99% sur les épaules de Darwin

November 26, 2022 at 11:55 am

One of the advantages of the crafts and other kinds of handwork is that the head remains free and thus it can be engaged in other things such as daydreaming or listening to something with attention. With time we have discovered that the daydreaming is for us the most precious part of crafts activities. To make something then turns into occupation not unlike to that of meditation. But it is then also a good time to discover some new edge of this multi-faceted world of ours by listening a fine audiobook or a nice podcast.

There are two excellent radio programs we would like to warmly recommend you:

99% Invisible is a smartly directed and usually highly entertaining program about design, architecture and wide array of similar such things that remains nearly invisible although in plain sight. Stories, histories, music and sound, books, persons, objects, places and whatnot. With now already 500+ episodes you will have a lot to catch up with.

https://99percentinvisible.org/episodes/

The other most loved program among our team is called Sur les épaules de Darwin. ''To climb on giant's shoulders and to see further - to see into invisible, through the space and through time, to look deeper in ourselves and to that what we have experienced...'' Each episode has so finely and tastefully polished script that it borders on poetry. This notion is amplified even more through the voice of Jean Claude Ameisen. Highly engaging program about nature, history, philosophy, science, art... Often these topics masterfully and unexpectedly switches in the span of a sentence. True masterpieces.

https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/podcasts/sur-les-epaules-de-darwin

What's more - both of these programs has ''sprouted'' some nice books (for the times when not only the head, but also the hands are free).

In the case of 99% invisible it is The 99% Invisible City: https://99percentinvisible.org/book/

Sur les epaules de Darwin has resulted in these titles:

Sur les épaules de Darwin. Les battements du temps

Sur les épaules de Darwin. Je t'offrirai des spectacles admirables

Sur les épaules de Darwin : Retrouver l'aube

Les chants mêlés de la Terre et de l’humanité

Aside from these, Jean Claude Ameisen is the author of half a dozen other books that would be worth good reading.