Episodes

  • BONUS: Red Pen at the Movies
    May 1 2024

    Come for the critical reappraisal of ‘Shakespeare in Love,’ stay for Mike’s shocking revelation. Anon, good nurse!

    Questions/comments/ideas/snark go in the comments. We love you.
    Thing 1: Ryan Davis
    Thing 2: Mike Laws
    Producer: Amanda Darrach

    Find all your favorite Red Pen songs over on the Red Pen Official Playlist.
    To use Red Pen chapters, swipe up on the Now Playing screen or click the top-right-corner Chapters button on Apple Podcasts for macOS.

    Show Notes:
    The Duchess of Malfi, John Webster
    Tamburlaine the Great, Part I, Christopher Marlowe

    Show more Show less
    49 mins
  • Odds’n’Sods
    Apr 17 2024

    Oh, boy, are the “stick to the topic” ppl gonna love this one.

    Questions/comments/ideas/snark go in the comments. We love you.
    Thing 1: Ryan Davis
    Thing 2: Mike Laws
    Producer: Amanda Darrach

    Find all your favorite Red Pen songs over on the Red Pen Official Playlist.
    To use Red Pen chapters, swipe up on the Now Playing screen or click the top-right-corner Chapters button on Apple Podcasts for macOS.

    Show Notes:
    Underworld podcast episode on Medellin
    Vladimir Nabokov: Heat Seeker, Mike Laws, The Village Voice
    A Brief Oral History of Wayne Barrett, the First Journalist to Doggedly Cover Donald Trump, Tricia Romano, Vanity Fair

    Show more Show less
    36 mins
  • Breaking the Laws
    Mar 29 2024

    When, whether, and how often. With a little help from Humbert Humbert.

    Questions/comments/ideas/snark go in the comments. We love you.
    Thing 1: Ryan Davis
    Thing 2: Mike Laws
    Producer: Amanda Darrach

    Find all your favorite Red Pen songs over on the Red Pen Official Playlist.
    To use Red Pen chapters, swipe up on the Now Playing screen or click the top-right-corner Chapters button on Apple Podcasts for macOS.

    Show Notes:
    Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov on Google Books
    A Teen’s Fatal Plunge Into the London Underworld, Patrick Radden Keefe, The New Yorker

    Show more Show less
    30 mins
  • Finest Points
    Mar 6 2024

    Or: How I learned to stop worrying and love nuance.

    Questions/comments/ideas/snark go in the comments. We love you.

    Thing 1: Ryan Davis

    Thing 2: Mike Laws

    Producer: Amanda Darrach

    Find all your favorite Red Pen songs over on the Red Pen Official Playlist.
    To use Red Pen chapters, swipe up on the Now Playing screen or click the top-right-corner Chapters button on Apple Podcasts for macOS.

    Show more Show less
    47 mins
  • Past, Perfect
    Feb 21 2024

    You best believe we seen this trend.


    Questions/comments/ideas/snark go in the comments. We love you.

    Thing 1: Ryan Davis

    Thing 2: Mike Laws

    Producer: Amanda Darrach

    Find all your favorite Red Pen songs over on the Red Pen Official Playlist.
    To use Red Pen chapters, swipe up on the Now Playing screen or click the top-right-corner Chapters button on Apple Podcasts for macOS.

    Show more Show less
    37 mins
  • Top 5!
    Feb 3 2024

    In which Mike finally reads the comments.

    Questions/comments/ideas/snark go in the comments. We love you.
    Thing 1: Ryan Davis
    Thing 2: Mike Laws
    Producer: Amanda Darrach

    Find all your favorite Red Pen songs over on the Red Pen Official Playlist.
    To use Red Pen chapters, swipe up on the Now Playing screen or click the top-right-corner Chapters button on Apple Podcasts for macOS.

    Show more Show less
    40 mins
  • Ergative Zones
    Jan 10 2024

    How Padma Lakshmi schooled us all on the "middle voice."

    Questions/comments/ideas/snark go in the comments. We love you.
    Thing 1: Ryan Davis
    Thing 2: Mike Laws
    Producer: Amanda Darrach

    Find all your favorite Red Pen songs over on the Red Pen Official Playlist.
    To use Red Pen chapters, swipe up on the Now Playing screen or click the top-right-corner Chapters button on Apple Podcasts for macOS.

    Show Notes:
    "It eats salty": middle voice on "Top Chef," Language Log on "stimulus subject perception verbs"
    The Grammar of Top Chef: What’s With "It Eats Salty"? Mental Floss on "gestalt verbs"

    Show more Show less
    40 mins
  • Words We Love
    Dec 13 2023

    And a few we hate. And, for some reason, a few that are German.


    Questions/comments/ideas/snark go in the comments. We love you.

    Thing 1: Ryan Davis

    Thing 2: Mike Laws

    Producer: Amanda Darrach


    Show Notes:

    The Staten Island Ferry Schedule (But sign your marriage license on dry land.)
    Out of Office podcast
    Phonesthemes
    @germanonliners



    Show more Show less
    55 mins