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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 190: Craters

March 7, 2024 The Allusionist

"It's quite a big undertaking going through every named feature in the whole solar system and trying to find out who that person was."

When PhD student Annie Lennox discovered a crater on Mercury, she got the chance to name it. Which sent her on a bigger space mission.

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In episodes, eponyms Tags society, culture, words, language, vocabulary, history, Annie Lennox, International Astronomical Union, IAU, space, planets, craters, Mercury, Mars, Moon, Europa, mythical characters, myth, snake, Ceres, Venus, solar system, names, naming, renaming, eponyms, problematic eponyms, geology, Pablo Neruda, sexism, astronomers, astronomy, Giovanni Battista Riccioli, Sea of Tranquillity, representation, Sheila Stewart, Mary Brooksbank, Carolina Nairn, Disney, Freddie Mercury, Boaty McBoatface, regulus

Allusionist 178. Uranus

June 22, 2023 The Allusionist

Have you ever wondered why the planets in our solar system are all named after Roman deities, except two of them? One of those exceptions is Earth. The other is Uranus.

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In episodes Tags history, words, language, etymology, space, planets, Uranus, solar system, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Caelus, Pluto, Earth, astronomy, astronomers, Johann Bode, William Herschel, Georgian, George III, King George III, Nevil Maskelyne, galaxy, space words, Latin, Ancient Greek, deities, gods, goddesses, Gaia, Cronus, Titans, Furies, Hecatoncheires, Cyclopses, Giants, Nymphs, Ourania Aphrodite, sky, rain, rainmaker, Sanskrit, urine, myths, legends, songs, music, names, naming, International Astronomical Union, orbit, comet, apport, Martin Austwick

Allusionist 70. Bonus 2017

December 23, 2017 The Allusionist
Bonus 2017 logo.JPG

The history of roller skates, zazzification, giant origami, the heat death of the universe and more.

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In episodes Tags zazzification, z, letters, slang, Stephen Chrisomalis, Kory Stamper, origami, space, Manan Arya, Katie Mack, roller skates, skating, Greg Jenner, Caetano Galindo, translation, engineering, dictionary, dictionaries, zillions, Merriam-Webster, offensive, problems, lexicography, bonus episode, bonus

Allusionist 64: Technobabble

September 29, 2017 The Allusionist

You've encountered technobabble when Doc Brown is shouting about flux capacitors in Back To The Future, or when Isaac Asimov writes about positronic brains. Astrophysicist Katie Mack and NASA JPL technologist Manan Arya discuss how science fact relates to science fiction.

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In episodes Tags space, science, science fiction, fiction, literature, neologisms, scientists, physics, astrophysics, NASA, words, phrases, language, Manan Arya, Katie Mack, Imaginary Worlds, Eric Molinsky
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.