January 14, 2025 • 24 mins
A Waymo, a self-driving car, goes whacko and out of control in Arizona. Is the technology ready for the real world? The guy caught in the car doesn't think so! Using drones to fight fires might work, right? Lisë and Holli want to know. Also, some words and phrases have got to go the way of Groovy and 23 Skidoo, okay? Let's freshen up our language, America. Please click Follow, listen now, and get edified!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello, hello, and welcome to Ladies Who Question.
(00:09):
We've got a couple of out there topics.
I mean, sort of, I think so.
And I think we should just jump right in.
Jump right in.
Yeah.
Waymo.
Waymo Self-Driving Taxicab Arizona Airport.
I don't know how you feel about these self-driving cars, but they freaking terrify me.
And I'm never getting in one.
(00:30):
Okay, well, you might be stranded because that's what we're going to.
You'll be like a horse and buggy.
Okay.
Here she goes with the car that you have to put gas in.
No, no, no.
I will walk.
I got the power right here.
All right.
Right here below my trunk.
Anyway.
Leg power.
Tell me about this.
(00:51):
Okay.
So this happened about a week ago, and there was a gentleman that was going to the Arizona
airport and he was in a Waymo self-driving taxi and it got stuck in a roundabout and it
kept going in circles and circles and couldn't stop.
And the poor guy is saying, what am I supposed to do?
He's calling customer service for Waymo.
(01:12):
It was a person.
It wasn't an AI on the other end because I thought, oh, dear Lord, he's going to get
an AI that's really maybe not going to understand what's going on or care or care and never
run out.
I mean, in the cars, never going to stop.
And so it was just one of those things with AI that I don't think has been fully tested.
(01:32):
And he did make his flight.
And here's a little clip because it's pretty funny.
I need you to top my trip in the lower left corner of your app.
Can't you just do it?
You should be able to handle it.
Take over the car.
The car is still in control.
Like a Benz press 300 plus.
But am I able to control this?
If somebody playing a joke on me, it's like people are the experiment.
People are the experiment.
That says it all.
(01:58):
What was the comment he just had in there?
Oh, I had it and then I lost it.
He said something like, shouldn't you be able to intervene or whatever he said?
And why can't they go in and remotely take control?
That should be a non-negotiable.
Oh, for sure.
Good.
(02:19):
Oh, my God.
See now, why would I want to get in something?
And they have buses.
Could you imagine like 25 people in a self-driving bus?
No.
They have those in, I think China.
I've seen them.
Wow.
Well, the Chinese are ahead of us, I guess.
They are.
In ways that I don't care to catch up.
(02:39):
Just, oh, yeah, yeah.
Well, that's why I'm never getting in one.
So I don't care.
It was a cute, funny, it ended well story.
But hey, beware.
Yeah.
Oh, God.
Okay.
Well, that's just kooky.
Okay.
The next thing is relevant.
Well, it's relevant because of these awful, awful, awful, awful fires in California.
(03:03):
It's devastating.
And there just wasn't enough resources, manpower.
It was such a huge fire.
So I was as Santa Ana's.
That you 150 mile per hour winds that curl and dart.
So you can just look around in the Ambers or everywhere.
And here we are in the Midwest, safe and sound in our home watching this terrified, just
(03:25):
terrified at what's going on.
And as I was scrolling one day recently, they were showing these drones that have little
fire, that have water attachments and they can go up in the air and put out water.
I mean, not as much pressure as a fire hose, I'm sure, but you can direct them to go into
(03:48):
probably hot places where firefighters can't get into.
So the drones go above the fire, obviously.
And then I wonder how much water did you...
That was my concern that they don't have a lot of water.
Yeah.
Because that would have to be a gigantic drone, like an airplane sized drone.
They're kind of average sized drones, but there's several fighting one fire.
(04:08):
There's probably 10 drones fighting one fire.
That could have been helpful this week.
And I will put that on our...
But this was in China.
In China.
I'll put it on our Instagram and there'll be some photos of it so you can visualize
how this works.
I think that's not a bad idea.
Why not?
You can get to the top of like if there's a multi-story building or a skyscraper.
(04:30):
Right.
Just in an urban area where it's hard to get the fire trucks in, situated and then get
the ladders up, in the meantime, they could throw the drones up there right away.
And if even the apartment buildings had them in their possession, where they can get the
drones out right away.
And they can operate them.
(04:51):
The apartment buildings?
Well, like the apartment management company?
Yeah.
That's kind of far-fetched.
I just think you...
Okay.
I was kind of like jumping the gun.
Well, no, I mean, it's a nice thought, but I think you...
I mean, I don't know, they use drones for a lot of things.
A lot of people...
Well, if they stored them on the roof.
Oh.
And you had controls and you said, okay, dispatch the drones and then you get them to the third
(05:17):
floor, fifth floor, tenth floor.
It's a thought.
Okay.
It's a good thought.
Okay.
But why not?
I mean, well, I mean, I don't know.
Why not?
I'm just trying to think that I'd really want someone who knows what the hell they're doing.
Right.
A professional firefighter to direct the drones.
Yeah.
Yeah.
If you had doused with water, that's not the worst thing that can happen.
Right.
(05:38):
But anyway.
Did you hear about the drone and the plane that had water that crashed into each other?
What?
Well, I mean, the plane's fine.
But there was a drone during the fires that was up in the air and one of the planes that
was carrying water to douse the fire, they collided.
Oh, and we've talked about how this could be a problem.
(05:58):
So there was probably like a drone surveying the area showing the devastation.
A little drone who wanted to get photography.
It was a personal drone.
Well, we need laws for airspace because there aren't really laws with the drones as far
as I know.
So it didn't impede the plane.
No.
Thank God.
Thank God.
Yeah.
(06:18):
Could you imagine if the plane crashed?
Because of that.
Well, then that person would be in even bigger trouble.
It would be one disaster on top of another.
Yeah.
Okay.
But wait, before we go, we need to attribute that first story.
Where did that come from?
I'm sorry.
CNN.
The Webmo.
That's from CNN.
It's on CNN.
And if you Google it, you could find it from five or six other outlets.
Okay.
(06:39):
Good.
I just want to make sure that we, you know, that wasn't us, that we got that from somebody
else.
No, it's not fake news.
Okay.
Well, you got to be careful now.
Who knows what's going on, but that's another topic that we will cover in another podcast,
for sure, right?
Absolutely.
Okay.
I have some of these kind of, I think it's fun.
This is from Lake Superior State University, which is in, I don't really know where it
(07:03):
is.
Well, it's Michigan or New York or...
Oh.
You know, you've heard of it?
No.
Oh.
I haven't, but I was thinking if it's Lake Superior.
Right.
It's got to be, I don't want to lose this page or I would go to home.
Well, let me look it up and you can get it rolling.
Yeah.
Lake Superior State University, it says about LSSU, but it's got to be, oh, Sue St. Marie.
(07:24):
Yeah.
St. Marie, Michigan.
Okay.
Oh, it's way up there.
Well, of course, Lake Superior.
Yeah.
Okay.
So this is the 2025 banished, oh, it's called banished words.
So we don't talk about them.
They're not in the dictionary.
Well, banished, you know, can be like, oh, I don't want to hear that.
Passay.
Yeah.
But it's stronger than passay.
Okay.
(07:45):
Okay.
This is a wish list for somebody who wants them to be passay.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, and some of these, I have to say when I was going through the list, I kind of went,
oh, yeah.
I didn't know a couple of them.
So I'll start at the very, well, I mean, I just, I did, but I didn't really, okay, the
first one is the word cringe.
(08:06):
Oh.
You know how people keep going, oh, it's so cringy.
It's so cringeworthy.
Yeah.
Cringeworthy.
And it's like, I remember thinking hearing people use it over and over again.
God, I'm tired of hearing that.
And first of all, cringy.
Keep turning the words into, yeah.
I'm going to sneeze.
Right now?
I was going to, but I'm not now.
Okay.
(08:26):
Never mind.
I hate when that happens.
It came on strong and then it just went bye-bye.
I'm like, okay.
Why is it?
Do you think your brain takes over and goes, no, don't do this now?
I was trying to.
Yeah.
I always thought that's funny.
Anyway, this is a once packed a punch, it's now overstayed it welcome, overstayed its welcome.
Overuse has dulled its impact.
Yes.
Okay.
Because maybe everything isn't so cringey.
(08:47):
Ironically, I'm using it might now cause the, cause the very reaction it describes.
Like, oh.
They're using that word.
Yeah.
I hear the, say cringy and I go, oh, and I, I cringe.
Right.
Right.
Which is really the proper use of that word.
I cringe, you cringe, he cringe.
What is the definite cringes?
(09:08):
She cringes.
Like just icky.
Yeah.
It's like a big ick.
Okay.
A big ick.
Which is also probably next year going to be on the banished words list.
Yeah.
Anyway.
All right.
This one, this one's been around for a long time.
And I think that's why it's on the list.
Game changer.
Oh.
Okay.
I kind of like that term, but I guess I better be over it now.
(09:30):
I guess it, well, it's been around for a long time and it doesn't bug me as much cause
I don't hear it as often.
I think if you're probably in a corporate setting or some kind of setting where, depending
on the industry, they probably use, oh, that's a real game changer.
Right.
You know, like, like the stock market.
What's a real bro thing?
A game changer, man.
It's a bro thing.
You're right.
It's probably, I don't like it.
(09:51):
I think it's a real game changer.
Right.
Oh, this is the next one.
Era.
Era.
Era.
Like because in this, they're saying, unless you're Taylor Swift, it might be time to leave
era behind.
I don't even use that word.
Well, I think because they kept hearing the eras tour.
Oh, right.
Yeah.
Right.
Right.
So they said, this woman, Leah Holland, Leah of Holland, Michigan, thanks to the name
(10:11):
of Taylor Swift tour.
Now there is an era for everyone and everything.
And people are kind of saying, I've seen that on Instagram.
Where they'll say, Oh, it's my, you know, whatever my not eating era or it's my pomegranate
era or my, I'm only working this hard era.
I, yeah, I just, it's used in a really weird context.
(10:33):
Yeah.
So everyone's having an era.
Okay.
So that's why it's been overused and on the banished list.
Okay.
Okay.
This, I agree with this one.
The word dropped, you know, like we just dropped our podcast and I'm saying, you know,
this is once edgy and cool dropped has become more of a let down, whether it's an album
(10:54):
or trend or a product, this term has fallen flat because it did start to get used, but
I don't know what, what, what did we used to say?
We used to say released.
Oh, this music, it's the release date.
We're releasing and now they say drop date.
Okay.
So we'll go back to release.
Like are there, are there replacement words for some of these?
(11:15):
It doesn't say that I guess that just has to come up in the natural lexical language,
you know, just sort of, I guess this is what's just like dropped all of a sudden became that
no one was saying released the books being released, the songs being released.
We're dropping it tomorrow.
Yeah.
Not that we dropped something physically.
It's like, okay.
(11:36):
No, I mean a lot of words are multi-purpose.
Oh, no, I know.
Yeah.
Anyways, being banished for overuse, misuse, abuse, abuse.
You've abused you dropped and hurting my head when all that dropping stuff lands on me.
This is from Susan of Littleton, Colorado.
Okay.
This one, I didn't know until I saw what was in the brackets.
(11:56):
It's an acronym, which I'm not up in all these acronyms because there are a bazillion
of them.
Right.
I Y K Y K.
No clue.
Nor did I know.
If you know, you know.
So in other words, I miss that whole era.
Yeah.
Oh, I know.
That was good.
It was good.
(12:18):
If you know, you know.
And I'm still trying to parse that out in my head.
I don't really know what that means.
I guess that means like if you're, oh, okay, here's one that got dropped along many decades
ago, the in crowd.
And they would be if you know, you know, because you're in the in crowd.
I see.
It's kind of, well, it's kind of, it's sort of like if you're in the club, you know.
(12:42):
Right.
It's an inside kind of thing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, I wonder if inside baseball has been, I wonder if that's on the list.
Well, we'll find out.
I only, you hear that once in a while, but it's not overused.
Okay.
The next one, sorry, not sorry.
Oh, because it's so sarcastic.
I guess I like it, but sorry, not sorry.
You know, you've heard that.
I have, but I've never used it.
(13:02):
No, I haven't either because even though I love sarcasm, it just seems mean.
Speaking of sorry, women say that way too much.
Oh.
And men never say it because they don't give a, they don't care.
And when I went to my retreat, we could not say sorry.
Oh, that's a good rule.
(13:22):
It was a good rule.
So if you said, oh my God, I'm sorry, like for stupid stuff, we always say we're sorry.
Oh, pass me the pepper and it spills over or whatever.
We're like, we jump in and go, sorry.
So if we did say sorry, we had to go back and say one good thing about ourselves.
Did you find that we're kind of on topic here, but yeah, we are fine that it helped alter
your behavior going forward after the retreat?
(13:45):
Oh, maybe, but it gave me pause.
It gave me pause.
Right.
I would think about it more, especially when I was on the retreat, I would think about
the whole sorry thing.
And yeah, because it's meaningless basically.
Well, we're always saying it.
I started saying that and I don't know why, but when I was brought up to say, like, if
you brushed by someone or you, or there was something you'd say, excuse me.
(14:09):
Right.
I don't hear very many men saying that either or frankly, a lot of people saying that either.
But even if I brushed by someone on the, on the sidewalk or something, excuse me, you
know, or you, you go by someone in the aisle grocery store or something.
Oh, excuse me.
I'm sorry.
Oh, yeah.
See, excuse me.
I'm sorry.
Look at that.
(14:30):
That was so right.
Okay.
Oh, okay.
What is this?
Let's just see what this says.
A half hearted apology masquerading as bold honesty.
This phrase feels as disingenuous as its own.
See, I haven't read this beforehand.
I just kind of skimmed the, the, what's she called banished word, uh, enthusiasts recommend
(14:51):
just saying what you mean, or in at least one case, showing a little kindness.
Oh, how about some manners?
Right.
Yeah.
Okay.
The next one, I have no clue.
You have kids.
So maybe, I don't know.
Skibbity.
No clue.
I, S-K-I-B-I-D-I.
Never even seen it in print.
No.
Okay.
(15:12):
Skibbity.
Oh, and it says here, this viral word may have resonated with a younger crowd, but for
many it is just noise.
Hmm.
Agatha from Denmark explains, nobody cares about a skibbity toilet, skibbity fizz, or
skibbity Ohio phantom tax.
Okay.
This is, this is like Mars for me.
I don't.
Who is even using that word?
Well, people in Denmark apparently as well, but, because that's who's commenting on this.
(15:36):
At this point, nobody even knows what it means and it just annoys people.
Oh, okay.
Maybe it's kind of like cool.
Yeah.
Like skibbity, oh, skibbity, skibbity toilet?
Skibbity fizz?
I don't, okay.
Oh, oh, this one, you're going to love this one.
100%.
Oh, I agree with that.
Everything is, yes.
It's just a little tag add on to, of, I don't like it.
(16:00):
Like I totally agree.
100%.
Yeah.
I guess it's, it's shorthand, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It says, is it possible to be over enthusiastic about retiring the phase 100%?
Absolutely.
It's overuse has left no room for nuance or doubt.
I thought that was funny.
Utilize.
Oh, this one.
Okay.
Yeah.
(16:21):
Use.
Right.
It's a way to just make you sound more intelligent.
I think so.
I remember when I would hear that or if I would use it myself, I would think I can just
use the word use or when other people would do that, I'd go, okay, they're trying to make
their language more floored and just complicated.
And I went, no, here's what they say.
A classic offender utilize proves that longer is not always better.
(16:42):
Why complicate things when use works just fine.
Everett from Cumbee, Texas encourages readers to write like you talk and added, Lord, I
hope you don't talk like that.
I have to say, I have used that and I did, but I'm going to blame the fact that I read
(17:02):
so much and I continue to read so much.
And sometimes they write like that in some of the things that I read.
I guess that's how I will talk sometimes that I, this was a good, okay, because books are
written using.
Well, so yeah, a lot of, I mean, and I, you know, I've read a lot of 1900 century novels
in a lot of 2000, you know, century, whatever and stuff like that.
(17:27):
In 18th century novels and they kind of, that's how they write and that's how they
people talked.
And I realized that a long time ago about myself and I went, well, that's obnoxious.
But anyway, okay, here's another one.
Period.
Someone will emphasize, I guess, it's like an exclamation point.
Yeah.
(17:47):
And I mean that period or something, right?
Yeah.
Okay.
Like that's it.
Yeah.
What does it say here?
Yes.
We need to verbally punctuate it.
Overuse has turned this into a period we are ready to end.
Oh, that was clever.
That was a clever turn of phrase.
Teresa from Detroit, Michigan recommends we banish this word by putting it in a bottle
(18:08):
and sending it out to sea.
That's cute.
I like this list.
I know.
I do too.
Yeah.
So, um, learn something.
Yeah.
Even if it was just for me, the skibbity and the, what did I, Y, K, Y, K or whatever.
Yeah.
Well, the I Y, I Y, K reminds me of texting when sometimes I'll get texts from the younger
(18:31):
generation.
Yeah.
And I'm like, what does that say?
Well, that's what I mean.
They're all these little acronyms.
Right.
Acronyms.
Yeah.
And I don't know half of them.
I don't know most of them.
I don't either.
And it's like, right, right to me in English because I don't get your, your abbreviations.
Right.
Which is basically the same thing.
Your shorthand.
Yeah.
(18:52):
I'm thinking of a stenographer in a court.
Oh, well, they have to, don't they have to type exactly what people say?
I don't know.
I, I, I don't know how that works.
I think they have to type.
I don't know how you, how do they do that?
I know.
They can't, they don't do acronyms, but it's almost like they're looking into space and
they're just typing, typing, typing and because they're just that good.
(19:15):
Unless on the typewriter keys, there's words.
No, no, no, no, no.
No, no, no, no.
You couldn't, cause especially all the words they use in it.
Anyway, that's it for that list.
Okay.
That's interesting.
Yeah.
I, I thought that was fun and, and then it says, you can submit a word to banish for
2026.
So is there anything?
I'm so over it.
(19:35):
Oh, that's so over it.
I'm so over it.
I'm over it.
Like I'm really over that saying.
Well, that's a phrase.
I know.
But sorry, not sorry.
That's a phrase.
So I'm so over it.
You want to banish that one.
I just thought of it just off the top of my head, but it's a little bit overused and
it's a little, been there down that encapsulates this entire, right?
(19:58):
Right?
Exactly.
Cause people are so over these words.
I think we're going to have to look up some new words because you know how they, I think
we did a podcast on new words or words they've added to the Webster's dictionary.
I think we did that last year.
So there's, they add so many words and a lot of them are kind of pulp, cultural words.
Yes.
(20:19):
And they're like, what?
This is going in the dictionary.
Yeah.
And you almost feel like because it's a pop culture word, it doesn't carry the weight
enough to be in a dictionary.
Like it should be just fleeting like these, right?
And you still have to have a place to look them up, but I don't want to lose all the
other good words.
No.
Cause they've got to take something out, right?
(20:39):
I don't know if they take out and they put in and, oh, well, I bet they used to do that
when they had to print dictionaries.
Right.
So now it's an everlasting dictionary on the internet.
And they could add and delete as much as they want.
Right.
Cause it's, don't delete words.
Don't, don't take them out because there's a reason for them.
(21:00):
And if I want to dig back into my, um, oh, you know, my 18th century, 19th century novels,
I may need to look them up.
That's right.
And you're probably the only one reading those, unfortunately.
Anyway, words, words, words.
I'm thinking that a lot of times when you're talking to people or especially younger people,
they talk in short words.
(21:20):
It's like, I even do that sometimes.
Like when are you A-Vay?
What?
Are you going on vacay?
Oh, oh.
Like, okay.
When are you available?
When are you A-Vay?
And I kind of available.
And then are you going on vacay?
Like vacation.
A lot of people say that.
Well, it's sort of, that's just slang.
Okay.
Right.
What's wrong with that?
I mean, every generation has its own slang, which that would be kind of, ooh, I'll try
(21:43):
to find a list for that.
Yeah.
Like at one point, the word cool was invented, which seems to be timeless.
Yeah.
I think so.
Right?
Yeah.
But like, I think that was during, like when jazz was coming, cool baby.
Cool baby.
Like so in the, maybe the 40s and 50s, you know, cool daddy, you know, stuff like that.
(22:03):
And but it's, it's still, it's still, I bet your kids use that word.
Oh yeah.
See?
They do.
Why?
Why is it timeless?
I mean, it's cool, groovy is men.
But I'm just saying cool and groovy were, I remember like 60s, cool, groovy, but cool.
Cool.
Cool.
Cool.
Yeah.
(22:23):
And you know another word I really am sick of?
What?
Bra.
Like bra.
Oh, oh.
Like that's my bra.
I mean, I go bra.
I mean, bro.
Well, that's that bro culture.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's my bra.
You can't even form your lips to make the oh.
Right.
I mean, I just got, they kept twerking and tweaking it as they spoke it.
I hear that.
(22:44):
I just kind of go, oh, you're one of them.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
Bye now.
The fraternity's over.
Big guy.
Speaking of bye now, I think we're done now.
Okay.
Aren't we?
That sounds great.
All right.
Until next week, this is ladies a question, Lisa, Holly, and we are over and out.
Okay.
Bye.
(23:05):
Bye.
Thanks, Harvey.
Ladies a question is executive produced and edited by me, Lisa Dominique, and also executive
produced by Holly Caulfield.
Holly also does most of our research and Claire Caulfield is in charge of technical
assistance and social media, music, my lion heart, sketch music by Florian Manx and Matthew
(23:28):
Anderson.
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(23:52):
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Hello, hello, and welcome to Ladies Who Question.
(00:09):
We've got a couple of out there topics.
I mean, sort of, I think so.
And I think we should just jump right in.
Jump right in.
Yeah.
Waymo.
Waymo Self-Driving Taxicab Arizona Airport.
I don't know how you feel about these self-driving cars, but they freaking terrify me.
And I'm never getting in one.
(00:30):
Okay, well, you might be stranded because that's what we're going to.
You'll be like a horse and buggy.
Okay.
Here she goes with the car that you have to put gas in.
No, no, no.
I will walk.
I got the power right here.
All right.
Right here below my trunk.
Anyway.
Leg power.
Tell me about this.
(00:51):
Okay.
So this happened about a week ago, and there was a gentleman that was going to the Arizona
airport and he was in a Waymo self-driving taxi and it got stuck in a roundabout and it
kept going in circles and circles and couldn't stop.
And the poor guy is saying, what am I supposed to do?
He's calling customer service for Waymo.
(01:12):
It was a person.
It wasn't an AI on the other end because I thought, oh, dear Lord, he's going to get
an AI that's really maybe not going to understand what's going on or care or care and never
run out.
I mean, in the cars, never going to stop.
And so it was just one of those things with AI that I don't think has been fully tested.
(01:32):
And he did make his flight.
And here's a little clip because it's pretty funny.
I need you to top my trip in the lower left corner of your app.
Can't you just do it?
You should be able to handle it.
Take over the car.
The car is still in control.
Like a Benz press 300 plus.
But am I able to control this?
If somebody playing a joke on me, it's like people are the experiment.
People are the experiment.
That says it all.
(01:58):
What was the comment he just had in there?
Oh, I had it and then I lost it.
He said something like, shouldn't you be able to intervene or whatever he said?
And why can't they go in and remotely take control?
That should be a non-negotiable.
Oh, for sure.
Good.
(02:19):
Oh, my God.
See now, why would I want to get in something?
And they have buses.
Could you imagine like 25 people in a self-driving bus?
No.
They have those in, I think China.
I've seen them.
Wow.
Well, the Chinese are ahead of us, I guess.
They are.
In ways that I don't care to catch up.
(02:39):
Just, oh, yeah, yeah.
Well, that's why I'm never getting in one.
So I don't care.
It was a cute, funny, it ended well story.
But hey, beware.
Yeah.
Oh, God.
Okay.
Well, that's just kooky.
Okay.
The next thing is relevant.
Well, it's relevant because of these awful, awful, awful, awful fires in California.
(03:03):
It's devastating.
And there just wasn't enough resources, manpower.
It was such a huge fire.
So I was as Santa Ana's.
That you 150 mile per hour winds that curl and dart.
So you can just look around in the Ambers or everywhere.
And here we are in the Midwest, safe and sound in our home watching this terrified, just
(03:25):
terrified at what's going on.
And as I was scrolling one day recently, they were showing these drones that have little
fire, that have water attachments and they can go up in the air and put out water.
I mean, not as much pressure as a fire hose, I'm sure, but you can direct them to go into
(03:48):
probably hot places where firefighters can't get into.
So the drones go above the fire, obviously.
And then I wonder how much water did you...
That was my concern that they don't have a lot of water.
Yeah.
Because that would have to be a gigantic drone, like an airplane sized drone.
They're kind of average sized drones, but there's several fighting one fire.
(04:08):
There's probably 10 drones fighting one fire.
That could have been helpful this week.
And I will put that on our...
But this was in China.
In China.
I'll put it on our Instagram and there'll be some photos of it so you can visualize
how this works.
I think that's not a bad idea.
Why not?
You can get to the top of like if there's a multi-story building or a skyscraper.
(04:30):
Right.
Just in an urban area where it's hard to get the fire trucks in, situated and then get
the ladders up, in the meantime, they could throw the drones up there right away.
And if even the apartment buildings had them in their possession, where they can get the
drones out right away.
And they can operate them.
(04:51):
The apartment buildings?
Well, like the apartment management company?
Yeah.
That's kind of far-fetched.
I just think you...
Okay.
I was kind of like jumping the gun.
Well, no, I mean, it's a nice thought, but I think you...
I mean, I don't know, they use drones for a lot of things.
A lot of people...
Well, if they stored them on the roof.
Oh.
And you had controls and you said, okay, dispatch the drones and then you get them to the third
(05:17):
floor, fifth floor, tenth floor.
It's a thought.
Okay.
It's a good thought.
Okay.
But why not?
I mean, well, I mean, I don't know.
Why not?
I'm just trying to think that I'd really want someone who knows what the hell they're doing.
Right.
A professional firefighter to direct the drones.
Yeah.
Yeah.
If you had doused with water, that's not the worst thing that can happen.
Right.
(05:38):
But anyway.
Did you hear about the drone and the plane that had water that crashed into each other?
What?
Well, I mean, the plane's fine.
But there was a drone during the fires that was up in the air and one of the planes that
was carrying water to douse the fire, they collided.
Oh, and we've talked about how this could be a problem.
(05:58):
So there was probably like a drone surveying the area showing the devastation.
A little drone who wanted to get photography.
It was a personal drone.
Well, we need laws for airspace because there aren't really laws with the drones as far
as I know.
So it didn't impede the plane.
No.
Thank God.
Thank God.
Yeah.
(06:18):
Could you imagine if the plane crashed?
Because of that.
Well, then that person would be in even bigger trouble.
It would be one disaster on top of another.
Yeah.
Okay.
But wait, before we go, we need to attribute that first story.
Where did that come from?
I'm sorry.
CNN.
The Webmo.
That's from CNN.
It's on CNN.
And if you Google it, you could find it from five or six other outlets.
Okay.
(06:39):
Good.
I just want to make sure that we, you know, that wasn't us, that we got that from somebody
else.
No, it's not fake news.
Okay.
Well, you got to be careful now.
Who knows what's going on, but that's another topic that we will cover in another podcast,
for sure, right?
Absolutely.
Okay.
I have some of these kind of, I think it's fun.
This is from Lake Superior State University, which is in, I don't really know where it
(07:03):
is.
Well, it's Michigan or New York or...
Oh.
You know, you've heard of it?
No.
Oh.
I haven't, but I was thinking if it's Lake Superior.
Right.
It's got to be, I don't want to lose this page or I would go to home.
Well, let me look it up and you can get it rolling.
Yeah.
Lake Superior State University, it says about LSSU, but it's got to be, oh, Sue St. Marie.
(07:24):
Yeah.
St. Marie, Michigan.
Okay.
Oh, it's way up there.
Well, of course, Lake Superior.
Yeah.
Okay.
So this is the 2025 banished, oh, it's called banished words.
So we don't talk about them.
They're not in the dictionary.
Well, banished, you know, can be like, oh, I don't want to hear that.
Passay.
Yeah.
But it's stronger than passay.
Okay.
(07:45):
Okay.
This is a wish list for somebody who wants them to be passay.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, and some of these, I have to say when I was going through the list, I kind of went,
oh, yeah.
I didn't know a couple of them.
So I'll start at the very, well, I mean, I just, I did, but I didn't really, okay, the
first one is the word cringe.
(08:06):
Oh.
You know how people keep going, oh, it's so cringy.
It's so cringeworthy.
Yeah.
Cringeworthy.
And it's like, I remember thinking hearing people use it over and over again.
God, I'm tired of hearing that.
And first of all, cringy.
Keep turning the words into, yeah.
I'm going to sneeze.
Right now?
I was going to, but I'm not now.
Okay.
(08:26):
Never mind.
I hate when that happens.
It came on strong and then it just went bye-bye.
I'm like, okay.
Why is it?
Do you think your brain takes over and goes, no, don't do this now?
I was trying to.
Yeah.
I always thought that's funny.
Anyway, this is a once packed a punch, it's now overstayed it welcome, overstayed its welcome.
Overuse has dulled its impact.
Yes.
Okay.
Because maybe everything isn't so cringey.
(08:47):
Ironically, I'm using it might now cause the, cause the very reaction it describes.
Like, oh.
They're using that word.
Yeah.
I hear the, say cringy and I go, oh, and I, I cringe.
Right.
Right.
Which is really the proper use of that word.
I cringe, you cringe, he cringe.
What is the definite cringes?
(09:08):
She cringes.
Like just icky.
Yeah.
It's like a big ick.
Okay.
A big ick.
Which is also probably next year going to be on the banished words list.
Yeah.
Anyway.
All right.
This one, this one's been around for a long time.
And I think that's why it's on the list.
Game changer.
Oh.
Okay.
I kind of like that term, but I guess I better be over it now.
(09:30):
I guess it, well, it's been around for a long time and it doesn't bug me as much cause
I don't hear it as often.
I think if you're probably in a corporate setting or some kind of setting where, depending
on the industry, they probably use, oh, that's a real game changer.
Right.
You know, like, like the stock market.
What's a real bro thing?
A game changer, man.
It's a bro thing.
You're right.
It's probably, I don't like it.
(09:51):
I think it's a real game changer.
Right.
Oh, this is the next one.
Era.
Era.
Era.
Like because in this, they're saying, unless you're Taylor Swift, it might be time to leave
era behind.
I don't even use that word.
Well, I think because they kept hearing the eras tour.
Oh, right.
Yeah.
Right.
Right.
So they said, this woman, Leah Holland, Leah of Holland, Michigan, thanks to the name
(10:11):
of Taylor Swift tour.
Now there is an era for everyone and everything.
And people are kind of saying, I've seen that on Instagram.
Where they'll say, Oh, it's my, you know, whatever my not eating era or it's my pomegranate
era or my, I'm only working this hard era.
I, yeah, I just, it's used in a really weird context.
(10:33):
Yeah.
So everyone's having an era.
Okay.
So that's why it's been overused and on the banished list.
Okay.
Okay.
This, I agree with this one.
The word dropped, you know, like we just dropped our podcast and I'm saying, you know,
this is once edgy and cool dropped has become more of a let down, whether it's an album
(10:54):
or trend or a product, this term has fallen flat because it did start to get used, but
I don't know what, what, what did we used to say?
We used to say released.
Oh, this music, it's the release date.
We're releasing and now they say drop date.
Okay.
So we'll go back to release.
Like are there, are there replacement words for some of these?
(11:15):
It doesn't say that I guess that just has to come up in the natural lexical language,
you know, just sort of, I guess this is what's just like dropped all of a sudden became that
no one was saying released the books being released, the songs being released.
We're dropping it tomorrow.
Yeah.
Not that we dropped something physically.
It's like, okay.
(11:36):
No, I mean a lot of words are multi-purpose.
Oh, no, I know.
Yeah.
Anyways, being banished for overuse, misuse, abuse, abuse.
You've abused you dropped and hurting my head when all that dropping stuff lands on me.
This is from Susan of Littleton, Colorado.
Okay.
This one, I didn't know until I saw what was in the brackets.
(11:56):
It's an acronym, which I'm not up in all these acronyms because there are a bazillion
of them.
Right.
I Y K Y K.
No clue.
Nor did I know.
If you know, you know.
So in other words, I miss that whole era.
Yeah.
Oh, I know.
That was good.
It was good.
(12:18):
If you know, you know.
And I'm still trying to parse that out in my head.
I don't really know what that means.
I guess that means like if you're, oh, okay, here's one that got dropped along many decades
ago, the in crowd.
And they would be if you know, you know, because you're in the in crowd.
I see.
It's kind of, well, it's kind of, it's sort of like if you're in the club, you know.
(12:42):
Right.
It's an inside kind of thing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, I wonder if inside baseball has been, I wonder if that's on the list.
Well, we'll find out.
I only, you hear that once in a while, but it's not overused.
Okay.
The next one, sorry, not sorry.
Oh, because it's so sarcastic.
I guess I like it, but sorry, not sorry.
You know, you've heard that.
I have, but I've never used it.
(13:02):
No, I haven't either because even though I love sarcasm, it just seems mean.
Speaking of sorry, women say that way too much.
Oh.
And men never say it because they don't give a, they don't care.
And when I went to my retreat, we could not say sorry.
Oh, that's a good rule.
(13:22):
It was a good rule.
So if you said, oh my God, I'm sorry, like for stupid stuff, we always say we're sorry.
Oh, pass me the pepper and it spills over or whatever.
We're like, we jump in and go, sorry.
So if we did say sorry, we had to go back and say one good thing about ourselves.
Did you find that we're kind of on topic here, but yeah, we are fine that it helped alter
your behavior going forward after the retreat?
(13:45):
Oh, maybe, but it gave me pause.
It gave me pause.
Right.
I would think about it more, especially when I was on the retreat, I would think about
the whole sorry thing.
And yeah, because it's meaningless basically.
Well, we're always saying it.
I started saying that and I don't know why, but when I was brought up to say, like, if
you brushed by someone or you, or there was something you'd say, excuse me.
(14:09):
Right.
I don't hear very many men saying that either or frankly, a lot of people saying that either.
But even if I brushed by someone on the, on the sidewalk or something, excuse me, you
know, or you, you go by someone in the aisle grocery store or something.
Oh, excuse me.
I'm sorry.
Oh, yeah.
See, excuse me.
I'm sorry.
Look at that.
(14:30):
That was so right.
Okay.
Oh, okay.
What is this?
Let's just see what this says.
A half hearted apology masquerading as bold honesty.
This phrase feels as disingenuous as its own.
See, I haven't read this beforehand.
I just kind of skimmed the, the, what's she called banished word, uh, enthusiasts recommend
(14:51):
just saying what you mean, or in at least one case, showing a little kindness.
Oh, how about some manners?
Right.
Yeah.
Okay.
The next one, I have no clue.
You have kids.
So maybe, I don't know.
Skibbity.
No clue.
I, S-K-I-B-I-D-I.
Never even seen it in print.
No.
Okay.
(15:12):
Skibbity.
Oh, and it says here, this viral word may have resonated with a younger crowd, but for
many it is just noise.
Hmm.
Agatha from Denmark explains, nobody cares about a skibbity toilet, skibbity fizz, or
skibbity Ohio phantom tax.
Okay.
This is, this is like Mars for me.
I don't.
Who is even using that word?
Well, people in Denmark apparently as well, but, because that's who's commenting on this.
(15:36):
At this point, nobody even knows what it means and it just annoys people.
Oh, okay.
Maybe it's kind of like cool.
Yeah.
Like skibbity, oh, skibbity, skibbity toilet?
Skibbity fizz?
I don't, okay.
Oh, oh, this one, you're going to love this one.
100%.
Oh, I agree with that.
Everything is, yes.
It's just a little tag add on to, of, I don't like it.
(16:00):
Like I totally agree.
100%.
Yeah.
I guess it's, it's shorthand, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It says, is it possible to be over enthusiastic about retiring the phase 100%?
Absolutely.
It's overuse has left no room for nuance or doubt.
I thought that was funny.
Utilize.
Oh, this one.
Okay.
Yeah.
(16:21):
Use.
Right.
It's a way to just make you sound more intelligent.
I think so.
I remember when I would hear that or if I would use it myself, I would think I can just
use the word use or when other people would do that, I'd go, okay, they're trying to make
their language more floored and just complicated.
And I went, no, here's what they say.
A classic offender utilize proves that longer is not always better.
(16:42):
Why complicate things when use works just fine.
Everett from Cumbee, Texas encourages readers to write like you talk and added, Lord, I
hope you don't talk like that.
I have to say, I have used that and I did, but I'm going to blame the fact that I read
(17:02):
so much and I continue to read so much.
And sometimes they write like that in some of the things that I read.
I guess that's how I will talk sometimes that I, this was a good, okay, because books are
written using.
Well, so yeah, a lot of, I mean, and I, you know, I've read a lot of 1900 century novels
in a lot of 2000, you know, century, whatever and stuff like that.
(17:27):
In 18th century novels and they kind of, that's how they write and that's how they
people talked.
And I realized that a long time ago about myself and I went, well, that's obnoxious.
But anyway, okay, here's another one.
Period.
Someone will emphasize, I guess, it's like an exclamation point.
Yeah.
(17:47):
And I mean that period or something, right?
Yeah.
Okay.
Like that's it.
Yeah.
What does it say here?
Yes.
We need to verbally punctuate it.
Overuse has turned this into a period we are ready to end.
Oh, that was clever.
That was a clever turn of phrase.
Teresa from Detroit, Michigan recommends we banish this word by putting it in a bottle
(18:08):
and sending it out to sea.
That's cute.
I like this list.
I know.
I do too.
Yeah.
So, um, learn something.
Yeah.
Even if it was just for me, the skibbity and the, what did I, Y, K, Y, K or whatever.
Yeah.
Well, the I Y, I Y, K reminds me of texting when sometimes I'll get texts from the younger
(18:31):
generation.
Yeah.
And I'm like, what does that say?
Well, that's what I mean.
They're all these little acronyms.
Right.
Acronyms.
Yeah.
And I don't know half of them.
I don't know most of them.
I don't either.
And it's like, right, right to me in English because I don't get your, your abbreviations.
Right.
Which is basically the same thing.
Your shorthand.
Yeah.
(18:52):
I'm thinking of a stenographer in a court.
Oh, well, they have to, don't they have to type exactly what people say?
I don't know.
I, I, I don't know how that works.
I think they have to type.
I don't know how you, how do they do that?
I know.
They can't, they don't do acronyms, but it's almost like they're looking into space and
they're just typing, typing, typing and because they're just that good.
(19:15):
Unless on the typewriter keys, there's words.
No, no, no, no, no.
No, no, no, no.
You couldn't, cause especially all the words they use in it.
Anyway, that's it for that list.
Okay.
That's interesting.
Yeah.
I, I thought that was fun and, and then it says, you can submit a word to banish for
2026.
So is there anything?
I'm so over it.
(19:35):
Oh, that's so over it.
I'm so over it.
I'm over it.
Like I'm really over that saying.
Well, that's a phrase.
I know.
But sorry, not sorry.
That's a phrase.
So I'm so over it.
You want to banish that one.
I just thought of it just off the top of my head, but it's a little bit overused and
it's a little, been there down that encapsulates this entire, right?
(19:58):
Right?
Exactly.
Cause people are so over these words.
I think we're going to have to look up some new words because you know how they, I think
we did a podcast on new words or words they've added to the Webster's dictionary.
I think we did that last year.
So there's, they add so many words and a lot of them are kind of pulp, cultural words.
Yes.
(20:19):
And they're like, what?
This is going in the dictionary.
Yeah.
And you almost feel like because it's a pop culture word, it doesn't carry the weight
enough to be in a dictionary.
Like it should be just fleeting like these, right?
And you still have to have a place to look them up, but I don't want to lose all the
other good words.
No.
Cause they've got to take something out, right?
(20:39):
I don't know if they take out and they put in and, oh, well, I bet they used to do that
when they had to print dictionaries.
Right.
So now it's an everlasting dictionary on the internet.
And they could add and delete as much as they want.
Right.
Cause it's, don't delete words.
Don't, don't take them out because there's a reason for them.
(21:00):
And if I want to dig back into my, um, oh, you know, my 18th century, 19th century novels,
I may need to look them up.
That's right.
And you're probably the only one reading those, unfortunately.
Anyway, words, words, words.
I'm thinking that a lot of times when you're talking to people or especially younger people,
they talk in short words.
(21:20):
It's like, I even do that sometimes.
Like when are you A-Vay?
What?
Are you going on vacay?
Oh, oh.
Like, okay.
When are you available?
When are you A-Vay?
And I kind of available.
And then are you going on vacay?
Like vacation.
A lot of people say that.
Well, it's sort of, that's just slang.
Okay.
Right.
What's wrong with that?
I mean, every generation has its own slang, which that would be kind of, ooh, I'll try
(21:43):
to find a list for that.
Yeah.
Like at one point, the word cool was invented, which seems to be timeless.
Yeah.
I think so.
Right?
Yeah.
But like, I think that was during, like when jazz was coming, cool baby.
Cool baby.
Like so in the, maybe the 40s and 50s, you know, cool daddy, you know, stuff like that.
(22:03):
And but it's, it's still, it's still, I bet your kids use that word.
Oh yeah.
See?
They do.
Why?
Why is it timeless?
I mean, it's cool, groovy is men.
But I'm just saying cool and groovy were, I remember like 60s, cool, groovy, but cool.
Cool.
Cool.
Cool.
Yeah.
(22:23):
And you know another word I really am sick of?
What?
Bra.
Like bra.
Oh, oh.
Like that's my bra.
I mean, I go bra.
I mean, bro.
Well, that's that bro culture.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's my bra.
You can't even form your lips to make the oh.
Right.
I mean, I just got, they kept twerking and tweaking it as they spoke it.
I hear that.
(22:44):
I just kind of go, oh, you're one of them.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
Bye now.
The fraternity's over.
Big guy.
Speaking of bye now, I think we're done now.
Okay.
Aren't we?
That sounds great.
All right.
Until next week, this is ladies a question, Lisa, Holly, and we are over and out.
Okay.
Bye.
(23:05):
Bye.
Thanks, Harvey.
Ladies a question is executive produced and edited by me, Lisa Dominique, and also executive
produced by Holly Caulfield.
Holly also does most of our research and Claire Caulfield is in charge of technical
assistance and social media, music, my lion heart, sketch music by Florian Manx and Matthew
(23:28):
Anderson.
Thanks for listening.
Please subscribe, follow, rate and review.
Ladies a question on Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts, send your thoughts,
to ladies who question at gmail.com.
Follow us on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, threads and our website, ladies who question
dot com.
All content discussed on ladies who question are the opinions of Lisa Dominique and Holly
(23:52):
Caulfield and should not be construed as advice of any kind.
By listening to this podcast, you agree not to use this podcast as advice of any personal
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This disclaimer also applies to guests or contributors to the podcast.
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