Monkey Mind

Sophus launches the podcast with a deep-dive into the human mind, this engine of chaos and expanse of possibility we all carry around inside us. The episode begins with a reminder-taken from, of all places, the British tax collection agency-to marvel at the clouds and allow ourselves to be stunned by volcanoes. And it ends with a walk through the woods of southern Italy, in the company of a dog and three Paleolithic teenagers. Hosted and written by Sophus Helle Sound editing by Simone Nystrup-Larsen Edited by Andreas Lindinger Saxild Find out more at sophushelle.com/monkeymind

The episode traces the history of a single word, serendipity, across seven centuries and just as many countries. A "serendipity" is a "happy and unexpected discovery", and the history of the word is itself full of happy and unexpected discoveries, including the history of horror and the origins of crime fiction. Along the way, we meet such fascinating figures as Edgar Allan Poe, the English writer Horace Walpole, the French philosopher Voltaire, and the Sufi poet Amir Khusrau. Hosted and written by Sophus Helle Sound editing by Simone Nystrup-Larsen Edited by Andreas Lindinger Saxild Find out more at sophushelle.com/monkeymind

Why do people treat their books so differently? Some people like to keep their books in near-mint condition, handling them with metaphorical gloves on and making sure that there is not a single scratch to be found on their cover. Other people, like Sophus, want to dogear the corners, doodle in the margins, and crack the spine of every book they read. In this episode, Sophus traces the origins of this book-lover battle. Hosted and written by Sophus Helle Sound editing by Simone Nystrup-Larsen Edited by Andreas Lindinger Saxild Find out more at sophushelle.com/monkeymind

We all have something we would like to forget, or something we would like others to forget about us. But it can be surprisingly difficult to forget. You can try to make yourself hold on to a memory, but letting go of it can be much trickier. Forgetfulness comes, wanted or otherwise, but always at its own pace. This episode charts various people who have tried, and failed, to bring about forgetfulness, from the German philosopher Immanuel Kant to the American actress Barbra Streisand. Hosted and written by Sophus Helle Sound editing by Simone Nystrup-Larsen Edited by Andreas Lindinger Saxild Find out more at sophushelle.com/monkeymind

When Sophus's grandfather died, he left behind an old encyclopedia with a mysteriously empty page. In this episode, Sophus talks about happens when we run out of words, as when the mind is made blank by old age or when our loved ones die and we grieve them in silence. Empty pages are a powerfully symbol. They can mark both an ending and a new beginning, they can represent hope as well as grief. Blank pages are everywhere, and surprisingly beautiful. Hosted and written by Sophus Helle Sound editing by Simone Nystrup-Larsen Edited by Andreas Lindinger Saxild Find out more at sophushelle.com/monkeymind

When we speak of "sexual orientation," we really just mean whether people are gay, straight, or bi. But people differ from each other in many other interesting ways. Sex, as a realm of difference, is much richer than this single orientation implies. When I talk with my friends about their desires, I am often surprised by how many things it is possible to want. Talking about sex makes sex better, because it opens our minds to an endless expanse of possibility. Hosted and written by Sophus Helle. Sound editing by Simone Nystrup-Larsen. Edited by Andreas Lindinger Saxild. Find out more at sophushelle.com/monkeymind.

What makes us us? Is there a feature that unites humans as a species while setting us apart from every other animal? Tool use, perhaps, or language or consciousness? This episode is about the hunt for a biological trait that would pull us all together and why that trait is so hard to find. Even if we do discover a single attribute that is hardwired into our collective brains-like our obsession with the color red-it will always dissolve into difference in the end. Hosted and written by Sophus Helle. Sound editing by Simone Nystrup-Larsen. Edited by Andreas Lindinger Saxild. Find out more at sophushelle.com/monkeymind.

Why do kids kill insects? It is a strange, disturbing fact that so many of us have, at some early point in our lives, plucked wings off butterflies, burned ants with magnifying glasses, or, in Sophus's case, drowned a dragonfly. But where does semi-psychotic instinct comes from? In this episode, Sophus explains that our encounter with insects-whether as kids or as adults-is like a miniature moral lab, where we can experiment with our relation to the world. Hosted and written by Sophus Helle. Sound editing by Simone Nystrup-Larsen. Edited by Andreas Lindinger Saxild. Find out more at sophushelle.com/monkeymind.

We all make typos. Spelling mistakes range from the harmless to the disastrous, and they are almost impossible to get rid of. But what can typos teach us? What do they reveal about language and the human mind? This episode explores the hidden history of spelling mistakes, delving deep into their demonic past and discovering the forgotten origins of the Demogorgon, an ancient monster brought back to fame by the TV series Stranger Things. Hosted and written by Sophus Helle. Sound editing by Simone Nystrup-Larsen. Edited by Andreas Lindinger Saxild. Find out more at sophushelle.com/monkeymind.

Desire is a strange thing. It is always raging inside us, driving us on to our next pursuit. But figuring out where it comes from or where exactly it is taking us can be surprisingly tricky. Sophus ponders the nature of desire, reflecting on a quote from Die Hard, a scene from Calvin and Hobbes, why he's not a Buddhist, and what a diamond failed to teach him. To live well, we have to learn to live with the restlessness inside us and to appease it in ways that make our lives richer. Hosted and written by Sophus Helle. Sound editing by Simone Nystrup-Larsen. Edited by Andreas Lindinger Saxild. Find out more at sophushelle.com/monkeymind.