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The Allusionist

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A PODCAST ABOUT LANGUAGE
BY HELEN ZALTZMAN

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The Allusionist

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Allusionist 133. Cake is Mightier than the Sword

March 26, 2021 The Allusionist
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What to do to stick it to the powers that be? Send your message through something they really care about: cake.

In Buenos Aires, local tour guides Madi Lang and Juan Palacios introduce me to priest's balls and little cannons, the pastries laced with the sweet taste of 1880s trade union protests.

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In episodes Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, etymology, lexicon, vocabulary, Argentina, Buenos Aires, 19th century, history, politics, cake, pastries, pastry, treats, anarchy, protest, unions, strikes, industrial action, graham crackers, Sylvester Graham, Shirley Temple, eponyms, pineapples, food, drink, freedom fries, french fries, dachshunds, sauerkraut, World War One, First World War, Iraq War, USA, UK, France, French, Paris, law, facturas, cueca virada, ganache, fedora, Taiwan, Arnold Palmer, John Daly, Bob Ney, Walter B Jones, Ettore Mattei, Errico Malatesta, Paul Siraudin, Victorien Sardou, playwrights, confectionary, police, cops, law enforcement, vigilante, cañoncitas, libritos, bolas de fraile, priest’s balls, borborygmus

Allusionist 132. Additions and Losses

March 12, 2021 The Allusionist
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"Sometimes I've heard people talk about losing a child and people say it's like losing a limb. And as someone who's lost both things, I just want to say, the realities are very different." Musician and writer Christa Couture has experienced way too much of people trying to convey sympathy and instead expressing their discomfort about disability and death.

Content note: we talk about ableism, cancer and bereavement. Part of the conversation is about the deaths of two of Christa's babies, so stop listening at the 20-minute mark if you need not to hear about that subject right now.

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In episodes Tags etymology, Christa Couture, disability, disabled, person first, identity first, grief, death, children, cancer, amputation, platitudes, bereavement, bodies, parenthood, handicap, prosthesis, prosthetic, vatic

Allusionist 131. Podlingual

February 25, 2021 The Allusionist
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In their podcasts Mija and Moonface, Lory Martinez and James Kim create autobiographical fiction in multiple languages.

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In episodes Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, etymology, lexicon, vocabulary, James Kim, Moonface, Lory Martinez, Mija, Ochenta Studios, podcasting, podcasts, fiction, drama, immigration, multilingual, bilingual, multiculture, English, French, Spanish, Korean, Mandarin, libration

Allusionist 130. Valentine

February 14, 2021 The Allusionist
A130 Valentine logo.jpeg

St Valentine's name may nowadays be all over the romance-related merch for 14 February, but he was also the patron saint of beekeepers, epilepsy and plagues. Let's get to know this multi-hyphenate saint a bit better.

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In episodes Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, etymology, lexicon, vocabulary, St Valentine, St Agatha, saints, martyrs, sainthood, patron saint, patronage, love, romance, Valentine’s Day, Ancient Rome, Rome, Roman Empire, Roman emperors, February, purification, sacrifice, religion, paganism, Christians, Christianity, plague, epilepsy, birds, Lupercalia, Lupercali, priests, Chaucer, Parliament of Fowls, courtly love, rituals, goats, rhyton, mud month

Allusionist 129. Sorry

January 30, 2021 The Allusionist
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Apologies are such important verbal transactions. So why are so many of them soooo bad? Susan McCarthy and Marjorie Ingalls from SorryWatch and Laura Beaudin of fauxpolo.gy pinpoint what to look out for, to sort the apologies from the fauxpologies.

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In episodes Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, etymology, lexicon, vocabulary, Laura Beaudin, Laura Lakhian, Marjorie Ingall, Susan McCarthy, SorryWatch, apology, fauxpology, contrition, public apologies, sorry, regret, remorse, reparations, offence, responsibility, emotions, corporate, corporations, government, state, relationships, speech acts, semiotics, celebrities, Justin Trudeau, agency, vulnerability, passive voice, verbs, nouns, adjectives, conditionals, misdirection, mitigation, noria

Allusionist 128. Bonus 2020

December 24, 2020 The Allusionist
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To round off the year, here are some choice cuts from the Allusionist vault of interesting things that guests said that there wasn’t room for in the original episodes. Brace yourself for a vivid name for dust bunnies, the scary side of glamour, another reason to be grateful for bears, and Schrödinger’s Fart.

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In episodes Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, etymology, lexicon, vocabulary, Victorians, Victorian Britain, 19th century, dysfunction, sex, sexuality, John Ruskin, JMW Turner, paintings, erotica, slut, slut holes, slut wool, apples, Avalon, bears, portmanteau, glamour, fan, fandom, fanatic, celebrity, celebrities, fame, seduction, charisma, James Rush, orators, oratory, stanning, Eminem, Stan, religion, divine, Britney Spears, Schrödinger’s fart, Australia, First Nations, Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal Australians, gubba, gubs, gender neutral, email, etiquette, dear, letters, pleasantries, Hamilton, formality, resumes, CVs, French, protest, slogans, Yiddish, Sholem Aleichem, translation, chickens, bagels, patulous, Rudi Bremer, Greg Jenner, MiMi Aye, Joanna Crosby, Kate Lister, Jonah Boyarin, Arun Viswanath, Anthony Russell, Gretchen McCulloch, bonus episode, bonus

Allusionist 127. A Festive Hit for 2020

December 14, 2020 The Allusionist
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The usual canon of Christmas songs may not really fit people's moods in this year 2020, when I'm not sure a lot of us are feeling all that holly jolly. So I drafted in singer and songwriter Jenny Owen Youngs and we wrote a festive song that is suitable for 2020.

Content note: there are swears. Several of them.

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In episodes Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, etymology, lexicon, vocabulary, Jenny Owen Youngs, music, songs, songwriting, writing, writers, lyrics, corpus linguistics, holly, jolly, Christmas, Xmas, Christ’s thorn, festive, holidays, yule, Winterval, meat, sweats, mistletoe, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, Holly Jolly Christmas, Zoom, yarak

Allusionist 126. Survival: Custodians of the Languages

November 29, 2020 The Allusionist
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In Australia, there were hundreds, perhaps thousands, of languages. Until English arrived.

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In episodes, Survival Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, etymology, lexicon, vocabulary, Survival, Rudi Bremer, Karina Lester, Australia, country, indigenous, First Nations, Aboriginal people, colonisation, colonisers, oppression, genocide, oppressed languages, endangered languages, language death, language extinction, English: problematic fave, stolen generations, punishment, assimilation, language revival, oral culture, family, relationships, families, relatives, missionaries, Kaurna, Gamilaraay

Allusionist 125. Swearalong Quiz

November 10, 2020 The Allusionist
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Fill your lungs and get ready to shout out some profane answers: it’s the Swearlusionist Swearalong Quiz! Every answer is a swear word. Swearing, as we know, is good for your health, plus helps vent stress, and you’ll learn many etymological facts along the way, so this is a very wholesome and educational quiz.

CONTENT NOTE: this episode contains swears. Surprise!

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In episodes, quiz Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, etymology, lexicon, vocabulary, swearing, swears, profanity, Bible, court cases, law, legal, Sex Pistols, Never Mind The Bollocks, indecency, bollocks, shit, spunk, balls, ball, lalochezia, The Wolf of Wall Street, birds, films, movies, poets, bullshit, TS Eliot, twat, Robert Browning, piss, dandelion, plants, flowers, nature, botany, ornithology, cocks, rooster, knobweed, mountains, Wank mountain, guns, kestrels, windfucker, herons, shitepoke, geography, place names, Twatt, Crapstone, crap, Shitterton, Thomas Crapper, drabble, quiz, swear words

Allusionist 124. Nightmare

October 25, 2020 The Allusionist
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This is the Alloooooooooosionist, in which we learn about the etymology of some scary words for Halloween, with the help of Paul Bae of The Black Tapes and The Big Loop podcasts, and Chelsey Weber-Smith of the podcast American Hysteria. Beware of demons! Satan! The bogeyman! Lemurs!

Wait - lemurs??

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In episodes Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, etymology, lexicon, vocabulary, Paul Bae, Chelsey Weber-Smith, sex, demons, sleep, bogeyman, boggart, bugaboo, bugbear, cobalt, devil, demon, haunt, horror, incubus, jack-o’-lantern lemur, nickel, nightmare, satan, succubus, bristling, hair, scary, adjectives, adverbs, Korea, Korean, myths, legends, folklore, hell, heaven, spirits, bears, fear, mining, miners, goblins, animals, elements, satanic, satanic panic, bible, Ancient Greek, slander, gods, turnips, kobold, copper, kupfernickel, Hebrew, adversary, Old Testament
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Allusionist Patreon
Featured
Allusionist 223. Bonus 2025
Allusionist 223. Bonus 2025
Allusionist 222. A Christmas Carol
Allusionist 222. A Christmas Carol
Allusionist 221. Scribe
Allusionist 221. Scribe
Allusionist 220. Disobedience
Allusionist 220. Disobedience
Allusionist 219. Making Trouble
Allusionist 219. Making Trouble
Allusionist 218. Banned Books
Allusionist 218. Banned Books
Allusionist 217. Bread and Roses, and Coffee
Allusionist 217. Bread and Roses, and Coffee
Allusionist 216. Four Letter Words: Terisk
Allusionist 216. Four Letter Words: Terisk
Allusionist 215. Two-Letter Words
Allusionist 215. Two-Letter Words
Allusionist 214. Four Letter Words: Bane Bain Bath
Allusionist 214. Four Letter Words: Bane Bain Bath
Souvenirs on BBC Radio 4
Souvenirs on BBC Radio 4
Allusionist 213. Four Letter Words: Dino
Allusionist 213. Four Letter Words: Dino
Allusionist 212. Four Letter Words: Park
Allusionist 212. Four Letter Words: Park
Allusionist 211. Four Letter Words: -gate
Allusionist 211. Four Letter Words: -gate
Allusionist 210. Four Letter Words: 4x4x4 Quiz
Allusionist 210. Four Letter Words: 4x4x4 Quiz
Creative Commons Licence
The Allusionist by Helen Zaltzman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.