The Allusionist
Helen Zaltzman
The Allusionist
Helen Zaltzman
Saturday 27 March 2021 : What to do to stick it to the powers that be? Send your message through something they really care about: cake. In Buenos Aires, local tour...
Friday 12 March 2021 : "Sometimes I've heard people talk about losing a child and people say it's like losing a limb. And as someone who's lost both things, I just...
Thursday 25 February 2021 : In their podcasts Mija and Moonface, Lory Martinez and James Kim create autobiographical fiction in multiple languages. There are a few...
Sunday 14 February 2021 : St Valentine's name may nowadays be all over the romance-related merch for 14 February, but he was also the patron saint of beekeepers,...
Sunday 31 January 2021 : Apologies are such important verbal transactions. So why are so many of them soooo bad? Susan McCarthy and Marjorie Ingall from SorryWatch...
Thursday 24 December 2020 : To round off the year, here are some choice cuts from the Allusionist vault of interesting things that guests said that there wasn’t room...
Monday 14 December 2020 : The usual canon of Christmas songs may not really fit people's moods in this year 2020, when I'm not sure a lot of us are feeling all that...
Saturday 28 November 2020 : In Australia, there were hundreds, perhaps thousands, of languages. Until English arrived. Rudi Bremer and Karina Lester talk about the...
Tuesday 10 November 2020 : Fill your lungs and get ready to shout out some profane answers: it’s the Swearlusionist Swearalong Quiz! Every answer is a swear word....
Sunday 25 October 2020 : This is the Alloooooooooosionist, in which we learn about the etymology of some scary words for Halloween, with the help of Paul Bae of The...
Saturday 10 October 2020 : Celebrity used to mean a solemn occasion; X factor was algebraic; and fame was a huge terrifying Godzilla-like beast with many many...
Monday 28 September 2020 : The word for ‘ghostwriter’ in French is a racist slur. How did THAT come about? And what word could French-speakers use instead? Ngofeen...
Monday 14 September 2020 : In 2014, a seemingly trivial and boring incident at the bank propelled me down a linguistic road via medieval werewolves, Ms Marvel and...
Friday 28 August 2020 : This is the Tranquillusionist, in which I, Helen Zaltzman, quell anxiety and calm brain frenzies by replacing your interior monologue with...
Tuesday 18 August 2020 : After yet another spell of the British press and politicians using very dehumanising and derogatory rhetoric about migrants, I felt it...
Thursday 30 July 2020 : It’s great when you coin a phrase that really resonates with people, right? Until they start using it for businesses and ventures that are...
Tuesday 14 July 2020 : The Yiddish word for ‘black’ is, in certain uses, a slur. So Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell, Arun Viswanath and Jonah Boyarin teamed up...
Friday 03 July 2020 : When the Europeans arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand, as well as guns, stoats and Christianity, they brought ideas of cisgender monogamous...
Monday 15 June 2020 : The Scots language didn’t have much of an LGBTQ+ lexicon. So writer and performer Dr Harry Josephine Giles decided to create one. Find...
Wednesday 03 June 2020 : The word ‘pornography’ arrived in English in the 1840s so upper class male archaeologists could talk about the sexual art they found in...
Saturday 16 May 2020 : Twenty years ago, a 1939 poster printed by the British government with the words ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ turned up in a second-hand...
Monday 13 April 2020 : This is the Tranquillusionist, in which I, Helen Zaltzman, in the interests of temporarily trying to stop that feeling where you think your...
Saturday 04 April 2020 : This is the Tranquillusionist, in which I, Helen Zaltzman, for the purposes of calming a frazzled brain, read the winners of Best In Show at...
Sunday 22 March 2020 : This is the Tranquillusionist, in which I, Helen Zaltzman, for the purposes of quelling anxiety and stress and sleeplessness, read the...
Tuesday 17 March 2020 : We interrupt the Allusionist break to bring an emergency calming episode. I asked you listeners which words you find soothing. Here they...
The Allusionist
Helen Zaltzman
133. Cake is Mighter than the Sword
Explicit content
What to do to stick it to the powers that be? Send your message through something they really care about: cake. In Buenos Aires, local tour...
132. Additions and Losses
"Sometimes I've heard people talk about losing a child and people say it's like losing a limb. And as someone who's lost both things, I just...
131. Podlingual
Explicit content
In their podcasts Mija and Moonface, Lory Martinez and James Kim create autobiographical fiction in multiple languages. There are a few...
130. Valentine
St Valentine's name may nowadays be all over the romance-related merch for 14 February, but he was also the patron saint of beekeepers,...
129. Sorry
Apologies are such important verbal transactions. So why are so many of them soooo bad? Susan McCarthy and Marjorie Ingall from SorryWatch...
128. Bonus 2020
To round off the year, here are some choice cuts from the Allusionist vault of interesting things that guests said that there wasn’t room...
127. A Festive Hit for 2020
Explicit content
The usual canon of Christmas songs may not really fit people's moods in this year 2020, when I'm not sure a lot of us are feeling all that...
126. Survival: Custodians of the Languages
In Australia, there were hundreds, perhaps thousands, of languages. Until English arrived. Rudi Bremer and Karina Lester talk about the...
125. Swearalong Quiz
Explicit content
Fill your lungs and get ready to shout out some profane answers: it’s the Swearlusionist Swearalong Quiz! Every answer is a swear word....
124. Nightmare
Explicit content
This is the Alloooooooooosionist, in which we learn about the etymology of some scary words for Halloween, with the help of Paul Bae of The...
123. Celebrity
Celebrity used to mean a solemn occasion; X factor was algebraic; and fame was a huge terrifying Godzilla-like beast with many many...
122. Ghostwriter
Explicit content
The word for ‘ghostwriter’ in French is a racist slur. How did THAT come about? And what word could French-speakers use instead? Ngofeen...
121. No Title
Explicit content
In 2014, a seemingly trivial and boring incident at the bank propelled me down a linguistic road via medieval werewolves, Ms Marvel and...
Tranquillusionist: Home and Garden
This is the Tranquillusionist, in which I, Helen Zaltzman, quell anxiety and calm brain frenzies by replacing your interior monologue with...
The Away Team redux
After yet another spell of the British press and politicians using very dehumanising and derogatory rhetoric about migrants, I felt it...
120. Shine Theory
It’s great when you coin a phrase that really resonates with people, right? Until they start using it for businesses and ventures that are...
119. Blood Is Not Water
The Yiddish word for ‘black’ is, in certain uses, a slur. So Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell, Arun Viswanath and Jonah Boyarin teamed up...
118. Survival: Bequest
Explicit content
When the Europeans arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand, as well as guns, stoats and Christianity, they brought ideas of cisgender monogamous...
117. 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. Find...
116. My Dad Excavated A Porno
Explicit content
The word ‘pornography’ arrived in English in the 1840s so upper class male archaeologists could talk about the sexual art they found in...
115. Keep Calm and
Twenty years ago, a 1939 poster printed by the British government with the words ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ turned up in a second-hand...
Tranquillusionist: Punchlines
This is the Tranquillusionist, in which I, Helen Zaltzman, in the interests of temporarily trying to stop that feeling where you think your...
Tranquillusionist: Best In Show
This is the Tranquillusionist, in which I, Helen Zaltzman, for the purposes of calming a frazzled brain, read the winners of Best In Show at...
Tranquillusionist: Nmiigea
This is the Tranquillusionist, in which I, Helen Zaltzman, for the purposes of quelling anxiety and stress and sleeplessness, read the...
Tranquillusionist: Your Soothing Words
We interrupt the Allusionist break to bring an emergency calming episode. I asked you listeners which words you find soothing. Here they...
