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Wodcast

Wodcast

By: Into the Words
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The Wodcast is a fortnightly podcast exploring the words that shape our lives, cultures, relationships, and imagination. Hosted by Benjamin Aston and Mabel Evans, each episode unfolds into conversations, stories, ideas, and perspectives from writers, thinkers, artists, and cultural voices. From love and belonging to courage, grief, joy, identity, and everything in between, the Wodcast invites you to slow down and look more closely at the language that shapes how we see ourselves and one another.Into the Words Art Language Learning Social Sciences
Episodes
  • What Does It Mean to Be Human? | Season One Bonus Episode

    What Does It Mean to Be Human? | Season One Bonus Episode
    21 Oct 2026
    For our Season One bonus episode, we return to the question at the heart of so many of our conversations: what can a single word reveal about the way we live, the way we relate to one another, and the world we share? This season, we’ve explored where words come from, what they carry, and how their meanings shift through the people who use them. Now, thanks to Sarah Ogilvie, Professor of Language and Lexicography at the University of Oxford, we have our word of the season: Human. We invited each of our Season One guests to offer their own definition. What follows is a collection of reflections that move between science and feeling, instinct and free will, individual experience and our shared existence. For some, being human is to care for others as much as we care for ourselves. For others, it is to feel the full range of our emotions, to connect through language, or to recognise that we are part of a delicate ecosystem rather than separate from it. We explore the relationship between human and humane, the responsibilities we carry towards one another and the natural world, and the possibility that humanity is not simply a state we inhabit, but something we must continually aspire to. There is no single definition that captures every voice. Thank you to each of our season one guests for all their time and words: Elif Shafak, Hak Baker, Prof. David Nutt, David Larbi, Nick Mulvey, Remi Olajoyegbe, Waad Al-Kateab, Tim Rice & Stephen Fry. As we bring Season One to a close, we leave you with the same question we put to our guests: What does it mean to be human? We’d love to hear your answer. Join the Wodcast on Substack Explore the words between episodes, discover our upcoming live events, and subscribe to join us along the way. More from the Wodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wod.cast/ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wodcast/id1896893830 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@wodcast_channel Substack: https://wodcast.substack.com/ Website: https://wodcast.co.uk/ Season two coming November 4th 2026
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    11 min
  • E9 - There Is No Perfect Word | with Stephen Fry

    E9 - There Is No Perfect Word | with Stephen Fry
    7 Oct 2026
    What if words can never mean exactly what we want them to mean? Stephen Fry has spent a lifetime exploring language: writing it, performing it, studying its history, and delighting in its strange contradictions. In this final episode of Season One, we sit down with Stephen to explore what words can and perhaps cannot do. We begin with “happy”, a word Stephen traces back to hap, meaning chance or what happens. From there, the conversation opens into a much bigger question: if language is metaphorical, and words can never map perfectly onto the things they describe, how do we ever understand one another? Stephen argues that “there isn't a pure word for anything” and that we couldn't find “absolute words for absolute things.” We move through etymology, translation and the peculiarities of English; the relationship between language and thought; and the way AI is forcing us to reconsider how our own minds process ideas and language. Stephen reflects on anagnorisis, the moment of recognition or discovery in a story, and why real life rarely gives us the neat revelations that fiction does. And then we talk about writing. What makes someone a writer? Stephen's answer is refreshingly uncompromising: writing is difficult because the story comes hard. The mechanics of writing matter far less than whatever is happening underneath them, the thing that is trying to push the words out. Throughout, Stephen returns to his love of words not simply for what they mean, but for how they sound, move through the mouth and feel when spoken. Language, he says, is our treasure. And at the very end, we ask Stephen the question we ask every guest: if there were one word you would like to be remembered by, what would it be? Topics include: The strange origins of the word happy Why there are no “pure” or absolute words Why words are not mathematical Etymology and the history hidden inside language Translation and why English is so peculiar AI, language and how we understand our own minds Anagnorisis, revelation and the turning points in stories Why writing is supposed to be difficult The difference between words and stories The sensory pleasure of language Finding the word underneath all the words More from the Wodcast Instagram @wod.cast (https://www.instagram.com/wod.cast/?utm_source=chatgpt.com) Apple Podcasts Listen on Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wodcast/id1896893830?utm_source=chatgpt.com) YouTube Watch on YouTube Substack Join us on Substack (https://wodcast.substack.com/?utm_source=chatgpt.com) Website wodcast.co.uk A note as we reach the end of Season One For a whole season, we’ve been asking what words mean, where they come from, what they carry, and how they change when we use them. And perhaps, as Stephen Fry reminds us in this final episode, there are no absolute words for absolute things. What matters is the meaning we make with them. Next week, we’ll gather for our final Season One live on Substack, taking three of Stephen’s weight-bearing words and exploring their origins, histories and the meanings they carry. Then, before we close the season, we’ll release a special bonus episode, in which we ask each of our guests to reflect on one final word: our word of the season given to us by Sarah Ogilvie. Join us on Substack for the final live and stay with us for the bonus episode that brings Season One to a close. ✨
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    1 hr and 8 min
  • E8 - The Words Behind the Songs | with Tim Rice

    E8 - The Words Behind the Songs | with Tim Rice
    23 Sep 2026
    Today, Wodcast sits down with Sir Tim Rice one of the world's most celebrated lyricists and one of only a small number of people to have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony, for a wide-ranging conversation about words, songwriting, storytelling and the strange alchemy of turning language into something that lasts. From Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita and Chess to The Lion King and Aladdin, Tim has written some of the most recognisable lyrics of the last half-century. But this conversation is less about the hits themselves and more about what happens inside the words: how a lyric comes together, why a title can change everything, and why sometimes the smallest rhyme can make a song feel complete. Tim shares the story behind “Hakuna Matata”, including the lost verse that never made it into The Lion King, and explains how a phrase from a Swahili dictionary became one of the most recognisable expressions in popular culture. He reflects on the difference between writing for a character and writing from your own experience, and why a lyricist has to be able to imagine lives they've never lived. Together, they explore the hidden architecture of lyrics: rhyme, rhythm, titles, repetition and the words that somehow lodge themselves in our memories. Tim reveals why “Don't Cry for Me, Argentina” almost had a completely different title, why vagabond was the perfect word for a line about kings and vagabonds, and why sometimes the best explanation for a particular word is simply: “It rhymed.” The conversation also wanders into the life of words themselves. Tim reflects on how words change meaning, why he thinks “hopefully” is often used incorrectly, and whether words are losing their meaning altogether. They discuss the power of songs as one of the oldest forms of storytelling and how a song can sometimes communicate something faster and more directly than a novel. This is a conversation about the craft of words, the life of words, and the extraordinary things that can happen when the right words meet the right melody. ───── Topics include: • The art of lyric writing • The Lion King and “Hakuna Matata” • Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita and Chess • The power of song and storytelling • Why titles matter • Rhyme, rhythm and scansion • How words change their meanings • Childhood and memory • Writing from other people's perspectives • The lost verse of “Hakuna Matata” • “Vagabond” and the words we remember • Poetry, music and meaning • Language, mortality and the mystery of existence ───── More from the Wodcast: ➟ Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/wod.cast/ ➟ Apple Podcasts – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wodcast/id1896893830 ➟ YouTube – https://youtube.com/@wodcast_channel ➟ Substack – https://wodcast.substack.com/ ➟ Website – https://wodcast.co.uk/ ───── More from Tim Rice: ➟ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tim_rice_words ➟ Website - https://www.timrice.co.uk Join the Wodcast on Substack Explore the words between episodes, discover our upcoming live events, and subscribe to join us along the way.
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    57 min
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