192. Word Play part 2
The Allusionist
Helen Zaltzman
4.7 • 3.8K Ratings
🗓️ 9 April 2024
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode, and the next couple of episodes, are about word games! Today, Joshua Blackburn recounts how his sons' uninspiring English homework led to him inventing the language quiz game League of the Lexicon; and Kathryn Hymes and Hakan Seyalıoğlu of Thorny Games explain how they make topics like language loss and deciphering alien language into creative play.
Get the transcript of this episode, and find links to more information about the topics therein, at theallusionist.org/wordplay2.
Word Play part 1, featuring Leslie Scott from Oxford Games, is nine years down your podfeed.
This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman, with Martin Austwick of palebirdmusic.com. We'll be playing a space-themed show in the planetarium at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver BC on 18 April 2024; get tickets via theallusionist.org/events.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the illusionist, in which I, Helen's Altzman, am checkmated by language. |
| 0:09.0 | This episode and the next couple are about word games. |
| 0:13.2 | Fun! |
| 0:14.1 | Today we'll hear from game makers who've come up with very different approaches |
| 0:18.0 | to making games about language. |
| 0:20.3 | In a way, this is a sequel to the episode featuring Leslie Scott who invented Jenga when she was a teen and has since made dozens of other games |
| 0:27.7 | including the Word games ex-liberies |
| 0:29.7 | Anagram and Flummoxed. That was episode 16 of the show. So we're operating on a before |
| 0:37.0 | sunset sequel speed. By the way, if you're in the UK you can listen to this show on BBC Sounds and you know who else is on there? |
| 0:47.5 | The infinite monkey cage, the show hosted by Brian Cox, the celebrity physicist one, the Succession and Manhunter One, and comedian |
| 0:54.9 | Robin Ince, and guess what? My first ever professional radio recording was with none other |
| 1:00.8 | than Robin Ince's 19 years ago. |
| 1:04.1 | Wow. |
| 1:05.3 | And just look at him now. |
| 1:06.7 | Okay, listen to him now on the infinite monkey cage, |
| 1:09.5 | the show wherein scientists and comedians |
| 1:12.2 | look at science in a comedic way and consider matter dark and |
| 1:16.3 | non-dark like the creatures that live in the deepest depths of the oceans and how illusions |
| 1:21.4 | work on our credulous human minds and whether fish can count and how big is big data exactly and why do we laugh and what do astronauts really get up to in space. |
| 1:31.0 | Episodes are released on Wednesdays wherever you get your |
| 1:34.4 | your podcasts, but if you're in the UK you can listen to the latest |
| 1:38.3 | episodes a week early on BBC Sounds. Speaking of astronauts on on the 18th of April 2024 there is a |
... |
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