A child's question with a universe inside it: if stars go on forever, why isn't the whole sky ablaze? Tonight: the astronomers who wrestled with this question for 300 years, the poet who may have solved it first, and the two real answers to the question. And much more. Just long enough to fall asleep to. 🌙
Listen here
Take your time. The story starts when you’re ready.
Settle in. There’s nothing you need to remember.
A note before you listen
Welcome back, my sleepy friends. Get comfortable, let your breathing slow, and follow along for as long as you like. If you drift off somewhere along the way, the story will keep you company.
Keep wandering
Here is a soft thought to fall asleep to: the word algebra means restoration - the mending of something broken. The same word once described the person who set your broken bone.Tonight, a gentle journey in the company of patient people. Babylonian scribes solving puzzles in wet clay at dusk. An Indian astronomer explaining negative numbers as fortunes and…
Tonight, we lie down on top of a story. After water itself, concrete is the most used substance on Earth - and there is a fair chance it is holding up your room right now. We begin beside a volcano, where Roman builders mixed lime with the ash of Vesuvius and poured harbours that grow stronger in the sea, and a dome in Rome that has carried itself, without…
Tonight on The Quiet Shift, a pillowcase full of questions: why do children in costumes knock on strangers' doors on the last night of October, and why do the strangers open them, gladly, with sweets?We begin with bonfires in Ireland two thousand years ago, follow little spiced soul cakes given out in exchange for prayers, and find the first printed "trick…
Whenever you're ready
Find a comfortable corner. Let the day get a little quieter.
We’ll take it from here.
Listen your way
