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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 156. Rainbow Washing

June 10, 2022 The Allusionist

From whitewash (the paint) we got whitewashing (the covering up of misdeeds) and from there greenwashing, redwashing, bluewashing, purplewashing, pinkwashing - and now rainbow washing, where companies will put Pride flags all over products and posts during the month of June, but behind the scenes will not necessarily be useful - and sometimes they'll be anti-useful.

Mitra Kaboli, host of the new podcast Welcome to Provincetown, helps sort the real allyship from the rainbow-washing; and writer Sarah Schulman, who popularised the term 'pinkwashing', explains the more political meaning of the word.

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In episodes Tags history, whitewashing, whitewash, greenwashing, pinkwashing, redwashing, purplewashing, rainbow-washing, Pride, Pride flag, rainbows, breast cancer, Mitra Kaboli, Sarah Schulman, LGBTQIA+, commerce, capitalism, corporate, CIA, sandwiches, beer, Stonewall, autotelic, words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, etymology, lexicon, vocabulary

Allusionist 129. Sorry

January 30, 2021 The Allusionist
A129 sorry logo.jpeg

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 37: Brand It

May 29, 2016 The Allusionist

Got a company or a product or a website you need to name? Well, be wary of the potential pitfalls: trademark disputes; pronounceability; being mistaken for a dead body...

Name developer Nancy Friedman explains how she helps companies find the right names, and why so many currently end in '-ify'.

Plus: The Allusionist's origin story, with Radiotopiskipper Roman Mars.

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In episodes Tags words, language, linguistics, brands, branding, names, naming, brand names, products, product names, companies, company, corporate, name, Nancy Friedman, Roman Mars, podcast names, podcasts, podcasting, trends, trending, startups, businesses, business, Silicon Valley, internet, technology, online, websites, domains, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, Spotify, The Allusionist, Semantic Drift, Idiomatic, Amazon, retain, vowels, consonants, devowellution, disemvowelment, anchors, theme tune, music, Martin Austwick, Extreme, More Than Words, puns, Boyzone, verbs, suffixes, 99% Invisible, name development, name developers, Andrew Marvell, Fallen London, The Great Courses Plus
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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
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Creative Commons Licence
The Allusionist by Helen Zaltzman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.