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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 207: Randomly Selected Words from the Dictionary

January 16, 2025 The Allusionist

Happy tenth birthday to this show! To celebrate, here's every randomly selected word from the dictionary from the first decade of the show. 

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In episodes, Tranquillusionist Tags etymology, vocabulary, lexicography, lexicon, words, language, history, dictionary, pricket, trivia, yarak, serene, serenity, ASMR, calm, calmness, meditation, sleep, mood, emergency, Tranquillusionist, relaxation, tranquil, tranquillity

Tranquillusionist: Person In Scene

February 23, 2024 The Allusionist

This is the Tranquillusionist, in which I, Helen Zaltzman, soothe your brain by saying a load of words that don’t really mean very much, to give you an emotional break by temporarily supplanting your interior monologue with something you can benignly ignore. This isn’t like the usual episodes of the Allusionist, there’ll be no learning, no journey, you don’t have to feel or think anything. And you’ll find previous editions of the Tranquillusionist at theallusionist.org/tranquillusionist, featuring champion dogs, gay animals, punchlines with no setups and more. 

Today’s theme was requested by Lachlan, so long ago that Lachlan will have perhaps forgotten, but at some point in the past they wanted a Tranquillusionist featuring the characters from films that don't have names - so in the credits they’re listed as "man in shop", "lady with pram", "angry customer 2".

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In Tranquillusionist, episodes Tags serene, serenity, ASMR, calm, calmness, meditation, sleep, mood, emergency, Tranquillusionist, relaxation, tranquil, tranquillity, movies, films, credits, bit parts, actors, haecceity

Tranquillusionist: Gay Animals

June 10, 2023 The Allusionist

This is the Tranquillusionist, in which I, Helen Zaltzman, say a load of words which aren’t really about anything, so that your brain gets a little gentle diversion from thinking and/or feeling. Today: a list of gay animals.

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In Tranquillusionist Tags serene, serenity, ASMR, calm, calmness, meditation, sleep, mood, emergency, Tranquillusionist, tranquil, tranquillity, relaxation, animals, insects, fish, reptiles, birds, mammals, humans, creatures, queer, LGBTQIA, gay, bisexual, pansexual, zoology, gay animals, muid

Allusionist 164. Emergency

November 7, 2022 The Allusionist

When is a war not a war? When the British Empire called it an 'emergency' so they didn't have to abide by wartime rules or lose their insurance payouts. Artist and journalist Sim Chi Yin reflects on the Malayan Emergency, a 12-year conflict that doesn't get talked about much now by either side; and historian Charlotte Lydia Riley considers the various reasons why the British opted for the term 'emergency', and why they don't celebrate even when they supposedly won them.

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In audio Tags history, emergency, Sim Chi Yin, Charlotte Lydia Riley, Asia, Malaya, Malayan Emergency, Malaysia, Malay, China, Chinese, Singapore, Borneo, Britain, British Empire, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, World War Two, Second World War, war, warfare, fighting, conflict, imperialism, colonial, colonisation, decolonization, guerrilla, terrorist, terrorism, communists, communism, cold war, Kenya, Mau Mau, Vietnam, Vietnam war, Mỹ Lai Massacre, Korean War, Korea, uprising, rebellion, independence, Operation Legacy, Geneva Convention, war crimes, new villages, translation, transliteration, euphemisms, prosopopoeia

Tranquillusionist: Australia's Big Things

July 19, 2022 The Allusionist

This is the Tranquillusionist, in which I, Helen Zaltzman, say a load of deliberately boring words to distract your interior monologue from whatever dystopian stew it is in. Today: a list of the Big Things of Australia.

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In Tranquillusionist Tags serene, serenity, ASMR, calm, calmness, meditation, sleep, mood, emergency, Tranquillusionist, Australia, big things, Australian, sculptures, size, huge, tourist attractions, apples

Tranquillusionist: 282 Salads

August 14, 2021 The Allusionist

This is the Tranquillusionist, in which I, Helen Zaltzman, read all the salads from the 1950 recipe book 282 Ways of Making a Salad, with Favourite Recipes by British and American Personalities and Stars by Bebe Daniels and Jill Algood, with the purpose of giving your internal monologue a break by replacing it with some absolutely inconsequential words.

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In episodes, Tranquillusionist Tags words, language, serene, serenity, ASMR, calm, calmness, meditation, sleep, mood, emergency, Tranquillusionist, salads, celebrities

Allusionist 135. SOS

May 13, 2021 The Allusionist
A135 SOS logo small.jpeg

SOS is a really versatile distress call. You can shout it; you can tap it out in Morse code; you can honk it on a horn; you can signal it with flashes of light; you can spell it out on the beach with debris from your wrecked ship.

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In episodes Tags Christian Ostersehlte, Paul Tyreman, SOS, CQD, CQ, mayday, codes, calls, distress, emergency, ships, shipping, maritime, boats, vessels, sea travel, sea, sailors, signals, communication, telegraphy, radio, wireless, technology, history, Titanic, acronyms, backronyms, false etymology, Germany, UK, Britain, Italy, Marconi, flags, Samuel Morse, Morse code

Tranquillusionist: Punchlines

April 13, 2020 The Allusionist
Tranquillusionist Punchlines logo.jpeg

This is the Tranquillusionist, in which I, Helen Zaltzman, in the interests of temporarily trying to stop that feeling where you think your brain is trying to claw its way out of your skull, read the punchlines to classic jokes.

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In Tranquillusionist, episodes Tags Helen Zaltzman, words, language, serene, serenity, ASMR, calm, calmness, meditation, sleep, mood, emergency, Tranquillusionist, jokes, punchlines, cheesy jokes, bad jokes, knock knock, doctor doctor, puns, wordplay, Oulipo, gags

Tranquillusionist: Best In Show

April 4, 2020 The Allusionist
Tranquillusionist Best in Show.jpeg

This is the Tranquillusionist, in which I, Helen Zaltzman, for the purposes of calming a frazzled brain, read the winners of Best In Show at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

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In Tranquillusionist, episodes Tags Helen Zaltzman, words, language, serene, serenity, ASMR, calm, calmness, meditation, sleep, mood, emergency, Tranquillusionist, dogs, best in show, Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, champions, terriers

Tranquillusionist: Nmiigea

March 22, 2020 The Allusionist

This is the Tranquillusionist, in which I, Helen Zaltzman, for the purposes of quelling anxiety and stress and sleeplessness, read the lyrics to ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon, with the words arranged in reverse alphabetical order.

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In Tranquillusionist, episodes Tags Helen Zaltzman, words, language, serene, serenity, ASMR, calm, calmness, meditation, sleep, mood, emergency, Tranquillusionist, John Lennon, Imagine, lyrics, songs, music
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Allusionist 208: Ffff
Allusionist 208: Ffff
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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
Allusionist 200: 200th episode celebratory quiz!
Allusionist 200: 200th episode celebratory quiz!
Creative Commons Licence
The Allusionist by Helen Zaltzman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.