139 Ladybird Ladybug
The Allusionist
Helen Zaltzman
4.7 • 3.8K Ratings
🗓️ 12 July 2021
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
They're not ladies and they're not birds; they're not even technically bugs! But that's not the most surprising thing about ladybirds/ladybugs and their brilliant variety of names. Tamsin Majerus AKA Dr Ladybird explains why ladybirds are so great; and Johanna Mayer and Elah Feder of the podcast Science Diction, about words and the science stories behind them, consider what's in a (ladybird) name.
This episode is one half of a collaboration with Science Diction, so go to their feed to listen to their episode It’ll Never Fly, where they set me a quiz about the outlandish and intriguing names given to fruitfly genes.
There's more about this episode, and a transcript, at theallusionist.org/ladybird.
The music is by Martin Austwick. Hear Martin’s own songs at palebirdmusic.com or search for Pale Bird on Bandcamp and Spotify, and he’s @martinaustwick on Twitter and Instagram.
Sign up to be a patron at patreon.com/allusionist and as well as supporting the show, you get discounted tickets to the upcoming Allusionist live show on 4 September 2021, plus the story of my all too brief spell of having a loveliness of pet ladybirds.
The Allusionist's online home is theallusionist.org. Stay in touch at twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow and instagram.com/allusionistshow.
Support the show: http://patreon.com/allusionist
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is the illusionist in which I, Helen Zoltzman, and taught by language how to do the |
| 0:08.8 | bend and snap changed my life. |
| 0:12.1 | This episode is all about a creature that has so many names. |
| 0:17.3 | In British English, a ladybird, American English, a ladybug, that's just for starters. |
| 0:22.7 | This episode is a crossover with the podcast Science Diction from WNYC. |
| 0:26.7 | It's about words and the science stories behind them. |
| 0:30.3 | And if you go to their feed, you can hear me on their episode called It'll Never Fly, |
| 0:35.2 | all about the names of fruit fly genes which are very creative. |
| 0:39.2 | So here that on the Science Diction feed and here us now talking about ladybugs, ladybugs, |
| 0:43.4 | ladybugs, ladybugs, I'll code switch. |
| 0:45.6 | On with the show. |
| 0:46.6 | I am Johanna Mayer. |
| 0:55.4 | I host the Science Diction podcast. |
| 0:57.6 | I am Ella Federer and I am the senior producer for podcasts at Science Friday. |
| 1:04.9 | Say you have to name a creature. |
| 1:08.5 | It's little maybe quarter of an inch long. |
| 1:11.0 | It's sort of hemispherical. |
| 1:12.8 | It's probably a bright color with some dots on it. |
| 1:16.1 | What would you call it? |
| 1:17.6 | All right, all right. |
| 1:19.8 | Bright hemispherical quarter of a centimeter long? |
| 1:24.4 | A quarter of an inch spotty. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Helen Zaltzman, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Helen Zaltzman and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.