Show notes
In our age of AI, the word "parasocial" has gained new relevance. Mike Vuolo and Bob Garfield trace its rise and discuss other "para" words like paragraph and parachute. Visit Lexicon Valley. A Booksmart Studios Production. Episode 300: "Parasocial Climbing." With Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo. Edited and produced by Mike Vuolo. Produced by Livia Bloom Ingram. All rights reserved.
Highlighted moments
For most para words, what the para means depends on whether it ultimately comes from the Latin or the Greek. Let's start with the Greek. Where para means alongside of or next to, in location.
“a parapet, you know, that teeth-like formation at the top of a wall, that's a protection against the chest. The pet part comes from pectus, your pecs, your chest.”
“In 1956, by the sociologists Donald Horton and Richard Wall in the journal Psychiatry, their article was about certain effects of mass media, which was really just starting to be studied at that time.”
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