I can scarce believe that I've made 200 episodes of this show, but here we are! To celebrate, here is a quiz about language where all the questions were set by YOU, the beautiful brainy listeners.
Read moreAllusionist 199: 199 ideas that I hadn't made into podcasts yet
Next episode is the 200th, therefore this is the 199th. I raid the 66-page documents of ideas for episodes, that I have been keeping for nearly a decade, and present to you 199 ideas that I have not yet made into podcasts (except for this one).
Read morelive tour of the UK!
The Allusionist is going on a live tour of the UK in August and September 2024! It’s an all new show of stuff that has not been on the podcast (and may never be), about frenemies and strong font-based emotions and unintentional swears. It is called Souvenirs, and will be feelgood and fun to watch.
All dates are on sale now, check theallusionist.org/events for ticket links.
Preemptive answering of questions:
Read moreHey! You! Be in the 200th episode
Too late! It’s done!
Hear the questions in 200th episode quiz.
The 200th episode of the Allusionist is coming up pretty soon, and I’d like us to have our annual quiz - listen to/play along with the previous ones here. But this time, I want to be able to play along too, so I would love for you to provide questions for the quiz.
They can be multiple choice, or a format of your own devising; they just have to be about language in some form. And you can deliver them in either voice form or written, if you’d prefer for me to read it. Whichever way you do it, remember to give a name and pronouns you want me to use to refer you; pseudonyms are fine, whatever you’d prefer. Deadline for submissions is 6 September 2024.
If you want to check that your question hasn’t already been covered on the show, the lexicon page lists words that have been featured on the show before.
Allusionist 198: Queer Arab Glossary
Since 2019, Marwan Kaabour has been collecting Arabic slang words used by and about queer people, first for the online community Takweer, and now the newly published Queer Arab Glossary. "When researching for this book, I discovered so much of the sociopolitical, cultural, linguistic, and historical layers that make up the words," he says. He also discovered quite a lot about frying, white beans and worms (metaphorical ones).
Read moreAllusionist 197. Word Play 7: Word Sport
At the Scripps National Spelling Bee, behind the spectacle of kids vying to be champion spellers, a whole lot of work goes on to make words into this word sport.
Read moreAllusionist 196. Word Play 6: Beeing
I went to the 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee, to marvel at kids spelling words I had mostly never even heard of. But when you’re at Bee Week, the competitive spelling is merely the tip of the icebee.
Read moreAllusionist 195. Word Play 5: 100 Pages of Solvitude
Cain's Jawbone, a murder mystery cryptic puzzle novella in the form of 100 pages presented in the wrong order, has many millions of possible solutions but only one that is correct. 86 years after it was published, writer, comedian and crossword constructor John Finnemore solved it. And then, craving another 100-page cryptic puzzle murder story, he wrote his own.
Read moreAllusionist 194. Word Play part 4: Good Grids
Exciting things have been happening with crossword puzzles in the US: more constructors, more outlets to get puzzles published, clues and answers that would never have appeared even a few years ago, and puzzle packs raising a whole lot of money for charities and humanitarian causes.
Read moreAllusionist 193. Word Play 3: Lemon Demon
AJ Jacobs makes The Puzzler podcast, wrote The Puzzler book, and sometimes turns his whole life into a puzzle. He comes bearing word games, explanations of anagrams being used to precipitate wars and were key evidence in trials, tips for writing with a quill, below-the-knee insults, and tales of living constitutionally.
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