If you ask an AI chatbot what its favorite color is, chances are it’ll say blue. What’s going on? This hour, we look at why so many people love the color blue, and what blue means in art and culture and our lexicon. Plus: Why are Democrats blue and Republicans red? And, the universe is getting less blue?

GUESTS:

• Kory Stamper: Lexicographer, and author of True Color: The Strange and Spectacular Quest to Define Color–from Azure to Zinc Pink
• Kushin Mukherjee: Postdoctoral scholar in the Cognitive Tools Lab at Stanford University
• Einav Rabinovitch-Fox: Historian, Visiting Professor of History at Case Western Reserve University, and Managing Editor at the Cleveland Museum of Art
• Ivan Baldry: Professor of Astrophysics at Liverpool John Moores University

Music featured (in order):

• Blue (Da Ba Dee) – Eiffel 65
• Am I Blue – Dinah Washington
• Blue – Joni Mitchell
• Blue Skies – Eva Cassidy
• Blue Money – Van Morrison
• I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues – Alessia Cara

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.