Hello, my name is Adam Ayrton Stoner and this is Recently, a monthly email round-up letting you know what I’ve been doing, reading, watching, listening to and enjoying recently.

In a typical month, I usually finish these newsletters about a week before they land in your inbox but this edition was hard to write for reasons that, if you flick to any news channel for 30 seconds or more, are plainly obvious.

This update began as a lengthy rant about a handful of wealthy companies that, in the face of lacking professional guidance of any kind, have announced a return to business as usual, all while your rule-abiding local florist, café or barbers stay shuttered – were we ever ‘all in this together’? If there is to be a silver lining for this virus, let it be further highlighting the dogshit companies to avoid when we come out of lockdown, none of which have ever featured in these newsletters.

Here’s the much more simple (and relaxed!) form this edition ended up taking instead.

This month, I’ve been:

• Producing and editing Stuck at Home for the UK’s children’s radio station Fun Kids, which you can find wherever you get your podcasts and for a short while on BBC Sounds.
• Providing guidance to friends on starting their own podcasts, including which platforms to use and what it should look and sound like. If you’re thinking of starting your own podcast and are after feedback, want some artwork, or want to find out how a producer can help lift your solo project to the next level, send me an email.
• I’ve also been writing a lot – in Standard Notes, the end-to-end encrypted note taking app, about lockdown and some of my worries about it.
• I’ve been using the time at home to get a grip on the mundane day-to-day tasks that sometimes escape us in our usual lives. I’ve been upgrading a lot of my monthly subscriptions to annual ones, eschewing monthly bills and saving some cash in the long-run and giving everything a good clean and tidy!

I’ve been listening to:

• I’ve created an Apple Music playlist of the tunes I’ve been listening to recently. Tap here to give it a listen (or take a look, so you can find tunes on your platform of choice). It contains tunes from Hayley Williams’ solo project Petals for Armor, Broadcast, Cornelius, Gorillaz, Femi Kuti, and more.
• I’ve also been listening to longform interviews from the likes of Thom Yorke and more, most courtesy of Apple’s radio station, Beats 1, which, although I ripped into it in my 2016 university dissertation, is absolutely killing it right now. My opinion on the station has almost 180º’d – I need to write a follow-up!

I’ve been watching:

• Masterclass. I’m not one of these people eager to make every waking moment of their life a mission in productivity but Masterclass is a fantastic way to fill moments you might be saving instead of, say, commuting. Vogue’s Creative Director Anna Wintour has been teaching me leadership, a former FBI negotiator has been telling me how to haggle, and Gordon Ramsay has been teaching me cookery, all from the comfort of my bed.

I’ve been reading:

• Why Social Media is Ruining Your Life, a pop-science ‘my experience’ book (it’s sold in Urban Outfitters, which tells you all you need to know) but an interesting insight nonetheless.
• Against Creativity by Oli Mould
• Year of Wonder: Classical Music for Every Day by BBC Radio 3 presenter Clemency Burton-Hill. The pick for May 3rd is Piano Trio No. 2 in E flat major, K. 498 (‘Kegelstatt’), III: Rondo – Allegretto by Mozart, which you can presumably find on your streaming platform of choice 🤷‍♂️

I’ve been enjoying:

• Rozu, a new fragrance designed by renowned perfumer Barnabé Fillion, which is supposed to mimic the lifecycle of a rose from earthy scents to blossom and decay. It smells divine.
• A keyboard cover from Editor’s Keys, which handily shows shortcuts to my preferred audio editing software, Pro Tools.
• Half-year, 192-page notebooks by Stalogy, ordered from Marylebone-based Trunk Clothiers.
• Creative Review, the design magazine. Their February/March 2020 ‘Truth and Lies’ issue contains stories on Quiz, the show-cum-TV drama, and reality TV, featuring Daniel Eatock’s Channel 4 Big Brother eye designs.
• Frontline Brew from Redemption Roasters, the café down Lamb’s Conduit Street in London that supports prisoners with coffee roasting programs, now supporting frontline workers with gestures that matter: supplies, not applause.

That’s all for now.

Until next time.

Your friend,
Adam Stoner