John McWhorter in Conversation with Malcolm Gladwell: Pronoun Trouble

Join bestselling author and Columbia University linguist John McWhorter with Malcolm Gladwell for a crash course debate about the most controversial language topic of our times — pronouns — and McWhorter’s new book, Pronoun Trouble.

Her, him, they, us: language always shifts and evolves, but every so often, a new usage causes a stir that reverberates out of the study of language and into pop culture. These days, pronouns are throwing curveballs and causing grammatical (and occasionally political) trouble. What gives? The singular they has been with us for centuries and appears in the works of Shakespeare — why is it causing new drama?

In Pronoun Trouble, John McWhorter tries to get to the bottom of it. “JohnMcWhorter starts with ‘I’ and ‘me’ and ends up circling the world, with stops along the way for Shakespeare, Sesame Street, Broadway musicals, Elmer Fudd, and a hundred other unexpected and fascinating digressions,” writes Malcolm Gladwell. “The only thing better than reading Pronoun Trouble would be sitting next to McWhorter at a dinner party.” Join us for that party as McWhorter and Gladwell break down the controversy around pronouns — how these little words emerged and changed over time, what they mean in our new cultural and political landscape, and what the debate over pronouns can teach us about our language and ourselves.