Something You Should Know - SYSK Choice: Why Hidden Fees are “Gotcha” Capitalism & The Origins of Slang

Episode Date: July 8, 2023

We have probably all gotten a little more conscientious at washing our hands more frequently. Still, a lot of us are not washing correctly or with proper technique. This episode begins with some expert hand washing advice to make sure your hands are really clean. https://www.readersdigest.com.au/healthsmart/tips/10-ways-youre-washing-your-hands-wrong Don’t you just hate it when businesses tack on fees to the price? In many cases, like concert tickets, or hotels or airline fares, the stated price is meaningless. Very often what you pay is the stated price PLUS anything else they want to add on. Bob Sullivan has been one of the people leading the charge about the stupidity and unfairness of these excessive fees. He is author of the book Gotcha Capitalism (https://amzn.to/2x9R2aR) and he is here to explain why fees have become such a problem and how we can all fight back! Ever wonder where slang words come from? It seems some slang words come and go while others stick around. Some slang words become so popular they stop being slang and become acceptable English. Tom Dalzell has been studying slang for years and has written several books about it including The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English (https://amzn.to/2p2ksDi). Listen as he reveals the importance of slang in our language and how some slang words make it and some don’t. Do overweight people face discrimination in the workplace? We like to think we judge people by their character but there is some interesting research that proves that is not always true. Listen as I discuss this and reveal why, in most cases this type of discrimination is perfectly legal. http://www.businessinsider.com/science-overweight-people-less-successful-2015-9 PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS! Keep American farming and enjoy the BEST grass-fed meat & lamb, pastured pork & chicken and wild caught-Alaskan salmon by going to https://MoinkBox.com/Yum  RIGHT NOW and get a free gift with your first order! The Dell Technologies’ Black Friday in July event has arrived with limited-quantity deals on top tech to power any passion. Save on select XPS PCs and more powered by the latest Intel® Core™ processors. Plus, get savings on select monitors and accessories, free shipping and monthly payment options with Dell Preferred Account. Save today by calling 877-ASK-DELL ! Let’s find “us” again by putting our phones down for five.  Five days, five hours, even five minutes. Join U.S. Cellular in the Phones Down For Five challenge! Find out more at https://USCellular.com/findus Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Download June's Journey now on Android or iOS. Today on Something You Should Know, how many times have you washed your hands in your life and you're still probably not doing it right? We'll fix that, plus the problem and frustration with fees. There are fees on top of everything, and they're getting bigger. People have this experience all the time. I've bought tickets to New York Yankees games where the fees were higher than the price of the ticket. I think

this is really important because in a market economy, there's nothing more important than an honest price tag. How else can you comparison shop? Plus, is there really discrimination against overweight people in the workplace? We'll explore that and slang. Where does it come from and why does some slang stay with us for so long? The word cool would be a great example. It's such an easy word yet has really lasted longer than just about anything. I mean, we're now 60 years into cool, and it has never faded. All this today on Something You Should Know. Bumble knows it's hard to start conversations.

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because you've been washing your hands and been told to wash your hands ever since you were little, but there's still a good chance that you are not doing it correctly. And with cold and flu season around the corner, it's really important to wash your hands the right way. Here are some things you're probably doing. You don't wash long enough. A Michigan State University study found that 95% of people

don't wash hands long enough to effectively kill germs, which is 20 seconds of scrubbing with soap and water, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. You skip the nooks and crannies. If you just rub soap between your palms and then rinse and call it a day, your hands are still dirty. Germs love to hide under fingernails and in the pockets between fingers, so you should scrub these areas every time you wash. You're probably not drying thoroughly.

The most diligent hand-washing techniques are worthless if you skimp on the drying. Leaving the restroom with still damp hands can make it easier to pick up germy microbes from the neck surface that you touch. You think you need hot water. Despite widespread belief that you need hot water to kill hand germs, lukewarm or cold water will do just fine. And that is something you should know. I'm one of those people who hates paying fees. I mean, not that anybody really likes paying fees, but I just find it extremely irritating when I look at my cell phone bill and I see all the stupid little fees and surcharges and taxes. I also hate paying ATM fees. I'll drive miles to avoid that.

I don't like paying baggage fees on airlines, and I particularly hate paying penalty fees if I occasionally make a mistake and pay a bill a day late. But it's not just me. I think a lot of people hate fees. Even the government now is looking into legislation that's going to require companies to be more transparent and show total prices that include all additional fees up front. And another person who is on the warpath against all these fees is Bob Sullivan. Bob has been railing against businesses who charge these nasty little fees. He's author of a book called Gotcha Capitalism, How Hidden Fees Rip You Off Every Day and What You Can Do About It. Hey, Bob. Thanks. Thanks for having me. So let me start with my latest fee story that got me irritated. And that was, I went to buy concert tickets and you had to buy them

through Ticketmaster. And so the ticket was $68 per ticket. But then after you go to pay, it turns out there's an access fee, whatever that is, because I figured the ticket gives me access. So why do I need to pay an access fee? And I think there was like a venue fee and then there was a service charge. And so the $68 ticket ended up being close to $90 or maybe it was even more, $100. And I thought, why? Why can't they just say the price of the ticket is $90, and all the fees are included? And, you know, I know this is a concert ticket, it's not a necessity like a utility, but still, it's so irritating. Well, it may not be a utility, but it is a monopoly, right? What were your other choices to buy that concert ticket?

Well, exactly, because it even said on the website, you cannot come to the box office and buy a ticket. this frustration, it annoys everybody. If I could just back up for a second, one of the main principles of this gotcha capitalism that I write about is called the death of the price tag. And it's exactly what you just experienced. And by the way, this is fairly unique here in the United States. So you promised a price for something, but then by the time you get out the door, the price, and it's not just a dollar or two, in your case, it was 50% more. People have this experience all the time. I've bought tickets to New York Yankees games where the fees were higher than the price of the ticket. First of all, that's just frustrating on its face, right? That's annoying. Maybe it's a little more than annoying. It's not going to kill you. But I think this is really important because in a market

economy, there's nothing more important than an honest price tag. How else can you comparison shop? How else can you do all the things that consumers and businesses are supposed to do in order for that fight that you have where you bargain and everything's above board? That's how markets are supposed to work. But when price tags are meaningless, well, now, who wins in the fierce competition of the marketplace? Companies that cheat the most, companies that deceive the most, companies with the highest fees. That's bad. It's frustrating for you on an individual basis, but I argue that this is really bad for the economy. But there must be a reason, like in the case of Ticketmaster, there must be a reason because as you say,

everybody is irritated by how they tack on the fees at the end. There must be a reason they do it that way. If we went to Ticketmaster and asked them, what would they say? Why do they do it? What's their reasoning? They do it because they can. They do it because they have this monopoly power. And that's really the problem for me. Something that I've begun to examine much more in the last 10 years or so that I've been writing about all of these things is I think people like me always butt up against

folks who say that they believe in free markets, you know. And so like my answer to a lot of things is, hey, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau should get involved and should limit the fees they can charge or say they can't charge fees at all or whatnot. And other folks will say, no, no, no, let the free market take care of this. If we do, consumers will eventually get so upset that Ticketmaster will have to lower its prices. And a properly functioning economy, that would be true.

But a properly functioning economy would suggest that you had seven, eight, nine, 10 places that you could go for buying tickets. And one company would say, you know, it's $5 to print out your ticket. There's a printed home fee in a lot of these situations. I love that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, like the printer ink is enough. We're going to charge you to not send you a ticket. That's right, that's right, yeah.

In fact, in some cases it's cheaper to mail you the ticket because nobody wants mail anymore. But's right. Yeah. In fact, some cases it's cheaper to mail you the ticket because nobody wants mail anymore. But there's no competition. There's nobody else saying, hey, our printed home fee is only two dollars. So you don't have a choice. So we live in this crazy market right now where think about all the products you get. Something like 25 percent of Americans only have one choice for an Internet provider. If you're lucky, you have two or three cell phone providers who work in your home and in your workplace. But in most products that we have, we have these duopolies or triopolies. So there's very little competition. And that's the reason that all this occurs.

Back to your original question, Ticketmaster does this because it can. Well, maybe, but I suspect there's some psychology to this as well. It's that upfront pricing problem that I know hotels have tried, where they tell people the total price of the room, including all the taxes and fees, and their sales go down because people want a cheaper hotel room, so they'll go book a cheaper hotel room that then adds on those taxes and fees, and it's the same price or more, but people think they got a cheaper hotel room. And that's probably sort of what's going on here. Let me tell you another very similar story. Every Valentine's Day, we have to buy flowers for the people that we love. I'm sorry. I mean,

we get to buy flowers for the people that we love. And you see this flurry of ads for bouquets for $29.99. And there's literally no way for you to buy flowers for anything less than $50 out the door by the time there's a delivery fee and a service charge and the delivery on Saturday charge and all of that. And these companies know exactly what they're doing. Another one of the things I'd like to talk about is that they've hacked consumers. They know exactly what price point will get your attention. Something under $30 is going to make you go to a website. You fill in all these forms. You fill out the lovely card. You enter your credit card. And it's not until six screens in that they say, oh, by the way, it's actually double the price that you thought it was.

And by now, you've wasted all that time. What are you going to do? Back out, try it at another site where you probably think that's going to happen. So just as you said with Ticketmaster, you just give in and you do it. But if the original price were higher, a certain percentage wouldn't be tempted to go through the process. So they've hacked you, they know exactly what your pain points are, and they toy with them. So it's really bait and switch. It's just where they're baiting you with a low price and then go, oh, but really, if you want the ticket, it's $90. It is bait and switch. And I think it shouldn't be illegal. I mean, I think a simple way to fix all of this would be to pass regulations.

States could do it. Federal government could do it, saying price tags have to be price tags. Anyone who's traveled in most of Europe know that when there's a price on something, it includes sales tax even, for example. So there's no confusion around that. But let me tell you a sad story as to why this persists. StubHub, which is sort of a ticket master competitor, it's an aftermarket ticket sales place, but similar markets, they actually tried upfront pricing a few years ago. And it's exactly what what you said the price you see on the first screen is the price you pay out the door and they stuck with it for a good year I give them credit but they found out that it was a losing proposition for the company because everybody else wasn't doing that and so people would see you know an upfront price of $25 but some other site had it

for 17 so they would switch to the other site, even though the after charges made the ultimate price more. And this is the real tragedy of our marketplace right now. Companies cannot afford to be honest about their prices. If you're the one company that goes out there and says, we're going to be upfront, you lose. So I think one of the areas where people get most upset about fees is bank fees, ATM fees, overdraft charges, bounce check charges. And I heard somebody say something that really resonated with me because they were talking about how much money banks make from fees like this for overcharge fees and credit card overdraft, whatever the penalty fee is,

that if you're a business whose profitability depends on the mistakes of your customers, you have a flawed business model. And yet that's exactly the business model for a lot of banks. Yes, I believe this fully. There's plenty of examples in electronics, for example, where rebates for cheap electronics are still a big deal. And the terms in the rebate world are breakage and slippage. And there are entire companies that would make no money if it weren't for the breakage and slippage among rebates, meaning people forget the forms or they're rejected for some silly reason. So their whole business model is this ripoff model. And that's actually true for a lot of products right now. If it weren't for the overage charges for things like coffee or bags, plenty of airlines wouldn't be profitable, for example. A lot of companies, their entire structure is around these tricky fees. Think about what really happens, right? So an airline changes

its business model where it only makes money based on these fees. Consumers get screwed for a while. Slowly but surely, there's a learning curve. They get better at it. And so all that airline revenue dries up as people learn to shove more things into their carry-on bags. So they have a bad quarter. Then what do they do? They add another fee for carry-on bags. And it's this game that goes back and forth. It's exhausting for consumers. But again, it's bad for the economy because instead of competing on the quality of the core product, now they're just competing on all of this creative fee nonsense. We're talking about fees and all the other little ways businesses try to squeeze nickels and dimes out of you.

And my guest is Bob Sullivan. Bob is the author of the book, Gotcha Capitalism, and he is also host of the podcast series, Breach. This is an ad for better help. Welcome to the world. Please read your personal owner's manual thoroughly. In it, you'll find simple instructions for how to interact with your fellow human beings and how to find happiness and peace of mind.

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All Porter fares include beer, wine, and snacks, and free fast-streaming Wi-Fi on planes with no middle seats. And your Tampa Bay vacation includes good times, relaxation, and great Gulf Coast weather. Visit FlyPorter.com and actually enjoy economy. So, Bob, I understand and I believe that if a company provides a service, they ought to be able to charge a reasonable fee to provide that service. But so often it seems like if I'm short of money in my checking account and the bank has to take money from my savings account and move it to my checking account

to cover a check, it doesn't cost $20 or $30 or whatever the charge is to do that. It doesn't cost them that. Right. This is the gotcha part of gotcha capitalism. So your balance falls below the required $500 for six hours, one month, and they charge you a $12 service fee for that month. So the punishment doesn't fit the crime. This is one of the other core tenets of this sort of anti-consumer world that we live in right now, where when you make a mistake, it's almost like you've given up all your rights. Go ahead and try to appeal that cascading $30 overdraft fee that occurs six times because there was one mistake at an ATM that you made. So you borrow $20 and it can cost you $90 to pay it back. There's a kind of a debtor's prison mentality still to this day in the States. And so if you make a mistake as a consumer, an honest mistake, a small one,

it's almost like there's no limit to how much you'll be punished for that mistake. And that's another thing that really frustrates people. But oftentimes, my experience is, because I've heard advice from people like you in the past, that when there is the occasional mistake at the bank, if you call, and you know, it'll take you 15 minutes to actually talk to a person. But if you call, you can usually get it waived once in a while.

That's true. Yeah. And I think this is one of the big takeaway from this conversation, if people don't get anything else. I'm just the world's biggest believer in complaining and asking. A lot of companies put up these small barriers, and they know that people are busy and distracted and trying to raise their kids or make it to carpool or soccer practice or whatever, and they don't have time. And so they assume that you won't complain or you won't even just ask. And I know it seems like a lot of trouble, but man, if you spend 15 minutes on the phone and you save yourself $30, that's like $120 an hour job. And it's absolutely worth it. And one of the suggestions I make to

people is set aside a day a month, a lunch hour, the first Friday of every month, whatever it is, and use that time to chase after this spare money that's lying around. And it really will make sense to you. And by the way, it feels awfully good, too, when you do get one of those fees waived or you get some money back. Well, sometimes I take my revenge. If I feel a company's being really unreasonable and they're taking money from me and I have no recourse, if I have the time, I'll waste theirs because it feels right. If they're going to take $30 from me, then I'm going to make them work for it. Make them have some pain. So I completely agree. I'm so glad you said that. I say all the time that complaining is like voting. And, and even if you don't get the

result you want in that moment, you've still registered your problem. You've still taken a customer service agents, you know's 10 minutes on the phone. There's a cost for them. So you literally have caused them a cost. And if no one does that, then the company will get away with it forever. If thousands of people do it, like voting, they might actually have to change their business model because it will cost them too much. So complaining is like voting. Always complain.

But in general, there's not a whole lot you can do about the fees on your cell phone bill or your cable bill or your home phone bill. I mean, the fees are the fees. They're government fees often and taxes, and they are what they are. Yeah, that's true a lot, although, you know, there are situations where you can look around. One of my favorite things to do, especially with pay television, for example, where most folks have at least two options, is to, before you call to complain, look at the ads for the competitor and have it in front of you and call up and say, you know, look, this is like the moment when you're at the car dealership and you threaten to get up and walk out halfway through a sale. Suddenly, the salesperson has this conversion. We're like, oh, no, don't walk out the door, I'll work with you. Call up the cable company or the DirecTV satellite company and say, look, I've got an ad right in front of me for this price.

You either match it or at least work with me or I'm out the door. Now, the important thing is when you make a threat like that, you have to mean it. You have to be willing to do that. But oftentimes when you make a, that's just a bargain. You're driving a hard bargain and you have to mean it. You have to be willing to do that. But oftentimes when you make a, you know, that's just a bargain. You're driving a hard bargain and you will get some results. And again, not all the time, but it's worth trying. Lots of people have lots of success doing that. Often when people want to argue about these things, their assumption is that they should get somebody on the phone and immediately say, let me speak to your manager. Is that a good tactic? You know, the word is sort of out on speaking to the manager. It did used to

work years ago. Now, obviously, companies have figured that one out. And, you know, they will often just switch you to another person or whatnot if you're insistent. It is a worthwhile question, however, to ask. Let me just back up a minute. One thing that I think a lot of people forget when they complain is to simply ask what it is they want. People sometimes just feel like venting, and that's lovely, but you should vent to your friends. When you call a company, have a result you want. So this happened. You charged me $35. I request a waiver for the $35. So make it upfront what you want. The second thing to do is if you get any pushback, say, honest question, do you have the ability to waive this fee? Because many

frontline workers will not. So rather than ask for a manager, who knows what that means, say, I really need to speak to someone who has the authority to waive this fee. And that actually can sometimes work much better. Yeah, that's a great idea. I always figured that when you ask for a manager, that they just like snicker and give you the guy sitting next to them. They just change their voice on the phone. Hi, this is Bob Sullivan's boss. I know Bob's kind of annoying, isn't he? You sound a lot like that other guy.

Just older and maybe a little more overweight. I don't know. But at least there's comfort in numbers. This obviously irritates everyone, and it's nice to hear that everyone is as upset about this as I am. No, I've traded on that for a long time, frankly, in my journalism career. I am often the first person people have communicated who write back to them or who will listen to their complaints.

And by the way, I love hearing—I know this is crazy, I love hearing from people when they have complaints. I'm very odd, but nothing makes me happier in the morning when I wake up and there's four emails from someone complaining about a new service line charge at an ISP on the West Coast because I feel like I'm on the leading edge and I can do something about it. So go ahead and write to me. But I'm often the first person who listens and cares.

And so the fact that you even can commiserate with other people who are frustrated about this, that alone is worthwhile. What happened at the beginning of this podcast happens to me every time I get on an airplane or I'm in a room for a while. Bob, you write about hidden fees. Let me tell you what happened to me and what really pissed me off. And I like that. I do think people need to vent and get it out. I do think that that's helpful. You know, I remember a time when I was younger and perhaps more naive, and I used to think when I would get the, you know, your call is very important to us, or, you know, well, let me transfer you to another department, or why are they making it so hard to speak to a human being? They really should know how frustrating this is.

They know exactly how frustrating this is. This is all deliberate. They know exactly what they're doing. They're putting up barriers. They're making it hard so they can make more money. That's right. That's right. But it's more than deliberate. I think the biggest insight I've gained in the last 10 years

since I started really writing about this is that there are supercomputers at all of these large companies that run the numbers constantly. And I'm not exaggerating to say that you and I and everybody listening, we have all been hacked. In fact, one term I heard recently is that we've all been programmed. They know exactly what color entices us. They know to the penny what price point entices us. Companies like Amazon actually change their prices based on our web browsing habits and what they know about us. And so you are the solitary consumer who, again, is busy and

distracted, and you're fighting against millions of dollars of research. And you've been poked and prodded. They use applied behavioral sciences against you, all of these tools to just get you to pay a little bit more. And people get huge bonuses at these companies when they discover that this font makes you pay more than that font or whatnot. So it's a really tough fight. You're up against something that's more than deliberate. I mean, this is big data against little people, and it's a very called Gotcha Capitalism. There's a link to his book in the show notes. And his website, if you want to learn more, is bobsullivan.net. And check out his podcast. It's the story of the guy who hacked Yahoo and stole lots of people's information and went to prison for it.

The name of the podcast is Breach, and you'll find it wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for being here, Bob. Hey, thanks, Mike. It's been a pleasure. People who listen to Something You Should Know are curious about the world, looking to hear new ideas and perspectives. So I want to tell you about a podcast that is full of new ideas and perspectives,

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that there isn't a word in English that fits for that situation at that time, so somebody makes it up and it sticks. Tom Dalzell is somebody who's been fascinated with slang. He's written several books about it, including the Rutledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang in Unconventional English. Hey Tom, so what is your working definition of slang? What does a word have to do or be to be considered slang in your eyes? Well, slang in general is informal language, a language that lowers the formality of a conversation and establishes, for want of a better word, tribe membership. We are members of the same subculture, counterculture, culture, tribe. So the mere use of the word identifies you as a group marker.

And where does it come from? Well, it comes from lots of different places. Young people tend to be very inventive about slang. People who are breaking the rules of life, whether it's criminal or simply a vice or a sin, tend to be very creative about language. People who are being oppressed, prisoners or racial minorities or enlisted soldiers tend to be very inventive about slang, but it bubbles up. And it seems that some of it sticks, some of it lasts a long time, and some of it falls away. Most of it falls away. Some sticks. I mean, the word cool would be a great example that ever since it came into vogue in 1947 or 1948

has never really dropped off the charts. It's really had a long run. There's another class that's really interesting. It's words that have intense popularity that disappear for 20, 30 years and reappear. The word groovy would be one of those that had enjoyed huge popularity in the 1940s and had completely died away by the time it came back in the early 60s. Is that common, that kind of cycle?

It's common enough to comment on it. A lot of the words from early hip-hop in the 1980s, you'll find in Cab Calloway's slang dictionaries from 1938 to 1942, some of the biggest words from early hip-hop, fly would be an example for something that's fashionable or excellent, you'll find in big use in the late 30s. What really fascinates me about slang is how does it get there? I mean, what is the timeline? Is it that one person makes up a word and starts to use it,

but what's the evolution that gets it into everybody's mouth? It's just hard to imagine that one person can come up with a word and it catches on. Although that's probably true. I can give you a few examples where we know who started the word. The rap group E-40 was the first to use the word Skrilla for money, and that caught on. Herb Cain, the columnist in the San Francisco Chronicle, was the first to use the word beatnik, and that caught on. But actually, I think that you're right, that it's often several people launching it at the same time

and then there's also a very interesting relationship between art and reality the screenwriters who wrote Clueless had a tremendous ear and so the as if and the whatever and the whatever with the thumb

and the finger showing a W obviously they'd heard that from kids somewhere, but then it takes on a huge life because it's art imitating life, and then life imitates art. Well, sure, and I would imagine that media plays a big role in this. I mean, if a certain word gets put into a column or a TV show or whatever that people hear and start to use, that that gives a word a big boost.

It certainly plays a role in spreading it. And in different generations, it's different media. If you're looking at the slang of teenagers from the 1920s, you're going to be looking probably the media that spread it the most were comics. And then came radio, then came the influence of movies and television, and now the Internet. But yeah, the media has also had the role somewhat of homogenizing slang and globalizing it. If you look at slang in the United States in the 1940s, before there was great national mass media,

you'll see marked regional differences in slang and dialect. And over the years, they have really faded away to where they're occasionally you'll find a word or an expression that really is regional. Wicked as an intensifier, meaning very, it's wicked cold, it's wicked hot. It's still mostly heard in New England. But generally speaking, the media has homogenized slang. Do you know, do other languages have or allow for slang to come in like it does in English and really become prominent or not? I can't tell you about languages from undeveloped countries,

but certainly in developed countries, yes. And it all kind of works the same in those languages as it does in English? Yes, it does. Even within the English-speaking world, you will see a huge difference in character between Australia on the one hand and the Caribbean and the United States and the UK and Ireland. But it's all the same purpose, which is the lowering formality and establishing the, being a group marker. So off the top of your head, can you just mention a few slang words or expressions that you find particularly interesting, for whatever reason, just to illustrate what you're talking about?

I'll mention two words that really interest me. I've already mentioned one, cool. It's such an easy word, yet has really lasted on its face longer than just about anything. I mean, we're now 60 years into cool, and it has never faded. Another word that really interests me is the word hip. And throughout the 20th century, it has evolved. In the first decade of the 20th century, one heard the word hip and hep a lot. And there are 20 or 25 urban legends about where the word came from. I don't think anybody knows. And then you turned to the hip-cat and the hep-cat, then came the hipster, then there was a first generation of hippies,

which were jazz lovers in the 1950s, then came the hippies, the flower children of the 1960s, and then came hip-hop. So this one base word, hip, has worked through the entire 20th century evolving, and it's still here right in the middle of us with hip-hop. I mean, this absolutely fascinates me. Well, it's interesting, words like cool, for example. I mean, it's not a made-up word. Cool is part of the English language, has been for a long time, and it means cool as in temperature.

Yet when it's used as a slang word, it means something entirely different. Is that pretty common? One thing that slang often does is it is the world upside down, where good is bad and bad is good. So something that's ill or sick or bad are all good. Square started off meaning a good, honest, outstanding citizen, and now it's a pejorative. You know, somebody who's out of step, socially inept is a square.

So the original meaning is still there. Now, often, slang is nothing more than standard English that's given attitude. The word awesome, perfectly good standard English. But in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, for example, that was probably its jump into mainstream slang, just with attitude punched into that word. So the word remains, and the meaning is the same, but it becomes slang by the pronunciation.

The word dude is kind of like that. I mean, the word dude has an original meaning, but now it's used as, you know, just addressing people. Dude, hey dude, hey dude. And just by saying it that way and in that context, it takes on an entirely different, almost a benign meaning, because really anybody can be a dude. So talk a little more about how these words evolve. Usually a word makes a journey from good to bad. And I'm not really judging, but sort of the bad meaning sticks. But to say that something sucks, when I went to high school in the late 1960s, the only question would have been, if you used the word suck, the only question would have been suspension or expulsion.

And now there's absolutely no taboo whatsoever, and I think that that's watching a journey out of taboo is really interesting. What's the origin of Sucks? I mean, is there an interesting story, or is it the likely sexual reference? The original connotation was sexual, and that's what made it taboo. And I think that anybody under the age of at least 35 would be shocked to learn that, because they've heard it in such a sanitized, non-taboo way. Well, I remember a time when people didn't say just suck, it was suck

this or suck that. And then somehow it just got shortened to plain old suck, and in shortening it, it became less offensive. But when words like cool, which is kind of the standard bearer of slang, when words like cool become so acceptable and so accepted and so commonly used, doesn't it fall out of the slang hall of fame and just become a plain old English word? It will always be in the hall of fame of slang, but there certainly are words that become so commonly used that they no longer have that group marker function. I'll tell you a story about a word that started off as intentionally invented slang. And in the late 1920s, an East Coast newspaper created a contest

for come up with the best word to describe somebody who ignores prohibition laws. And two different people won the prize for coming up with the same word, which was scofflaw. And we still use it now, mostly with parking violators. But there was a word where clearly two different people thought it up in response to the same contest. And it was a very slangy word at first, and now it's completely passed into the informal, or not even so informal, into mainstream English, standard English, or conventional English. Is it your sense that slang words are deliberate, that someone deliberately sets out to create a word for something? Or do they just happen?

Somebody spontaneously says something and it becomes slang? I think that there are people who sit around and will try to come up with a catchphrase or a slang word. And I don't think that those last very long. I think that it is an unconscious coining that somehow catches on. Another example, there are words that just sound good to young people. Humongous shows up in the late 1960s for the first time and actually is still used fairly commonly, along with ginormous now. But it's just a word that sounded good when heard. And a word can lie dormant.

Bodacious would be one that you'll find in the diaries of Davy Crockett from the 1830s. It may or may not have been actually written by Davy Crockett, but they're in the diaries from the 1930s, generally spelled Bardacious. And you'll find it in comic strips from Little Abner once in a while, but then it's Officer and a Gentleman, 1982, where the word really takes off. You know, I'd say that a large, certainly a majority of the words that are in any slang dictionary are words where the slang sense was imputed to standard English rather than coming up with a new word, a humongous or a ginormous. Who would have thought that when the word ghetto started to be used

for ghetto hoops, for big earrings, or that's so ghetto, who would have thought that ghetto would have been turned around into almost praise? But it did. I'll tell you, slang is a wonderful window into a culture or a subculture. If you want to understand the subculture of surfers, pick up a surfing dictionary, Trevor Crawley's Surfinary. And by just browsing through the language, the culture comes screaming out. And that is the great attraction to me, is the popular culture,

the joy of life, the pride in one's tribe that slang speaks to. Well, like you, I'm also interested in language, and what I've noticed is that because slang is not part of the, quote, English language, the purists don't like it, they think that, you know, slang is ruining our language, it isn't talked about that much. It's not really part of the curriculum of language, because in some sense, it kind of doesn't belong, and yet here it is. And so I think it's fascinating to talk about. Tom Dalzell's been my guest. He's written several books about language, including the Rutledge Dictionary of Modern Slang and Unconventional English, and you'll find a link to that book in the show notes.

Thank you, Tom. I've talked before on previous episodes about the fact that there are actually benefits to being slightly overweight, that you don't have to be a perfect physical specimen in order to be healthy. But one place where being overweight has no benefit is in the workplace, and that is because overweight people are often discriminated against. In a study led by a professor at the Wharton School of Business, it became clear that obese job applicants were assumed to be significantly less competent simply because they were overweight. Even more interesting was that this was true even if the person doing the hiring was overweight as well. Overweight people also earn less money.

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And that is something you should know. I hope you enjoyed this episode, and if you did, please remember there are 700 plus other episodes of Something You Should Know in the back catalog, and you will find them where you found this one, on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. They're all there. I'm Micah Ruthers. Thanks for listening today to Something You Should Know. Welcome to the small town of Chinook, where faith runs deep and secrets run deeper. In this new thriller, religion and crime collide when a gruesome murder rocks the isolated Montana community. Everyone is quick to point their fingers at a drug-addicted teenager,

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