Enough is Enuf: Why Isn’t English Easier To Spell? Smithsonian Associate Gabe Henry
Release Date: 03/21/2025
Your Cells Are Changing: Roxanne Khamsi on the DNA We Acquire as We Age
The Not Old - Better Show
Right now, inside your body, cells are dividing. Each time they divide, they must copy an enormous instruction manual: your DNA. Most copies are remarkably accurate. Some acquire changes. We tend to think of DNA as fixed. You receive it from your parents, carry it through life, and perhaps pass part of it to your children. But scientists are finding that inheritance is only the opening chapter. As we grow older, our cells collect mutations. Sunlight can leave its mark on skin cells. Tobacco smoke can alter cells in the lungs. Inflammation, infection, copying errors, environmental exposures,...
info_outline
From Peacocks to Penguins: Chloe Chapin on the Sartorial Revolution
The Not Old - Better Show
👔 The most powerful costume may be the one we stopped noticing. In Suitable: The Sartorial Revolution and the Fashioning of Modern Men, fashion historian and former Broadway costume designer Chloe Chapin follows an extraordinary transformation. Men moved from colorful coats, patterned waistcoats, and elaborate display to the plain, dark suit. That change carried political meaning. During the early American republic, restrained clothing came to represent democracy, rationality, masculinity, seriousness, and public authority. Plainness became a choice that looked increasingly natural. Chapin...
info_outline
🦬 The Wild East Returns: Elk, Bison, Wolves and the Fight to Make Room 🐺🌲
The Not Old - Better Show
🦬 Before highways, subdivisions and shopping centers, the American East belonged to giants. Bison moved through Indiana and Illinois. Elk ranged across Appalachia. Wolves and cougars lived in forests we now consider entirely human territory. Then they disappeared. Now, some are returning. 🌲 But recovery gets complicated when an elk crosses a highway, a bison needs a fence or a wolf appears near someone’s home. Environmental writer Andrew Moore joins me to discuss his fascinating new book, The Beasts of the East: The Fall and Rise of America’s Eastern Wilderness. 🎙️ How much...
info_outline
1,100 Miles Later: What the Trail Teaches About Aging Better
The Not Old - Better Show
🌲🧭 Some lives begin again at the trailhead. On this episode of The Not Old Better Show, I speak with Melanie Radzicki McManus, author of Thousand-Miler: Adventures Hiking the Ice Age Trail. Melanie hiked 1,100 miles across Wisconsin in 36 days, moving through forests 🌲, prairies 🌾, wetlands 💧, farms 🚜, glacial landscapes 🪨🧊, and small-town gathering places 🤝. The mileage is impressive. The message is even better: there is no one way to hike. You can section hike. Use a shuttle. Stay in a motel. Walk with friends. Start small. Begin safely. 👣 For adults 60+, that...
info_outline
Working for the Common Good: The People Behind America's Smithsonian
The Not Old - Better Show
Working for the Common Good: The People Behind America's Smithsonian The Not Old Better Show, Smithsonian Associates Interview Series 🏛️ What if one of America's greatest career opportunities is hiding inside a museum? 🤔 Discover the people, purpose, and passion behind the Smithsonian with Fredie Adelman. 🎙️ Listen now! 🇺🇸✨ #Smithsonian #America250 🏛️ What if museums are some of the most innovative workplaces in America? Most of us think of museums as places to visit. But they're also places where scientists, engineers, educators, conservators, veterinarians,...
info_outline
Your Body Is Talking. Are You Listening?
The Not Old - Better Show
👂🫀 Is your body trying to tell you something? 🤔 Bestselling author, reveals what science says about listening to your body for better health, strength, and longevity. 🎧✨ Your Body Is Talking. Are You Listening? The Not Old Better Show, Smithsonian Associates Interview Series 🫀 We spend a lot of time asking what’s new in health. 🤔 Maybe the better question is… what has our body been trying to tell us all along? That question became the foundation of one of my favorite recent conversations on The Not Old Better Show with physician and bestselling author, , author of the...
info_outline
Your Body Is Talking. Are You Listening?
The Not Old - Better Show
👂🫀 Is your body trying to tell you something? 🤔 Bestselling author, reveals what science says about listening to your body for better health, strength, and longevity. 🎧✨ Your Body Is Talking. Are You Listening? The Not Old Better Show, Smithsonian Associates Interview Series 🫀 We spend a lot of time asking what’s new in health. 🤔 Maybe the better question is… what has our body been trying to tell us all along? That question became the foundation of one of my favorite recent conversations on The Not Old Better Show with physician and bestselling author, , author of the...
info_outline
Fitness Freedom: Exercising While Traveling or On the Go, Episode 2
The Not Old - Better Show
Fitness Freedom: Exercising While Traveling or On the Go, Episode 2 The Not Old Better, American Council on Exercise (ACE) Live Long Better Interview Series Travel is an obstacle course with coffee. ☕✈️ Dr. Sabrena Jo shares how adults 60+ can stay mobile in airports, hotels, cars, and real life. #FitnessFreedom Travel has a way of telling the truth about our bodies. ✈️ The airport is not just an airport. It is an obstacle course with coffee: long corridors, heavy bags, tiny seats, rental cars, hotel beds, unfamiliar chairs, and the occasional gate change that feels...
info_outline
Maintaining Independence Through Functional Fitness, Episode 1
The Not Old - Better Show
Maintaining Independence Through Functional Fitness, Episode 1 The Not Old Better, American Council on Exercise (ACE) Live Long Better Interview Series Fitness after 60 deserves a better headline. It is not about vanity. It is not about punishment. And it is certainly not about pretending we are all training for the Olympics. At its best, fitness is about freedom: the freedom to rise from a chair, climb stairs, carry groceries, reach a shelf, and keep participating in the life we have built. 🏡 In this upcoming American Council on Exercise Live Long Better conversation, I’ll speak with Dr....
info_outline
The Anti-Hype Beauty Episode: Good Housekeeping’s April Franzino on Testing, Trust, and Aging Well Core Promise to the Listener
The Not Old - Better Show
The Anti-Hype Beauty Episode: Good Housekeeping’s April Franzino on Testing, Trust, and the Aging Well Core Promise to the Listener The Not Old Better Show Good Housekeeping Good Better Best Interview Series Beauty advice has moved from the department store counter to the magazine page to the endless scroll. That shift matters, especially for adults 60+. Today, consumers are trying to make sense of sunscreens, retinol, dark spot correctors, fragrance, skin-tightening products, “anti-aging” claims, and social media recommendations that often sound more certain than the evidence allows. On...
info_outlineEnough is Enuf: Why Isn’t English Easier To Spell? Smithsonian Associate Gabe Henry
THE NOT OLD BETTER SHOW, SMITHSONIAN ASSOCIATES INTERVIEW SERIES
📚 Ever wondered why English spelling makes no sense? 🤯 Why does G in George sound different from G in gorge? And why are we still spelling enough like that?!
Author Gabe Henry joins The Not Old Better Show to unravel 500 years of failed spelling reform. From Twain to texting, is change finally here? 🔡✨ Listen now! 🎧👇
Welcome to The Not Old Better Show, Smithsonian Associates Interview Series. I’m your host, Paul Vogelzang, and today, we’re diving into the wonderfully chaotic, utterly confusing, and downright hilarious world of English spelling. Why does the G in George sound different from the G in gorge? Why does C begin both case and cease? And seriously—why is enough spelled like that?
Our guest today, Smithsonian Associate and author Gabe Henry, has spent over a decade unraveling the twisted history of English spelling reform. Smithsonian Associate Gabe Henry will be appearing at Smithsonian Associates coming up and the title of his presentation there is Enough is Enuf: Why Isn’t English Easier To Spell? Please check out our show notes today for more information about Smithsonian Associate Gabe Henry at Smithsonian Associates. But we have Gabe Henry today to tell us a little about it all including his new book, avialable at Apple books, Enough is Enuf: Our Failed Attempts to Make English Easier to Spell, takes us through 500 years of determined—yet doomed—efforts to straighten out our language. From Mark Twain and Ben Franklin to C.S. Lewis and George Bernard Shaw, some of history’s greatest minds have fought to make English more logical…and lost.
But here’s the twist—what spelling reformers couldn’t do, technology just might. Thanks to texting, social media, and emojis, English may finally be simplifying itself. So, are we witnessing a long-overdue spelling revolution? Or is this just another chapter in the ongoing saga of linguistic chaos?
Gabe Henry is here to make sense of it all, with plenty of humor along the way. So grab a cup of coffee—or should that be k-o-f-e?—and let’s get into it.
Please welcome to the show, Smithsonian Associate Gabe Henry.
Thanks to our wonderful guest, Smithsonian Associate Gabe Henry for his generous time. Smithsonian Associate Gabe Henry will be appearing at Smithsonian Associates coming up and the title of his presentation there is Enough is Enuf: Why Isn’t English Easier To Spell? Please check out our show notes today for more information about Smithsonian Associate Gabe Henry at Smithsonian Associates. My thanks to the Smithsonian team for all they do to support the show. My thanks to you, our wonderful Smithsonian Associates audience here on radio and podcast. Be well, be safe and Let’s Talk About Better. The Not Old Better Show. Thanks, everybody, and we’ll see you next week.