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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: Apple Fest!

October 22, 2023 The Allusionist

All aboard, we're off to the 2023 Apple Festival at the University of British Columbia, to taste some apples and, most importantly, enjoy some apple names. And before that, we return to the classic Sporklusionist applesode to refresh our memory about how apple names are chosen - eponyms, portmanteaus, geography, or corporate R&D, just like how our ancestors named apples.

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In episodes Tags vocabulary, words, language, Sporklusionist, Sporkful, Dan Pashman, apples, Cosmic Crisp, apple names, history, apple history, fruit, trees, fruit trees, cultivars, varietals, cultivation, Washington, WA, WSU, Washington State University, Kathryn Grandy, Kate Evans, Joanna Crosby, pomology, pomologists, Bloody Ploughman, pippin, Victorians, Britain, National Apple Congress, names, eponyms, applenyms, cappletalism, euphemisms, congress, swears, bloody, risque, Honeycrisp, Enterprise, The Jetsons, marketing, Jazz apple, jazz, trademarks, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Snapdragon, Strawberry apple, Jonathan apple, Granny Smith, food, Cats Head, Casthead, Court Pendu Plat, Medlar, Orleans Reinette, France, French, food history, Bramley, pome fruit, breeding, fruit breeding, plants, Victorian Britain, brands, branding, brand names, products, product names, focus groups, consumer testing, accessions, fruiterers, Scorpion apple, British Columbia, BC, UBC, festivals, events, Apple Festival, kenning, McIntosh, Grimes Golden, Oaken Pin, Hannah McGregor, Martin Austwick, Canada, Canadian, Apple Macintosh

Allusionist 167. Bonus 2022

December 16, 2022 The Allusionist

What do the hippocampus, homophones, Little Women, worrying and egg hacks have in common? They all star in the 2022 parade of Allusionist bonus bits! This year's guests provide some extra fascinating facts, thoughts and feelings: in order of reappearance, Jing Tsu, Morénike Giwa Onaiwu, Tim Clare, Stephanie Foo, Lewis Raven Wallace, Charlotte Lydia Riley, Hannah McGregor, Kristen Meinzer and Jolenta Greenberg.

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In episodes Tags words, language, linguistics, education, society & culture, arts, literature, lexicon, vocabulary, etymology, history, Stephanie Foo, Morenike Giwa Onaiwu, Tim Clare, Jing Tsu, Hannah McGregor, Jolenta Greenberg, Kristen Meinzer, Lewis Raven Wallace, Charlotte Lydia Riley, brain, mental heath, autism, ASD, neurodiverse, almonds, tonsils, Little Women, Louisa May Allcott, sentiment, sentimentality, British Empire, empire, revisionism, nostalgia, transcription, transcripts, therapy, psychology, Chinese, wordplay, protest, homophones, grass mud horse, censorship, Judy Singer, neurotypical, journalism, migrants, migration, bias, historians, Second World War, World War Two, books, novels, Jo March, What Katy Did, Susan Coolidge, Rebecca, hack, life hacks, computing, programming, allistic, amygdala, hippocampus, life hack, neuro- neurodiversity, washin, worry, bonus, bonus episode

Allusionist 161. Sentiment

September 23, 2022 The Allusionist

Empathy and kindness can be noble concepts in themselves, but as terms are thrown around enough to have become buzzwords, and in the process lose some of their meaning and purpose. Audiomakers Sandhya Dirks and Julia Furlan, and academic and podcaster Hannah McGregor, discuss the value and pitfalls of appealing to the emotions.

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In episodes Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, society & culture, arts, literature, lexicon, vocabulary, etymology, history, entertainment, stories, story, storytelling, audio, personal, emotion, emotional, feelings, empathy, empathetic, sympathy, sentiment, sentimentality, kindness, be kind, Julia Furlan, Sandhya Dirks, Hannah McGregor, novels, books, fiction, genre, journalism, 18th century, 19th century, imperative, immanent, complexity, audience, manipulation, Bible, parables, allegory, trauma, death, Queen Elizabeth II, the Queen, tropes, thoughtstoppers, meat
Allusionist Patreon
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.