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Lingthusiasm - A podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics

115: The long shadow of Daisy Bates with This Guy Sucked

Lingthusiasm - A podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics

Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne

Science

4.8791 Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2026

⏱️ 61 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What do you do when the only records that remain of a language were made by someone who had absolutely horrendous views of the people who spoke it? In this episode, your host Lauren Gawne gets enthusiastic about a crossover episode with Claire Aubin of This Guy Sucked! Lauren's Guy who Sucked is Daisy Bates, who did a lot of early 20th century work documenting over 100 Indigenous languages in western and southern Australia, while also directly adding to policies and narratives that continue to harm Aboriginal Australians to this day. We talk about Lauren's history with the original archive, how much has changed since Daisy Bates's day, and where linguistics (and society) still has room to improve. Please note that this episode includes reference to deceased Aboriginal Australians, as well as reference to attitudes and actions that are harmful to the self-determination of Aboriginal Australians. Click here for a link to this episode in your podcast player of choice: https://pod.link/1186056137/episode/dGFnOnNvdW5kY2xvdWQsMjAxMDp0cmFja3MvMjMwNDAyODk5Nw Read the transcript here: https://lingthusiasm.com/post/814101160008040448/transcript-episode-115-the-long-shadow-of-daisy Announcements: In this month’s bonus episode we get enthusiastic about the second half of our interview with Kory Stamper about her book on defining colour words, and this half contains spoilers!! We talk with Kory about how she learned about Margaret Godlove and many other women whose labour has been forgotten in early colour science and dictionary making. Join us on Patreon now to get access to this and 100+ other bonus episodes. You’ll also get access to the Lingthusiasm Discord server where you can chat with other language nerds: https://patreon.com/posts/153313989 For links to things mentioned in this episode:https: https://lingthusiasm.com/post/814100919507730432/lingthusiasm-episode-115-the-long-shadow-of-daisy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome to Lingthusiasm, a podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics.

0:22.4

I'm Gretchen McCulloch.

0:23.5

And I'm Lauren Gorn.

0:24.7

And today we're getting enthusiastic about the complicated legacy of linguistic data

0:28.4

collected by problematic people with This Guy Sucked.

0:31.7

But first, This Guy Sucked is a history podcast who reached out to us about doing a shared episode.

0:36.8

So we had a look and we were like, well, we clearly share an approach to accessible

0:42.4

podcasting that nonetheless has scholarly rigor in it.

0:46.1

But we were like, wait, this guy sucked.

0:48.3

It's for professional haters and we are just really enthusiastic about things.

0:52.1

Claire Orban, who hosts the show, was like, look,

0:54.7

I am also very enthusiastic about hating things. And this is how we learned that there are

1:00.2

sort of two meanings for enthusiastic. One is high energy, and another is high positivity.

1:07.0

Normally on the enthusiasm, we're both. But this was a chance for me to revisit a topic where maybe I don't feel both.

1:14.0

How was life as a temporary hater?

1:17.0

It was very cathartic, actually.

1:19.2

So this episode is a bit more fast and loose than I usually am,

1:22.5

and I discovered that I used the extended form of BS more when I'm really fired up.

1:28.3

So this guy sucked is a fun and unique way to approach history.

1:32.0

And what did this person do that you hate it so much?

1:35.5

Daisy Bates left one of the most important and extensive archives we now have of

1:40.5

Australian Indigenous languages from the early 20th century.

...

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