MYH: 30 Decoding the Linguistic Divide Between Gen Z and Gen X

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Language evolves at lightning speed, creating chasms of understanding between generations that are both frustrating and hilarious. Our mother-daughter hosting duo tackles this linguistic divide head-on by quizzing each other on slang from their respective eras.

Emily challenges mom Trina to decipher modern Gen Z terms like "riz" (short for charisma), "no kizzy" (an intensified version of "no cap," meaning complete honesty), and "bussin" (describing something exceptionally good). Meanwhile, Trina introduces 80s classics including "tubular," "bodacious," and "gag me with a spoon" - terms that once defined coolness but now sound like relics from another linguistic universe.

What emerges from our playful cross-generational translation game is the surprising revelation that while vocabulary changes dramatically, the purpose behind slang remains remarkably consistent. Whether you're a teen in 1985 or 2023, you need shorthand expressions for authenticity, style assessment, and emphasizing statements. The embarrassment both hosts feel when saying these terms out of context highlights another truth about slang - its power often depends on organic adoption within specific communities. We explore which terms have staying power (like "vibe" or "sus") versus which fade into linguistic obscurity, reflecting on how some former slang eventually becomes standard language.

Whether you're constantly trying to keep up with evolving language or you find yourself frequently explaining your generation's expressions to confused onlookers, this episode offers equal parts nostalgia and laughter. Share your favorite generational slang terms with us - we're curious which expressions from your era have survived the test of time!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, welcome to Mind your Heart Podcast, your
favorite corner of the internetwhere we chat about all things
mental health.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
I'm Emily and I'm Trina.
Together, we're like yourreal-life Lorelai and Rory
Gilmore.
Each week, we'll bring you realconversations about the world
of mental health and we willpeel back layers on topics like
anxiety, depression and muchmore.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
We're here to chat with you about the tough stuff,
the everyday stuff andeverything in between.
So grab your emotional supportwater bottle I know we have ours
.
Find your comfiest chair orkeep your eyes on the road and
let's get into it.
Are you ready, mom?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Absolutely.
Join us as we mind our heartsand hopefully make minding yours
a little easier.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Welcome back.
We're back with Mind, yourHeart, we have.
Well, I'm Emily.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
And I'm Trina.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
And we are your hosts , and today we're going to do a
short, fun, very interestingepisode of going through slang
words.
So I'm gonna read some slangwords from the gen z, which I
guess is me.
I'm gen.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Well, I need to get some slang words for gen x yeah,
I went on chat gbt and did it.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
I said like act like a, a 13 year old um, like middle
schooler now and like give me alist of slang words and then
give me the definitions.
Okay, so some of these I don'teven know.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
What the heck it's like.
Okay, act like a teenager inwhatever decade, that would be.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
Well, I was a teenager In whatever decade.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Well, I was a teenager in the 80s, so, and how
many did you get?

Speaker 1 (01:56):
I have a lot, but we don't need a lot.
Okay, we could do 10.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Okay, lot.
Okay, we could do 10.
Okay, I'm gonna read the ones.
I don't know either.
Okay, all right, go for it.
I'm supposed to guess what theymean.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yes, it feels embarrassing.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
I totally have all of these in my, in my mind, except
for yeah, I got it oh gosh.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
I hate that.
These are words that mygeneration uses.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
This feels like an embarrassment bro, bro, is that
one no that's just a.
It's just a shortened versionJackson's yeah, all right.
God these are horrible.
Riz, riz, I know what that is.

(02:54):
Like you have, like you're cool, like you've got the like that
you, you're, you're, like youknow what you're doing.
You're like you've got theaccount.
Like I can't think of the words.
You have the um status to gowith it yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
So it's short for charisma, especially when
someone is good at flirting ortalking to others.
Example he's got mad riz.
Oh, I hate that.
That makes me feel like cringy.
Okay.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Do I go or you keep going?

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Yeah, you give me one All right gnarly.
I mean, I feel like you coulduse that in multiple senses Like
that's gnarly, or like that'slike it could be bad or good.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
It's actually something super cool, oh yeah,
or extreme.
Oh, it's actually somethingsuper cool, oh yeah, or extreme.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
Oh, gnarly, dude.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
What was the gnarly fall, or gnarly, what's the word
?
When you fall busted on askateboard.
Golly, might, just went righton my head, okay.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Okay, no kizzy, no kizzy.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
No kizzy Like no sex no.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
No.
So the definition says similarto no cap.
Do you know what that is?

Speaker 2 (04:23):
No, okay.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
But even more intense when people say you're being
totally honest, so like, like nocap is early, like dead ass
like being like dead ass.
Have you ever heard that deadass?
No yeah, okay, so like beinglike I'm so serious right now
like dead ass.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
Oh okay, yeah, I have heard that jackson says that
yeah, so like no, kizzy is thesame thing I've never heard that
.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
That sounds dumb yes, it does sound dumb, I agree
okay, tubular how?

Speaker 2 (04:57):
would you miss tubular, totally awesome yeah,
okay, it's usually used forsomething visually impressive.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
I don't know if that's true, but anyway.
Okay, here's the next one thatyou got to go.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
This is the first one that I thought of All right.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Drip or drowned Drip or drowned, drowned.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
Yeah, I don't know you don't have any guesses I
really don't know okay, so likeif I was like he's dripped out
right now um drunk stoned no um,a comparison of looking fresh
or not.
If you're dripped out, you lookgreat, but if you're drowned,

(05:52):
your style is lacking.
Example he's dripped out withthat jacket.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
But if you're drowned , you're wearing your sweats.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah, people don't really say drowned, they'll say
drip or drowned, if you're doinga comparison or something.
That sounds dumb, all rad cool,but the all of these mean cool
radical, awesome, amazing.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
A guy that um was very cool were very was very hot
in high school.
Called me rad and I was justlike that was the best All right
Bussin.
Bussin.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
I mean, I don't that pizza is bussin.
Good yeah, when something likeis really good, just in general,
like that's bussin', although,ugh, I hate saying that out loud
, gag me with a spoon.
I can't remember if that's goodor bad.

(06:57):
I feel like it's probably bad.

Speaker 2 (06:59):
It's bad, it's disgusting or gross.
Gag me.
Gag me with a spoon was thefull phrase, but gag me yeah
okay, um, this one I don't even,I don't understand it.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
Chuggy, chuggy, yeah, yeah, chuggy I don't know not
chuggy.
Chuggy refers to somethingthat's outdated or trying too
hard to be cool.
It's the opposite of chuggy,something that's a little cringe

(07:37):
or not trendy anymore.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
That style is so chuggy all of these words are
choogy.
That's what I say.
Yeah, all right, dweeb nerd orgeek Dweeb, do we?
That feels like just like aword in the dictionary well, it

(08:04):
might be now, but it wasn't inthe 80s somebody who's like kind
of lame, like nerdy kind ofuncool, socially awkward yeah,
um, okay, let's just do like twomore.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
How many do you have left?
I have one, two, three, four oh, so you want to do four more.
These are so bad.
I hate that.
This is my generation.
This feels like an abomination.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
I don't even.
I've never heard any of these,so it's I.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
Yeah, this is why I feel old I've heard it from the
younger end of the spectrum ofmy generation because when I was
at working with students Aren'tyou on the cusp of millennial
though?
I'm like a zillennial.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
I feel like you should have looked up millennial
.
That would have been a littlebit easier.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
Well, I just looked up recent slang.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
Okay, I'll just give you mine.
Like totally, that movie waslike totally awesome, just bad
grammar, I don't know it.
Just it's emphasizing whatyou're saying.
I say like a lot so that it's abad habit.

Speaker 1 (09:15):
I do as well, bodacious like a big butt no,
but that's good, a beautiful,bold or impressive, um, no duh,
no duh like obviously water iswet, no duh, people don't think

(09:36):
that that's an unpopular opinion.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
I agree with you yes, the water isn't wet yeah, yeah,
you.

Speaker 1 (09:42):
Just you just stirred up a whole another problem.
People, you're dweebs.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
Jake jake thinks water is not wet he's a dweeb,
yeah, and then what was my lastone?
Take a chill pill.
Oh, calm down, dude.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
Take a chill pill, it's just a game I feel like
these are now just commonsayings it's true, funny that,
like these words that I'mreading to you that feel so
cringy, are the equivalent tothose words, but now they're
things that people just say.
I pray to God that these arenot things that people end up

(10:25):
saying because I hate all ofthem.
Yeah, they're terrible.
And their riz might have somestaying power, but I guess, like
some, I don't know, woke wasone.

Speaker 2 (10:41):
Coded.
Well, it's kind ofcontroversial.
Yeah, vibe Sus Sus.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
Well, those, I would have known those, yeah but those
are things that people say theydon't feel like I don't know,
they're just eh.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
They're still slang.
They didn't used to say sus.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
Really no, okay Bet.
They're just, they're still,they're still slang.
They didn't used to say susreally no, okay bet stupid.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
Jackson says that all the time.
But what flaps like that?

Speaker 1 (11:20):
you know what that means um, like that's funny no,
like that's good, like it's likethis.
This shit slaps.
Like this is really good okay,all right well if you hated

(11:41):
hearing these words as much aswe did, please, please, like and
subscribe to for less of theseslang words, because I don't
ever want to do this again.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah, no kidding.
So even if you like thisepisode, it will not be repeated
.

Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yeah and you can just listen to it on repeat if you
liked it.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
Yes, just listen to it over and over again yeah,
actually that would be good yeahthat would give us some listens
what words do you think weshould have as slang words?

Speaker 1 (12:12):
yeah, comment the slang words we did not include.
And yeah, because I'm verycurious.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
You grew up in the 80s or the 90s or the 2000s.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
Yeah, all right.
Well, we will see you in acouple of weeks for a new
episode.
See you soon, bye.