This week, Susie and Gyles explore fragrances and scents. Join us as we inhale the sweet aromas of people and places...

We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us on our email address here: [email protected]

Want even more purple, people? Join the Purple Plus Club by clicking the banner in Apple podcasts or head to purpleplusclub.com to listen on other platforms'

Don’t forget that you can join us in person at our upcoming tour, tap the link to find tickets: www.somethingrhymeswithpurple.com 

Enjoy Susie’s Trio for the week: 

Acang: To act foolishly, lose self-control.

Anythingarian: One who professes no creed in particular; an indifferentist.

Coleworts: Old news. Literally, a cabbage-like plant. From the proverb for “old news,” “coleworts twice sodden’.

Gyles' poem this week was 'Home Thoughts, From Abroad' by Richard Browning

Oh, to be in England

Now that April's there,

And whoever wakes in England

Sees, some morning, unaware,

That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf

Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,

While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough

In England—now!

And after April, when May follows,

And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!

Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge

Leans to the field and scatters on the clover

Blossoms and dewdrops—at the bent spray's edge—

That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,

Lest you should think he never could recapture

The first fine careless rapture!

And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,

All will be gay when noontide wakes anew

The buttercups, the little children's dower

—Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower! 

A Sony Music Entertainment production.  

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts  

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected] 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

*Cough cough*... This week Susie and Gyles explore the language of diseases. From Cholera to Mumps, and Malaria to Influenza, they have you covered.

Also, we reveal the WINNERS of our 'To Dent' and 'To Brandreth' competition!

We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us on our email address here: [email protected]

Want even more purple, people? Join the Purple Plus Club by clicking the banner in Apple podcasts or head to purpleplusclub.com to listen on other platforms'

Don’t forget that you can join us in person at our upcoming tour, tap the link to find tickets: www.somethingrhymeswithpurple.com 

Enjoy Susie’s Trio for the week: 

Shackbaggerly: Disordered and unkempt.

Komorebi (Japanese): The patterns cast by sunlight filtering through trees.

Gruttling (old East Anglian dialect): A strange, inexplicable noise.

Gyles' poem this week was 'Sick Room' by Billy Collins

Every time Canaletto painted Venice

he painted her from a different angle,

sometimes from point of view

he must have imagined,

for there is no place in the city

he could have stood and observed such scenes.

How ingenious of him to visualise

a dome or canal from any point in space.

How passionate he was

to delineate Venice from perspectives

that required him to mount the air

and levitate there with his floating brush.

But I have been sick in this bed

for over sixty hours,

and I am not Canaletto,

and this airless little room,

with its broken ceiling fan

and it monstrous wallpaper, is not Venice.

A Sony Music Entertainment production.  

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts  

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected] 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week, Susie and Gyles unravel the intricate history of dictionaries, those indispensable guides that serve as gateways to language. From ancient lexicons to modern compendiums, we explore how dictionaries have shaped our understanding of words and the world around us. And Gyles lets us know how his weight lifting is going...

We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us on our email address here: [email protected]

Want even more purple, people? Join the Purple Plus Club by clicking the banner in Apple podcasts or head to purpleplusclub.com to listen on other platforms'

Don’t forget that you can join us in person at our upcoming tour, tap the link to find tickets: www.somethingrhymeswithpurple.com 

Enjoy Susie’s Trio for the week: 

Idioticon : A dialect dictionary.

Limbeck: To rack the brain and exhaust yourself in an effort to come up with a new idea.

Proggle: To poke, prod, or grubble about.

Gyles' poem this week was 'Shakespeare at School' by Wendy Cope

Forty boys on benches with their quills

Six days a week through almost all the year,

Long hours of Latin with relentless drills

And repetition, all enforced by fear.

I picture Shakespeare sitting near the back,

Indulging in a risky bit of fun

By exercising his prodigious knack

Of thinking up an idiotic pun,

And whispering his gem to other boys,

Some of whom could not suppress their mirth –

Behaviour that unfailingly annoys

Any teacher anywhere on earth.

The fun was over when the master spoke:

Will Shakespeare, come up here and share the joke.

A Sony Music Entertainment production.  

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts  

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected] 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week Susie and Gyles get lost in the world of nonsensical language, and embrace the weird, wacky and wonderful ways the English language can be.

Your favourite duo also pay homage to the masters of nonsensical language – Dr. Seuss, whose fantastical worlds and playful rhymes have enchanted generations of readers; Spike Milligan, the irreverent genius known for his zany humor and inventive wordplay; and Edward Lear, the Victorian poet and artist renowned for his witty limericks and nonsensical verse.

We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us on our email address here: [email protected]

Want even more purple, people? Join the Purple Plus Club by clicking the banner in Apple podcasts or head to purpleplusclub.com to listen on other platforms'

Don’t forget that you can join us in person at our upcoming tour, tap the link to find tickets: www.somethingrhymeswithpurple.com 

Enjoy Susie’s Trio for the week: 

Spissitude: Thickness or compactness. 

Latescent: Slowly becoming hidden. 

Gronk: Fluff between your toes.

Gyles' poem this week was 'The Owl and the Pussy-Cat' by Edward Lear

I

The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea

   In a beautiful pea-green boat,

They took some honey, and plenty of money,

   Wrapped up in a five-pound note.

The Owl looked up to the stars above,

   And sang to a small guitar,

"O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,

    What a beautiful Pussy you are,

         You are,

         You are!

What a beautiful Pussy you are!"

II

Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl!

   How charmingly sweet you sing!

O let us be married! too long we have tarried:

   But what shall we do for a ring?"

They sailed away, for a year and a day,

   To the land where the Bong-Tree grows

And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood

   With a ring at the end of his nose,

             His nose,

             His nose,

   With a ring at the end of his nose.

III

"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling

   Your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will."

So they took it away, and were married next day

   By the Turkey who lives on the hill.

They dined on mince, and slices of quince,

   Which they ate with a runcible spoon;

And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,

   They danced by the light of the moon,

             The moon,

             The moon,

They danced by the light of the moon.

A Sony Music Entertainment production.  

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts  

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected] 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week Susie and Gyles delve back into a favourite topic, shoes.

Inspired by purple person Kevin, the origins of all manner of footwear are discussed such as Oxford's, Brogue's and Gibson's. 

We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us on our email address here: [email protected]

Want even more purple, people? Join the Purple Plus Club by clicking the banner in Apple podcasts or head to purpleplusclub.com to listen on other platforms.

Enjoy Susie’s Trio for the week: 

Obloquy: public condemnation.

Myrmidon: Someone who unscrupulously follows someone more powerful. 

Naiad: a nymph of lakes, springs and rivers.

Gyles' poem this week is called 'Life Is Like A Pair Of New Shoes' by Cameron Delaney

Life's like a pair of new shoes

Their sparkling brand-new white hues

The stiff soles and laces

Tied up tightly like braces

That eventually wear down as you use

Life's like a pair of new shoes

They go in directions you choose

Down city street blocks

Wherever you walk

They stride along as you cruise

Lifes like a pair of new sneaks

When you first try to wear 'em they squeak

You run down the court

Of an athletic sport

And you show off your skilled techniques

Life's like a pair of new boots

Some fashionable leather beauts

You strut through the city

And you look real pretty

In your white collar buisness suits

Life's like a pair of new shoes

That wear out from years of good use

But soon they get old

And the insides have mold

And by the trashcan we say our "adieus"

A Sony Music Entertainment production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts  

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sathnam has written Empireland and more recently Empireworld, two bestselling books which have garnered him critical acclaim, a Channel 4 documentary and which - even more crucially - have changed the national discourse around our colonial past. Without necessarily meaning to, Sathnam has become a historian. But his success has not been uncomplicated: he’s suffered horrendous racist abuse which has changed the way he goes out into the world (sometimes).

On How to Fail Sathnam discusses how he avoids joining in, the importance of saying thank you and why the best teachers can make a lifelong impact. Plus: why nuance in discussion is often ignored but absolutely vital.

How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week it's about the birthday boy, as we celebrate all things Gyles Brandreth. 

Not only does Gyles spoil us with a plethora of his famous anecdotes, but he becomes the linguistics quizmaster and places Susie in the hot seat to answer questions from his book 'Have You Eaten Grandma'.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GYLES! You are truly one of a kind.

We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us on our email address here: [email protected]

Want even more purple, people? Join the Purple Plus Club by clicking the banner in Apple podcasts or head to purpleplusclub.com to listen on other platforms.

Enjoy Susie’s Trio for the week: 

Galere: A coterie of undesirable people.

Chawbacon: One uninterested in culture.

Boulevardier: A lover of boulevards.

Gyles' poem this week was the incredibly emotive 'Counting Backwards' by Linda Pastan.

How did I get so old,

I wonder,

contemplating

my 67th birthday.

Dyslexia smiles:

I’m 76 in fact.

There are places

where at 60 they start

counting backwards;

in Japan

they start again

from one.

But the numbers

hardly matter.

It’s the physics

of acceleration I mind,

the way time speeds up

as if it hasn’t guessed

the destination—

where look!

I see my mother

and father bearing a cake,

waiting for me

at the starting line.

A Sony Music Entertainment production.  

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts  

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected] 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From the latin word dicere meaning ‘to speak, to tell or to say’. This week Susie and Gyles are looking at the ultimate word bible, the dictionary! 

Gyles ponders the difference between a glossary and a dictionary. 

And Susie delves into prescriptivism vs descriptivism 

We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us on our email address here: [email protected]

Want even more purple, people? Join the Purple Plus Club by clicking the banner in Apple podcasts or head to purpleplusclub.com to listen on other platforms'

And now for three bite sized words from Susie in her trio:

Thruffable: Open and transparent (through).

Wambliness: An upheaval of the stomach.

Boodyankers: An exclamation of surprise or delight (Northumberland).

Gyles’s poem comes from his friend and neighbour James K Harris and is called ‘I Don’t’ 

 I don't, of course, mean everything I say. 

I mean, sometimes, I don't know what I mean. 

Sometimes I have a thought which goes astray. 

I start describing blue, it turns out green. 

The alphabet is very volatile. Its union is hard to bring to heel. It's easy to fall victim to its guile. 

You think you're describing what you feel, but then you find the words describing you.

And so one sees oneself in their dark light. One thinks one is describing what is true, then suddenly one sees one isn't right.

 In which case, still, it's true that one was wrong. 

Well, truth, in some guys, always comes along.

A Sony Music Entertainment production.  

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts  

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected] 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The 90s was a crazy decade, brimming with pop culture moments that defined Britain. Susie and Gyles discuss words that gained popularity in the post Cold War era, from Cool Britannia, to the Spice Girls, Dianamania to the World Wide Web... 

We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us on our email address here: [email protected]

Want even more purple, people? Join the Purple Plus Club by clicking the banner in Apple podcasts or head to purpleplusclub.com to listen on other platforms'

Don’t forget that you can join us in person at our upcoming tour, tap the link to find tickets: www.somethingrhymeswithpurple.com 

Enjoy Susie’s Trio for the week: 

Solacious: Soothing or comforting.

Soodle : To linger or dawdle.

Splatherdab: A gossip.

Gyles' poem this week was 'This Boy' by Leigh Lawson, who wrote it upon the birth of his first grandson, Solomon.

 He gives me joy, this boy, 

Unspeakable, inexpressible. 

This boy gives me joy.

Inexplicable, unexplainable.

This boy brings me joy.

Let bells ring, choirs sing, 

Chimes chime, poets rhyme, 

Trumpets trump, drums drum, 

Feet stamp, guitars strum.

Higher than the moon,

Oh, hotter than the sun,

Deeper than the sea, 

Is the joy this boy brings to me.

A Sony Music Entertainment production.  

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts  

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected] 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

'A moo point is like a cows opinion, it doesn't matter, it's moo'. This week Gyles and Susie have fun looking at the influence that television has had on language. 

Gyles gets nostalgic with some of his and his children's favourite UK and American TV programmes. 

And Susie explores the words that were popularised by these household TV shows. 

We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us on our email address here: [email protected]

Want even more purple, people? Join the Purple Plus Club by clicking the banner in Apple podcasts or head to purpleplusclub.com to listen on other platforms'

Don’t forget that you can join us in person at our upcoming tour, tap the link to find tickets: www.somethingrhymeswithpurple.com 

Why not work one of Susie's trio's into a sentence this week?  

Crumpsy: Cranky and irritable from old dialect. 

Braggadocio: An idle or empty boaster, all mouth and no trousers. 

Apostasise: To abandon a once firmly held promise or principal. 

Gyles' poem comes from our listener Chris McAuley and is titled 'Father' 

If you find yourself forgetting the small things like keys, 

Moments which we spent together feeding the ducks or playing in the park, 

I shall remember them for you, 

And in those memories be still guided by your hand 

As we walk through the town on that cold rainy day. 

Someday, I will forget those times.

They will be cast to the wind, 

Scattered like leaves caught in the maelstrom of time. 

But today, I sit with my cup of tea and think about the small moments 

Of those precious days, and how much they mean to me.

A Sony Music Entertainment production.  

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts  

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected] 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Flow it, show it, grow it! This week Susie and Gyles look at the history and etymology of all things to do with hair. 

Gyles takes us down memory lane and tells us about when he used to rock a full facial set (head to our social media pages for pics!)

And Susie does what she does best, by entertaining us with fascinating origin stories behind this luscious topic.

We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us on our email address here: [email protected]

Want even more purple, people? Join the Purple Plus Club by clicking the banner in Apple podcasts or head to purpleplusclub.com to listen on other platforms'

Don’t forget that you can join us in person at our upcoming tour, tap the link to find tickets: www.somethingrhymeswithpurple.com 

Enjoy Susie’s Trio for the week: 

Tabanca: The pain of unrequited love.

Redamancy: The state of being loved in return.

Gruglede (Norwegian): Happy dread.

Gyles' poem this week was a excerpt from the song 'Hair' by the cast of 'Hair - The Musical'

Hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair

Flow it, show it

Long as God can grow it

My hair

Let it fly in the breeze

And get caught in the trees

Give a home to the fleas in my hair

A home for fleas

A hive for bees

A nest for birds

There ain't no words

For the beauty, the splendor, the wonder

Of my...

Hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair

Flow it, show it

Long as God can grow it

My hair

I want it long, straight, curly, fuzzy

Snaggy, shaggy, ratty, matty

Oily, greasy, fleecy

Shining, gleaming, streaming

Flaxen, waxen

Knotted, polka-dotted

Twisted, beaded, braided

Powdered, flowered, and confettied

Bangled, tangled, spangled, and spaghettied!

Oh say can you see

My eyes if you can

Then my hair's too short

Down to here

Down to there

I want hair

Down to where

It stops by itself

They'll be ga ga at the go go

When they see me in my toga

My toga made of blond

Brilliantined

Biblical hair

My hair like Jesus wore it

Hallelujah I adore it

Hallelujah Mary loved her son

Why don't my mother love me?

Hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair

Flow it, show it

Long as God can grow it

My hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair

Flow it, show it

Long as God can grow it

My hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair

Flow it, show it

Long as God can grow it

My hair

A Sony Music Entertainment production.  

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts  

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected] 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices