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Lee and Simon discuss scent profiles and the ways bodies smell.

Things covered: jam donut focaccia, waking up early, cli-fi (climate fiction), The Deluge by Stephen Markley, description of a suicide bomber's body (from the inside) at the moment of detonation, Simon's scent profile, delving into the olfactory, not showering often, bottom hygiene, Crocodile Dundeee and two dunnies, armpit sweating while emailing, clothes shopping, wedding anniversaries, tolerating Lee, Lee blending scents (again), getting a window replaced in a property built in 1540, Lee living in a boarded up house (I Am Legend), Lee has a little spritz, Simon not wanting to spend his money on scents, Lee's sensitivity to the malodorous, Lee speaking to the Board of Governors, GANs (General Adversarial Network), AI (and machine learning), and artists using AI, Lee is not a pizza and beer man, body odour, an unwashed person, pheromones and being turned off by how someone smells, sniffing Bob, Simon needs a shower, releasing scents on the equinox and the solstice, Lee is correct.

Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net.

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Lee and Simon discuss furniture and curated maximalism (obviously Lee does most of the talking here), and chronic pain.

Things covered: the excitement of countdowns, Lee goes to a wine festival, how many Beatles are left, whether the Beatles voted or not, the trailer for Sinners, Hitchcock's "The Birds" (and its soundtrack), spring cleaning, Swedish death cleaning, various style magazines, curated maximalism, being judged when people come into your home, Lee running his hands along the walls because they are so smooth, Simon's boss is a hoarder, moving buildings at work, two half empty apartments, formica tables, Lee's new sofa, Lee being ashamed of his shallowness, Simon being aescetic, Lee running the world from his bed (like Trump), Trump's alleged golden showers, the sofa as the public facing comfort space, Antonio Citterio, the bigness of TVs, getting out of bed and back pain, putting your socks on while standing, 40 years of back 'stuff', getting used to chronic pain, rotation about the longitudinal axis, the word 'curation' makes Simon gip, Elle Decoration and Vogue.

Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net.

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Simon and Lee talk about metaphors and the tragedy of how poetry is taught, before discussing three truisms from Anthony de Mello.

Things covered: the bell is tolling, true words said in jest, many a slip between cup and lip, not understanding metaphors, being literal, not liking poetry while really liking poetry, the meaning of poetry, Kae Tempest, Lee having an ugly cry at the traffic lights, Simon sneezes, all the Latin Simon and Lee know, the sweetness of dying for your country, Wilfred Owen, nationalism and nation states, Lee recites Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est", Siegfried Sassoon, the Reform party in the UK, Anthony de Mello's "Awareness", returning love for hate, including the excluded, admitting you are wrong, turning the other cheek (Jesus during Sermon on the Mount), Wikipedia and academic research, Lee definitely married up, the unfettered unfiltered version of Lee, the reason to continue podcasting.

Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net.

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Simon and Lee talk about things they love.

Things covered: back in Blighty, the nature of home, putting down roots, having multiple passports (Jason Bourne), freedivers, things we love, what Lee is wearing (again), being self-conscious (or not) about the things we wear, being policed and judged, tortilla covered sourdough, Lee loves perfume and smelling good, layering perfumes, clothes or scent, Dubai chocolate, cookie mix floor tiles, negronis, spending time with friends outside, being social, Simon loves stillness, Stansted Airport, a bus trip to Coventry, TikTok, three hours swiping, the absence of boredom and over-stimulation, Simon's yin phase, two different looks in two different countries, Coventry after dark.

Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net.

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Simon and Lee discuss the way age starts not to manner (as we get older), the absurdity of reducing friction in our lives, and then have a quick conversation about Adolescence.

Things covered: Buona Pasqua, Lee's raw early morning voice, the true reason for buying a house, Lee's Dad's 84th birthday, the cost of a pint of Guiness, the way age starts not to matter, eating only the inside of a cake, Lee's vowels, BBQ Norman, Lee's Mum's spreadsheet, buying a storage cupboard to lead a frictionless life, kitchens as a place of work, Sassari apartment update (more about the floors), other languages (and the limits of vocabulary), Adolescence, misogyny.

Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net.

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Simon reports in (once again) from Sardegna while attempting to buy a kitchen and the question of consent raises its head again. Lee and Simon also discuss Simon's lack of sartorial elegance.

Things covered: marble floors and empty walls, buying a kitchen, 3D models of kitchens, discounts, putting washing machines in kitchens, boring jobs, sharing news over a negroni, descriptions of spaces in another language, asking for consent in Portughese, another leak in Lee's roof, climate change being real, imagining things (and bodies) in spaces, big cultural shifts, fritelle, the beginning of the end, trying to remove marble from a wall, bumping into friends on the street, having one's arm squeezed by a stranger, not being very dapper in an Italian city, Lee being a little more handsy than he thinks he is (on a train), Winnie-the-Pooh (and wanting to be sure of you), Simon is not dapper and Lee tries to give him some sartorial advice.

Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net.

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Simon reports in from Sardegna before Lee and he veer off into talking about what draws us to snake oil.

Things covered: Getting the sound right while recording in a 'cathedral', flight delay, the mundanity of owning a place, Nodi networking function in Alghero, bumping back into Italian, experiences that are both concrete and abstract, dealing with uncertainty, meeting a life-coach, snake-oil, "l'aria fritta" (fried air), what draws us to people selling fried air, having one's buttons pushed over and over again, Sardegna drawing in a dreamcatcher vibe, homemade brick oven and making pizze, primal human experiences, cranio-sacral massages, gong showers (sound baths), golden showers, people talking (or not) about their kinks, piss play, more prevalent than us vanillas, lacking imagination (or perhaps theory of mind), Portishead, Beth Gibbons (singing Gorecki Symphony 3), how to be introduced into something we didn't use to like (e.g. yoga for Lee), the things we end up doing and believing, jam cocktail (listener feedback), unattributed quote from last week to George Saunders' commencement speech (in the links below).

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Related links (and necessary corrections):

• Beth Gibbons singing Górecki's Symphony No. 3 (not number 5): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YlGYxCSDJU
• George Saunders' commencement speech at Syracuse: https://genius.com/George-saunders-graduation-speech-at-syracuse-2013-annotated

Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net.

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Simon and Lee don't talk about Adolescene (yet), spend way too long discussing Reacher (again), before discussing whether we become kinder with age.

Things covered: Lee guesses Adolescence, finishing off the Reacher series (and just how bad it is), reading all the Reacher novels, trying to remember Duffy's name from Reacher, the Yankees and the Redsox, Stephen Tin Tin Duffy, founding member of Duran Duran (Lee reads out a bunch of stuff from wikipedia), not talking about Deliverance, becoming kinder with age (or not), a Rolodex, intransigence, Lee's parents getting kinder to Bob and the first time they met her, becoming more ourselves, being comfortable acknowledging our struggles, forgetting people's names, growing into ourselves, getting kinder to ourselves, watching people die, the sense of being connected and part of the human race, the desire to be happy.

Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net.

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