The Allusionist
Helen Zaltzman
The Allusionist
Helen Zaltzman
Friday 10 September 2021 : Quiz time! Samin Nosrat and Hrishikesh Hirway of Home Cooking podcast join to deliver questions about food etymology, as well as what are...
Monday 30 August 2021 : We use verbal numbers and we use numerals - why do we need both? Why do we have the ones we have? What happened to Roman numerals? And...
Saturday 14 August 2021 : This is the Tranquillusionist, in which I, Helen Zaltzman, read all the salads from the 1950 recipe book 282 Ways of Making a Salad, with...
Monday 12 July 2021 : They're not ladies and they're not birds; they're not even technically bugs! But that's not the most surprising thing about...
Sunday 27 June 2021 : Crazy, insane, nuts, mad, bonkers, psycho, schizo, OCD - casual vocabulary is strewn with mental health terms, but perhaps shouldn't be?...
Thursday 10 June 2021 : Exclamation; sign of agreement OR disapproval; gendered, but circumstantially gender-neutral; term of endearment: 'dude' can do it all! But...
Friday 28 May 2021 : “It's hard to address something if you can't actually name what it is,” says Moya Bailey, who coined a term that enables people to...
Friday 14 May 2021 : SOS is a really versatile distress call. You can shout it; you can tap it out in Morse code; you can honk it on a horn; you can signal it...
Friday 23 April 2021 : It’s August 2007. Lauren Marks is a 27-year-old actor and a PhD student, spending the month directing a play at the Edinburgh Fringe...
Saturday 10 April 2021 : If you were in Brazil during the military dictatorship of 1964-1985, tried to bake a cake from a recipe in the newspaper, and were served...
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...
The Allusionist
Helen Zaltzman
141. Food Quiz
Quiz time! Samin Nosrat and Hrishikesh Hirway of Home Cooking podcast join to deliver questions about food etymology, as well as what are...
Allusionist 140. Num8er5
We use verbal numbers and we use numerals - why do we need both? Why do we have the ones we have? What happened to Roman numerals? And...
Tranquillusionist: 282 Salads
This is the Tranquillusionist, in which I, Helen Zaltzman, read all the salads from the 1950 recipe book 282 Ways of Making a Salad, with...
139 Ladybird Ladybug
They're not ladies and they're not birds; they're not even technically bugs! But that's not the most surprising thing about...
138. Mind My Mind
Crazy, insane, nuts, mad, bonkers, psycho, schizo, OCD - casual vocabulary is strewn with mental health terms, but perhaps shouldn't be?...
137. Dude
Explicit content
Exclamation; sign of agreement OR disapproval; gendered, but circumstantially gender-neutral; term of endearment: 'dude' can do it all! But...
136. Misogynoir
“It's hard to address something if you can't actually name what it is,” says Moya Bailey, who coined a term that enables people to...
135. SOS
SOS is a really versatile distress call. You can shout it; you can tap it out in Morse code; you can honk it on a horn; you can signal it...
Allusionist: Eclipse+
Explicit content
It’s August 2007. Lauren Marks is a 27-year-old actor and a PhD student, spending the month directing a play at the Edinburgh Fringe...
134. Lacuna
If you were in Brazil during the military dictatorship of 1964-1985, tried to bake a cake from a recipe in the newspaper, and were served...
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...
