For the second annual Five-Minute Linguist contest, eight finalists explained their research in just five short minutes in a way that would be understood by a general audience.  The winners were selected by the joint Emcee/Judges Gretchen McCulloch (Lingthusiasm) and Lane Greene (The Economist) along with an audience-chosen favorite from the packed house.  The winner of the contest was Michelle McSweeney (Columbia University) who analyzed thousands of text conversations and found out when people connect with each other by texting more alike (with emojis) and when they preserve their own linguistic text identity (with punctuation).  The runners-up were Kelly Wright (University of Michigan) & Kevin E. McGowan (University of Kentucky) who looked at how discrimination based on dialect continues to happen in the housing market; and  Zachary Jaggers (NYU) who looked at what your pronunciation of places like "Iraq" says about your political and social attitudes.  Congratulations to all the finalists for making your research accessible to all!