MP3 • APPLE PODCASTS • RSS • GOOGLE • TRANSCRIPT
Lipreading has been in the news this month, thanks to gossip-stoking mouth movements at the Golden Globes that the amateur lipreaders of The Internet rushed to interpret. But lipreading tutor Helen Barrow describes how reading lips really works - the confusable consonants, the importance of context and body language - and gossip maven Lainey Lui explains why these regularly occurring lipreading gossip stories are unworthy of a second or even first glance.
Content note: this episode contains three Category B swears. Collect them all!
EXTRA MATERIALS:
There are transcripts of every episode, including this one, at theallusionist.org/transcripts.
Lipreading alphabet - practice those visemes.
There’s quite a lot of lipreading in detective fiction: Helen Barrow alluded to the lipreading Sherlock Holmes rival Judith Lee, and there’s Colin Dexter’s The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn, and The Listening Eye by Patricia Wentworth, for starters. And there was the real Sue Thomas who inspired the TV drama Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye.
Content warning: ableism. “Reformers wanted to eliminate ‘manualism’, the use of sign language, and replace it with ‘oralism’, the exclusive use of speech and lipreading.”
“These videos don’t tend to reveal big secrets. They tend to contain loose phrases that set off viewers’ imaginations. The veracity of lip readings that circulate on TikTok is not guaranteed.”
Previous cases include Bennifer and Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn and Bill Paxton (CW cancer) and John Terry (CW racism)…
Listen to Lainey on the Gossip episode of this show, for more about the history and usefulness and philosophy of gossip.
Support the show at theallusionist.org/donate and as well as keeping this independent podcast going, you also get behind-the-scenes glimpses about every episode, fortnightly livestreams with me and my dictionaries, and the Allusioverse Discord community. We’re having weekly gatherings to watch the current season of Great Pottery Throwdown and will soon add the Canadian version to our lives.
I appear on a recent episode of Pop This! podcast, talking about the truly baffling 2000 film Duets, directed by Bruce Paltrow and starring his daughter Gwyneth. Listen here. And here is a playlist of me being a guest on other people’s podcasts.
YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
blunge, verb: mix (clay or other materials) with water in a revolving apparatus, for use in ceramics.
Derivatives: blunger, noun.
Origin 19th century: blend of blend and plunge.
CREDITS:
Helen Barrow teaches lipreading and hearing loss management. Find out more about her classes, and additional events such as the hard of hearing captioned screening of Barbie she has coming up, at her website lipreading.me.uk.
Lainey Lui is the professional gossip of LaineyGossip.com and The Squawk on Substack.
Thanks to Tracey Burch of the Association of Teachers of Lipreading to Adults, and to Shedunnit podcast.
This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman, on the unceded ancestral and traditional territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
The original Allusionist music is by Martin Austwick. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com and listen to his podcasts Song By Song and Neutrino Watch.
Find the Allusionist at youtube.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow, @allusionistshow.bsky.social and instagram.com/allusionistshow.
Back in two weeks with a new episode - HZ.
Our ad partner is Multitude. If you want me to talk compellingly about your product, sponsor an episode: contact Multitude at multitude.productions/ads. This episode is sponsored by:
• Kitsch, fun and useful skincare, haircare and accessories and styling tools. Get 30% off your entire order at MyKitsch.com/allusionist.
• Bombas, whose mission is to make the comfiest clothes ever, and match every item sold with an equal item donated. Go to bombas.com/allusionist to get 20% off your first purchase.
• Squarespace, your one-stop shop for building and running your online empire. Go to squarespace.com/allusionist for a free 2-week trial, and get 10 percent off your first purchase of a website or domain with the code allusionist.
