Uhtcaere- with Stig Abell

You're lying in bed, awake. It's 5.45am. Your mind wanders. Should you get up now? Is your packed lunch ready? Will you go to the gym? Have you paid your rent? All of these things play into the feeling of 'uhtcaere'- lying in bed, worrying about the day ahead before it's even started.

The emotion comes from an Anglo-Saxon poem, The Wife's Lament, where a woman is bereft without her beloved. Although the poem is fantastically vague, we know it's about a woman looking for her partner. And most of that worry, it seems, is 'uhtcaere'- in the pre-dawn moments. So for this emotion I got incredibly geeky about Anglo-Saxon history (honestly, I had to hold myself back) and discovered more about literature from this era. I even read a very saucy riddle about an onion, but the less said about that the better.

Then, I spoke to Times Radio's Breakfast presenter Stig Abell- because who knows early mornings better than a breakfast radio presenter? He told me what time he gets up, how his show is planned, and what he does to keep the show on the road while avoiding uhtcaere for himself and his listeners. We eben invented a few new emotions along the way, including 'sockdread'. (You'll have to listen to find out more.)

So, when youre lying in bed worrying about the day ahead, I hope you're not worrying about which podcast to listen to. Because it's this one, obviously.

Oh, by the way, you can find me on twitter @getemotionalpod, and instagram @gettingemotionalpodcast.

And: Journey in the New World by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://www.twinmusicom.org/song/258/journey-in-the-new-world

Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org

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