Mon, Oct 10, 8PM, Secret Science Club (North) presents Linguist and Author John McWhorter with "Words on the Move" @ Symphony Space

SPECIAL EVENT! Secret Science Club (North) presents Linguist & Author John McWhorter with Words on the Move, Monday, October 10, 8PM @ Symphony Space, $25. (Use code SECRET15 to get $15 tickets.)

Are you LITERALLY driven mad by imprecise word usage? Are you flustrated by neologisms, or are you language fluid?

Do you cringe at mispronunciations, or are they like LOL chill? Are emojis words? 

Think the friction between red states and blue states is rough? Try checking out the culture wars over "proper English." Linguist and master observer of American culture, John McWhorter examines and parses our shape-shifting language in this special talk coinciding with the release of his new book Words on the Move---and explores why some of the tensions over Lingua Americana may be central to our identities and views about culture and race in America.  

Before & After
--Try our cocktails of the night, the "Old-fashioned Grammarian" and the "YAAASSSSS!"
--Take our language quiz for a chance to win pithy prizes
--Sway to wordplay-inspired tunes
--Stick around for the Q&A, and snag a signed copy of John McWhorter's new book, Words on the Move

John McWhorter is a linguist and professor at Columbia University. He writes for Time, The Wall Street Journal, The Root, Politico, The New Republic, and The Atlantic, and he is a frequent guest on NPR, CNN, and MSNBC. His popular and critically acclaimed books include The Power of Babel, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue, What Language Is, and most recently, Words on the Move: Why English Won't---and Can't---Sit Still (Like, Literally).

Get $15 tickets for John McWhorter here with code SECRET15 and enter the code at checkout. You can also use the code at the Symphony Space box office (call 212.864.5400 or visit in person). 

This loquacious edition of Secret Science Club (North) meets Monday, October 10, 8PM @ Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway @ 95th St in Manhattan. Subway: 1, 2, or 3 to 96th Street. Doors open at 7:30pm. This is an all-ages event.

Photo Credit: Eileen Barrosa--Columbia University (John McWhorter)

Tuesday, September 20, 8PM @ the Bell House, Secret Science Club presents Deep-Sea Biologist Mercer Brugler, FREE!

Take the plunge! Just returned from exploring undersea canyons and corals with the deep-diving Alvin research submarine, marine biologist Mercer Brugler shares secrets of the seafloor at the next Secret Science Club.

Cruise with Dr. Brugler as he explores the unusual and beautiful life-forms that thrive on the ocean floor. Dive to ocean depths where no light penetrates and chemicals bubbling from cold seeps fuel strange ecosystems and undersea microbes convert methane into food via chemosynthesis.

An evolutionary biologist specializing in the deep sea, black corals, and anemones, Mercer Brugler is assistant professor at City Tech-CUNY and research associate at the American Museum of Natural History. In addition to two deep dives in the storied Alvin, he has participated on several missions with deep-diving remote-operated research vehicles. He is one of the only people on Earth to have visited Bear Seamount, a 100-million-year-old extinct undersea volcano. Dive!

Before & After

--Quench your thirst with our grog of the night, the Strange Blue World. Drink up, me hearties!

--Groove to deep-sea shanties

--Stick around for the waves of Q&A

The next submersive edition of the Secret Science Club meets Tuesday, September 20 at 8 pm @ the Bell House, 149 7th St. (between 2nd and 3rd avenues) in Gowanus. Subway: F or G to 4th Ave, R to 9th St.

Doors open at 7:30 pm. Please bring ID: 21+. No cover.