130 episodes

Aven & Mark discuss etymology, history, literature, language, and cocktails, and the sometimes surprising connections between them all.

The Endless Knot Mark Sundaram & Aven McMaster

    • History

Aven & Mark discuss etymology, history, literature, language, and cocktails, and the sometimes surprising connections between them all.

    Swimming in History, with Karen Carr

    Swimming in History, with Karen Carr

    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.

    • 59 min
    An Ecological Chain

    An Ecological Chain

    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!

    • 1 hr 34 min
    A Brief History of Misogyny

    A Brief History of Misogyny

    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
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    • 1 hr 21 min
    A Brief History of Misogyny

    A Brief History of Misogyny

    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
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    • 1 hr 21 min
    A Quiverful of Time Arrows

    A Quiverful of Time Arrows

    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
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    • 1 hr 25 min
    Like, Literally, Dude! with Valerie Fridland

    Like, Literally, Dude! with Valerie Fridland

    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!
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    • 1 hr 25 min

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