While the What Next team spends some time with their families this week, we revisit some of 2023’s biggest, strangest, and best stories. Regularly scheduled programming resumes Jan. 2.
Not all of the Cardinals who elected Pope Francis are pleased with the changes he’s made, or his vision for where the Catholic Church goes next. Both the 86-year-old Francis and his detractors are preparing for his successor. Who’ll prevail?
Guest: David Gibson, Director of Fordham's Center on Religion & Culture
Originally aired Feb. 2.
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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Carmel Delshad, and Madeline Ducharme, with help from Anna Phillips, Jared Downing, and Laura Spencer.
It's getting more difficult to remember times when seasonal produce was only available for a brief window. Cato’s Scott Lincicome is old enough to remember those dark times of avocado deprivation. He explains how globalization has dramatically expanded the range of foods available all year.
The new cookbook The Everlasting Meal Cookbook: Leftovers A-Z shows home chefs how to transform their forgotten leftovers into beloved meals. In today's episode, chef Tamar Adler talks with NPR's Mary Louise Kelly about how replenishing leftovers helps reduce food waste – and she shows her how to use an empty nut butter jar to create a delectable noodle dish.
OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(09:47) – Lessons from father
(19:53) – Scar story
(40:31) – Cus D’Amato
(50:43) – Mike Tyson
(2:08:39) – Forgiveness
It's our annual end of year parade of all the extra good stuff this year's podguests talked about, including a mythical disappearing island, geese, human dictionaries, the dubious history of the Body Mass Index, Victorian death department stores, and much more.
In order of appearance, we hear from:
Translator and author Caetano Galindo on how the countril Brazil got its name
Lexicographer and Countdown's Dictionary Corner-er Susie Dent on pleasing words
Academic and collector of dictionaries Lindsay Rose Russell on walking dictionaries and sleeping dictionaries
Writer and Maintenance Phase cohost Aubrey Gordon on the origins and misuse of the BMI and body positivity movement
Historian Dean Vuletic on why we say "Nul points!" about Eurovision losers
Council funeral officer Evie King on alternatives to cremation
Griefcast's Cariad Lloyd on Victorian Brits' rules for grief, and the misuse of the concept of five stages of grief.
Plus! Renaming updates, movie-named knitwear, and my portmanteaus and portmantNOs of the year.
Content notes: this episode contains discussions of death, grief, anti-fat bias, eugenics and racism; I've included warnings in the audio before each section where they're relevant, so you know which specific parts to skip if you need to.
Get the transcript of this episode, and find links to the guests and more information about the topics therein, at theallusionist.org/bonus2023
This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman. Martin Austwick of Neutrino Watch and Song By Song podcasts provides the Allusionist music. Thanks to Ashra for the inwhiches, Amanda and Carly from Multitude for the ad sales, and Tort, Lilly and Chris for their community modding. And thank you for listening to the show, and recommending it to others!
Become a member of the Allusioverse at theallusionist.org/donate and as well as keeping this independent podcast going, you get regular livestreams, insight into the making of this show, and watchalong parties - AND to hang out with your fellow Allusionauts in our delightful Discord community, where I am posting all my best/worst portmanteaus and portmantNOs.
The Allusionist's online home is theallusionist.org. Stay in touch via facebook.com/allusionistshow, instagram.com/allusionistshow, youtube.com/allusionistshow etc.
Belief in supernatural, divine beings like angels dates back into antiquity and occurs throughout numerous religions. Even in the modern day, numerous Americans are convinced that angels (or something like them) exist and intervene in human affairs. So, outside of anecdotes and personal opinion, is there any proof these creatures exist? To one enormously influential scientist, magician and philosopher, Angels left one indisputable proof of their existence: A secret language, predating humanity -- one with the power to reveal the secrets of the universe. Listen in to learn more about Enochian language and John Dee.
Social media platforms hold vast amounts of biographical data about our lives. They repackage our past content as ‘memories’ and deliver them back to us. But how does that change the way we remember?
Drawing on original qualitative research as well as industry documents and reports, Social Media and the Automatic Production of Memory: Classification, Ranking and the Sorting of the Past (Bristol University Press, 2021) by Dr. Ben Jacobsen and Dr. David Beer critically explores the process behind this new form of memory making. In asking how social media are beginning to change the way we remember, it will be essential reading for scholars and students who are interested in understanding the algorithmically defined spaces of our lives.
This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose forthcoming book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars.
How did Native Americans make war, not with European settlers, but amongst themselves? Historian Wayne E. Lee, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, explores this often-neglected question in his book, The Cutting-Off Way: Indigenous Warfare in Eastern North America, 1500-1800 (The University of North Carolina Press, 2023).
The podcast begins with his explanation of the ‘cutting-off’ style of fight and retreat that characterized this method of warfare and proceeds to an understanding of the root causes of war among Native Americans including the imperative of “blood revenge.” Lee argues persuasively that wars among natives were endemic yet not of the “no-holds-barred” character of the European type. Also, unlike the Europeans, the Native Americans frowned on prisoner exchanges—prisoners, sometimes tortured, were seen as a measure of a campaign’s success—and the natives abjured rape of the enemy’s women as an allotted entitlement of war. Such important differences notwithstanding, The Cutting-Off Way also points to timeless principles in warfare, evident in today’s bloody conflicts, as when he writes: “The cultural mandate for revenge proved extremely difficult to overcome.”
Veteran journalist Paul Starobin is a former Moscow bureau chief for Business Week and a former contributing editor of The Atlantic. He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and many other publications. His latest book, Putin’s Exiles: Their Fight for a Better Russia (Columbia Global Reports) will be published in January.
