← The Daily Beans
The Daily Beans
SCAN-DA-LOUS (feat. Martha Barnette)
00:57:49
Wednesday, June 25th, 2025 Today, former DoJ lawyer Erez Reuveni issues a bombshell whistleblower account of Emil Bove’s intentional defiance of court orders on the eve of his judicial confirmation hearing; US intelligence assessments indicate that Iran’s nuclear sites were not destroyed and they can be back up and running in a few months; Florida is paving over the Everglades to build its own concentration camp; a federal judge has blocked Trump’s termination of University of California research grants; the Senate parliamentarian nixes the public lands selloff in the Billionaire Bailout Bill; four tech execs are sworn in as lieutenant colonels in the Army; Senator Lisa Murkowski signals she may turn Independent and caucus with Democrats; House Dems choose youth over seniority in the House Oversight ranking member election; and Allison delivers your Good News.
Loading summary
Transcript45 lines
- [00:00]
Alison Gill
MSW Media. Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Wednesday, June 25, 2025. Today, former DOJ lawyer Araz Reveni issues a bombshell whistleblower account of Emil Bovey's intentional defiance of court orders on the eve of his judicial confirmation hearing. US Intelligence assessments indicate that Iran's nuclear sites were not destroyed and they can be back up and running in just a few months. Florida is paving over the Everglades to build its own concentration camp. A federal judge has blocked Trump's termination of University of California research grants. The Senate parliamentarian nixes the public lands sell off in the billionaire bailout bill. Four tech executives are sworn in as lieutenant colonels in the Army. Senator Lisa Murkowski signals she may turn independent and caucus with the Democrats and House Dems choose youth over seniority in the House oversight ranking member election. I'm your host, Alison Gill. Hey everybody, Happy Wednesday. There's a new episode of Clean up on aisle 45 out. You can check that out wherever you get your podcasts. Also, Dana's out today. She'll be back tomorrow. She's out raising money for amazing communities. So let's support her in that later in the show. Today we're taking a wee break from politics, just for a minute, but not really so I can interview one of my sheroes, Martha Barnett, from Away with Words. She has a new book out called Friends with Words. I'm super fortunate to have the opportunity to speak with her and we're going to discuss the evolution of pronouns, the reclamation of the wor queer, and her favorite old timey word that she thinks should make a comeback. All right now, Holy y' all, this whistleblower report from Arez Riveni, former DOJ lawyer, is astounding. Now, I've been watching these oligarchs for eight years now and I've never seen anything this subversive and up. I haven't seen this like, I haven't seen anything like this in a minute. And let me be clear, when I say that I mean subversive to the judiciary and the Department of Justice, not subversive to our rights or our due process, like disappearing people to foreign gulags or yanking bodily autonomy. I don't want to compare things like that, but this is probably the single biggest attack on the judiciary since the Supreme Court crowned Trump king. So we're going to release an audio version of the entire letter in the unjustified podcast feed for all those who'd rather listen to then read it. So check that out wherever you get your podcast, it's called Unjustified. But basically back on March 14, when lawyers for five plaintiffs about to be disappeared to El Salvador filed a lawsuit and Judge Boasberg ordered the planes to be turned around, Emil Bovey saw that order coming and instructed lawyers including Drew Ensign and the now fired Arez Riveni to tell the court to fuck off. His words, by the way. Now, the letter also shows that Drew Ensign knew that the government was sending planes in defiance of a potential court order on March 15th and 16th, but lied to Judge Boasberg and said he didn't have any knowledge of whether the planes were going to take off or when, when. In fact, he knew exactly when they were taking off and that he'd been told to cover it up. Of course, we speculated that that was the case, Andy McCabe and I. But to see it in writing from a credible career professional at the Department of, with emails and texts to back it all up is really extraordinary. So hats off to Arez Raveni for his bravery and his moral courage to spill the tea again. Check out the Unjustified podcast for the audio version of the letter and for the in depth discussion that Annie McCabe and I'll have about this on this Sunday's episode. But if things go according to plan, that first episode of the audio version, I'm assuming it's going to take more than one episode. But if not, it's out now in the Unjustified feed for free. All right. In any other timeline, this would be scandalous. An administration telling the court to fuck off and then nominating that guy to become a third circuit judge. My guess is that Trump really wants this guy Emil Bovey to replace, like Sam Alito. We know Martha has been waiting for him to retire so she can play her racist flag games without scrutiny. I'm going to go out on a limb and say every Democrat will vote no on this guy's nomination, on Emil Bovet's nomination. But I'm sure the Republicans will cave because they are spineless shitheads. All right, it is time for the news. Let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. All right, first up from the New York Times, and we said this last week, we said this would happen. A preliminary classified U.S. intelligence report says the American bombing of three nuclear sites in Iran set back the country's nuclear program by only a couple months. A few months. And that's A to officials familiar with the findings. The strikes sealed off the entrances to two of the facilities but did not collapse their underground buildings. That's what the officials said the early findings concluded. The report also said that much of Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium was moved before the strikes, which destroyed little of the nuclear material. Iran may have moved some of that to secret locations. Some Israeli officials said they also believed that the Iranian government had maintained small, covert enrichment facilities so it can continue its nuclear program in the event of an attack on the larger facilities. Current and former military officials had cautioned before the strike that any effort to destroy the Fordo facility, which is buried more than 250ft under a mountain, would probably require waves of airstrikes with days or even weeks of pounding the same spots. And we talked about that because our friend Hugo Lowell reported it seven days ago in the Guardian. Trump knew this wouldn't destroy the sites. The administration knew. And NBC reports that Trump is not happy that Israel fired more rockets at Iran after his ceasefire, adding that he is also displeased with Iran. He said today that he believed both sides violated his ceasefire, adding on social media that the truce remains in effect. Sign what they signed at Donald J. Trump, President of the United States of America and not happy is an understatement. By the way, he actually said that he didn't know what the he said these countries don't know what the fuck they're doing. Said that on live on the air he needs a nap. He didn't consult anybody about his ceasefire. He just announced it, I guess, and hoped everybody would go along with it. And then he lied and said both countries, both countries called me with tears in their eyes, begging for peace. What a mess. What. What a mess. Next up from Wired When I read a tweet about four noted Silicon Valley executives being inducted into a special detachment of the United States Army Reserve, including Meta CTO Andrew Boz Bosworth, I questioned its veracity. It's very hard to discern truth from satire in 2025, in part because of social media sites owned by Bosworth's company. But indeed it was true. According to an official press release, they're in the army now, specifically Detachment 201, the Executive Innovation Corps. Boz is now Lt. Col. Bosworth. The other newly commissioned officers included Kevin Weil, OpenAI's head of product Bob McGrew, and former OpenAI head of research, now advertising Mira Murati's company, Thinking Machines Lab, and Shyam Sankar, the CTO of Palantir. These middle aged techs were sworn into their posts wearing camo fatigues as if they just wandered off some army base in Kandahar to join a corps that is named after an HTTP status code. Colonel David Butler, communications advisor to the Army Chief of Staff, told me their dress uniforms weren't ready yet. Detachment 201 wrote the army in a press release, is part of a military wide transformation initiative that aims to make the force leaner, smarter and more lethal. Wired goes on to say, don't blame Donald Trump for this. This program has been in the works for over a year, the brainchild of Brent Parmiter, the Pentagon's first chief talent management officer. Parmetter, a former combat soldier who headed veteran support at Walmart before joining the Department of defense in 2023, had been pondering how to bring experienced technologists and into service to update an insufficiently tech savvy militia when he met Sancar at a conference early last year. The idea, he says, was to create an Oppenheimer like situation where senior executives could serve right away while keeping their current jobs. And just a quick note here, when has good idea and Oppenheimer been used in the same sentence in the last 50 years? Now the four new officers are full members of the Army Reserve. Unlike other reservists, however, they will not be required to undergo basic training, though they will undergo less immersive fitness and shooting training after their induction. They will also have the flexibility to spend some of the approximately 120 annual hours working remotely, a perk not offered to other reservists or really anybody in the federal government right now that isn't a Trump appointee. This is just an insult to people in the army who've served their whole lives trying to make rank. These clowns come in, you know what? You know what? Make them go to boot camp and put that shit on pay per view. I would watch the shit out of that. Now the army also says these men will not be sent to battle, so they will not be risking their lives in potential theaters of war in Iran, Greenland or downtown Los Angeles, California. Their mission is to use their undeniable expertise to school their colleagues and superiors in the military on how to utilize cutting edge technologies for efficiency and deadly force, or how to use our private data stolen by Doge in a militarized way. Fantastic. So experienced trans troops out these fucks in. Got it? It's just insulting. All right, next up from the Times, Florida is building a detention facility for migrants nicknamed Alligator Alcatraz. And that is the only time you will hear me say those words because I really try not to repeat Republicans dumb names for shit. They're turning an airfield in the Everglades into the newest and scariest sounding holding center designed to help the Trump administration carry out its immigration crackdown. The remote facility, composed of large tents and other planned facilities, will cost the state about $450 million a year to run. That's your taxpayer dollars, Florida. But Florida can request some reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. That's According to Tricia McLaughlin, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security. Great. So your FEMA dollars that should be spent on disaster relief are going to go to house immigrants in a gulag in Florida. Florida's attorney General James Uthmeyer, who by the way, was just held in contempt of court. A Trump ally who has pushed to build center in the Everglades has said the state will not need to invest much in security because the area is surrounded by dangerous wildlife, including alligators and pythons. A spokesperson for the attorney general said work on the new facility started Monday morning. All right, let's get to some better news, please. This is from the Times. House Democrats on Tuesday chose Representative Robert Garcia of California to lead their party on the Oversight committee, elevating a less experienced member over an older and more seasoned one to a key post as younger Democrats seek more influence influence over the party's future. Yay. Mr. Garcia, 47, four years younger than me, second term lawmaker, emerged from a field that had initially included three other contenders in an internal contest for a position that will make him among Democrats most visible foils to Republicans and the Trump administration. His selection suggested a rebuke to the seniority system that Democrats have traditionally used when awarding powerful positions in Congress. The secret ballot vote was 150 to 63, according to members. I wanted Jasmine Crockett, but she withdrew her candidacy along with the other two before the vote. So she gracefully she said, I gracefully withdraw. Next up from Courthouse News, A federal judge in California Monday said that the University of California researchers are likely to succeed on their claims that the Trump administration's mass termination of research grants involving certain blacklisted topics like diversity and equity are unconstitutional and antithetical to Congress's directives. And U.S. district Judge Rita Lynn granted a preliminary injunction to a group of researchers whose grants were terminated following executive orders targeting diversity, equity and inclusion research. The judge also provisionally certified two classes of UC researchers, one consisting of researchers who lost their grants due to DEI and one whose grants were terminated without any specific explanation. Two putative classes. The plaintiffs are six UC researchers who sued after losing their multi year grants from the Environmental Protection Agency, National Endowment for the Humanities and National Science Foundation. Their projects had been addressing issues including wildfire, smoke, related health risks in marginalized communities, landfill methane emissions and racial equity in STEM education. So she this judge said that money has to go to them for their research. Good news also from Politico. Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, one of Trump's most vocal critics in the Senate Republican caucus, said in a podcast on Monday that there are certain situations in which she'd consider becoming an independent and caucusing with the Democrats, quote, that may be that possibility. That's what she told Galen Druke in an interview excerpt of his GD Politics podcast scheduled to post in full on Tuesday, which is yesterday. If you're listening to this Wednesday, Druke asked Murkowski how she'd respond If Democrats won three seats, netted three seats in the 2026 midterm election, quote, and they say we're going to let you pass bills that benefit Alaskans if you caucus with us. She said you've started off with the right hook. Here is if this would help Alaskans. That's what she told Duke. Interesting. I'm sure there are tons of Democratic agenda items that would help Alaskans. All right, I got one more story for you. This one comes from NBC Montana. The Senate parliamentarian stripped in addition to the billionaire bailout bill that would sell off public lands, the original plan was to have 250 million acres of public land that could be sold off, land owned by the U.S. forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. It all would have been up for grabs as an addition to this mega bill. But on Monday, the Senate parliamentarian pointed to several inclusions to this bill that would violate the Byrd rule, the rule that prohibits extraneous insertions into budget reconciliation bills, ones that don't have to do with the budget. Those listed as irrelevant included removing the Secretary of the Interior's discretion to reduce fees for solar and wind projects, a provision that deems offshore oil and gas projects is automatically compliant with the National Environment Policy act and the mandatory public land sales. Quote, Democrats continue to show up and fight every position of this bill. What the quote here says, big, beautiful betrayal of a bill because this bill is an attack on workers and families everywhere. That's ranking member Jeff Merkley. In a press release, he went on to say Democrats will not stand idly by while Republicans attempt to circumvent the rules of reconciliation in order to sell off public lands to fund tax breaks for billionaires. We will make sure that the Byrd rule is followed and every review change Republicans attempt to make is reviewed by us. Excellent. Well said. All right, everybody, your good trouble today is going to be in the good news. So we're going to wait for that because right now is my interview with Martha Barnett. It's a little political, it's a little about language. I think you'll enjoy it. Stick around. We'll be right back after these messages. We'll be right back. Deleteme makes it easy, quick and safe to remove your personal data online at a time when surveillance and data breaches are common enough to make everyone vulnerable. Because I work online and I engage with a wide audience, I've always paid close attention to how much personal information of mine is floating around on the Internet. Visibility should not come at the cost of privacy. And that's why I signed up for Deleteme. It helps me protect my identity while keeping my professional life secure. Deleteme makes privacy protection easy. When you sign up, you tell them what information you want to remove, like your addresses and emails and phone numbers, and the team takes care of the hard part for you. Before I used Delete Me, searching my name online would bring up old addresses, forgotten email accounts, family members addresses, and their emails and their phone numbers. Really sketchy stuff, and it made me feel exposed. Now I get regular privacy reports from Deleteme that break down what they found, where it appeared and what they successfully removed. They tell me how many hours I've saved not having to do it myself, and it's a lot of time. The best part is Delete Me is not a one time thing. They continue monitoring and removing your data from data brokers as it appears. It's like whack a mole. For anyone who has faced doxing, harassment, spam, identity theft, that kind of persistence means a lot. So Deleteme gives you a powerful way to stay safe and it's made a major difference for me. I recommend it to anyone concerned about digital privacy. So take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Deleteme now at a special discount for our listeners. Get 20% off your Delete Me plan when you go to JoinDeleteMe.com DailyBeans and use promo code DailyBeans at checkout. Again, the only way to get 20% off is to go to JoinDeleteMe.comDailyBeans and enter code DailyBeans at checkout. Again, that's JoinDeleteMe.com DailyBeANS code DailyBeans. Thanks to Daily look, the number one personal styling service for women for sponsoring us. Make sure you Use my promo code dailybeans so they know I sent you and go to dailylook.com for 50% off. Now you know when you open your closet and realize everything is black, that's what my closet is like. And it's all just, you know, yoga pants and tank tops. That's me. But I'm happy to report Daily look has turned that around. Look, I have opinions about fashion, about fabric, about what we should stop pretending low rise jeans are back and stuff like that. So I was skeptical about trusting anyone with my closet. But DailyLook paired me with a real personal stylist, not an algorithm. And it's changed everything. It's pretty awesome. My stylist sent a box, beautiful box, beautifully wrapped of 12 handpicked pieces based on my body type, my lifestyle, that quiz that I filled out, and yes, my irrational fear of anything that's not black and yoga pants and y' all. The first thing I pulled out, these really incredible high waisted jeans. They fit perfectly. Boot cut. I can wear heels with them. I can dress them down. They are fantastic. I got two really great blouses, one with a floral print, one is black. I also got this beautiful dress, this long sleeve black dress with ruffle cuffs and a little ruffly neck. It's fantastic. It's amazing. Everything fit perfectly. The stylist knew exactly the kind of stuff that I like. And the best part, I get to try it on at home and keep what I love and send the rest back. No weird dressing rooms, no bad lighting. Just me and some cute outfits. I legit feel like Daily look gets me. They carry top brands too. Kate Spade, AG Good, American Girlfriend, Collective, Spiritual Gangster. They have sizes from extra small to 3x so there's something for everyone and almost every body. It's personalized, it's effortless, it's fun. It's which is fun. I'm honestly shocked at how much I love this process. It feels easy again. Fashion feels easy. Daily look doesn't just elevate your closet, it makes you feel seen. So it's time to get your own personal stylist with Daily look. Head to dailylook.com take your style quiz. Use code DAILY BEANS for 50% off your first order. Once again, that's dailylook.com for 50% off. And make sure you use my promo code Daily Beans so they know I sent you one last time. Dailylook.com promo code Daily Beans. Hey everybody, welcome back. I'm excited to be joined today. Take a little respite from the news. And I'm kind of fangirling here because I've been a fan of this woman's work for a very long time. She is the longtime journalist, dynamic public speaker and co host of the popular radio show and podcast Away With Words. She has a new book out called Friends with Words Adventures in Language Land. Please welcome Martha Barnett. Hey, Martha.
- [21:02]
Martha Barnett
Hey, Alison. There ought to be a word for mutual fangirling, because, as you know, I think you're a national treasure.
- [21:09]
Alison Gill
I think you are, too. And I think everybody's going to recognize your voice, which is just so great. And it's. It's great to finally meet you. We've been in the same town, haunting the same places for decades, and we haven't run into each other yet, so you should make that happen at some point.
- [21:23]
Martha Barnett
I know I would love to do that.
- [21:25]
Alison Gill
Yes. And. And let's. Let's talk about this, because I have. I'm a longtime listener to Away With Words. And I was brought up, I went to Catholic school. I got the knuckles hit when I did things wrong in language. And I learned through listening to Away With Words that even when things are used improperly, they become part of the lexicon, and that's how languages develop. And I always was like, okay, things change and things move. And so I, you know, I have to think Away with words for that different outlook. So let's talk a little bit about Friends with Words, because you are weaving together all of these strands in a very informative and very entertaining exploration of language. It's, you know, it's like what I learned from the show, and it's got a lot of humor in it, which I think is very important and a lot about your story, your Appalachian roots, right? Mm.
- [22:21]
Martha Barnett
Yeah. I didn't grow up in Appalachia, but my Aunt Mazo, my father's sister, was part of the family, was born in a log cabin on Sugarloaf Mountain in North Carolina, and she took care of me when I was little. And so for many, many years, during my formative years, I would put on my cowboy outfit and my holster and gun and tromp over to her apartment next door, and we would watch Westerns together. And I heard so much of the Appalachian dialect from her. And so to me, that's almost second nature. When I hear an East Tennessee or a western North Carolina accent, the hairs on the back of my neck just stand up because it was. It's such a glorious, glorious regional dialect. And so those are my roots.
- [23:15]
Alison Gill
Now, is that what got you into language? Like this, like, tell me the story of how you ended up on a way with words.
- [23:24]
Martha Barnett
Well, I'll try to give you the short version, which is that I'd had Latin in high school, and I went to college and thought, why not study Greek? You know, I'd love to read Homer and Sappho and all those folks in the original. But what I found out is that ancient Greek is super hard. It's way harder than Latin. And so I was about to flunk out of this class, and rather than flunk it, I dropped it, and I went home and to my home in Louisville, Kentucky, and I found a tutor, an elderly man, an immigrant from Latvia, who spoke at least a dozen languages. He was a polyglot and was perfectly comfortable in 12 languages and could work his way around in 12 more. And he was a retired professor of classics. And he started to teach me about language in a completely different way. Because, Alison, I hadn't realized that nearly half of the world's population speaks a language that. That descended from a single prehistoric root called proto Indo European. And what that means is that languages that are really diverse and you wouldn't think have something in common actually do. All of these languages came from that root, like Sanskrit and French and ancient Hittite and. And Russian and Irish and English and Spanish and Italian and German. All these languages came from this one single root, Tocharian, which was spoken in Western China. So he began to teach me all these connections between and among words that I didn't realize. And it just blew my mind because you start to realize that these languages have words that are sisters and cousins, and they're all more connected than you realize. So it was a totally different way of teaching me about language. I got really into it. I went back and aced my ancient Greek courses. I ended up studying with this elderly man from Latvia for 12 years until his death. And then after that, I decided that I wanted to share the substance and the spirit of what Professor Litkovsky taught me. And so I started researching and writing books about word origins. I was a freelance writer on the side, but I started writing these books about word origins in Kentucky. And then in 2004, KPBS, which produced the show Away with Words with two other hosts, they lost one of the hosts. And so they did a nationwide search and found me in Kentucky writing books on word origins with a terrible public speaking phobia. But I just thought, gosh, if I can share this passion about language with lots of people instead of just the occasional person who reads my book, how cool Would that be. I've. I've got to do this one way or another. So I just decided I'm gonna try it, you know, Leap in the net will appear. And so I came out to. To San Diego and started doing the show and they hired me. And, and actually, I should add too, that a lot of people are surprised to learn that in 2007, there was a massive budget shortfall at KPBS. And, you know, public radio stations struggle for money and they, they ran out of money to produce the show. And my co host, Grant Barrett, and our fabulous producer, Stephanie Levine, and I decided, well, let's put on a show. Let's do it ourselves. Which, you know, if I, if I think about it now, I think, wow, had I only known how hard it is to start a podcast as, you know, or a radio show, you know, just starting from nothing, it was a lot harder than we thought it would be. And. But I'm really glad that we were that naive because I've been doing it now for 21 years.
- [27:31]
Alison Gill
That's so cool. I love that language connections thing. And, and the tutor that you had from a lot via. I. I was also fascinated at a young age. I took Latin, learning a lot of the roots again, Catholic school.
- [27:46]
Martha Barnett
Yeah.
- [27:47]
Alison Gill
And then I took German, and I was so surprised to. I'm like, this sounds just like English, you know, you're like, yes. Where is your house? Woe Stein house? Is it far from here? Is das White phone here? Like, I'm like, this sounds like English to me. I can. I can really grab onto this. And I also had this really great history teacher who did something similar. Instead of just teaching us rote memorization of dates and things that happen, he would tell us all the things that were going on at the same time in other parts of the world. Like, did you know Beethoven wrote this when this was going on? Or, you know, the Old West. And Beethoven, like, it was just. It really helped us kind of see the world in a different way and see things contextually. And. And so that's probably one of the reasons I love the show so much. So let's. Let's talk a little bit about a couple of topics that I wanted to touch on, because this book, I want to get into friends with words. So what got you to now? You've written a ton of books, right? Garden of Words, Lady Fingers and Nuns, Tummies, Dog Days and Dandelions. What prompted you to write this one?
- [28:53]
Martha Barnett
Well, you know, I just. I had this sort of realization that I'd Been doing this for 20 years, and I have learned so much from our listeners over the years. They have taught my co host and me so many things about language. And, you know, I just wanted to share all of those things, whether it's word origins or slang or thinking about grammar in a different way. And this just seemed like a good way to do it. And yeah, I did put some memoir in there too, because I think that story helps. I mean, as you know, story helps communicate ideas. And so there is some memoir in there too.
- [29:35]
Alison Gill
Yeah, it provides the context. Right. Grounds everything. Let's talk about a couple of things. First of all, I want to talk about the evolution of pronouns and the singular they. I know that this bothers a lot of grammarians about saying they. Them when referencing one person. Talk about that.
- [29:53]
Martha Barnett
Well, one thing that I like to point out to people, and people are often surprised to learn this, is that pronouns haven't remained stable in English throughout the centuries. I mean, you were talking about English being related to German and how they sound similar. And, you know, I can't help thinking about the first lines of Beowulf. I mean, it sounds really weird. English evolves and language has evolved. Pronouns have evolved as well. Because if you go way back to the time of Beowulf, there were a couple of different ways that you could say you. I mean, think about the fact that we have you and then we and you and ye, and we have the and thou. And originally you was plural. And it started to be used in Middle English to be a more formal way of addressing somebody. You wouldn't address somebody who's your underling as you. You would address them as thou. Those were two different second person pronouns. And then in about 1100-1500 Middle English, you became much more formal. And for example, in Shakespeare, in Othello, there's a great example of that where Othello the king says, if thou dost love me, show me thy thought to his underling, Iago. And of course, Othello is his superior. And so Iago says back, my lord, you know I love you. So Othello is saying, if thou dost love me, show me thy thought. And Iago is saying, my lord, you know I love you so. Two different uses of the term you. And the other thing that I love to point out about pronouns in English, and we'll get to they, but the other thing I love to point out about pronouns is that English used to have a dual. How cool is that? So, for example, in Old English, there was the pronoun that translated as we too, Beowulf talks about we too swam in the ocean when he's talking about swimming with another person. And also in Old English poems about Adam and Eve, they talk about God or some heavenly being saying, you too, leave the garden, or whatever. So it's a dual pronoun, which I find super fascinating. Now, bringing us up to the pronoun they for one person. People get all bent out of shape about using they for. You know, like, if anybody has a problem with this, they can talk to the principal or something. There's nothing wrong with that. People have been using that for centuries. Chaucer used the singular they that way. Shakespeare used the singular they that way. Jane Austen did. And so I hope that we have gotten to the point where if somebody uses the singular they, they aren't going to get criticized for it. And then, of course, there's also the use of they for. For non binary folks. And people have tried to come up with different pronouns and get people to use them, like z and zir. But it's really, really hard to do that. It's really hard to just say, however, well, meaning. The idea is it's really hard to just say, we think that this is the way that you should use this new word. It's hard to get traction. Sometimes that happens. But I think it just boils down to, my gosh, are we not able to just respect the pronouns that somebody has? I'm reminded of a call that we had on the show from a guy named Luis from Texas, and he called to say, you know, my name is Luis. All my co workers insist on calling me Luis. And it's like, why? You know, your name is the thing that's most personal to you. Probably after your body, it's the thing that you've had for the longest time. And it just blows my mind that anybody would think to not respect somebody's choice whether it's their pronoun or their name, for heaven's sake.
- [34:26]
Alison Gill
Yeah, it's odd to me as well. I mean, I remember I was out with a friend and I was asking him, and we were talking about our national origins and that I'm Irish and he's Spanish. And a woman piped up next to him and said, no, you're Italian. And he went, oh, you're right, I forgot. Thank you for letting me know. Yeah. Because when I was a kid growing up, if you said, oh, them or look at them, no, it's him or her, Right? And I was like, why is it so? Why do you Gotta be so binary about it. It just. It seemed odd to me, but that's one you gotta knuckle whack for, for sure. And I'm so glad that everybody's chilling out a little bit.
- [35:04]
Martha Barnett
Yeah.
- [35:04]
Alison Gill
Let's talk real quick about something else that you bring up. That's the word queer. When I was very young, that was a word you didn't say. And now it had. Has been. It has been taken back.
- [35:18]
Martha Barnett
Yes.
- [35:18]
Alison Gill
And. And reclaimed. And I love these kinds of. I love this. This kind of a. Of an arc. Of a character arc for a word.
- [35:27]
Martha Barnett
No, exactly. That's a great way to describe it. And yeah, I love the word queer. I'm happy to describe myself as queer, as is my wife, but it bubbled up organically. I do love the term quilt bag. Are you familiar with that acronym? People had suggested this several years ago as an acronym for that ever growing community of queer people. Cute.
- [35:55]
Alison Gill
LGBTQIA plus. Yeah.
- [35:57]
Martha Barnett
Yes, thank you, thank you. But I kind of liked quilt bag. You know, I picture this lovely bag and, you know, quilted and maybe, of course, rainbow colored and sequins. But. But quilt bag, however well intentioned, however smart an idea that is, it just didn't catch on. Language, as we said, evolves and changes organically. And. And, but yeah, as you mentioned, I mean, queer is one of those terms that has been reclaimed like so many other terms. Whether you're in the community of disabled folks or some other kind of minority, there's real power in reclaiming that word.
- [36:39]
Alison Gill
Yeah, I concur. Talk a little bit about. I got a little bit more time left. Let me ask you this. What is your favorite old word that has fallen out of use?
- [36:52]
Martha Barnett
Oh, well, I'll give you two really quickly. One is respair, which in the 16th century meant a return from despair, and I just love that. Right. Because. And I don't know why it ever fell out of use. You know, despair can be a verb meaning to be happy again, or it can be the state of recovering from despair. So I would really love to popularize. But I do have one other word that I'm really hoping that you and Dana can help popularize, and that is throttle bottom.
- [37:32]
Alison Gill
I love. I love it already. What does it mean? Right.
- [37:35]
Martha Barnett
You're gonna love it even more, because I think if you look it up in Merriam Webster, go online, it says.
- [37:43]
Alison Gill
Merriam Webster, an innocuously inept and futile person in public office.
- [37:51]
Martha Barnett
Yes. Yes.
- [37:54]
Alison Gill
Yeah. Well, gosh, I can't think of any. How would that apply to US today.
- [38:00]
Martha Barnett
Well, the story behind it is pretty funny. There was a. A farce, a musical farce in the 1930s called a V I Sing. And it was about a guy who runs for President of the United States, John P. Wintergreen. And his vice president was this guy named Alexander Throttlebottom. And the guy was so ineffective, so feckless, just, just unimpressive. Absolutely unimpressive. He was so unimpressive that he managed to get into the White House only because he joined a tour group. He snuck into the White House because nobody could remember this guy's name because he was just so unimpressive. And so the word throttle bottom, although you don't see it very much, can mean an inept public official or some dictionaries define it as a corrupt public official. So I think throttle bottom is a word to add to your vocabulary.
- [39:00]
Alison Gill
I love it. We will do that. Some of my favorite things I learned when I was doing my ancestry. Apparently I'm related to a fellow named Ethelred the Unready.
- [39:09]
Martha Barnett
Oh yeah.
- [39:10]
Alison Gill
But back then unready didn't mean unprepared.
- [39:16]
Martha Barnett
You're right. It meant illiterate or unread. Right?
- [39:20]
Alison Gill
Uh huh.
- [39:21]
Martha Barnett
Yeah. Wow.
- [39:22]
Alison Gill
One of my other favorite words that I love, retronym. So the reason we call it an acoustic guitar is because we have an electric guitar. Before that they were all just guitars.
- [39:32]
Martha Barnett
That's right.
- [39:34]
Alison Gill
So I love that I. The retro nim. I think that that's a fantastic word too. Well, it's been an absolute joy time. I could talk to you about words and language for like we could do hours worth. And you do, you have a whole show about it.
- [39:48]
Martha Barnett
It's true.
- [39:49]
Alison Gill
But I, I really am so thankful that you were able to come on today and I highly recommend. Again, part of my good trouble is to get everybody to go to their indie booksellers, buy 10 copies of these Friends with Words, put them out in your little libraries, your little free libraries around your neighborhood. And of course they also make wonderful gifts. I just buy books all year and then wrap them up and just give them to people. So it's been really wonderful to talk to you and meet you, tell everyone where they can find and follow you.
- [40:19]
Martha Barnett
You can go to my website, MarthaBarnett.com that's two T's and an E on the end. I'm also all over social media under that name, Martha Barnett and I would also invite you to come to our website waywardradio.org because after you finish listening to the Daily Beans you can always Plug in a way with words and have a listen about language. Yes.
- [40:44]
Alison Gill
And like you can submit good news stories, which we'll get to in a second, to the Daily Beans. You can submit your questions about words to weigh with words and that some of those are my favorite times are when people call in or write in and say I heard this word. And then people, other people comment on it and where they've heard it before and maybe what region of the country they live in. It's just super fascinating. Thank you so much for your time today. I really needed a break from the throttle bottoms in the White House.
- [41:13]
Martha Barnett
There you go. My pleasure, Alison.
- [41:15]
Alison Gill
Thank you so much everybody. Martha Barnett, Stick around. We'll be right back with the good news. Hey everybody, let's be honest. Some days hit harder than others. Whether it's a tough workout, a tough news day, just a stressful afternoon everyday wear and tear. I've started turning to CB Distillery for support and it's made a huge difference. My favorite right now, CBD Painstick. It's a roll on I stash in my gym bag. I got one in my desk drawer. I've got one in my bedroom. After a long day, I use the Painstick and I can instantly feel my muscles relax. It's fast acting, it smells great. It doesn't leave that greasy feeling that some bombs do. Honestly, it's become part of my regular routine and I want to thank CB Distillery for sponsoring this episode. You can get 25% off your entire purchase@cbdistillery.com use promo code Daily Beans. Now CB Distillery also makes other products like focused on stress, mood and even ones for your pets. The sleep gummies are amazing. So whatever your day throws at you, there's probably something in their lineup that can help. And it all starts with clean, high quality ingredients. No nonsense, no additives, just effective CBD. With over 2 million happy customers and a full money back guarantee, CB Distillery is clearly doing something right. So if you've been dealing with stress, pain, or just want a little more balance, maybe it's time to see what CBD can do for you. I'm glad I did. And for a limited time, you can save 25% on your entire purchase. Just visit CBDistillery.com use promo code Daily Beans. That's CBDistillery.com promo code Daily Beans CB Distillery.com specific product availability depends on individual state regulations. Everybody, welcome back. It's time for the good news everyone. Then Good news everyone. Good news. Good news everybody. Listener submitted Good News is my favorite part of the day. Please send me any little bit of good news you you have. We have to microdose hope where we can and I love reading the good news and I know people love listening to it. We get so much positive feedback. So if you have any good news stories whatsoever, anything you can think of, send it to us. Whether it's a shout out to a loved one, a spouse, a self shout out, a small business in your area doing great stuff, great community organizers that are doing good work, your small business. Let us know what you're making and creating. Maybe tell us what hobby you've taken up to pass the time for the next three and a half years. Would love to hear about that. What are your theses and dissertation titles? Would love to hear those. Also, shout outs to government programs. Whether it's Affordable Care Act, SNAP, WIC, Section 8, Medicare, MEDI CAL. It could be state, county, municipal, local, anything at all. Any great government programs that have helped you or a loved one. And if you can think of any Republican ones you know that are government programs that have helped you or loved, shout that out too. Mtala that's a pretty good one. You know it's the only one I could think of. But maybe you're a billionaire. Maybe you are a billionaire listener to the daily Beans and the Trump tax cuts in 2017 really, really helped you out. Send that in. Send that good news in and then become a patron, would you? I think we have a thousand dollar a month patron level, don't we? For a billionaire listeners. Patreon.com Muller she wrote, you get ad free episodes. You get them early billionaires. It is so worth it. It's worth your time because your time is money. Am I right? Also, if you have any other shout outs that you want to give personal or work related, send it all to us. All you got to do to get your submission read on the air is attach a photo of your pet. And if you don't have a pet, you can send an adoptable pet in your area. We'll see if we can find them a home. If you don't have that any any animal photo really just or a photo of nature, your happy place. Anything at all. Family photos Baby photos Awkward family photos are always fun. Bird watching photos. Whether it's an actual bird or you and your family and friends flipping the bird to Trump and Musk Properties. Send it all to us please. Dailybeanspod.com and click on contact. First up from nb pronouns she and her hi ag and dg nb she her here to share a bit about a nonprofit in Western North Carolina that's doing great work. Work. I'm on the board of the uncomplicated kitchen. That's uncomplicatedkitchen.org It's a non profit that works to increase food security and food literacy. Oh that's interesting. By teaching cooking classes using local in season produce as well as budget friendly pantry staples. I love this one program I'm particularly excited about this summer is a free eight week series of cooking classes for low income families. Participants get their very own instant pot to keep, food to take home and childcare for the little ones that aren't quite ready to join the class as sous chefs. Let's reduce those barriers to participation. Helene Recovery efforts and the rise in cost of groceries and everything else has increased the need for this work in the region. Uncomplicated Kitchen is providing an amazing service to Western North Carolinians and I'm proud to be a part of it. Plus the recipes are easy and delicious. Monthly recurring donors get access to the recipes used in the classes each month and many of them have become staples in my household. Ask my podbetter if I'm including a photo of my pitty babies. Gloria AKA Worm, the black and white one, and Rosie AKA Carl the gray one. Keep up the great work. Oh these doggos are so fantastic. Oh look at these sweet babies. All right, so that's your good trouble today. Remember how I said the good trouble was going to be in the good news? I want you to check out a local non profit that you think is doing amazing work and I want you to tell us about it because we want to shout them out. Especially if you're working with a local nonprofit or a national nonprofit. Doesn't have to be local. What am I talking about? But I want to get eyes on all of these amazing nonprofits that we can help and participate in and enjoy as part of growing the community. It's a small act of resistance I think. So that's your good trouble should you choose to accept it today. All right, next up from Sean Pronouns he and him oh this Kitty my heart hello from a new listener in South Carolina. I'm really enjoying the podcast, especially the Good Trouble segment. I've been saying a lot of things like that when seeing stories about Donald Trump, so I think this podcast is perfect for me. Welcome Sean. I enjoyed not using my tickets to the Sweet Potato Hitler Birthday parade and I already have my tickets reserved that I won't be using for the event on July 3rd keep the good trouble ideas coming. Also, big shout out for Pell Grants. Thanks to those grants, I was able to afford to go to college and not graduate with a mountain of student loan debt. For my pet tariff. I've sent a picture of my cat, Monty. Oh my God. Best name. He was a rescue my son found at the animal shelter and we had to have one of his eyes removed due to injuries that he sustained before the shelter got him. He gets around pretty good with one eye and he protects us from all the crazy maga down here. Keep up the great work, Sean. Welcome to the Laguminati. So glad to have you. This baby is amazing. Little Turkish Van maybe. I'm guessing breeds and no one's asked me to. I just. It's a habit now. But he's absolutely gorgeous. I bet he purrs really loud. All right, next up from Karina Pronoun she and her hi Ag and dg. I'm new to the Daily Beans. I started listening to Friday before the no Kings protest. Very cool. Welcome Karina. I had to write and give this shout out to my friend Kim, who one introduced me to the podcast which has made me more politically literate without making me feel totally depressed. Two took me to the San Antonio no Kings protest, which was my first ever protest, and three welcomed me to her book club when we moved back to town, which coincidentally rekindled my love of reading. 4 and so much more. She's been an amazing friend and that needs to be recognized. Amazing shout out to Kim from Karina for my Bob pet tariff. Here are pics of my babies, Kara, Black and white and gear, both doing what they love, snuggling up with pillows. These two Great Danes weigh a total of 300 pounds, which gives us lots of dog to love and snuggle in this house. Oh. Oh my goodness, they're so sleepy. Look at the size of those feet. Oh, I love Great Danes. Thank you Karina. Welcome again. Welcome to Legume and I so many new listeners. I appreciate you all. Next up from anonymous pronouns he and him. Hi Beans Goddesses, I want to share some good trouble I got into related to your story about the Love Is Love Pride protest concert at the Kennedy center on Monday night. As a member of the Gay Men's chorus of Washington D.C. and our small ensemble acapella group, Potomac Fever, I had the absolute honor of being part of that amazing night organized by Senator John Hickenlooper with support from Senators Warren, Rosen, Baldwin and Shats a few months ago when the hostile takeover of the Kennedy center occurred. The Gay men's chorus, Washington, D.C. was one of the first publicly reported artistic casualties, with our planned Pride concert with the National Symphony Orchestra abruptly canceled for, quote, financial reasons. Since then, we've had some amazing opportunities to sing and protest as a direct result, including the full chorus singing at Carnegie hall in New York City this past weekend. How do you make it to Carnegie Hall? Oh, incredible. Anonymous But Monday night was something special for me. I've been in the Potomac Fever PF for well over a decade and this is exactly the kind of good trouble I love to get into with this incredibly special group of friends where we sing to remind people that we will not be silent and that we fight for justice, equality and inclusion for everyone, even in places that would cancel us and shove us back into the closet if given half the chance. Our director, Dr. Thea Kano always tells us, quote, there's always at least one person in the audience who needs to hear you. Monday night it felt like we all needed to hear each other, audience and performers alike, and it felt amazing. The actors, performers and producers who gave their time, talent and energy to make this concert happen were so incredibly kind and welcoming and I'm incredibly proud that we were able to be a small part of it, including singing an acapella version of ABBA's Dancing Queen since it's one of the gayest songs we know. As I told one of my PF siblings, while this was just one performance, it's both a protest and an opportunity to encourage others, ourselves included, to continue expressing their art, whether it be music, poetry, writing, theater, painting, etc. However they want. All art is political and we can never let the fascists decide what art should or should not be. And we can't let them decide what art should be or look like. I truly believe that we'll get through this political hellscape together by expressing and supporting the arts, giving others hope, a smile, a laugh, a cry, and maybe just that little extra oomph to keep fighting the good fight for another day. For my BODPET Tariff, I present to you the three legged Mutt Kara AKA Care Bear, formerly the Heathen Devil Child when she was an 8 month old tripod puppy terrorizing her new daddies who briefly questioned their life choices. She's now 14 years old, just barely showing her age as a senior gal and she's one of the sweetest, smartest animals ever. Friend to all cats, humans and small dogs, but still not big dogs. She's the best girl and we love her dearly oh, she's amazing. Okay. And I'm sorry, but your wooden stairs. Is that bamboo? It's gorgeous. The brick. Exposed brick. This your place looks amazing. And okay, here's the dog reading a book called maybe your leg will grow back. That's good. Thank you so much. What a wonderful, wonderful submission. And congratulations on being able to sing at the Kennedy Center. Just incredible. And dancing queen. Hell yeah. All right, next up from lok or loke pronouns they and them. Hi Ag and dg. Today I want to do a little self shout out. I'm a listener from Sweden and I have for the last two months been helping out with an international puppeteering event called the herds. A herd of animals are slowly assembling and moving up through Africa and Europe to put focus on climate change. I've been helping to lead the Swedish volunteer workshop and when they get here, the herd will be over 100 animals strong with local animals from every county visited joining in. This is incredible. Here's a fantastic article in the Guardian about the project. We'll have a link in the show notes as Podpet tax please see my reindeer Esperanza, named by a Chilean puppeteer who volunteered with us and made the head and a badger pup I found in my garden last night as extra. So these are incredible. Hi badger pup. Wow. Wow. This is amazing. All right, so we'll have that Guardian article in the show notes for you. Thank you for that. Next up from rs, pronouns she and they. Hi Beans Queens. Thanks for what you do. I want to give a small self shout out for making small progress to minimize or remove support for companies like Amazon. I have recently canceled my Kindle unlimited subscription and switched to the other E reader apps Special Shout out to Libby, the digital library app. You can link to your local library. I did this too rs. I canceled audible and I went to my local library and used their app for their digital books. I've also been taking part in using the five calls app and writing postcards to my local representatives. My pod pet tariff. I do have my own pets, but still wanted to link to an adoptable pet in my area to help get them a forever home. Biscuit is a calm, affectionate male golden colored Yorkshire terrier listed with the Arizona Humane Society up for adoption. We'll have a link in the show notes. P.S. on a recent episode, in April's episode Star 67, during the Good news segment, Dana lamented what it must be like to be a woodpecker and finding out you just have to jam your beak into a tree over and over with Allison replying that's how it feels right now with banging one's head into a wall. I know animatics are typically done for comedy or TTRPG podcasts, not news ones. But can someone please animate that clip because I 100% pictured the rest of the good news segment being given by bird versions of Dana and Allison. This was not helped by another submission with someone thanking them for baby birding us the news. I wish I had the animation skills to create animatics myself. Okay, same right. I always think of stuff that I want to put out there and I don't have the skills to make it. Like I wanted to do a two weeks montage of Donald every time Donald Trump said something would be done in two weeks and then and interspersed clips of Tom Hanks saying two weeks and what's her name, the other lady that was in Money Pit saying two weeks and the construction guy saying two weeks and the lady from Total recall saying two weeks over and over again. But I you know I just by the time I would finish it it would be out of the news but two weeks will come up again to be fair. Thank you for this. Look at this Sweet puppers. Thank you so much RS and thanks to everybody for sending in your good news. Please send in your good news and find a local nonprofit or your non profit and tell us about it. I want to put put some eyes on them. All right Dana, we'll be back in your ears tomorrow. Thanks to Martha Barnett that was such a treat to speak to her and and meet her and I really appreciate you all and I will be back in your ears tomorrow with Dana. Until then, please take care of yourself to take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health and take care of your family. I've been ag and them is the Beans. The Daily Beans is written and executive produced by Allison Gill with additional research and reporting by Dana Goldberg. Sound design and editing is by Desiree McFarlane with art and web design by Joelle Reader with Moxie Design Studios. Music for the Daily Beans is written and performed by they Might Be Giants and the show is a proud member of the MSW Media Network, a collection of creator owned podcasts dedicated to news, politics and justice. For more information please visit mswmedia.com msw media.