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15.05.
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The Allusionist
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feed bullshit
Hello! If you can’t access the show, that’s because something is going on behind the scenes with the feed. Should be fixed soon!
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11.05.
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The Allusionist
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Allusionist 208: Ffff
Welcome to four letter word season!
We're kicking off with one of the most versatile words: it can be a noun,
verb, punctuation, expostulation, full sentence on its own; it can be an
intensifier, an insult and a compliment... and a Category A swear. Thus, of
course, content note: this episode contains many category A swears, plus
some sexual references.
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29.04.
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The Allusionist
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several bits of news! (nothing bad)
Hi, here I am on vacation in Norway, peeking out of a hole in the middle of a large sculpture made out of shiny multifaceted metal to reflect the trees and mountains around it.
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17.04.
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The Allusionist
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queer playlist
Hello! Here’s a playlist of episodes of the show that are good to listen to for Pride month, but also at any time, because they are some of the most interesting and complex language matters that I’ve covered in the show:Many Ways At Once. The Scots language didn’t have much of an LGBTQ+ lexicon. So writer and performer Dr Harry Josephine Giles decided to create one.
Polari was a secret language that was used mostly by gay men in London. And now lives on in the
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16.01.
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The Allusionist
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Allusionist 207: Randomly Selected Words from the Dictionary
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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23.12.2024
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The Allusionist
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Allusionist 206. Bonus 2024
It's the annual parade of Bonus Bits - things this year's guests said that
I couldn't fit into their episodes, and/or weren't about language, but now
is their time to shine.
We've got tricorn hats, changing your dog's name, Boston cream pie,
parmesan vs vomit, the placebo effect's negative sibling, the universal
blank, headache poetry and bawdy riddles. And more!
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19.12.2024
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The Allusionist
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A Christmas Carollusionist
Over four livestreams, 19-22 December 2024 starting each day at 12:30pm PT/3:30pm ET/20:30 UTC/check your timezone, I’m reading A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, with musical and visual accompaniment by Martin Austwick. Join us, all are welcome! It’ll be fun if you want, or lulling you to sleep if you don’t want. It’ll be festive if you want, or a tale of jerks learning a hard lesson if you don’t. The sidebar chat will be a great time; that, we can count on. All the videos are at youtube.com
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06.12.2024
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The Allusionist
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Allusionist 205. Lexicat, part 2: now with added Dog
In Lexicat part 1, we met the author Mary Robinette Kowal and her cat
Elsie, and learned about how they communicate via a set of buttons
programmed with words. In part 2, two talking dogs, Bastian and Parker -
and their humans, Joelle Andres and Sascha Crasnow - join us too, and
explain how they discovered some very unexpected things about what their
animal companions are thinking and feeling thanks to the buttons, and how
they changed the ways they communicate with other humans too. And a
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04.12.2024
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The Allusionist
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Festivelusionists
'Tis the season for the festive Allusionists! This year, I’ll also be reading A Christmas Carol over four sessions on YouTube; details are at theallusionist.org/events, and you can also hit ‘Notify me’ on each video at youtube.com/@AllusionistShow/streams.Here’s your playlist of episodes from the back catalogue, which are all also available in your podcast app, of course:
WintervalIt’s a portmanteau that became shorthand for the War On Christmas™, with a side o
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24.11.2024
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The Allusionist
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Allusionist 204. Lexicat, part 1
Elsie the cat has a set of 120 buttons programmed with words. She uses them
to lie, swear, apologise, express grief and frustration and love to her
human, the author Mary Robinette Kowal, who talks about what's involved in
learning to communicate via language buttons with companion animals. And
animal behaviour expert Zazie Todd explains how animals might be
interacting with human language.