"Vocabulous, words that are fabulous" is the brainchild of ABC Capricornia Breakfast host Jeremy Jones, and is a weekly segment I've been a guest on each Thursday for almost a year! It explores the fascinating stories behind words we love (and love to hate) and has become such a beloved segment that word of our chats travelled all the way to Melbourne, where Waleed and the team asked us to be a part of their summer special, representing regional voices and bringing our Vocabulous segment to a national audience.

We explored the "2025 Banished Words List", why people want to ban "6-7" and "My bad", but more importantly, why those very frustrations reveal how language is alive and evolving because of us, and in response to our changing world. Gen Z creates new slang on TikTok that spreads globally in weeks. Corporate culture turns nouns into verbs. These changes happen because we need new ways to express new experiences. Whether we love a word or not, if enough people are using it, it's doing linguistic work.

Part of my obsession with words comes from constantly searching for the right ones myself, and I find great pleasure in learning, speaking and hearing new words and discovering their stories. Getting to share that passion on a national platform felt serendipitous (yes, that's one of my favourite words!).

Link to the segment: Summer - ABC listen

Timestamp: 1hr11min - 1hr34min

Aired Wed 7th Jan 2026.

This is a regular radio segment I am a guest "word expert" on each week on ABC Capricornia Breakfast with host Jeremy Jones.

Every Thursday morning at 7:20am I chat with Jeremy Jones about WORDS. Such a fun segment!

We began this in early 2025 with a "word of the week" and the segment has expanded from there.

Catch it weekly on ABC Capricornia.