References and resources I know I’ve shared this vid before, but it’s worth sharing again – so interesting: Why The Ancient Greeks Couldn’t See Blue. The superb fairy-wren (or “superb blue wren” as I called it in this episode), Malurus cyaneus, is native to Australia and is just, well, superb. Check him out (yes, him – only the males are blue) here: Superb fairy-wren Check out this potted history of the colour blue in My Modern Met. Read about Peter Obi, and why young Nigerians are fired up about him, at BBC.com This episode’s stories The Tears of A White Woman by Sally Clinical Blues by Ejiro Elizabeth Edward Crushed…

Notes Donate a story to Pillow Talking or become a member and contribute a little each month at Buy Me a Coffee Listen to The Unguarded Moment by The Church Listen to Time Is Just A Sham by Marc Teamaker. This episode’s stories Toulouse by Carlo Rey Lacsamana Lamb Chops at 4am by Marc Teamaker The Stroke by Violeta Balhas Mmm-hmmm by Matt McGee Grey Area Interaction by Rachel Dalton of the Wine, Dine and 69 podcast Undergarments of Sorrows and Struggles by Olumide Manuel About our pillow talkers Carlo Rey Lacsamana is a Filipino born and raised in Manila, Philippines. Since 2005, he has been living and working in…

References Find out more about singer songwriter Mark Moldre here. Enjoy one of my favourite songs by Drew Sutherland, The Little Moments. The Non-Linear Movement Method® is a powerful somatic method developed by Michaela Boehm. Find out more and sign up to an online NLMM class from your part of the world with the most wonderful Tara Thomas here. Joe Strummer was the lead singer of seminal punk band The Clash before going solo with The Mescaleros. As powerful as music was, his social conscience was equally if not more so. His voice was silenced when he died suddenly at the age of 50. You can hear his “spiel” –…

References To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic American novel by the late, great Harper Lee. It was also made into a stunning movie featuring Gregory Peck as every woman’s highly confusing boyfriend/father figure, Atticus Finch. My niece, Nerea Li Santi, is a silversmith who makes both quirky pieces of jewellery from her brilliant imagination and also creates bespoke pieces to order. This is her Etsy shop. Rumer Godden was a prolific, popular author that not many people seem to remember these days. She wrote over 60 adult fiction, children’s fiction, nonfiction and poetry books, several of which were made into movies, including my favourite, The River. Here is the…

L: Mixed lollies R: milk bar in the ’70s or early ’80s. See the cardboard boxes under the counter? That’s the lollies. And the people behind the counter didn’t think twice about sticking their bare hands inside. And we didn’t think twice about eating the lollies. Correction What planet was I on? The place you can get a free copy of the Pillow Talking zine is not “Free Zine volcano” but Small Zine Volcano. Ay, ay, ay. Find them here: Small Zine Volcano. This episode’s stories Rehearsal by Scarlett A Moments of Vulnerability by Cassie Breathless Giggles by Caroline Merton I Wish I Knew by Anonymous Of Rings and Hankies by…

Get your FREE Pillow Talking zine from Sticky Institute, or send away for one from anywhere in the world at Small Zine Volcano. References Esther Perel is an author, therapist, and speaker, and probably has the highest-regarded podcast about couples: Where should we begin? It’s also totally addicting. The Making of Love by Steve and Shaaron Biddulph is a bit tricky to get these days as a hard copy, but easily available in e-book format. 36 questions to fall in love Charlie Chaplin’s speech from The Great Dictator Archie Bunker is the prejudiced main character of All In The Family, a groundbreaking sitcom. This scene with Sammy Davis, Jr., is…

References Letters Live is “A celebration of the enduring power of literary correspondence.” Check them out here: Letters Live website. They create wonderful letter-reading events in the UK (only the UK, I think), but luckily for the rest of us elsewhere in the world, the videos are almost as good. Here are the ones I mention: Sanjeev Bhaskar reads Napoleon’s letters to his wife Joséphine, played by Miriam Margolyes Matt Berry reads a husband’s plea to his wife about their intimate relations Gerald Durrell to Lee McGeorge – Read by Tom Hiddleston This episode’s stories Out of Sync by Linda The Silence Said It All by Two Part 3 by…

References and resources The quote and title of this week’s ep comes from the 2010 movie, The Switch. It’s not meaning-of-life stuff, but a pleasant jammies-all-day, cold-pizza-for-breakfast watch nonetheless. The official name of The Grampians is Grampians National Park. The name given by its traditional owners, the Jardwadjali people, is Gariwerd. I took a mass of pix on this trip, like I always do, but here are just a few – and a video of a bunch of loud, pterodactyl-ey cockatoos. “Mongolian blue spot” is an informal (and slightly non-PC) term for congenital dermal melanocytosis. The spots are also known as slate gray nevi. Although this story didn’t feature violence,…

Émile Zola a was a French novelist, journalist, and playwright. I have only ever read a few of his works but the one I mention (in very bad French pronunciation, sorry), Thérèse Raquin, is the one that stayed with me. You can read and download Thérèse Raquin in a bunch of formats over at Project Gutenberg. This episode’s stories Little Jerk by Ed Part I by Mezza Arancia Something Iffy by Lainie Dryer Sheets by Walker Raigh of the Scratch and Sniff podcast Submit your story.

References and resources The quote “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing” is attributed to the Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw. He was a fascinating man and I love many of his works (particularly and predictably the musical adaptation of Pygmalion, My Fair Lady) but one of the things that’s always tickled me is that his housekeeper and cook released a cookbook of Shaw’s favourite vegetarian recipes. Sabayon is a dessert thought to have originated in Italy, where it’s known as zabaglione or zabaione. It’s made exactly as the pillow talker describes, by placing egg yolks, sugar and some sort of liquid…