Hey, it's Bob Garfield.
Jumping in with a quick word about what's coming up on this week's Bully Pulpit.
It's actually the second installment of a two-parter,
this one exploring whether the First Amendment,
the very foundation of our democracy,
is maybe not quite up to the challenges of social media and political propaganda in the 21st century.
Episode 14 of Bully Pulpit.
Coming Friday from booksmartstudios.org.
From Booksmart Studios, this is Lexicon Valley.
I'm John McWhorter, and where I want to start is, of all places, of all people, Lorraine Hansberry.
I happened to read a biography of her recently.
This is the black female playwright and author.
Something about Lorraine Hansberry's life got me thinking about how English marks gender.
beyond the current they issue that so many of us are moved by.
And I know that most people would not readily associate Lorraine Hansberry with gender marking,
but bear with me.
This is how all of this happened.
It's the early 50s.
Lorraine Hansberry is a very young woman.
She is a dedicated leftist and she spends the summer at a kind of leftist summer camp for grownups.