Episode 142 of The 80,000 Hours Podcast. Subscribe, learn more or find a summary and full transcript here: https://80000hours.org/podcast/episod...

John McWhorter is a linguistics professor at Columbia University specialising in research on creole languages. He’s also a content-producing machine, never afraid to give his frank opinion on anything and everything. On top of his academic work he’s also written 22 books, produced five online university courses, hosts one and a half podcasts, and now writes a regular New York Times op-ed column.

Our show is mostly about the world’s most pressing problems and what you can do to solve them. But what’s the point of hosting a podcast if you can’t occasionally just talk about something fascinating with someone whose work you appreciate?

So today, just before the holidays, we’re sharing this interview with John about language and linguistics — including what we think are some of the most important things everyone ought to know about those topics. We ask him:

• Can you communicate faster in some languages than others, or is there some constraint that prevents that?
• Does learning a second or third language make you smarter or not?
• Can a language decay and get worse at communicating what people want to say?
• If children aren't taught a language, how many generations does it take them to invent a fully fledged one of their own?
• Did Shakespeare write in a foreign language, and if so, should we translate his plays?
• How much does language really shape the way we think?
• Are creoles the best languages in the world — languages that ideally we would all speak?
• What would be the optimal number of languages globally?
• Does trying to save dying languages do their speakers a favour, or is it more of an imposition?
• Should we bother to teach foreign languages in UK and US schools?
• Is it possible to save the important cultural aspects embedded in a dying language without saving the language itself?
• Will AI models speak a language of their own in the future, one that humans can't understand but which better serves the tradeoffs AI models need to make?

The audio version also includes a remix of the conversation with the language model ChatGPT, and a related lecture from John on linguistic relativity: https://80000hours.org/podcast/episod...

Get this episode by subscribing to our podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type ‘80,000 Hours’ into your podcasting app.

Producer: Keiran Harris
Audio mastering: Ben Cordell
Video editing: Ryan Kessler
Transcriptions: Katy Moore