Serendipity

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