Forum is a lively half-hour program dealing with the issues and ideas shaping contemporary society. Programs feature activists, authors, doers and thinkers engaging in stimulating and non-adversarial exchanges with live audiences, representing diverse points of view. Forums are recorded live in Harvard Square. Recent program topics looked at LIVING WITH ROBOTS, THE END OF MEAT?, KOCHLAND, APPALACHIA: A CULTURAL CROSSROADS, ON FIRE with Naomi Klein, HOW TO START A REVOLUTION, THE AGE OF ILLUSIONS with Andrew Bacevich and MIGRATING TO PRISON: AMERICA’S OBSESSION WITH LOCKING UP IMMIGRANTS. Previous subjects have covered the gamut from Bob Dylan’s poetry, the history of baseball, the future of farming and how artists have contributed to peace.

A Way with Words

“A Way with Words” is a weekly, hour-long, national, caller-based program about language. Author Martha Barnette and lexicographer Grant Barrett take calls about slang, grammar, linguistic heirlooms, old sayings, word origins, regional dialects, family expressions, and speaking and writing well. By looking at the world through the lens of language, “A Way with Words” offers a brand-new perspective on politics, pop culture, history, sports, music, science, literature, and foreign cultures. Funny, informative, and fast-paced, each hour-long episode includes a word puzzle and slang quiz. If you speak English — or if you’re trying to learn it — within a few minutes of listening to this show you’ll find something that pulls you in. Our listeners come from all walks of life: in more than a decade on the air, we’ve heard from rocket scientists to physicians, from spelling-bee champs to retirees, from Gen-X cartoonists to fishmongers. Well, at least one fishmonger, who wanted to know what -monger is doing in the name of his occupation. Beyond this broad audience that tunes in for general entertainment and information, “A Way with Words” has a growing and fiercely loyal core audience of self-described word lovers, including experienced and aspiring writers and editors; office workers and degreed professionals; learners of English as a first or supplementary language; linguistic dilettantes; word history buffs; students of all ages; teachers at all levels; lovers of wordplay; Scrabble players and crossword puzzlers; dictionary browsers; and late-blooming or late-life learners trying to catch up on what they missed or have forgotten of their formal education. The common thread is that these listeners keep tuning in week after week because “A Way with Words” addresses precisely the core values that devoted public-radio audiences share: a lively curiosity, an appreciation of thoughtful conversation that’s well-informed and stimulating, and a healthy sense of humor.

Ask your language questions: (877) 929-9673 or by email.