What's Your Cat Really Thinking?

For this week’s Please Explain, we’re following dogs as they sniff their way through the world with their incredible sense of smell. Alexandra Horowitz, who teaches canine cognition and creative nonfiction at Barnard College and runs the Horowitz Dog Cognition Lab, explores the a ...  Show more

There are over 200 varieties of peppers, ranging from shishitos to habaneros. For our latest Please Explain, we dig into the world (and health benefits) of peppers with three-time James Beard Award-winning chef, culinary historian and author Maricel Presilla. She’s the author of ...  Show more

English has borrowed more words from French than from any other modern foreign language. French words and phrases—such as à la mode, ennui, naïveté and caprice—lend English a certain je-ne-sais-quoi that would otherwise elude the language. Richard Scholar examines the continuing ...  Show more

En France, nombreux sont ceux qui fustigent l'emploi abusif d'anglicismes dans le langage courant. Pourtant, historiquement, c'est bien l'anglais qui a été influencé par la langue française, au cours de son histoire. En effet le français a - pendant longtemps – été la langue de l ...  Show more

From a small, wet island, English has come to be the world's dominant language.

How did this actually happen, where does English actually come from, and how has the language changed over the years?

The history of the English Language: 1066 is the most important date in the history of English.  Why does English have a "double vocabulary system"?  Why do some words feel casual, while others feel formal?  Why is English spelling so confusing?  The answers to those questions ca ...  Show more