What are the roots of the Armenian language and what does it mean to call it a living, evolving language? In this introductory episode of a special Armenian-language season, Dr. K sits down with Dr. Hrach Martirosyan, one of the world's leading historical-comparative linguists and foremost authorities on Armenian. Together, they unpack widespread misconceptions about Armenian—from what it means to call it Indo-European, to myths about its origins and age, to debates over the "right" form, borrowings, and language purism—setting the stage for a deep exploration of Armenian as a language shaped by history, contact, and its speakers. This conversation highlights what linguistic science, in all its branches and manifestations, can reveal about the millennia-long presence of Armenian speakers in the Armenian highland and across the globe.

What happens when your first American "language" isn't English, but jazz? How does a voice shaped in the uncertainty and upheaval of 1990s Armenia find its way onto New York's storied jazz stages while still carrying the timbre of folk songs and candlelit nights? In this episode, Dr. K sits down with jazz vocalist Lucy Yeghiazaryan, born in Armenia during a period of profound transition before immigrating at twelve—not to an Armenian enclave, but to rural New Jersey. Together they trace Lucy's journey as a quintessential 1.5-generation Armenian: from growing up between literary Russian, colloquial Eastern Armenian, and jazz standards learned phonetically, to navigating the complexities of singing a Black American art form as an Armenian immigrant woman. Lucy reflects on longing, guilt, and the feeling of forever standing "beside the golden door" that shaped her new album pairing Armenian folk songs with American jazz standards. The conversation explores raising a bilingual child, the tension between colloquial and literary Armenian, and why diasporans must shed the myth of being "defective Armenians" and claim their role as cultural creators. Join us for an intimate conversation about music as firelight, the universality of human feeling, and how a mountain-top voice can carry Armenia far beyond the narratives of war and loss.

What does it mean to write the words that shape history? How does language become a tool of power, persuasion, and memory? In this live episode, Dr. K sits down with Ken Khachigian—author of Behind Closed Doors: In the Room with Reagan and Nixon and one of America's most influential presidential speechwriters—to trace his journey from a farm boy in California's San Joaquin Valley to the heart of political power. An Armenian-American whose heritage shaped his sense of resourcefulness and agility, Khachigian reflects on the art and psychology of speechwriting, the intimacy and trust it demands, and the nicknames that capture its many dimensions—the Word Donkey, the Fireman, the Lion of the Speechwriters. Together, he and Dr. K explore how finding a president's voice means balancing message, emotion, and history. This is a conversation about ambition, integrity, and the enduring power of words to define both personal and collective experience.