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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 187. Bonus 2023

December 24, 2023 The Allusionist

It's our annual end of year parade of all the extra good stuff this year's podguests talked about, including a mythical disappearing island, geese, human dictionaries, the dubious history of the Body Mass Index, Victorian death department stores, and much more.

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In episodes Tags etymology, vocabulary, history, Caetano Galindo, Susie Dent, Lindsay Rose Russell, Aubrey Gordon, Dean Vuletic, Evie King, Cariad Lloyd, Griefcast, Hy-Brasil, myths, legends, islands, Ireland, Victorians, Georgians, death, 19th century, funerals, mourning, grief, grieving, posthumous, dead bodies, bodies, fat, anti-fatness, anti-fat, bias, medical, BMI, Body Mass Index, body positivity, eugenics, families, family, estrangement, Brazilian, brasileiros, Portuguese, wood, brazilwood, trees, dictionaries, walking dictionary, sleeping dictionary, gender, geese, goose, weaving, renaming, denaming, cremation, aquamation, ashes, burial, composting, graves, clothes, shopping, Brookwood Cemetery, Surrey, five stages of grief, Jay’s, Regent Street, London, jet, jewelry, Elizabeth Kubler Ross, street names, school names, John La Rose, Richmond, Virginia, Australia, K’Gari, Hobart, Macquarie Street, Tasmania, petitions, Toronto, Rob Ford, Michaelmas, Alfred Hitchcock, Daphne Du Maurier, Rebecca, rebeca, cardigan, turtlenecks, lexicography, Adolphe Quetelet, Quetelet’s Index, Ancel Keys, Francis Galton, drapetomania, hysteria, Eurovision Song Contest, Eurovision, nul points, zero, French, Brazil, Brasil, gossamer, pavage, text, textile, clothing, bonus, bonus episode

Allusionist 175. Eurovision part 2

April 21, 2023 The Allusionist

Oh, you thought the Eurovision Song Contest was about songs? Or a fun international TV event that brings people together in lots of different countries? Or watching extremely vigorous dance numbers? OK, it is, but it's also about some pretty thorny language-related politics. Historian Dean Vuletic, author of Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest, discusses Eurovision's many linguistic controversies, and the ways the contest has been exploited politically - and caused political kick-offs too.

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In episodes Tags words, language, society & culture, arts, history, Eurovisionallusionist, Dean Vuletic, singing, songs, tv, television, broadcasting, geography, politics, political, Eurovision Song Contest, European, Europe, pop, music, European Broadcasting Union, EBU, European Broadcasting Area, ESC, public broadcasters, controversy, governments, human rights, protests, national languages, dictators, dictatorships, Azerbaijan, English language, Belgium, Kosovo, Serbo-Croation, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovenian, Croatia, Yugoslavia, former Yugoslavia, Albania, Belarus, Balkans, Ukraine, Russia, Switzerland, Sweden, Armenia, Vladimir Putin, rules, technology, Mongolian, Crimea, Crimean Tatars, war, conflict, KGB, Italy, referendum, divorce, urinant

Allusionist 174. Eurovision part 1

April 7, 2023 The Allusionist

There aren't many multilingual, multinational television shows that have been running for nearly seven decades. But what makes the Eurovision Song Contest so special to me is not the music, or the dancing, or the costumes that range from spangletastic to tear-off: no, it's the people butting heads about language. Historian Dean Vuletic, author of Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest, recounts the many changes in Eurovision's language rules, and its language hopes and dreams.

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In episodes Tags etymology, words, language, society & culture, arts, history, Dean Vuletic, singing, songs, tv, television, broadcasting, geography, politics, political, Eurovision Song Contest, European, Europe, pop, music, ABBA, Waterloo, Volare, Italian, French, German, Dutch, Swedish, France, Spain, Spanish, Norway, Sweden, Malta, English, Italy, United Kingdom, UK, Welsh, Wales, Australia, Luxembourg, Belgium, Flemish, Walloon, Israel, Hebrew, Finland, Netherlands, European Broadcasting Union, EBU, European Broadcasting Area, ESC, public broadcasters, latitude, longitude, multilingual, polyglot, bloc voting, francophone, national languages, Breton, controversy, Domenico Modugno, 20th century, 1950s, radio, portmanteau, portmanteaux, Serge Gainsbourg, Marc Chagall, rules, constructed languages, conlang, soccer, technology, ruelle, Eurovisionallusionist
Allusionist Patreon
Featured
Allusionist 209: Serving C-Bomb
Allusionist 209: Serving C-Bomb
feed bullshit
Allusionist 208: Ffff
Allusionist 208: Ffff
WhatsApp Image 2025-04-27 at 23.06.37.jpeg
several bits of news! (nothing bad)
queer playlist
Allusionist 207: Randomly Selected Words from the Dictionary
Allusionist 207: Randomly Selected Words from the Dictionary
Allusionist 206. Bonus 2024
Allusionist 206. Bonus 2024
A Christmas Carollusionist
A Christmas Carollusionist
Allusionist 205. Lexicat, part 2: now with added Dog
Allusionist 205. Lexicat, part 2: now with added Dog
Festivelusionists
Allusionist 204. Lexicat, part 1
Allusionist 204. Lexicat, part 1
Allusionist 203. Flyting
Allusionist 203. Flyting
Allusionist 202: Singlish Singlish
Allusionist 202: Singlish Singlish
Allusionist 201: Singlish
Allusionist 201: Singlish
Tranquillusionist: Ex-Constellations
Tranquillusionist: Ex-Constellations
Creative Commons Licence
The Allusionist by Helen Zaltzman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.