226. Suburbia
"The word ‘suburbia’ sort of evokes a very fixed idea of a place that is identikit, that all suburbs are the same, that within the suburb ev...
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The Allusionist
Linguistic adventures with Helen Zaltzman, TheAllusionist.org. A proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. Learn more at radiotopia.fm.
The Allusionist Podcast Guide
Listen to The Allusionist, a Arts podcast by Helen Zaltzman. Stream 247 episodes in English, follow new audio stories, and play episodes online on Radio and Podcast.
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Browse this show under Arts podcasts.
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Episodes
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225. Hues
You know what's an absolutely pesky kind of word to define in a dictionary? Colour names. A passel of lexicographers spent years - decades,...
224. Cosmic Hairball
Pack your oxygen tank, we're going to space. There’s a lot of etymology up there. Visit theallusionist.org/cosmic-hairball for more informat...
223. Bonus 2025
It's the annual parade of Bonus Bits! Every year, the show's guests say too many interesting things and/or stuff that isn't languagey enough...
222. A Christmas Carol
Today, we read the novelisation of The Muppet Christmas Carol, also known as the 1843 festive lit hit A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens....
221. Scribe
"I have never felt so naked. That's how exposed I felt at the idea that my handwriting was going to be seen by the world," says Tim Brookes,...
220. Disobedience
“The more we look into social structures, the more many of us realize we don't fit into them," says So Mayer, author of the new book Bad Lan...
219. Making Trouble
A change of scene for one episode: recently the brilliant poet and performer Molly Naylor interviewed me for her podcast Making Trouble, abo...
218. Banned Books
It's Banned Books Week. Honorary youth chair Iris Mogul and Sam Helmick, president of the American Library Association, talk about what it i...
217. Bread and Roses, and Coffee
In their heyday of the 1970s and 1980s, there were more than 200 - possibly more than 400 - feminist restaurants and coffee shops in the USA...
216. Four Letter Words: Terisk
Watching the film Legally Blonde one day with the subtitles on, numerous perfectly innocuous words were partially asterisked out, because of...
215. Two-Letter Words
Listener Erica commented: "Perhaps an idea for a bonus ep of Four Letter Word season would be one on two-letter words: there’s an establishe...
214. Four Letter Words: Bane Bain Bath
For today’s instalment of Four Letter Word season, we’re hopping from ‘bane’ to ‘bain’ to ‘bath’, via poison gardens, doll’s eyes, alchemist...
213. Four Letter Words: Dino
The latest four letter word of Four Letter Word season is dino. 'Dinosaur' is derived from Greek 'terrible lizard', and they could have call...
212. Four Letter Words: Park
Get in, winner: we're going on a field trip. We're spending the day in five of Vancouver's city parks with Justin McElroy, Municipal Affairs...
211. Four Letter Words: -gate
The other day was the 53rd anniversary of the break-in at the Watergate Hotel, which not only caused a lot of political uproar, it had a big...
210. Four Letter Words: 4x4x4 Quiz
Four Letter Word season continues with a quiz (which is a four-letter word itself) about four letter words. Test your etymological knowledge...
209. Four Letter Words: Serving C-bomb
Ten years ago, on the fourth episode of the show, I investigated why the C-word is considered a worse swear than the others. Since then - we...
208. Four Letter Words: 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, expostulati...
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....
Questions About The Allusionist
Where can I listen to The Allusionist episodes?
You can listen to The Allusionist episodes online on Radio and Podcast. Open an episode and the site player will stream the available audio.
What is The Allusionist about?
The Allusionist is listed as a Arts show. The show language is listed as English.
How many The Allusionist episodes are listed?
This page lists 247 episodes for The Allusionist. More episodes are available from the View more button when the list continues.
Quick Answers About The Allusionist
Where can I listen to The Allusionist?
You can listen to The Allusionist episodes on this page by opening an episode and using the site player.
What type of podcast is The Allusionist?
The Allusionist is listed as a Arts show by Helen Zaltzman.
How many episodes are available?
This page lists 247 episodes for The Allusionist where feed data is available.