Vocabbett - Fun Vocabulary & History Stories

After around 20 episodes, season 2 of the Vocabbett podcast is coming to a close!

I’d gladly continue it forever, but I was recently accepted to UCSD’s college counseling program. Since they operate …

If you’ve seen The Durrells in Corfu, you’ll undoubtedly remember the slightly dotty daughter in the series, Margo.

When I finished the show (a slightly heartbreaking moment – I hope they release a n…

We've all heard of Cleopatra, but how many people know she had a little sister -- and a pretty remarkable one at that?

Arsinoe IV was about ten years younger than Cleopatra, but my guess is that, …

When most of us think of suffragettes (a.k.a. women who fought for the right to vote), we think of Susan B. Anthony or Emmeline Pankhurst.

We should, however, also be thinking about the extraordinary…

“18th century heiress turned pirate” may sound like the tagline of a cheesy romance novel, but remarkably, it’s a fairly accurate description of the indomitable Anne Bonny.

A few episodes into our “F…

If you’re an Anglophile (lover of the English) like me, you’ve probably heard of Boudica, the warrior queen who took on the Romans.

But did you know that there’s *another* British warrior queen with …

“Mary had a little lamb…”

Be honest. Did you go, “little lamb” again after you read that?

Those five words are so catchy, they were the first words Thomas Edison ever recorded in the phonograph (maki…

I don’t remember the first time I heard the word “kudos,” but I distinctly remember thinking that it was 1970’s slang.

How wrong I was! I only found out last week, though, that “kudos” goes all the w…

Amid the recent inauguration news, I kept hearing the word “rostrum.”

“As he approaches the rostrum tomorrow…”

“Donald Trump began his term from the same rostrum…”

“In his inaugural address Wednesda…

With colleges dropping the SAT left and right — and the recent announcement that they’re dropping the essay and subject tests — it’s normal to feel a reluctant pang of sympathy for a dying rite of pa…

Imagine not knowing how to say that you're tired. It wouldn't make sense, right?

And yet there's an emotion that most of us experience all the time, whether we want to or not...but we awkwardly don't…

You may already know that what we in the U.S. call “soccer,” most of the rest of the world refers to as “football.”

But do you know why we call it soccer when almost no one else does? Is it just some…

Blatherskite - “A person who talks at great length without saying much of sense.” Basically, a blatherer.

What a great word. Definitely my favorite word du jour.

Do you know what makes this word even…

If you're a fan of Greek history, you're probably familiar with the story of Theseus and the minotaur.

But did you know that the word "academy" traces its roots all the way back to that story?

T…

The WORD, get it? Haha, wordplay.

You tend to hear the word "anecdote" in two contexts these days. Either it's a fancy stand-in for "story," or it's a disparaging adjective, as in, "you only have …

We're all probably familiar with the legends of werewolves and madmen emerging from the dark on a full moon...but did you know that this legend is so pervasive, it actually made an impact on the Eng…

• October starts with “oct,” but it’s not the 8th month.
• November starts with “nov,” but it’s not the 9th month.
• December…

After a hot 59 episodes, it’s time to put the Vocabbett podcast on hiatus to write book 2!

The podcast WILL be back. I LOVE doing it; I just need all the creative energy focused on one goal at the mo…

We’ve talked ideas, outlines, writing tips, and more in this writing series. But amid the technical tips, one very important component of writing can get overlooked: love of the craft.

If you want to…

The resounding writing advice today tends to be, “Just get the words on paper. You can edit it later. You can’t edit a blank page. All first drafts are garbage anyway…Just get your word count and kee…