The Allusionist

In 2014, a seemingly trivial and boring incident at the bank propelled me down a linguistic road via medieval werewolves, Ms Marvel and confusingly inscribed gravestones, to find out why the English language is riddled with all this gender. What’s it FOR? How did it GET there? Will it go AWAY now please? It is, at the very least, taking up brainspace and not paying any rent.

This is a recording of a live performance at the Blueberry Hill Duck Room in St Louis, Missouri on 23 November 2019, and there were visuals happening, so I’ll drop in sometimes to explain them, and I’ve also put a transcript and pictures in this post.

There are swears in this. There are also arguments that will be very useful to you if you ever come up against a denier of singular they. You will definitely win.

iTUNES • RSS • MP3

Remember when 'viral' used to only mean something bad, IE something that would make you ill or destroy your computer? How things have changed. Tom Phillips from Buzzfeed UK explains the language they choose to make content go viral.

Remember when 'viral' used to only mean something bad, eg. something that would make you ill or destroy your computer?

How things have changed. Tom Phillips from BuzzFeed UK explains how they choose the language to make their content go viral. Why does Buzzfeed steer clear of round numbers, sarcasm and irony? Will the internet ever reach Peak Hyperbole? What's the curiosity gap and how do you cross it? Find out all by listening to the show via iTunes, through your favoured podcast directory, or via RSS.

A bit of additional reading:

Buzzfeed not only analyses its own language, but also that of White House press secretaries to discover which president's regime is the cagiest.
Here's BuzzFeed's style guide, for your interest.
If you can't be bothered to study it, Time has interpreted its linguistic signifance for you.

RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
bavardage

Despite my mild cynicism in this episode about the imperative to share content far and wide, you are of course more than welcome to share this episode - and to say hi at facebook.com/allusionistshow and twitter.com/allusionistshow.

- HZ

CREDITS

Presented and produced by Helen Zaltzman.
Tom Phillips is editorial director at BuzzFeed UK. Read his posts, and he tweets as @flashboy.
Roman Mars roman marses every week on 99% Invisible, and tweets as @romanmars.

MUSIC