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At the Scripps National Spelling Bee, behind the spectacle of kids vying to be champion spellers, a whole lot of work goes on to make words into this word sport.
Offering a peek into the apiary are the Bee's executive director Corrie Loeffler, and Ben Zimmer and Jane Solomon from the Bee's word panel.
Listen to Beeing, my first episode from the 2024 Scripps Spelling Bee about how it feels to compete there, and check out the rest of the Word Play series.
EXTRA MATERIALS:
Searching for the first national spelling champion Marie C. Bolden’s lost medal.
“Marie Bolden knew prejudice well; in fact, it was one of the words contestants were asked to spell. Her spelling rivals included a team from New Orleans, a squad that nearly didn't compete at all, as its segregationist leaders balked at the inclusion of a Black student.”
And the rules of the 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
What goes on in the Word Panel’s pre-Bee meeting.
“The Fight to Integrate the National Spelling Bee: For talented black spellers in the 1960s, the segregated local spelling bee was the beginning and the end of the long road to Washington, D.C.”
"A good speller knows a lot of words… A great speller is able to spell pretty much any word that you throw at them because they're able to use this process to break the word down and come up with a very well-educated guess."
What spelling bees used to be called before they were called spelling bees.
✨ Come to see the marvellous new Allusionist live show Souvenirs! ✨ Dates are being added to theallusionist.org/events
✨ Come to see the marvellous new Allusionist live show Souvenirs! ✨ Dates are being added to theallusionist.org/events
Members of the Allusioverse get perks at the live shows; they 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:
univocal, adjective, philosophy and linguistics:
having only one possible meaning; unambiguous.
CREDITS:
Corrie Loeffler is the executive director of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and a former Bee finalist herself - hear about that experience in the Beeing episode, and find out all about the Scripps National Spelling Bee at spellingbee.com.
Ben Zimmer is a linguist, lexicographer and language columnist for the Wall Street Journal. And he contributes crossword puzzles to Slate crosswords and Crossword Craze, and just published his first cryptic crossword!
Jane Solomon is a typeface designer at Lettermatic, and a former lexicographer (hear her on the Word of the Day episode).
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
I’ll be taking July off for family stuff, and to work on upcoming episodes. I’ll return with new episodes in August - and the 200th episode is coming up, what special thing do you think I should do for it? HZ.
Our ad partner is Multitude. If you want me to talk about your product or thing on the show, sponsor an episode: contact Multitude at multitude.productions/ads. This episode is sponsored by:
• Understance: comfortable, stylish, size-inclusive bras and undies. Shop the range and learn about your own branatomy at understance.com.
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• Bombas, whose mission is to make the comfiest clothing essentials, and match every item sold with an equal item donated. Go to bombas.com/allusionist to get 20% off your first purchase.
