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A PODCAST ABOUT LANGUAGE
BY HELEN ZALTZMAN

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Allusionist Apple Fest transcript

October 22, 2023 The Allusionist

HZ: Each apple varietal had a little card with background information about the varietal's provenance and tasting notes.

HZ: “Topaz. Refreshing, sharp, sweet, mellows with age.” I mean, that's... Something for me to aspire to, but I feel I'm going the other way.

HANNAH McGREGOR: I'm definitely getting sharper and more acidic with age.

HZ: I'm getting withered and bitter without having achieved true ripeness.

HANNAH McGREGOR: Sorry, could we just check in about what it means to achieve true ripeness?

Allusionist 107. Apples - transcript

October 8, 2019 The Allusionist

KATHRYN GRANDY: After the name was selected and initially growers and even some people from WSU didn't really like the name Cosmic Crisp.
HZ: Oh, why not?
KATHRYN GRANDY: They said it's like The Jetsons, too futuristic.
HZ: Is that bad?
KATHRYN GRANDY: You know, I love the name; and being futuristic and like The Jetsons I think is pretty cool. But the one thing I've learned being in marketing is everybody is an art director. Somebody wanted to named Cosmic Crisp ‘Sparkle’. And to me, that makes me think of dish soap.

Allusionist 91. Bonus 2018 - transcript

December 14, 2018 The Allusionist

Today’s episode is the annual bonus Allusionist, featuring outtakes from some of this year’s guests saying things that were not necessarily related to the topic of the original episode, or even related to language at all, but I thought, “Hmm! Interesting!” and filed them away until THIS MOMENT.

This is not a typical episode of the Allusionist, so if this is your first time here, welcome! And do try a few different episodes of the show to get a picture. This year there have been episodes about your names, and superhero names; about how swearing can be good for your health, and so can novels; about tattoos, and typing champions; about how the drive to survive sent the Welsh language across an ocean, and the Scots language to hide at home; and many more. Thanks so much for spending time with me over 2018.

Allusionist 22: Vocables - transcript

October 21, 2015 The Allusionist

In normal speech, vocables perform various functions - for instance, 'um' and 'ah' buy us time to think, and paper over cracks in our phrases; and babies testing out their vocal cords tend to be pretty keen on the vocables. Not sure they have a wealth of alternatives at that stage, to be honest. So in speech, vocables aren’t meaningful, or consequential, or even intentional - but in song, they can be all these things. All those la la las and dum di dums and bom bom do be de doos are ubiquitous in songs - so what are they doing there?