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Aven & Mark discuss etymology, history, literature, language, and cocktails, and the sometimes surprising connections between them all.
An apology for absence, some personal news, and the guests coming in the next few months. Transcript of this episode This episode on YouTube...
Grace Tierney is back with another great book about the word origins, this time “Words Christmas Gave Us"! She regales us with festive stori...
We spoke with Dr. Anne Curzan about her new book, “Says Who? A Kinder, Funner Usage Guide for Everyone Who Cares about Words”. We talk about...
Buried deep under volcanic ash lie hundreds of burnt scrolls containing texts from the first century. A new project is driving the work to t...
We talked to Dr. Karen Carr about the global history of swimming — in myth, folktale, and history. Who swam, who didn’t, and how do the stor...
We discuss the language and history of the ecological sciences, all the way back to the ancient Greeks, and the development of the food chai...
We talk to Melanie Racette-Campbell about her new book, “The Crisis of Masculinity in the Age of Augustus”, and discuss why Roman elite men...
The word “chauvinism” is an unlikely eponym, but it turns out that the story behind it has all sorts of interesting connections. And our dis...
We look at the history of English’s conceptualization of time, and update Mark’s research on spatiotemporal metaphor. Also, words for arrows...
We spoke to Dr. Valerie Fridland about her new book, “Like, Literally, Dude!” and talked about the fascinating role that many ‘errors’ in En...
It’s Part 2 of our mega-episode on spelling! This time, we get into some of the notorious mismatches between English spelling and modern Eng...
We’re wading into the messy world of English spelling in this episode — the first of two, since we couldn’t fit all of the ‘quirks’ of the l...
In this bonus episode, we answer questions from viewers and listeners during a livestream on our YouTube channel, as part of #LingFest23. Ap...
Just a reminder that we’ll be doing a Q&A livestream on our YouTube channel as part of LingFest in connection to the LingComm23 Conference o...
In this episode we talk to the authors of two new books on Ovid’s Metamorphoses , the Latin epic poem he wrote in 8 CE. Stephanie McCarter h...
As we get ready to mark the new year, it seems a good time to talk about a classic cocktail made with sparkling wine: the Bellini. Our conve...
We welcome back Paul Anthony Jones, of Haggard Hawks fame, to ell us about his new book “Why Is This a Question?”. We talk about how his exp...
We talk about the origins of music, its connection (both etymological and scientific) with the mind, how language is used to describe and te...
We spoke with Tim Brooks of the Endangered Alphabets project about the cultural importance of scripts, the pressures on marginalized and iso...
Commemorating the 6th anniversary of the death of Mark’s father, and the 75th anniversary of Indian independence, this episode connects wido...
We have a very fun conversation with Dr. Natalie Swain about her work on classical reception and the polar regions — the Arctic and Antarcti...
We’re talking all about the future in this episode — and if we even have one (in English). This is a topic near and dear to Mark’s heart, an...
This episode we have a fascinating conversation with classicist, dramatug, and translator Emma Pauly about all things Dionysian, Greek trage...
It’s time for some Old Norse, sagas, and daring Viking explorers! In this episode we talk to author Grace Tierney about her newest book, Wor...
It’s April Fool’s Day, and time for the annual Podcast Switcheroo, where podcasters trade episodes to give their audience something a little...
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! In this episode we talk about the saint’s history, then dig into the potato — its etymology, its history, and how...
We’re talking about bread again! This time, about ancient Greek bread — its vocabulary, the many types of bread and how they were made, and...
We start off the new year with a three-part discussion of statistics, insurance, stocks, astrologers, coffee, and more. We also trace some o...
Our hundredth episode! We’re celebrating reaching three digits — and more than 6 years — with a whole bunch of our podcasting friends! These...
We talked to Jeremy Swist about his work on the reception of antiquity in heavy metal music. He discussed the ways the genre looks to the pa...
It’s Halloween, and the monsters are out! In this episode we tackle Monster Theory (as formulated by J.J. Cohen) , examine the linguistic an...
We speak to Bet Hucks about Roman importation and love of Egyptian art and other cultural material, the importance of thinking about materia...
What do you think the earliest English word was? How could we possibly look for such a thing, and what do the possible options tell us about...
It’s time for a reckoning! Or, to be more accurate, a number of reckonings. We talk to Dr. Stephen Chrisomalis, a linguistic anthropologist...
We talked to Isobel Williams about her fascinating and illuminating new translation of selected poems of Catullus, illustrated with her draw...
A day after Independence Day in the US, we investigate the history of the name “America” and two related cocktails, with some side trips int...
This episode is being released for Canada Day, but it’s not a celebration. This year, even more than most, we feel that this day needs to be...
We talk to Dr. Victoria Austen about Roman gardens. What defines a garden? Where were the gardens at Rome, and what were they for? How did R...
We talk about the history of the book, the reading habits of the ancient Romans, the pliability of sheep skins, and the mechanisms of semant...
This year for April Fool's Day we're taking part in a podcast switcheroo where podcasters are trading episodes to introduce their audiences...
We speak to Dr. Carolyn Willekes about horses in antiquity: their development and domestication, their use in warfare, their training and br...
Aven: Hi everyone. This isn't a regular episode of the Endless Knot podcast. Just a quick announcement. Mark: I wanted to let you all know a...
We talk about the etymology of “Etymology” itself, and then discuss the basics of historical linguistics, including Grimm’s Law, Verner’s La...
This episode is all about Alexander the Great, and especially about his reception by later Greeks & Romans, the middle ages, and modern popu...
Happy holidays! In this seasonal episode we discuss the origins of the modern Western calendar, the names of the months and days of the week...
It’s election night 2020 in the US, and our video from 4 years ago about the language of politics is relevant once again. We discuss the cha...
n this episode we go from the origin of the world to the many uses of olive oil, with discussions of Roman mosaics, and trademark law along...
Back in June we had the pleasure of being part of the Intelligent Speech Conference 2020 — this year, held entirely online. It was a day fil...
It’s time for us to talk about plagues — ancient, medieval, literary, etymological, and psychological! We’re joined by Moxie from Your Brain...
In an episode that was recorded in late May before the protests started, we took a break from COVID talk to give our thoughts on the final m...