This is possibly my most commonly recommended podcast. Time and time again I listen to an episode and I’m blown away by what I’m learning and feeling.

In my venn diagram, it sits very firmly in the cognition and communication bubbles. In fact, it’s likely a large part of why these themes are constantly in my mind and feel so important to analyse and consider.

Take the latest episode that I’ve listened to as an example (and if you’ve never listened then use this as a good place to start). Allusionist 190: Craters:

When PhD student Annie Lennox discovered a crater on Mercury, she got the chance to name it. Which sent her on a bigger space mission.

While the episode is about the naming of creators on celestial bodies and is very interesting for that reason alone, the mission that Annie Lennox goes on, the history that she uncovers, and the modern day resistance to her learnings are amazing and infuriating all at once.

This is such a good example of how important it is, not just to consider language, but also the history and hierarchy [patriarchy] of the words we use.

‘History is written by the victors’ as they say. Well they also select and define the words and names of everything in existence. Those names, and the authority to decide them, hold immense power. Thank goodness for people like Annie and Helen for revealing (and remedying) the subtle biases and injustices of how language works.