Season One · The Tower of Babble · The opening release
Eight episodes, seven roots.
The first episode lays out the system. Each of the seven after it takes one root — a skeleton of two consonants — and follows it by sound across every family the textbooks keep apart, through names, scripture and the everyday words, until the case is made. The root beside each title is the one the episode traces; every word it finds is on The Register.
- IStart HereThe hypothesis, the rules of the system, and everyone who came before.The introduction
- IIAl-FattāḥThree faiths open the day with one root, and none of them knows. F-T: the Opener, the Father, and the keys.Root F-T
- IIIShook OnesTupac, Sheck Wes, Shaquille and Shakira share a syllable — and Shakur is one of the ninety-nine names. The syllable is a cut — and so is speaking, and so is the host's own name.Root S-K
- IVA Voice or a Vessel?The V-S root: vōx and Vāc, vase and vessel, vast and wāsiʿ — what holds, and what is held.Root V-S
- VWassapThe W-S root, one step from V-S: waswas, whisper, wisp, wasp, waste, wa-salām.Root W-S
- VISalāmThe S-L root: salām, Islam, Salem, Solomon, soul, soil, solace, celestial — the sel in vessel.Root S-L
- VIIHadidBella and Gigi Hadid’s name is iron; Tiffany Haddish’s is new. H-D: the edge, and what the edge hides — from the ninety-nine names to the bone that hides the blood.Root H-D
- VIIIUncle Sam: Semitic or Semantics?The S-M root: same and some, samosa and samajh, sunsum and Sumayya — we are all indigenous.Root S-M
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