Adventures in language with Helen Zaltzman. TheAllusionist.org
Welcome to four letter word season! We're kicking off with one of the most versatile words: it can be a... more
Hello! It's me, your real imaginary friend, Helen Zaltzman. Someone wrote to me recently saying, “I haven't seen a new... more
Happy tenth birthday to this show! To celebrate, here's every randomly selected word from the dictionary from the first decade... more
It's the annual parade of Bonus Bits - things this year's guests said that I couldn't fit into their episodes,... more
In Lexicat part 1, we met the author Mary Robinette Kowal and her cat Elsie, and learned about how they... more
Elsie the cat has a set of 120 buttons programmed with words. She uses them to lie, swear, apologise, express... more
In 15th and 16th century Scotland, in the highest courts of the land, you'd find esteemed poets hurling insults at... more
There's so much more to say about Singlish after last episode that we're saying some more of it this episode.... more
"If you grow up being told that one of your first languages, Singlish, is actually a bad version of an... more
This is the Tranquillusionist, in which I, Helen Zaltzman, give your brain a break by temporarily supplanting your interior monologue... more