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I went to the 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee, to marvel at kids spelling words I had mostly never even heard of. But when you’re at Bee Week, the competitive spelling is merely the tip of the icebee.
EXTRA MATERIALS:
SpellingBee.com lists all this year’s contestants, and the words they faced; the Beeple involved in the Scripps National Spelling Bee; the rules, the prizes; the Bee-themed merch…
…and you can read Bee Keeper Magazine, the official mag of the Bee!
As well as featuring in the documentary Spellbound that covers the 1999 Bee, Nupur Lala appears in Spelling the Dream, a documentary that considers why Indian-Americans have triumphed in so many Bees in recent decades.
Shalini Shankar’s book Beeline, which I’m currently reading, also addresses this.
A double bill of Spelling Bee movies would be a fine Saturday’s entertainment: Akeelah and the Bee and Definition Please.
This is the sixth instalment in the Word Play series about word games and puzzles; previous episodes include the history of anagrams, recent developments in crosswords, turning words into games, and solving a 100-page puzzle. Next episode there’ll a bit more about how the Bee works: the words, the rules and so on.
Members of the Allusioverse also got daily Beecaps from my time at Bee Week, so if you want to read those, head to theallusionist.org/donate. Plus, you get regular livestreams with me and my collection of reference books, inside scoops into the making of this show, watchalong parties, and the company of your fellow Allusionauts in our delightful Discord community. AND you’ll also be keeping this independent podcast going.
YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
anserine, adjective: of or like a goose.
Origin 19th century: from Latin anserinus, from anser 'goose'.
CREDITS:
In order of appearance, you heard from: executive director of the Scripps National Spelling Bee and Bee alum Corrie Loeffler; 1999 Bee champion and neuro-oncologist Nupur Lala; 2024 finalists Aditi Muthukumar, Ananya Prassanna, YY Laing and Rishabh Saha; 2023 runner-up Charlotte Walsh; 2023 champion Dev Shah; and 2024 champion Bruhat Soma.
This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman. The original Allusionist music is by Martin Austwick. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com and listen to his podcasts Song By Song and Neutrino Watch.
Find the Allusionist at youtube.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow, @allusionistshow.bsky.social and instagram.com/allusionistshow
Back in two weeks with a bit more Bee - HZ.
Our ad partner is Multitude. If you want me to talk compellingly about your product, sponsor an episode: contact Multitude at multitude.productions/ads. This episode is sponsored by:
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