The Modern Dictionary w/ Stefan Fatsis

About this episode

Stefan Fatsis discusses the challenges and evolution of modern dictionaries in a rapidly changing linguistic landscape.

We’re in a paradoxical time for dictionaries, claims Stefan Fatsis. On the one hand, we’re bombarded by words and ways to understand them in this lexically intense, linguistically charged political and cultural moment. On the other hand, the dictionary is struggling. Merriam-Webster—fighting to keep up with AI, machine learning software, and the explosion of voices vying for authority over what words mean—must evolve or compromise on the care put into defining words. But Merriam-Webster isn’t unique, and neither is language, for that matter, in its position within a (political) economy. Competition is healthy. Throughout NYT-bestselling author Stefan Fatsis’ book, Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary, readers learn about lexical histories, Merriam-Webster’s backstory, word-enthusiast subcultures, and the importance of a dictionary's measured, apolitical approach to language. As Stefan says, “the demand for life or death information—objective, solid, reality based information that a dictionary like Merriam Webster provides—is critical to the functioning of democracy in a civil society.” So there you have it: the thrill and threat to the modern…

People in this episode

Host: Talia Sherman

Guest: Stefan Fatsis

Topics covered

• dictionaries
• language
• politics
• cultural commentary
• lexical history
• democracy

Keywords

• dictionary
• language
• Merriam-Webster
• Stefan Fatsis
• lexical history
• democracy
• cultural commentary

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Merriam-Webster, Grove Atlantic, Atlantic

Books & works: Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary

More episodes of Tomayto Tomahto

• Literary Studies and Liberalism with Amanda Anderson · June 9, 2026 · 1h 0m
• Sean Carroll on Theoretical Physics and Interdisciplinarity · March 20, 2026 · 1h 12m
• Data Science and Machine Translation w/ John DeNero · January 21, 2026 · 48 min
• Listening, Semiotics, and So Much More w/ Michael Berman · November 30, 2025 · 1h 14m
• Language Ideologies w/ Savithry Namboodiripad · July 26, 2025 · 59 min
• The AI Con w/ Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna · May 19, 2025 · 1h 7m