Author: Helen Zaltzman

All aboard, we're off to the 2023 Apple Festival at the University of British Columbia, to taste some apples and, most importantly, enjoy some apple names. And before that, we return to the classic Sporklusionist applesode to refresh our memory about how apple names are chosen - eponyms, portmanteaus, geography, or corporate R&D, just like how our ancestors named apples.

Dan Pashman hosts The Sporkful podcast - head to the Sporkful podfeed or sporkful.com to listen to the companion episode where we learn about how new varietals of apples are made. Kate Evans, Kathryn Grandy and Joanna Crosby explain the history of apple names and the current process for coining new ones.

My companions at the apple festival are Hannah McGregor of Material Girls podcast, and Martin Austwick of Neutrino Watch and Song By Song podcasts. Martin also provides the Allusionist music.

Find out more about this episode and the topics therein, read the transcript, and see pictures of the apple festival at theallusionist.org/applefest.

Become a member of the Allusioverse at theallusionist.org/donate and as well as keeping this independent podcast going, you get regular livestreams and watchalong parties - AND to hang out with your fellow Allusionauts in our delightful Discord community. You can also sign up for free to receive occasional email reminders about Allusionist stuff.

The Allusionist's online home is theallusionist.org. Stay in touch via facebook.com/allusionistshow, instagram.com/allusionistshow, youtube.com/allusionistshow and twitter.com/allusionistshow.

 

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When Spanish missionaries arrived in what is now called Florida, there were 100,000-200,000 Timucua people in the region. Just two centuries later, there were fewer than 100. Soon, with all the people who spoke it dead, the Timucua language died out, too, preserved only in a few Spanish-Timucua religious texts.

In the 21st century, linguistic anthropologist Aaron Broadwell and historian Alejandra Dubcovsky have been decoding and translating these texts to understand the Timucua language and the people who were writing it down.

Find out more about this episode and the topics therein, and obtain the transcript, at theallusionist.org/timucua. Content note: in the episode there is mention of slavery, genocide, and mistreatment of the indigenous people of what is now called United States of America.

Become a member of the Allusioverse at theallusionist.org/donate and as well as keeping this independent podcast going, you get regular livestreams and watchalong parties - AND to hang out with your fellow Allusionauts in our delightful Discord community. We're watching the new season of Great British Bake Off together, and a Death Becomes Her watchalong becomes us later in October.

The Allusionist's online home is theallusionist.org. Stay in touch via facebook.com/allusionistshow, instagram.com/allusionistshow, youtube.com/allusionistshow etc.

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Lexicographer, author and Dictionary Corner resident Susie Dent has been studying words to make us feel happy. She brings etymologies concerning cows, gas, guts and fat, of bellies and breathing and bonanzas. And some that came from the high seas and aren't made up!

Find out more about this episode and the topics therein, and obtain the transcript, at theallusionist.org/siblings-of-chaos.

Become a member of the Allusioverse at theallusionist.org/donate and as well as keeping this independent podcast going, you get regular livestreams and watchalong parties - AND to hang out with your fellow Allusionauts in our delightful Discord community. 

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There's an abiding myth that the landmark dictionaries are the work of one man, in a dusty paper-filled garrett tirelessly working away singlehandedly. But really it took a village: behind every Big Daddy of Lexicography was usually a team of women, keeping the garrett clean, organising the piles of papers, reading through all the citations, doing research, writing definitions, editing, subediting...essentially being lexicographers, without the credit or the pay. Academic Lindsay Rose Russell, author of Women and Dictionary-Making, talks about the roles of women in lexicography: enabling male lexicographers to get the job done, but also making their own dictionaries, and challenging the very paradigms of dictionaries.

Find out more about this episode and the topics therein, and obtain the transcript, at theallusionist.org/cairns.

Become a member of the Allusioverse at theallusionist.org/donate and as well as keeping this independent podcast going, you get regular livestreams and watchalong parties - AND to hang out with your fellow Allusionauts in our delightful Discord community.

 

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Sterling Martin was in grad school, studying C. elegans worms, when COVID19 hit and suddenly he found himself in lexicography, as part of a team creating a Navajo-English dictionary of science terms.

Browse the dictionary at EnableNavajo.org, and donate to help the project add more educational materials at navajobiology.square.site.

Find out more about this episode and the topics therein, and obtain the transcript, at theallusionist.org/projectenable.

Become a member of the Allusioverse at theallusionist.org/donate and as well as keeping this independent podcast going, you get regular livestreams and watchalong parties - AND to hang out with your fellow Allusionauts in our delightful Discord community.

Support the show: http://patreon.com/allusionist

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It's the annual etymology quizlusionist! I’m on a family holiday for the first time since 1988, so enlisted my brother Andy Zaltzman of the Bugle podcast to test his/your wits on singing goats, explosives, mythological Greek sweeteners, attics, left-handedness and whales.

Can you beat Andy’s score? Play along using the interactive scoresheet at theallusionist.org/andyquiz.

Become a member of the Allusioverse at theallusionist.org/donate and as well as keeping this independent podcast going, you get regular livestreams and watchalong parties - AND to hang out with your fellow Allusionauts in our delightful Discord community.

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Have you ever wondered why the planets in our solar system are all named after Roman deities, except two of them? One of those exceptions is Earth. The other is Uranus.

Content note: there are mentions of Ancient Greek and Roman deities and their terrible sexual behaviours and violent vengeance. Also category B and C swears.

Find more information about this episode and a transcript at theallusionist.org/uranus.

This episode was written, performed and produced by Helen Zaltzman and Martin Austwick. The Allusionist's online home is theallusionist.org. Stay in touch at facebook.com/allusionistshow, instagram.com/allusionistshow,  youtube.com/allusionistshow and twitter.com/allusionistshow.

Support the show at theallusionist.org/donate and as well as keeping this independent podcast going, you also get regular livestreams and watchalong parties - in July, Little Shop of Horrors! - AND to hang out with your fellow Allusionauts in the delightful Allusioverse Discord community. And for a limited time only, you can submit words and phrases that you would like me to record for you to use as your phone text tone or alarm or doorbell or little message of affirmation. Sign up to the Allusioverse at theallusionist.org/donate by 31 August 2023 to get your choice of me shouting you awake in the morning. 

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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.

Find a transcript at theallusionist.org/gay-animals. Several other Tranquillusionists and nearly 200 Allusionist episodes that are actually about something - are at theallusionist.org.

Support the show at theallusionist.org/donate and as well as keeping this independent podcast going, you also get glimpses into how the podsausage is made, regular livestreams and watchalong parties, AND to hang out with your fellow Allusionauts in the delightful Allusioverse Discord community.

The Allusionist is produced by me, Helen Zaltzman. Martin Austwick composed and played the original music. Hear Martin’s own songs via PaleBirdMusic.com. Information about gay animals was derived from Bruce Bagemihl's work Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity.

The Allusionist's online home is theallusionist.org. Stay in touch at facebook.com/allusionistshow, instagram.com/allusionistshow,  youtube.com/allusionistshow and twitter.com/allusionistshow.

Our ad partner is Multitude. If you have a product or thing you want me to talk about, sponsor an episode - contact Multitude at multitude.productions/ads. This episode is sponsored by:

• Bombas, whose mission is to make the comfiest clothes ever, and match every item sold with an equal item donated. Go to bombas.com/allusionist to get 20% off your first purchase.
• Squarespace, your one-stop shop for building and running a beautifully designed website. Go to squarespace.com/allusionist for a free 2-week trial, and get 10 percent off your first purchase of a website or domain with the code allusionist.

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“The starting point is, and the research questions are all framed by: 'We know it's terrible to be fat, but how terrible is it?' Not: 'What would it take to give effective healthcare to fat people?'” says Aubrey Gordon, writer of the new book You Just need to Lose Weight and 19 Other Myths About Fat People, star of the documentary Your Fat Friend, and podcaster of Maintenance Phase. And it's not just healthcare where the alignment of 'fat' with 'unhealthy' - and 'thinner' with 'healthier' - becomes problematic and often very dangerous. "I really don't think people contend with the ways in which they are sending a message to everyone around them that there is a weight limit for people that they will love."

Content note: this episode contains discussions of body size, body image, weight, anti-fatness, illness including cancer, diet culture, weight loss - intentional and un - and eating disorders. And there are some category A swears. 

This is the second of two episodes about the word ‘fat’. In Fatlusionist part 1, Aubrey and I discuss euphemisms for fat, why people avoid saying ‘fat’, what else people mean when they say ‘fat’ and how it would be quite good if people said ‘fat’ as just a descriptive term for ‘fat’.

Find out more about this episode and the topics therein at theallusionist.org/fat2, where there's also a transcript.

Thanks so much to everyone who sent in their thoughts and feelings about the word 'fat'.

The Allusionist is produced by me, Helen Zaltzman. Martin Austwick provides the original music. Hear Martin’s own songs via PaleBirdMusic.com. The cast of The Flab is Felix Trench of Wooden Overcoats podcast, find more of his acting and writing work via FelixTrench.com.

Support the show at theallusionist.org/donate and as well as keeping this independent podcast going, you also get glimpses into how the podsausage is made, regular livestreams and watchalong parties, AND to hang out with your fellow Allusionauts in the delightful Allusioverse Discord community, sharing trinket pics, favourite podcasts, and awful portmanteaus.

The Allusionist's online home is theallusionist.org. Stay in touch at facebook.com/allusionistshow, instagram.com/allusionistshow, youtube.com/allusionistshow and twitter.com/allusionistshow.

Support the show: http://patreon.com/allusionist

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It should just be an accurate descriptor of my body, but the word 'fat' has shaped so much more of my life, and our society. "There is this whole set of baggage that we are all culturally bringing to this word all the time," says Aubrey Gordon, writer of the new book You Just need to Lose Weight and 19 Other Myths About Fat People, star of the documentary Your Fat Friend, and podcaster of Maintenance Phase.

In the next episode, Aubrey and I will discuss how the word 'fat' is often aligned with 'unhealthy', despite ample research demonstrating otherwise.

Content note: this episode contains discussions of body size, body image, weight, fat, and anti-fatness.

Find out more about this episode at theallusionist.org/fat1, where there's also a transcript, and head to the Contact page if you want to send me a voice note or written message about the role the word 'fat' has played in your life.

The Allusionist is produced by me, Helen Zaltzman. Martin Austwick provides the original music. Hear Martin’s own songs via PaleBirdMusic.com. The cast of The Flab is Felix Trench of Wooden Overcoats podcast, find more of his acting and writing work via FelixTrench.com.

Support the show at theallusionist.org/donate and as well as keeping this independent podcast going, you also get glimpses into how the podsausage is made, regular livestreams and watchalong parties, AND to hang out with your fellow Allusionauts in the delightful Allusioverse Discord community, sharing trinket pics, favourite podcasts, and awful portmanteaus.

The Allusionist's online home is theallusionist.org. Stay in touch at facebook.com/allusionistshow,instagram.com/allusionistshow, youtube.com/allusionistshow and twitter.com/allusionistshow.

Support the show: http://patreon.com/allusionist

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.