We talked to Dr. Karen Carr about the global history of swimming — in myth, folktale, and history. Who swam, who didn’t, and how do the stories different cultures told reflect these patterns? We also talked a bit about Dr. Carr’s next book, all about silver, women, and textiles. Dr. Carr’s academic website Dr. Carr’s history website and blog, Quatr.us Transcript of this episode This episode on YouTube Our Patreon page Redbubble store This podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License The Endless Knot RSS ..read more

We discuss the language and history of the ecological sciences, all the way back to the ancient Greeks, and the development of the food chain and food web models of ecological systems. And apologies for the unscheduled hiatus! Golden Chain Cocktail Food Web video Cuckold video and podcast Frank N. Egerton. “A History of the Ecological Sciences: Early Greek Origins”, Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 82.1 (2001): 93-97 ———, “A History of the Ecological Sciences, Part 2: Aristotle and Theophrastos”, BESA 82.2 (2001): 149-152 ———, “A History of the Ecological Sciences, Part 3: Helleni ..read more

We talk to Melanie Racette-Campbell about her new book, “The Crisis of Masculinity in the Age of Augustus”, and discuss why Roman elite men were particularly vulnerable to a societal transformation that changed their role in the state. What did it mean to be a good man in ancient Rome, and how and why did that change? Melanie’s book is available here Transcript of this episode This episode on YouTube Our Patreon page Redbubble store This podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License The Endless Knot RSS ..read more

The word “chauvinism” is an unlikely eponym, but it turns out that the story behind it has all sorts of interesting connections. And our discussion of those connections also leads us into the long history of misogyny in the western world, from Eve and Pandora to the Virgin Mary, courtly love, and Victorian womanhood. Cocktail: Pandora’s Jar, from Nectar of the Gods “By Jingo” song Hesiod’s Works and Days Hesiod’s Theogony Semonides 7 Transcript of this episode This episode on YouTube Our Patreon page Redbubble store This podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike ..read more

We look at the history of English’s conceptualization of time, and update Mark’s research on spatiotemporal metaphor. Also, words for arrows, the surprising origin of ‘toxic’, and a bit of Latin poetry! Blue Arrow cocktail Bow and Arrow cocktail Transcript of this episode This episode on YouTube Our Patreon page Redbubble store This podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License The Endless Knot RSS ..read more

We spoke to Dr. Valerie Fridland about her new book, “Like, Literally, Dude!” and talked about the fascinating role that many ‘errors’ in English speech actually play in communication. We discuss the never-ending changes that English has gone through, the surprisingly sophisticated rules behind our use of ‘um’ and ‘uh’, and much more. Dr. Valerie Fridland’s website Like, Literally, Dude! Transcript of this episode This episode on YouTube Our Patreon page Redbubble store This podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License The Endless Knot RSS ..read more

It’s Part 2 of our mega-episode on spelling! This time, we get into some of the notorious mismatches between English spelling and modern English pronunciation. Explaining them takes us all the way back to Phoenician — several times — but maybe, just maybe, some bits of this odd language will make more sense to you when we’re done! The XYZ Cocktail Our video on “Spelling” Christopher Upward & George Davidson, The History of English Spelling (2001) David Sacks, Letter Perfect (2003) Kevin Stroud, The History of the Alphabet (audiobook) NativLang “Thoth’s Pill - an Animated History of Writing ..read more

We’re wading into the messy world of English spelling in this episode — the first of two, since we couldn’t fit all of the ‘quirks’ of the language into one episode. The history of orthography in English is all tangled up with the history of the alphabet, so in this part we trace some of the twists and turns that resulted in our modern script. The ABC Cocktail Our video on “Spelling” Christopher Upward & George Davidson, The History of English Spelling (2001) David Sacks, Letter Perfect (2003) Kevin Stroud, The History of the Alphabet (audiobook) NativLang “Thoth’s Pill - an Animated Histo ..read more

In this bonus episode, we answer questions from viewers and listeners during a livestream on our YouTube channel, as part of #LingFest23. Apologies for the sound quality, which isn’t great. Also, sorry that we didn’t manage a regular episode in February, but we’ll definitely have one in March. LingComm23 LingFest @AllEndlessKnot@toot.community Transcript of this episode This episode on YouTube Our Patreon page Redbubble store This podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License The Endless Knot RSS ..read more

Just a reminder that we’ll be doing a Q&A livestream on our YouTube channel as part of LingFest in connection to the LingComm23 Conference on Sunday, February 12, 2023 at 1:00pm Eastern. Please leave us your questions on this website, email us, or post on social media, or just show up on the day at the livestream. The livestream will be here, just click on Sunday afternoon to join in ..read more