Dying cotton is extremely water intensive. In this episode we interview Graham Stewart, Founder and EVP of Fibre52 about his long history in the textile industry and his passion to make it more sustainable.  He takes us through the complete process of dying clothes and tells us about the different types of dyes and colorants used to color fabrics. Graham started Fibre 52, a company that uses special dying technology to reduce time, energy and water usage of typical cotton dying processes in textile mills.

Ep 30: Interview with Graham Stewart, Founder and EVP of Fibre52, on textile dying

Meg in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, gets why the state highway department encourages drivers to use their blinkers when changing lanes, but placing a digital sign at the Sagamore Bridge that reads Use Ya Blinkah is, well, a lexical bridge too far. Meg’s annoyed by the sign, contending that it makes fun of the way locals talk. Rendering speech this way is known as eye dialect, and in the case of these kinds of digital signs, they do get the point across. http://waywordradio.org

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Ophelia in Johnson City, Tennessee, wonders about the exclamation her great-grandmother often used when something surprised her: Cat bristle! That may be her own version of a minced oath, although it fits with the idea of how a cat’s tail might look when its surprised. http://waywordradio.org

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In 1968, students at Cheyenne High School in Cheyenne, Wyoming, compiled a collection of their own slang, including the word Clyde, used to refer to one’s head, as in Use your Clyde! http://waywordradio.org

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Words of wisdom from G.K. Chesterton: The world will never starve for want of wonders; but only for want of wonder. http://waywordradio.org

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The word preppy has undergone a considerable evolution since Boomers first used it to describe attire that reflects a conservative, polished, East-coast prep school look. For middle-schoolers today, preppy connotes an entirely different aesthetic: girly clothing that’s frilly, often Barbie-pink or decorated with animal prints. In his new book, Algospeak: How Social Media is Transforming the Future of Language (Bookshop|Amazon) linguist Adam Aleksic shows the role social media algorithms played in the development of an entirely new sense of the word. http://waywordradio.org

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When does late at night change to early in the morning? 2:30 a.m.? 3:00 a.m.? Another time? http://waywordradio.org

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Besides the Use Ya Blinkah roadside sign seen in Massachusetts, seasonal messages on digital highway signs have included the Halloween-themed Hocus Pocus--Drive with Focus and the Fourth of July admonition Don’t Drive Star-Spangled Hammered. The U.S. federal government now discourages the use of such highway punnery, declaring that they are too distracting and unclear. http://waywordradio.org

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That little button on top of a baseball cap? Some people call it a squatchee or a squatcho, the latter popularized by comedian Rich Hall’s book Sniglets (Bookshop|Amazon), which features apt but made-up words that aren’t in any dictionary. http://waywordradio.org

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A listener has a suggestion for a word “a state of dread” or “not wanting something to happen,” and that word is unticipation. http://waywordradio.org

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Quiz Guy John Chaneski has been pondering the -ly often found at the of adverbs, and that inspired him to craft a puzzle about  words that seem to be adverbs, but aren’t. For example, what fake adverb is suggested by this clue: Like a sudden charge against an enemy, it does it like actor Mineo or baseballer Bando. 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 30: Interview with Graham Stewart, Founder and EVP of Fibre52, on textile dying

Talk Green to Me Podcast