Millions of tomatoes, strawberries, and cucumbers can now be grown sustainability and locally in Appalachia thanks to Controlled Environmental Agriculture. Learn more as we talk with Travis Parman, from AppHarvest, as he tells us about this reliable, secure, and sustainable agriculture technique from the Netherlands that has the potential to be a new wave of sustainable infrastructure in America. Travis tells us what this method of growing crops is, how it tackles the issue of food insecurity, climate change, and how it is a more local and sustainable way of growing produce. He tells about what everyone should know about this type of agriculture and how you can get involved!

Ep 24B: Interview with Travis Parman, Chief Communications Officer at AppHarvest

A listener who grew up in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, has fond memories of visits to the hosie, the local term for a firehouse that also functioned as a community center. Also spelled hozie, it’s defined in an online dictionary at the Coal Region website as “a place to drink beer and keep fire trucks.” Some folks in that region fondly refer to their dialect as the Skook. http://waywordradio.org

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Mary-Clare recalls that when she was growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, everyone she knew used the term hoosier as a kind of teasing pejorative. If someone did something silly, others would say You’re such a hoosier, or jokingly dismiss someone as a member of the hoosioisie. The term had circulated throughout the Midwest long before Indiana residents adopted the word Hoosier to denote denizens of that state. But the other sense lived on in the St. Louis area, once a great crossroads and gateway to the West and thus something of a linguistic island all its own. http://waywordradio.org

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In the early 16th century, the word bully was a term of endearment, probably stemming from Dutch boel, meaning “lover.” Shakespeare used bully to mean “a fine fellow” or “good chap.” When President Theodore Roosevelt referred to the presidency as a bully pulpit, he meant that it was an excellent means for getting a message across. Over time, bully also went through a process of pejoration, developing the sense of a “blustering, swaggering fellow,” perhaps associated with bull the powerful animal, or bull as in “a man who protects a prostitute.” http://waywordradio.org

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Tommy in Lexington, Kentucky, reports that when he was serving in the U.S. military in Vietnam he heard the expression Mox nix, meaning “I don’t care” or “It doesn’t matter.” It’s a version of a German Macht nichts, or “It’s nothing.” http://waywordradio.org

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Our conversation about using natural objects such as rocks, driftwood, or antlers, as decoration prompted a Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, beachcomber to suggest that like beachcombing, searching for such items in the woods might be described as forestcombing. http://waywordradio.org

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If a king sleeps on a king-size mattress and queen sleeps on a queen-sized mattress, what does a prince sleep on? This riddle--or its answer--may keep you up at night. http://waywordradio.org

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The now-extinct Tocharian languages were spoken in western China in the latter half of the first millennium CE. We have only fragments of written texts in these languages, but here's part of a Tocharian love poem that conveys emotions that echo across the centuries. It appears in Laura Spinney’s new book Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global (Bookshop|Amazon). http://waywordradio.org

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Science journalist Laura Spinney’s new book Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global (Bookshop|Amazon) shows how lots of languages as diverse as Hindi, Italian, and English all stem from a single prehistoric ancestral tongue. A basic word for the number "three," for example, is similar across several languages. For example, English three is cognate with Spanish tres, French trois, Russian tri, and Albanian tre, to name just a few. Similarly, the name Slav may have meant "the famous people." In early Middle Ages, after the Franks took Slavs captive, the name Slav became sclavus in the language of the Holy Roman Empire, Latin. It went on to become esclave in French, and then when the Normans moved into Britain, it morphed into English slave. But that original idea of slav meaning "fame" or “glory” lives on today in the Polish name Stanislaw, "he who's achieved fame,” and Slava Ukraini, “Glory to Ukraine.” http://waywordradio.org

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A retronym is a word coined to distinguish something new from an older, more generic version, such as electric guitar or clock radio. A couple of new retronyms are fine water, or “unprocessed water that reflects a region’s terroir” and water sommelier, a professional who procures and dispenses such water to a growing number of fine water enthusiasts. http://waywordradio.org

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Quiz Guy John Chaneski challenges you to unravel a mixed-up puzzle. Each clue contains an anagram of another word relevant to it. For example, in the sentence A rose garden grows deep in the heart of Texas, what word might be rearranged to form ar related word? http://waywordradio.org

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Talk Green to Me is a monthly podcast brought to you by materials scientists and engineers discussing the science behind sustainability and recycling of different materials. Dr. Nasreen Khan and Dr. Manali Banerjee interview people from the industries that create or recycle each of the material types we'll explore in this podcast! Paper, plastic, glass, textiles and much much more!

Ep 24B: Interview with Travis Parman, Chief Communications Officer at AppHarvest

Talk Green to Me Podcast