A WORDY CELEBRATION OF ALL THINGS LEXICAL,
LIVE ON ZOOM WITH RECORDED EPISODES ON YOUTUBE.
Live on Zoom
Tuesday, October 7, 2025
Episode 89: Stefan Fatsis
We'll talk about a favorite subject for the next That Word Chat: dictionaries and the state of lexicography, with Stefan Fatsis, author of Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary.
To tell the story of the dictionary, Fatsis embedded himself at Merriam-Webster as a lexicographer-in-training. The book tells the history and art of dictionary-making, and it looks at the modern threats to the field of defining and the commercial viability for one of the most widely circulated categories of publication.
Fatsis is the author of the bestseller Word Freak, about the world of competitive Scrabble; A Few Seconds of Panic, about life in the National Football League; and Wild and Outside, about minor league baseball. In four decades as a journalist, Fatsis has written and talked for Slate, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, and many other outlets. He lives in Washington, D.C.
Unabridged debuts in the U.S. on Oct. 14.
Sign up below and join us at 4:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Oct. 7.
Past chats
Word Masters
Lisa Johnson Kate Karp Merrill Perlman Tom Pfeifer Carol Pickerine
Word Lovers
Ann Bourne DeAnna Burghart Mary Jane Doherty Mignon Fogarty
Word Nerds
Rebecca Benner
Patty Boyd
Hilary Cadman
Samantha Corbin
Elizabeth d'Anjou
Mary-Jane Doherty
Susan Fitzgerald
James Gallagher
Melissa Hellman
Rachel Herbert
Neil Holdway
Kristine Hunt
Susan Karcz
Beverly Michaels
Amanda Miller
Mary Norris
Lori Paximadis
Deb Ring
Alice Steinke
Laura Weisman
Karen Wise
Karen Yin
Karyn Zafran
Word Fans
Christina Allen
Donna Marks Pleasant
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