Podcast
What’s The Word?
A podcast about the language of journalism, and why it matters who chooses it.
[Listen on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / wherever you listen]
About the podcast
Words don’t just describe the world. They frame it. They assign blame, confer legitimacy, and shape what the public is able to understand and feel. The language used by journalists, governments, and international agencies does not only reflect how the world is seen. It actively determines it.
What’s The Word? takes one term at a time and asks the questions that rarely get asked in the rush of breaking news. Who decided to use this word? What does it hide? Who does it protect, and who does it harm?
Each episode is a conversation between host Shriya and guests from different parts of the world, bringing together journalists, editors, activists, academics, and linguists. The aim is not to produce a verdict, but to open up the question.
Season 2: Language and conflict reporting
This season turns its lens to the relationship between language and conflict. Moving between the newsroom and the frontlines, each episode dissects a term commonly used in journalistic reportage and examines the consequences of using it.
The larger aim is to put people at the centre of the conversation about conflict reporting, and to ask what it would mean for journalism to take that responsibility seriously.
Episodes
Episode 1 — Unpacking the rhetoric of War vs Genocide Ft. Rawan Damen
Both words describe violence, but they carry vastly different moral and political weight. This episode examines how the line between them is drawn, who has the authority to draw it, and how that choice affects accountability, international response, and memory.
Episode 2 — Unpacking the politics of control in ‘Occupation’ Ft. Padma Priya
Why do so many media outlets avoid this word? This episode investigates the politics of the silence around it, how it gets replaced by softer language, and what naming occupation means for truth-telling, justice, and historical record.
Episode 3 — Unpacking the labels of Migrant and Refugee Ft. Marianne Perez-Fransius
When does someone stop being a migrant and become a refugee? How does the phrase “illegal immigrant” distort both reality and policy? This episode navigates the fine lines between these terms and asks what is at stake when language decides who belongs and who does not.
Episode 4 — Unpacking Unrest: The language that shapes dissent Ft. Muda Tariq
What does the word hide? What does it overshadow? This episode examines how “unrest” flattens uprisings, erases causes, and reduces political struggle to something that sounds local and manageable. By dissecting this language, we reveal how words can strip away agency from those who resist and soften accountability for those in power.
Episode 5 — Unpacking the politics behind a ceasefire Ft. Hager Hesham Mustafa
These words sound neutral, even hopeful. But they often obscure asymmetries of power and ongoing violence. In Palestine, a ceasefire rarely means safety, freedom, or justice. It often just means a pause in large-scale bombing while structural violence continues. Who benefits from calling something a ceasefire when occupation, siege, and settler violence continue? And why do terms like humanitarian pause or de-escalation centre international diplomacy over lived reality?
Episode 6 — Unpacking Terrorism: Who gets called a terrorist and why Ft. Meenakshi Ravi
Who gets labelled a terrorist, and who does not? This episode examines how the word is used in news and policy to assign blame, justify state action, and shape public emotion. By tracing its usage across revolutionary movements and resistance fighters, we unpack how such labels can delegitimise struggles, obscure power imbalances, and determine whose violence the world is asked to condemn and whose it is asked to understand.
About the host
Shriya Roy (She/Her)
I am a multimedia journalist based in New Delhi, India working on stories at the intersection of gender, migration and human rights. I am also a podcast producer and host, creating conversations that unpack complex social and political issues.
Season 1
What’s The Word? began in its first season as an exploration of the words and phrases that shape how we understand different regions. You can find all Season 1 episodes below.
New episodes drop every other Thursday. Subscribe wherever you listen, or follow aidóni to be notified when new conversations are released.
If you work in journalism, research, or activism and have thoughts on a term you think deserves an episode, we would like to hear from you.