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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 192: Word Play part 2

April 9, 2024 The Allusionist

This episode, and the next couple of episodes, are about word games! Today, Joshua Blackburn recounts how his sons' uninspiring English homework led to him inventing the language quiz game League of the Lexicon; and Kathryn Hymes and Hakan Seyalıoğlu of Thorny Games explain how they make topics like language loss and deciphering alien language into creative play.

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In episodes, Word Play Tags language, games, play, playing, fun, word play, Joshua Blackburn, Thorny Games, Kathryn Hymes, Hakan Seyalıoğlu, story, storytelling, communal, community, Dialect, Sign, Nicaraguan Sign Language, sign language, Nicaragua, aphasia, Xenolanguage, aliens, first contact, communication, Dungeons and Dragons, DnD, D&D, lunula

Allusionist 161. Sentiment

September 23, 2022 The Allusionist

Empathy and kindness can be noble concepts in themselves, but as terms are thrown around enough to have become buzzwords, and in the process lose some of their meaning and purpose. Audiomakers Sandhya Dirks and Julia Furlan, and academic and podcaster Hannah McGregor, discuss the value and pitfalls of appealing to the emotions.

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In episodes Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, society & culture, arts, literature, lexicon, vocabulary, etymology, history, entertainment, stories, story, storytelling, audio, personal, emotion, emotional, feelings, empathy, empathetic, sympathy, sentiment, sentimentality, kindness, be kind, Julia Furlan, Sandhya Dirks, Hannah McGregor, novels, books, fiction, genre, journalism, 18th century, 19th century, imperative, immanent, complexity, audience, manipulation, Bible, parables, allegory, trauma, death, Queen Elizabeth II, the Queen, tropes, thoughtstoppers, meat

Allusionist 118. Survival: Bequest

July 3, 2020 The Allusionist
A118 logo Survival Bequest.jpg

When the Europeans arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand, as well as guns, stoats and Christianity, they brought ideas of cisgender monogamous heterosexuality that were imposed upon the Māori people as if there had never been anything else. But one word, takatāpui, proved otherwise.

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In episodes, Survival Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, Helen Zaltzman, etymology, lexicon, vocabulary, Hemi Kelly, Elizabeth Kerekere, LGBTQIA, LGBTQ+, Pride, queer, sexuality, gender, identity, sex, relationships, families, family, community, Aotearoa, New Zealand, oppression, enby, NB, nonbinary, homosexuality, bisexuality, pansexuality, polyamory, heterosexuality, trans, intersex, rainbow people, genderfluid, fluidity, oppressed languages, minority languages, gender stereotypes, masculinity, femininity, monolingual, multilingual, loanwords, gender fluid, society, Christianity, Christian, religious, colonialism, colonial, Survival, colonisation, English, invasion, war, translation, Māori, takatāpui, Britain, British, UK, annexation, Treaty of Waitangi, urbanisation, whiteness, white privilege, privilege, English problematic fave, punishment, corporal punishment, shame, sailors, settlers, Maori Land Wars, art, carvings, bowdlerization, storytelling, story, stories, oral, oral tradition, writing systems, Roman alphabet, written, music, songs, singing, lyrics, whakataukī, proverbs, sayings, metaphor, imagery, genitalia, genitals, male, female, orthography, pronunciation, auscultation, stoats, laments, lost language, pronouns, context, gendered pronouns, erasure
Allusionist Patreon
Featured
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
Allusionist 200: 200th episode celebratory quiz!
Allusionist 200: 200th episode celebratory quiz!
Allusionist 199: 199 ideas that I hadn't made into podcasts yet
Allusionist 199: 199 ideas that I hadn't made into podcasts yet
Creative Commons Licence
The Allusionist by Helen Zaltzman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.