In this very intimate episode, Dan and Merlin share some ideas for positive yet do-able projects to improve your life and world in these dumb, scary times.

Also, covered in this episode: recommendations for Max Richter's Sleep and an insane new podcast production app called "Descript".

Links for this episode:

• Sleep (album) - Wikipedia
• Max Richter: Sleep Album Review | PitchforkThe audacious composer Max Richter has created an eight-hour piece meant to serve as a sleep aid. But it is more than that. For these 31 uninterrupted pieces, Richter accepts the extraordinary challenge of not only aiding sleep but also translating the act into art. If you listen while you’re awake, many of these pieces conjure dreamy states, where ideas seem fluid and flexible and the world around you seems somehow softer.
• Max Richter SLEEPThe glacially-paced movements slide in and out of focus throughout the concert inviting the audience to experience what Richter essentially considers a protest against our relentlessly ‘switched on’ lives. Offering the unique opportunity to participate in this confrontation of our mechanized way of living.
• richter-sleep-new-york.html" class="link">On the Mattress for ‘Sleep,’ an 8-Hour Lullaby - The New York TimesComposers from that movement were Mr. Richter’s earliest inspirations. As a boy in small-town Britain in the 1970s, he would get records from his family’s milkman, an artist who was tapped into the music of La Monte Young, Terry Riley and Philip Glass. He fell in love with Satie’s furniture music, and, eventually, the ambient soundscapes of Brian Eno.
• On The Nature Of Daylight, a song by Max Richter, Louisa Fuller, Natalia Bonner, John Metcalfe, Philip Sheppard, Chris Worsey on Spotify
• Descript | Create podcasts, videos, and transcriptsIt’s how you make a podcast.
• folivora.ai - Great Tools for your Mac!BetterTouchTool is a great, feature packed app that allows you to customize various input devices on your Mac.
• Council of Dads author Bruce Feiler on how to be a better family.
• Quarantine - YouTube
• Hello. We're Sandwich.
• Podcast Method
• Merlin's Tweet About DescriptIncludes cool screen grabs
• It's All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff - Kindle edition by Walsh, Peter. Crafts, Hobbies & Home Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.
• The Only Thing Better Than Netflix's Tiger King Are the Memes / Twitter
• Four Yorkshiremen- Monty Python - YouTube
• Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World - Black Sheep [HD] - YouTube
• 5 Hours of The Shipping Forecast on BBC Radio 4! - YouTube
• Very low cello music with binaural effect, peaceful and mourning - YouTube
• Windham Hill Records – Windham Hill Fan Discography and Community
• In the Age of Disco, Windham Hill Founder Will Ackerman Helped Solo-Acoustic Guitar Thrive – Acoustic Guitar
• Sleep by Max Richter on Spotify
• quotes to get right runx.mdMerlin's very good quotes text file
• "Rock Island" The Music Man (opening scene) - YouTube
• The Eisenhower Matrix: Introduction & 3-Minute Video Tutorial
• Duck Soup (1933) - IMDb
• Speech disfluency - WikipediaA speech disfluency, also spelled speech dysfluency, is any of various breaks, irregularities, or non-lexical vocables which occur within the flow of otherwise fluent speech.
• Definitions and Examples of Filler Words
• Drums and Wires - WikipediaDrums and Wires is the third studio album by the English rock band XTC, released 17 August 1979 on Virgin Records. It is a more pop-oriented affair than the band's previous, Go 2 (1978), and was named for its emphasis on guitars ("wires") and expansive-sounding drums.