Come for the critical reappraisal of ‘Shakespeare in Love,’ stay for Mike’s shocking revelation. Anon, good nurse!Questions/comments/ideas/snark go in the comments. We love you.Thing 1: Ryan DavisThing 2: Mike LawsProducer: Amanda DarrachFind all your favorite Red Pen songs over on the Red Pen Official Playlist.To use Red Pen chapters, swipe up on the Now Playing screen or click the top-right-corner Chapters button on Apple Podcasts for macOS.Show Notes:The Duchess of Malfi, John WebsterTamburlaine the Great, Part I, Christopher Marlowe

Oh, boy, are the “stick to the topic” ppl gonna love this one.Questions/comments/ideas/snark go in the comments. We love you.Thing 1: Ryan DavisThing 2: Mike LawsProducer: Amanda DarrachFind all your favorite Red Pen songs over on the Red Pen Official Playlist.To use Red Pen chapters, swipe up on the Now Playing screen or click the top-right-corner Chapters button on Apple Podcasts for macOS.Show Notes:Underworld podcast episode on MedellinVladimir Nabokov: Heat Seeker, Mike Laws, The Village VoiceA Brief Oral History of Wayne Barrett, the First Journalist to Doggedly Cover Donald Trump, Tricia Romano, Vanity Fair

When, whether, and how often. With a little help from Humbert Humbert. Questions/comments/ideas/snark go in the comments. We love you.Thing 1: Ryan DavisThing 2: Mike LawsProducer: Amanda DarrachFind all your favorite Red Pen songs over on the Red Pen Official Playlist.To use Red Pen chapters, swipe up on the Now Playing screen or click the top-right-corner Chapters button on Apple Podcasts for macOS.Show Notes:Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov on Google BooksA Teen’s Fatal Plunge Into the London Underworld, Patrick Radden Keefe, The New Yorker

Or: How I learned to stop worrying and love nuance. Questions/comments/ideas/snark go in the comments. We love you.Thing 1: Ryan DavisThing 2: Mike LawsProducer: Amanda DarrachFind all your favorite Red Pen songs over on the Red Pen Official Playlist.To use Red Pen chapters, swipe up on the Now Playing screen or click the top-right-corner Chapters button on Apple Podcasts for macOS.

You best believe we seen this trend.Questions/comments/ideas/snark go in the comments. We love you.Thing 1: Ryan DavisThing 2: Mike LawsProducer: Amanda DarrachFind all your favorite Red Pen songs over on the Red Pen Official Playlist.To use Red Pen chapters, swipe up on the Now Playing screen or click the top-right-corner Chapters button on Apple Podcasts for macOS.

In which Mike finally reads the comments.Questions/comments/ideas/snark go in the comments. We love you.Thing 1: Ryan DavisThing 2: Mike LawsProducer: Amanda DarrachFind all your favorite Red Pen songs over on the Red Pen Official Playlist.To use Red Pen chapters, swipe up on the Now Playing screen or click the top-right-corner Chapters button on Apple Podcasts for macOS.

How Padma Lakshmi schooled us all on the "middle voice."Questions/comments/ideas/snark go in the comments. We love you.Thing 1: Ryan DavisThing 2: Mike LawsProducer: Amanda DarrachFind all your favorite Red Pen songs over on the Red Pen Official Playlist.To use Red Pen chapters, swipe up on the Now Playing screen or click the top-right-corner Chapters button on Apple Podcasts for macOS.Show Notes:"It eats salty": middle voice on "Top Chef," Language Log on "stimulus subject perception verbs"The Grammar of Top Chef: What’s With "It Eats Salty"? Mental Floss on "gestalt verbs"

And a few we hate. And, for some reason, a few that are German.Questions/comments/ideas/snark go in the comments. We love you.Thing 1: Ryan DavisThing 2: Mike LawsProducer: Amanda DarrachShow Notes:The Staten Island Ferry Schedule (But sign your marriage license on dry land.)Out of Office podcastPhonesthemes@germanonliners

On the record, off the record, on background, deep background: What to expect when you're expecting to be a source.Questions/comments/ideas/snark go in the comments. We love you.Thing 1: Ryan DavisThing 2: Mike LawsProducer: Amanda DarrachFind all your favorite Red Pen songs over on the Red Pen Official Playlist.To use Red Pen chapters, swipe up on the Now Playing screen or click the top-right-corner Chapters button on Apple Podcasts for macOS.Show Notes:A scrappy newspaper’s final cover lacks Voice, Alexandria Neason, CJRJournalists are fed up with requests to be ‘on background’ or ‘off the record,’ Ted Kitterman, PR DailyArtforum Fires Top Editor After Its Open Letter on Israel-Hamas War, Zachary Small, The New York TimesBoth Sides Now, Amanda Darrach, CJR

It's an epidemic, people: one-word compound nouns standing in for phrasal verbs. Is Kelly Clarkson to blame?Questions/comments/ideas/snark go in the comments. We love you.Thing 1: Ryan DavisThing 2: Mike LawsProducer: Amanda Darrach