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

Monkey Mind

Combining wit and wisdom, silliness and seriousness, the podcast Monkey Mind by Sophus Helle takes the audience on a weekly jaunt through the jungle of the mind. Each episode throws a new and unusual light on the issues of everyday life—trees, typos, taxes, and much more besides—making the audience look again at a world they thought they knew. It tells stories that are designed to make the listener chuckle, then reflect, drawn from both the host’s own life and from the deep well of history.

Sophus Helle is a writer, translator, and cultural historian. He is an expert in the Babylonian epic Gilgamesh and the ancient poet Enheduana.