Merriam-Webster’s Word of 2022

The word of the year for 2022 is gaslighting.  Merriam-Webster chooses the word of the year based only on data from lookups and in 2022, lookups for gaslighting increased 1,740%.  Most interestingly, there was not a particular news event that drove the lookups, it was a word that had interest every single day of the year.  Peter Sokolowski, editor at large for Merriam-Webster joins us for a definition of this year’s top word and a look at some more including oligarch, codify, sentient, and loamy.

Next, Elon Musk has been under a lot of scrutiny since he took over Twitter, but another one of his companies is being looked at for ghosting cities across America.  Musk’s Boring company, which has teased cities with plans to dig out underground tunnels to help relieve what he called “soul-destroying” traffic, has had a lot of big ideas but rarely followed through after being confronted with the realities of building public infrastructure.  The only place where Musk has been able to showcase a finished project has been a 1.6 mile “loop experience” under the Las Vegas Convention Center.  Ted Mann, reporter at the WSJ, joins us for how many cities still want to work with the Boring Co. despite its uneven record.

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