“Everybody Has A Language Story” – Martha Barnette On Her Wide-Ranging New Memoir

For over two decades, Martha Barnette has co-hosted A Way with Words, the popular radio show and podcast dubbed the “Car Talk for Lexiphiles” by The New Yorker. With her winning new memoir, Friends With Words: Adventures in Languageland, Barnette serves as a charismatic tour guide through the unusual (and entertaining) path her life took to arriving behind the mic stand. Yet whether it’s almost flunking introductory Greek in college to playing in a band under the stage name Patty O. Veranda, Barnette’s reverence and curiosity about language remain foundational to her journey. Barnette also takes the reader on a remarkably enjoyable linguistic road trip through the United States, diving deep into regionalisms and showing the intricate connections forged by language throughout the country. Critics have heaped praise on A Way with Words, with the Saturday Evening Post writing, “This book belongs on the shelf of every word lover.” Barnette spoke to us about weaving her own story into the book, letting go of grammatical pet peeves, and stopping dinnertime conversations cold with language ephemera