A Short History of Lorem Ipsum (and a Rant)

“Layouts are sexy but, you know, words still matter.”
 

In this solo rant-style episode of Podcast Awesome, Matt takes a silly, unhinged dive into the world of Lorem Ipsum — the gibberish placeholder text that’s haunted designers and writers alike since the 1500s. From Cicero’s scrambled Latin to zombie-themed mockups, we trace the wild history and the weird world of filler text.

So ... why do we still treat real content as an afterthought? And what happens when a layout only works with nonsense words?

You’ll laugh. You’ll cringe. You’ll maybe rethink that next wireframe.

🧠 What We Cover in This Episode:

• 🤬 The grammar quirks that make writers lose their minds (yes, we see you, Oxford comma debate)
• 🏛️ The bizarre origin of Lorem Ipsum (hi Cicero!)
• 🥓 Bacon Ipsum, Hipster Ipsum, Cat Ipsum
• 😤 A friendly/spicy rant on why Lorem Ipsum might kill your content strategy
• 👻 Live sites with placeholder text 

⏱️ Timestamps:

00:00 – Welcome to the Fake Latin Fight Club
 01:00 – Oxford Commas, Passive Voice, and Writers with Rage
 03:00 – Sarcastic Quotation Marks and Melty “Cheese”
 04:00 – What Even Is Lorem Ipsum, Anyway?
 05:30 – From Ancient Rome to Adobe Default Settings
 06:45 – The Rise of Bacon, Hipster, and Zombie Ipsum
 08:00 – THE RANT: “If Your Layout Only Works With Nonsense…”
 09:30 – Final Thoughts: Fonts Are Cool. Content Is King.

🔗 Links & Resources:

• Generate your own Bacon Ipsum 🥓
• Cat Ipsum for feline-forward mockups 🐱
• Zombie Ipsum, because... why not 🧟
• Theme by Ronnie Martin 🎹
• 8-bit interstitial music by Zach Moom
• Audio mastering by Chris Enns at Lemon Productions 🍋

🎙️ Subscribe + Listen:

📱 Apple Podcasts | 🎧 Spotify | 💻 YouTube | 🌐 podcastawesome.com

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