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"The Search for the World's Most Extraordinary Language Learners" (Encore presentation.)

On this edition of our show, which originally aired back in February, we hear from the writer and linguistic scholar Michael Erard, who's written about language for Science, Seed, Wired, The Atlantic, The New York Times, New Scientist, and other publications. Erard's new book is "Babel No More: The Search for the World's Most Extraordinary Language Learners" --- and it's not just a fascinating group portrait of the world's leading polyglots, it's also an engaging examination of what language is, of where it lives in the brain, and of the enormous intellectual potential that can be found in everyone. As a critic in The Economist has noted: "[This is] the first serious book about the people who master vast numbers of languages. . . . [Erard] approaches his topic with both wonder and a healthy dash of scepticism . . . feeling his way through his story as a thoughtful observer, rather than banging about like an academic with a theory to defend or a pitchman with a technique to sell. . . . Fascinating."

Rich Fisher passed through KWGS about thirty years ago, and just never left. Today, he is the general manager of Public Radio Tulsa, and the host of KWGS’s public affairs program, StudioTulsa, which celebrated its twentieth anniversary in August 2012 . As host of StudioTulsa, Rich has conducted roughly four thousand long-form interviews with local, national, and international figures in the arts, humanities, sciences, and government. Very few interviews have gone smoothly. Despite this, he has been honored for his work by several organizations including the Governor's Arts Award for Media by the State Arts Council, a Harwelden Award from the Arts & Humanities Council of Tulsa, and was named one of the “99 Great Things About Oklahoma” in 2000 by Oklahoma Today magazine.
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