Producing Activity Quest has been my main focus this month, sending Fun Kids presenters to newly re-opened locations across the UK in an effort to make a programme that encourages families to also get out-and-about safely this summer.

I’ve been recording my own experiences for the podcast. You can hear me in the first episode, where I visited GoApe in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. Listen to the audio version of this newsletter to hear the feature and some other bits-and-bobs in this newsletter.

I had the pleasure of speaking to Sir Tim Smit, founder of the Eden Project, for Activity Quest. He spoke about getting active and ways in which people of all ages can improve the world. That’s in the most recent episode, which you can listen to wherever you get your podcasts…

On podcasts, Santa Daily and The Week Junior Show didn’t pick anything up at the British Podcast Awards at the start of the month, but we did get some very funny mentions from Chris Moyles and I’m still delighted that we were punching with hitters including the Guardian, Monocle, and BBC Radio 4.

Toward the end of the month, I began listening back to some bits-and-pieces from my personal audio journal. I’ve kept an audio journal since the start of 2015, just blabbering into my iPhone once-a-day-or-so. I’ve only really listened back to bits this past week as I’ve begun archiving over 1,000 entries. Keeping this journal has been the best thing I’ve ever done. I’ve got voices of friends past and present, relationships old and new, and sounds from places across the world, plus some important lessons:

May 2015: “Just spoke to a CNN dude about Bitcoin for a radio doc. He said to pile $400 into it [scoffs] yeah, right, alright mate”

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. That $400 would be just shy of £20,000 today.

Elsewhere…

I’ve been reading:

• Memoirs and Misinformation, Jim Carey’s autobiography. In an interview about the book, he said the cover came from an accidental screenshot of a FaceTime call with his assistant after they’d both been told they had minutes to live.
• Mentors: How to Help and Be Helped by Russell Brand. Do listen to it (read by Brand himself), rather than read it. It’s quicker and much more entertaining.

I’ve been watching:

• Friday/Saturday evening Bad Movie Marathons with friends on Discord continue. We watched Shrek: The Musical last. This one’s not a recommendation, just an FYI.

I’ve been listening to:

I’ve made an Apple Music playlist of what I’ve been listening to in Spring/Summer 2020. I’ll be adding to it constantly until the end of this month at which point I’ll make an Autumn/Winter one. Tap the link to open it in-app or in browser, so you can copy the tunes to your own playlist. Picks include selections from Hayley Williams’ solo endeavour Petals for Armor and Dan Croll’s new EPs, plus Broadcast, Rubblebucket, Gorillaz, Femi Kuti, Bloc Party, and Thom Yorke.

I’ve been enjoying:

• Call of Duty: Warzone, which came out in March but is something I’ve only just stumbled upon in the past few months. Something tells me this was a savvy marketing ploy from the folks at Activision: release something in the midst of everyone being stuck at home to get a feel for the gameplay ahead of a wider game release later this year.
• When I saw one my favourite limited edition items was back in stock on the Monocle store earlier this month, I knew I had to get it. I snapped up a spare Monocle x Laperruque cardholder – one of my favourite possessions, mainly because of how humble and understated it looks, but also because of how beautifully made it is.
• Rapanui sell clothes in partnership with charities like WarChild and the Marine Conservation Society and donate a percentage of the profits to them, something I’ve written about before. I got a nice Vivienne Westwood tee just after I sent the last email update.
• WarChild themselves have created a clever way to raise some cash (and have raised £80,000 as of me writing this) by auctioning and raffling off some incredible prizes, from backstage access to gigs when they’re back-to-normal to signed guitars, video-chats with stars, and limited-edition prints.

Alright, that’s all for this month.

Until next time.

Your friend,
Adam Stoner