This episode of the Folklore & Fiction podcast was first published as a newsletter in September 2020. I'm recording it as a supplemental podcast now so that new listeners and subscribers have an opportunity to engage with the material. In it, I'm writing about language and verbal lore with help from scholars J.L. Austin and Richard Bauman, author Frank Herbert, Swedish performers Emma Åslund and Åsa Larsson, and others. I'm also exploring the use of language and verbal lore in storycraft and providing you with an exercise on the topic. Settle in, friends! I squeezed a discussion of conspiracy theories into my newsletter schedule last month, so this is nearly a double edition. (Companion Dispatch: https://csmaccath.com/blog/what-language-and-verbal-lore)