Why Alexander Wept

Desire is a strange thing. It is always raging inside us, driving us on to our next pursuit. But figuring out where it comes from or where exactly it is taking us can be surprisingly tricky. Sophus ponders the nature of desire, reflecting on a quote from Die Hard, a scene from Calvin and Hobbes, why he’s not a Buddhist, and what a diamond failed to teach him. To live well, we have to learn to live with the restlessness inside us and to appease it in ways that make our lives richer.

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.