159. Ludibrious

Kyle and Emily enter the arena this week for a word of derision, spectacle, and ancient sport: ludibrious. With roots stretching from Roman games to Protestant persecution, this term once conjured laughter and contempt in equal measure, whether on the stage, the battlefield, or the pulpit.

Our hosts trace the evolution of play into scorn, and examine how public games became public shame. Along the way, they encounter martyrs, emperors, and playwrights, and of course, the Society of Florists, because what would we be without the Society Florists?

And you can join them at the Florists’ Feast, as they travel from Renaissance satire to failed American epics, and watch as the word reemerges again and again, as if to say: no one escapes becoming the punchline.