The Allusionist

Series produced by The Allusionist

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Small adventures in language with Helen Zaltzman. Visit http://theallusionist.org

Small adventures in language with Helen Zaltzman. Visit http://theallusionist.org


27 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Allusionist 15: Step Away
From: The Allusionist
Series: The Allusionist
Piece image
'Step-', as in stepparents or stepchildren, originated in grief. Family structures have evolved, but are stepmothers now so tainted by fairytale as...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Aug 12, 2015
  • Length: 38:16
  • Purchases: 1
Allusionist 13: Mixed Emojions
From: The Allusionist
Series: The Allusionist
Piece image
Emoji allow communication without words. Could emoji be the universal language of the 21st century?

Bought by WABE


  • Added: Jul 27, 2015
  • Length: 16:54
  • Purchases: 1
Allusionist 14: Behave
From: The Allusionist
Series: The Allusionist
Piece image
Sometimes words can become your worst enemy.

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 02, 2015
  • Length: 28:27
  • Purchases: 1
Allusionist 11: Brunchtime
From: The Allusionist
Series: The Allusionist
Piece image
Brunch. What does it actually mean?

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: May 21, 2015
  • Length: 12:39
  • Purchases: 1
Allusionist 10: Election Lexicon
From: The Allusionist
Series: The Allusionist
Piece image
On the eve of the 2015 General Election in the UK, take a jaunt through the etymology of election-related words.

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: May 06, 2015
  • Length: 09:01
  • Purchases: 1
Allusionist 9: The Space Between
From: The Allusionist
Series: The Allusionist
Piece image
Forget words for a moment; look at the spaces between the words.

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Apr 23, 2015
  • Length: 10:21
  • Purchases: 1
Allusionist 8: Crosswords
From: The Allusionist
Series: The Allusionist
Piece image
Cryptic crosswords: delightful brain exercise, or the infernal taunting of the incomprehensible?

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Apr 10, 2015
  • Length: 16:28
  • Purchases: 1
Allusionist 7: Mountweazel
From: The Allusionist
Series: The Allusionist
Piece image
You'd think you could trust dictionaries, but it turns out, they are riddled with LIES.

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Mar 26, 2015
  • Length: 15:26
  • Purchases: 1
Allusionist 6: The Writing On The Wall
From: The Allusionist
Series: The Allusionist
Piece image
Those words on museum walls that you can't be bothered to read? They're more important than you think...

Bought by WABE and PRX Remix


  • Added: Mar 12, 2015
  • Length: 15:14
  • Purchases: 2
Allusionist 12: Pride
From: The Allusionist
Series: The Allusionist
Piece image
It’s June; the President of the USA has officially designated it LGBT Pride Month, and there’ll be Pride events around the world. But how did the w...

Bought by WCAI / WNAN Cape & Islands, Mass., KZMU Moab Community Radio, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 03, 2015
  • Length: 14:08
  • Purchases: 3
Allusionist 16: Word Play
From: The Allusionist
Series: The Allusionist
Piece image
Words are all over the place. So how do you turn them into fun games? Here to show the way is Leslie Scott, founder of Oxford Games and inventor of...

Bought by WCAI / WNAN Cape & Islands, Mass. and PRX Remix


  • Added: Aug 14, 2015
  • Length: 27:35
  • Purchases: 2
Allusionist 18: Fix part II
From: The Allusionist
Series: The Allusionist
Piece image
The messiness of English is the price of its success. It is the most widely spoken language in the world, geographically, being an official languag...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Sep 14, 2015
  • Length: 28:03
  • Purchases: 1
Allusionist 19: Architecting About Dance
From: The Allusionist
Series: The Allusionist
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“Talking about music is like dancing about architecture” is a problematic statement: not just because nobody can agree on who came up with it, but ...

Bought by WCAI / WNAN Cape & Islands, Mass., WABE, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Sep 24, 2015
  • Length: 27:04
  • Purchases: 3
Allusionist 20: Baby Talk
From: The Allusionist
Series: The Allusionist
Piece image
Why do we all sound like idiots when we talk to babies?

Bought by WCAI / WNAN Cape & Islands, Mass. and PRX Remix


  • Added: Oct 08, 2015
  • Length: 11:37
  • Purchases: 2
Allusionist 21. Eponyms I: The Ballad of Bic and Biro
From: The Allusionist
Series: The Allusionist
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Naming something after yourself: a grand display of egomania, or the humble willingness to be overshadowed by your own product? Stationery expert J...

  • Added: Oct 24, 2015
  • Length: 17:56
Allusionist 22: Vocables
From: The Allusionist
Series: The Allusionist
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La la la, dum di di dum, a wop bop a loo bop a wop bom bom - what are all those non-words doing masquerading as words in songs? Hrishikesh Hirway f...

  • Added: Oct 24, 2015
  • Length: 13:44
Allusionist 23: Criminallusionist
From: The Allusionist
Series: The Allusionist
Piece image
Phoebe Judge and Lauren Spohrer from the podcast Criminal stop by to talk about the linguistic challenges of crime reporting. They also share their...

  • Added: Nov 02, 2015
  • Length: 23:05
Allusionist 24: Spill Your Guts
From: The Allusionist
Series: The Allusionist
Piece image
It's cathartic; it's a useful historical record; and it might help you behave better on public transport. Neil Katcher and Dave Nadelberg from Mort...

  • Added: Dec 14, 2015
  • Length: 18:58
Allusionist 25: Toki Pona
From: The Allusionist
Series: The Allusionist
Piece image
There’s a language which is said to be the smallest language in the world. It has around 123 words, five vowels, nine consonants, and apparently yo...

Bought by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation


  • Added: Dec 14, 2015
  • Length: 20:24
  • Purchases: 1
Allusionist 28: WLTM part I
From: The Allusionist
Series: The Allusionist
Piece image
Your online dating profile is the latest spin on a 300-year-old tradition of advertising yourself in order to find a spouse, a sexual partner, or s...

  • Added: Feb 03, 2016
  • Length: 41:08

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