We are Maggie Rowe and Emily John Garcés. We like to think of ourselves as Dora the Explorers of language, with our rucksacks and hats and notebooks and magnifying glasses, embarking on a linguistic expedition, hunting and gathering useful new word specimens from far flung continents, and holding them up to see what new light they shine on old ideas.
We are trying to find words our English language lacks, words that point to what we have failed to notice, words that give dignity and nobility to what our culture disregards; words for experiences that seem lonely and isolating, but when named can make one utter a grand and glorious, “you too?”
Maggie lives in Los Angeles and is the author of Easy Street: A Story Of Redemption From Myself and Sin Bravely: A Memoir Of Spiritual Disobedience . She has written for television and film, including the shows Flaked and Arrested Development and the film Bright Day!, an expose’ of a religion she created with Andersen Gabrych called Pyrasphere . Maggie writes a column for Psychology Today called Boddhisattva Wannabe . For more info go to www.maggieroweauthor.com
Emily Garcés
Emily is an artist , writer, and all round creative enthusiast living in the county of Derbyshire in the UK, where she has spent the past few years wielding power tools and renovating an old mill. She wrote the memoir ‘Hitchhiking with Drunken Nuns’ about her time as a missionary in South America and published a collection of poetry and artwork called “The Quiet Woman” despite being anything but.
Maggie had always dreamed of taking a foreign language class that focused exclusively on words from other languages that couldn't be fully translated into English. It’s easy enough to learn that "cat" in Spanish is el gato or that "church" in French is l’église, but Maggie thought it would be far more intriguing to explore words that defied direct translation—those elusive concepts known as "lacunas" or gaps in the English language. When she couldn’t find such a class, she decided that one day, she would teach it herself and call it Fifty Words For Snow.
Then one day about five years ago, over in the town of Belper in the UK, Emily heard Maggie on Irish philosopher Peter Rollin’s podcast, discussing the satirical religion she created, Pyrasphere. Emily says she stalked Maggie which Maggie finds flattering but actually there was no stalking because as soon as Maggie talked with Emily she wanted to be her friend And it happened. They became friends. It didn’t take long for Maggie to realize: what if she turned her class idea into a podcast? And what if her new Welsh friend Emily cohosted it with her? When Maggie asked, Emily said yes.
They have never met in person