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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 217. Bread and Roses, and Coffee

September 24, 2025 The Allusionist

In their heyday of the 1970s and 1980s, there were more than 200 - possibly more than 400 - feminist restaurants and coffee shops in the USA and Canada. These places were aiming to change ways of working, and upend the hierarchies of restaurants; to provide food that was ethically sourced and affordable to customers, while providing staff with a decent wage; to signal to particular kinds of people that a space was specifically for them. They didn't always succeed, and often they didn't last for more than a couple of years. But they sure did try things.

Dr Alex Ketchum from McGill University, author of the book Ingredients for Revolution, a History of American Feminist Restaurants, Cafes, and Coffeehouses and cofounder of the Queer Food Conference, explains the ups and downs of how these places used words.

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In episodes Tags society, culture, words, language, history, etymology, vocabulary, Alex Ketchum, 1970s, 1980s, USA, cafes, restaurants, coffee shops, spaces, feminists, feminism, lesbians, queer, trans, LGBTQIIA+, female, menu, food, signalling, politics, code words, hierarchy, collectives, waitstaff, cooks, chefs, terminology, social, work, labour, workplace, Bloodroot, ecofeminism, vegetarian, vegan, eating, recipes, dishes, food eponyms, eponyms, alcohol, caffeine, drugs, dieting, diet culture, dele, gourmet

Allusionist 185. Gems and Patties

November 21, 2023 The Allusionist

We’re returning to the theme of renaming, for two food-related renamings: the first one that mostly happened, the second that mostly did not - but in a good way.

Dr Erin Pritchard persuaded a British supermarket to rebrand a type of sweets that had a slur in their name. And Chris Strikes recounts the renaming conflict that was the Toronto Patty Wars of 1985.

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In episodes Tags vocabulary, history, Erin Pritchard, Chris Strikes, renaming, names, branding, brands, rebranding, rebrand, Telling Other Stories, slurs, offensive terms, food, foodstuffs, food terminology, patties, patty, Patty Wars, Toronto, Canada, Canadian, UK, British, Britain, ableism, little people, dwarfism, medical conditions, disability, discrimination, racism, bias, equality, activism, campaigning, supermarkets, Caribbean, Jamaica, Jamaican, product names, wrestling, pastry, Lloyd Parry, Brian Mulroney, Michael Davidson, law, beef, hamburgers, burgers, meat, meat puck, Patty Summit, 1985, 1980s, Patty Day, 23 February, yaw

Allusionist 101. Two Or More

June 24, 2019 The Allusionist
A101 logo Two or More.jpg

Oysters, fragrances, canoeing, space stations, God, hats, and of course people - the word ‘bisexual’ has described a great deal of different things, with different meanings, in its fairly short existence. And that whole time, it has had a pretty bumpy ride.

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In episodes Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, Helen Zaltzman, etymology, lexicon, vocabulary, bisexual, bisexual erasure, pansexual, fluid, sexuality, romance, love, sex, sexes, gender, gender binary, binary, LGBTQIA, bisexual+, plus, plurisexual, omnisexual, sexual orientation, identity, gender identity, nonbinary, NB, enby, genderqueer, unisex, androgynous, androgyny, hermaphroditic, Lord Byron, music, musical instruments, perfume, fragrances, hats, products, clothing, clothes, semantic shifts, fashion, intersex, Wolfenden Report, HIV, AIDS, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 19th century, Germany, heternormativity, uranian, urning, Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Alfred Kinsey, Kinsey Scale, God, The Times, Times newspaper, newspapers, press, media, news, reviews, past tense, Plato, Symposium, Uranus, Aphrodite Urania, womanizer, relationships, semantic shift, Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, queer, queer history
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Featured
Festivelusionists
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
queer playlist
Creative Commons Licence
The Allusionist by Helen Zaltzman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.