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The Allusionist

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A PODCAST ABOUT LANGUAGE
BY HELEN ZALTZMAN

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The Allusionist

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Allusionist 144. Aro Ace

October 26, 2021 The Allusionist

The word 'asexual' has been used by humans describing themselves for several decades; 'aromantic' is newer. Both words enable people to voice identities that were unacknowledged for centuries, to find each other and build communities together, and to provide counternarratives to what the allosexuals are pushing.

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In episodes Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, etymology, lexicon, vocabulary, Helen Zaltzman, history, asexual, aromantic, ace, aro, AVEN, AUREA, Lewis Brown, LGBTQIAA, queer, sex, romance, relationships, sexuality, aspec, emotions, online, forums, communities, bisexual, aromanticism, gray sexual, demisexual, perioriented, varioriented, Plato, Ancient Greece, Greek, cake, dragons, obelus, LGBTQIA+, LGBTQIA, queerness

Allusionist 134. Lacuna

April 9, 2021 The Allusionist
A134 Lacuna logo.png

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 with a sorry mess that tasted disgustingly salty, it wasn't your fault. What you thought was a recipe was actually a message from the newspaper that they were being censored.

Designer and researcher Crystian Cruz opens up the TOP SECRET files, to share the fake weather reports, single nipples vs a pair, soap opera characters getting bumped off, and the problems with kung fu.

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In episodes Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, etymology, lexicon, vocabulary, Brazil, South America, Crystian Cruz, censorship, censors, dictatorship, military, press, media, newspapers, magazines, cake, recipes, food, soap operas, books, nipples, printing, journalism, news, films, movies, kung fu, poems, poetry, metachrosis

Allusionist 133. Cake is Mightier than the Sword

March 26, 2021 The Allusionist
A133 Cake is Mightier than the Sword logo.jpeg

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 guides Madi Lang and Juan Palacios introduce me to priest's balls and little cannons, the pastries laced with the sweet taste of 1880s trade union protests.

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In episodes Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, etymology, lexicon, vocabulary, Argentina, Buenos Aires, 19th century, history, politics, cake, pastries, pastry, treats, anarchy, protest, unions, strikes, industrial action, graham crackers, Sylvester Graham, Shirley Temple, eponyms, pineapples, food, drink, freedom fries, french fries, dachshunds, sauerkraut, World War One, First World War, Iraq War, USA, UK, France, French, Paris, law, facturas, cueca virada, ganache, fedora, Taiwan, Arnold Palmer, John Daly, Bob Ney, Walter B Jones, Ettore Mattei, Errico Malatesta, Paul Siraudin, Victorien Sardou, playwrights, confectionary, police, cops, law enforcement, vigilante, cañoncitas, libritos, bolas de fraile, priest’s balls, borborygmus
Allusionist Patreon
Featured
Allusionist 210: 4x4x4 Quiz
Allusionist 210: 4x4x4 Quiz
queer playlist
Allusionist 209: Serving C-Bomb
Allusionist 209: Serving C-Bomb
feed bullshit
Allusionist 208: Ffff
Allusionist 208: Ffff
WhatsApp Image 2025-04-27 at 23.06.37.jpeg
several bits of news! (nothing bad)
Allusionist 207: Randomly Selected Words from the Dictionary
Allusionist 207: Randomly Selected Words from the Dictionary
Allusionist 206. Bonus 2024
Allusionist 206. Bonus 2024
A Christmas Carollusionist
A Christmas Carollusionist
Allusionist 205. Lexicat, part 2: now with added Dog
Allusionist 205. Lexicat, part 2: now with added Dog
Festivelusionists
Allusionist 204. Lexicat, part 1
Allusionist 204. Lexicat, part 1
Allusionist 203. Flyting
Allusionist 203. Flyting
Allusionist 202: Singlish Singlish
Allusionist 202: Singlish Singlish
Allusionist 201: Singlish
Allusionist 201: Singlish
Creative Commons Licence
The Allusionist by Helen Zaltzman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.