Michael Erard is an author and journalist based in the USA. After completing an MA in linguistics and a PhD in English at the University of Texas at Austin, he set out to write nonfiction stories that shed light on language, languages and the people who use and study them. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic, Science, Aeon and many other publications. He is the author of Um…: Slips, stumbles, and verbal blunders, and what they mean (2007) and Babel No More: The search for the world’s most extraordinary language learners (2012), which has been translated into Korean, Arabic, Russian and French (and was published in the UK as Mezzofanti’s Gift).
Features
30 min read
Two brothers are combining palliative care expertise, linguistics and AI to encourage more effective conversations between doctors and people receiving end-of-life care.