Hello! Quite the time, huh? So I made you ten minutes of calming noise. A couple of days ago, I asked you to submit the word you find most soothing; here they all are <puts on meditation app voice> :
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Cursory analysis of the 343 words you submitted shows that the most soothing words start with the letter S, with 70 submissions, and the most soothing word is ‘mellifluent’, chosen by nine of you; closely followed by ‘murmur’, ‘murmuration’, and versions of ‘susurrus’.
There’s a transcript at theallusionist.org/transcripts/tranquillusionist.
The beautiful music in this episode was specially composed by Martin Austwick. He has made several albums, which you can hear at palebirdmusic.com and if you search for Pale Bird on Spotify.
UPDATE: Caetano Galindo, who appeared on the One To Another episode to talk about translating the Memory Palace into Brazilian Portuguese, has translated this episode into Brazilian Portuguese, which you can hear here.
The Allusionist proper will be back from break in May - it’s business as usual for me, since making the show usually involves being alone in a place for extended periods of time. If you’re looking for podcasts to take your mind off things, I have two more: Veronica Mars Investigations and Answer Me This, both unrelated to any current events, if you want a temporary escape.
Also, regular Allusionist guest Hrishikesh Hirway has just started a new podcast Home Cooking with Samin Nosrat of Salt Fat Acid Heat offering help with your quarantine cooking questions. And friend of the show Eleanor McDowall has launched the marvellously relaxing Field Recordings, recordings of people standing in fields.
You can also find me any time @allusionistshow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Hope you are safe and well in body and mind.
- HZ
P.S. If you enjoyed Martin’s music this episode AND the word ‘petrichor’:
