Talking Toki Pona and Esperanto with Okan
From Recombination Nation by Shane Simonsen
April 10, 2026 · 1h 14m · Season 2 · Episode 23
About this episode
The episode explores the constructed languages Esperanto and Toki Pona with guest Okan, discussing their histories and the dynamics of language communities.
Okan learnt two of the most successful constructed languages- the sprawling, romantic Esperanto and cute minimalist Toki Pona. After covering the history of these languages we delve deeper into the dynamics of experimental language communities, the psychology of conlangers, and the potential interplay of culture, technology and experimental languages in the near future. Drop me a message on substack if you would like to reach out to Jan. Try learning Toki Pona yourself here: https://wasona.com Learn more about Esperanto here: https://lernu.net Sign up to Recombination Nation on Substack for free weekly articles: https://recombinationnation.substack.com Read Shane's book, Taming the Apocalypse, about the future of post industrial biological technology: https://www.amazon.com/Taming-Apocalypse-Shane-Simonsen-ebook/dp/B0D2XCLJ85/
People in this episode
Host: Shane Simonsen
Guest: Okan
Topics covered
- constructed languages
- Esperanto
- Toki Pona
- language communities
- psychology of conlangers
- culture and technology
Keywords
- constructed languages
- Esperanto
- Toki Pona
- language communities
- conlangers
- psychology
- culture
- technology
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Recombination Nation, Toki Pona, Esperanto, wasona.com, lernu.net, Substack, Amazon
Books & works: Taming the Apocalypse
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