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Fall asleep with Henrik
Book of the Day
Season 1, Ep. 4
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"An Imaginative, Meandering Journey Through Time and Space"
In this latest installment of "Fall Asleep with Henrik", the host Henrik Ståhl once again embarks on a captivating, free-flowing exploration of his own thoughts and memories. Rather than following a linear narrative, Henrik's musings drift between reflections on his youth, imaginative anecdotes, and profound musings on the nature of existence itself.
Throughout the episode, Henrik fondly reminisces about his teenage adventures with his best friend Marcus, recounting their ambitious attempts to create a homemade fantasy film. He also introduces listeners to a quirky improvisation game called "Book of the Day" that he and Marcus invented, inviting the audience to try it out themselves.
However, the conversational thread takes a more philosophical turn as Henrik ruminates on concepts of time, space, and the eternal human urge to connect across vast distances. Drawing inspiration from the Voyager space probes and their famous "Golden Record", Henrik muses on the poignancy and futility of attempting to preserve a piece of humanity for potential alien discovery.
As the episode progresses, Henrik's stream-of-consciousness delivery becomes increasingly dreamlike and transcendent, touching on themes of mortality, the illusion of non-existence, and the profound wonder of simply being. Listeners are encouraged to let his words wash over them, using his voice as a catalyst for their own reflections and imaginings.
If you're seeking a sleep aid that eschews generic relaxation techniques in favor of a deeply personal, thought-provoking experience, press play on this episode of "Fall Asleep with Henrik" and allow this charming Swede to guide you on an odyssey through the mysteries of time and space.
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121. Tranquil Tête-à-Tête
59:24||Season 2, Ep. 121Hi Sleepy.This time I wander through childhood memories, my old teenage barbershop quartet, an old friend, and some thoughts about how strange it is to simply be alive.My English stumbles here and there, my thoughts wander off, and I occasionally forget what I was talking about. As usual.You don’t have to follow any of it. Just let me talk somewhere in the background and see where we end up.Sleep tight.From the archive, first heard in May 2024.
120. My Summer
01:00:40||Season 2, Ep. 120First day back after the summer. I sit down and I start with gravel.Not the interesting kind. There isn't an interesting kind. But where I grew up almost nothing was paved, and when you came off a bike on that surface it took a wide decorative area out of you and filled it with small stones. And those stones lived in your knee until September.So this one is mostly that. Two memories from a very small village in the middle of Sweden. My little brother and a friend stuck in a ditch full of clay, and one single boot left lying on the road. And a boy called Pontus who did a skid that tied a knot in itself.There are old people in it too. Real ones. Born so long ago they had probably seen the nineteenth century. One of them stood on his steps and offered us sweets and then wanted to hear about our lives.Then I talk about my summer. Copenhagen with my daughter, who navigates vintage shops she found on TikTok while I stand there holding the bags. Being told, gently, that my life is unfair. Driving alone to places nobody else wants to go to, and slowly noticing that the pleasure in it is running out.And whether or not I have been swimming this summer. You can decide that one for yourself.No script. No plan. One hour, and then a timer goes off.
119. Me being me
43:22||Season 2, Ep. 119It is summer, with all that comes with it, so this is a rerun. A fallback to a more innocent time, when I was still quite new at this whole speaking-English-into-a-microphone thing.This is me letting my mind wander. No script, no soothing affirmations, just my imperfect English and whatever thoughts show up. That was sort of the point then, and it still is.I talk about the spaceship I invented as a kid, the Adventure Wolf. About my drinking, back when that was a thing, and how I found my way back to my childhood imagination. I get into national identity and why I would rather belong to the whole world than to one flag. Somewhere along the way there are schoolyard bullies, old Swedish poetry that romanticizes war, and some thoughts on sleep and the lack of it.You do not need to follow any of this. Just let my voice be there in the room while you drift off. It is completely fine to fall asleep in the middle of a sentence. That is what it is for.From the archive, first heard in May 2024.
118. The Temple of Not Knowing
01:01:13||Season 2, Ep. 118Hi, Sleepy.Tonight I try to stand on the floor of not knowing. Not as a clever sentence, not as a podcast slogan, but as an actual place to put your feet in the morning. From uncertain times and foggy future towns to acting, meditation, smartphones, forecasts, sobriety, fathers, daughters, white beards I cannot grow, and the strange certainty that if you are hearing this, I somehow made it all the way to the end.This is an episode about uncertainty, but in the sleepy way. No alarms. No instructions. Just a Swedish boy-man in Stockholm talking himself through the fog while you drift in and out beside him. Maybe falling asleep. Maybe just resting inside the fact that none of us really know what comes next.It is what it is. What happens, happens. And right now, there’s nothing we can do about it.Sleep Tight!More about Henrik, click here: https://linktr.ee/Henrikstahl
117. Bluish Mountains
01:00:32||Season 2, Ep. 117Hi Sleepy. Tonight the talking puts on its shoes and wanders off again. A cold Stockholm morning becomes bluish mountains in Dalarna, which becomes old theater rooms, old fear, old drunk directors, and then somehow a warm little container called Adventure Wolf, where no one has to prove anything to anyone.I talk about getting older and still not becoming a wise, stable mountain person. About fame, and how something that once looked like freedom can start to feel like a coat made of wet carpet. About loneliness as space, as habit, as prison, as a room where you sometimes find yourself and sometimes just your phone charger.You don’t have to follow all of this, Sleepy. You can let it blur. Let my voice walk somewhere in the next room while you drift off to sleep, through memory, bitterness, gratitude, and the strange peace of small places.It is what it is. What happens, happens. And right now, there’s nothing we can do about it.Cause of summer leave, this episode is a rerun from one of the older favourite episodes. Brand new episode coming next week.Sleep Tight!More about Henrik, click here: https://linktr.ee/Henrikstahl
116. My Hiding Place
01:01:27||Season 2, Ep. 116Hi, Sleepy.Tonight we walk back to the old hiding place. The imaginary cabin in the deep Scandinavian forest, where the asphalt gives up, the gravel road gives up, and eventually even the noisy little generator of being a person seems to give up too.There is moss, an old stone that should probably be touched, a deer path, a cabin with silver-grey wood, smoke from a chimney that nobody has lit, a chair that knows me, a kettle, books, Handel singing to a tree, and the strange relief of entering a place that doesn’t need to explain itself.This is an episode about shelter. About thresholds. About being between the forest and the fire, between the outside and the inside, between awake and asleep. And perhaps, Sleepy, about finding a room somewhere in yourself where you can just sit for a while with coffee, old wood, and no particular assignment.At the end, we go down to the black forest tarn.And maybe we swim.Sleep Tight!More about Henrik, click here: https://linktr.ee/Henrikstahl
115. Close Your Eyes and Let Go
01:01:04||Season 2, Ep. 115Hi, Sleepy.Tonight we begin in the benigning, which is not a word, but it might be a place. A small Swedish-English place where I stand with my pockets full of half-working words, wondering if I have enough of them to carry us through the night.From there we somehow move toward a forest, an axe, my dad, and that old strange fear that maybe there is something wrong with me in a way no one has noticed yet. But before that gets too serious, there is also a terrible podcast called Grunts from the Gym, some thoughts about heavy-breathing strangers, and me sneaking into a Pilates class, standing in the back, trying to love myself even though I’m not very good at it.This is an episode about doing things badly. About going to classes just to be close to your teenager. About watching your parents’ world become smaller and fearing that your own might one day do the same. And then, near the end, it becomes just you and me, Sleepy. Awake while everyone else is busy building strange dream-treehouses with their ex-bosses.A small room in the middle of the night. You’re allowed to be human here. You’re allowed to fall asleep.Sleep Tight!More about Henrik, click here: https://linktr.ee/HenrikstahlCause of summer leave, this episode is a rerun from one of the older favourite episodes. Brand new episode coming next week.
114. Rust, Moss and the End of the List
01:00:32||Season 2, Ep. 114In this episode, Sleepy, I try to list everything in the universe before the hour is over. It starts well, with light, the moon, spoons and dust, but then reality becomes rude and starts unfolding in too many directions at once.There are atoms, hiccups, moss, mirrors, shadows, debt, mushrooms, rust, gravity, sleep, and possibly a doctor pie. There is also the strange fact that most things are emptiness pretending to be solid, and that a shadow is just light being interrupted by you.A drifting, introspective and imaginative journey to sleep about everything and nothing, with a strange Swedish man in Stockholm doing his best to keep track of existence before existence gets away from him.It is what it is. What happens, happens. And right now, there’s nothing we can do about it.Sleep Tight!More about Henrik, click here: https://linktr.ee/Henrikstahl
113. Words That Wander Home
01:01:37||Season 2, Ep. 113Tonight I fall into the strange little trapdoor between Swedish and English, Sleepy, where one word is perfectly innocent on one side of the sea and slightly alarming on the other.There will be Swedish words. Real ones. Suspicious ones. A few that sound rude but are mostly about road signs, ice cream, children, baths, herring, nurses, kindness and the grief of standing in a doorway. Somewhere in there we find lagom, fika, orka, jobbig, sjö, jo, and a made-up word that maybe should exist: threshold grief.It’s an introspective and slightly linguistic journey to sleep, through language, memory, fatherhood, old places, Swedish fog, and Pippi Longstocking. You may learn something. You may learn absolutely nothing. Both outcomes are accepted here.Sleep Tight!More about Henrik, click here: https://linktr.ee/Henrikstahl