Episode 133: Antidisestablishmentarianism

第133集:反废除派

the memory palace

2025-09-20

14 分钟
PDF

单集简介 ...

Order The Memory Palace book now, dear listener. On Bookshop.org, on Amazon.com, on Barnes & Noble, or directly from Random House. Or order the audiobook at places like Libro.fm. The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. Radiotopia is a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts that’s a part of PRX, a not-for-profit public media company. If you’d like to directly support this show, you can make a donation at Radiotopia.fm/donate.  This episode was originally released in October of 2018. Music We start with the very English, Voluntary No. 4 in b-flat Minor, by Margaret Phillips. Hear Nero’s Nocturne from Chilly Gonzales. Some of The Stars vs. Creatures by Colleen. Abide with Me from the Thelonious Monk Septet off his Monk’s Music album. Walzer fur Robert by Anne Muller off of Erased Tapes Volume 5. Evening at Eight by Keith Kenniff. and Berceuse by Alexandra Streliski. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
更多

单集文稿 ...

  • This is the Memory Palace.

  • I'm Nate Tameo.

  • There is a word in English that is still alive, that is spoken ever.

  • Merely because it is long.

  • Anti-disestablishmentarianism is the longest word in English language that isn't a scientific term or wasn't coined merely in an attempt to make a longer one.

  • And it is a very English word,

  • rooted in very English politics to describe the factional opposition to those who,

  • in the 19th century,

  • sought to strip the Anglican Church's status as the state church of England, Ireland, and Wales.

  • An obscure struggle for power settled long ago.

  • It is a word that would have been relegated with little lament to brief mentions in brief passages in very English theses gathering dust in very English libraries where it not ripe

  • for rolling out as a fun fact or issuing as a spelling challenge.

  • But despite its length, 12 syllables,

  • two more letters than the English alphabet itself, it's not that hard to spell.

  • You just can't be afraid of it.

  • Just need to trust your knowledge of the rules of English pronunciation and stay focused So you can keep your place and not lose your head

  • as you work your way through building the word letter by letter by letter But that itself can be hard Especially

  • if you are standing in front of your classroom or on some spelling bee stage Maybe a number on a placard on a piece of yarn strung around your neck Or

  • if you are Gloria Lockerman 12 years old A student at Booker T. Washington Middle School in a struggling part of West Baltimore.

  • Wearing a pale yellow dress.