A freeform, wide-ranging podcast by writer and composer Simo Sakari Aaltonen on any topics foremost on his mind at the time of recording. The seasons are also collected in book form. Some favourite topics include creativity and all the arts — music, films, screenplays, fiction, poetry, comics, games, comedy, and everything in between. Messages from listeners welcomed for possible inclusion in an episode. Note that sending a recording for inclusion in an episode of this podcast implicitly gives permission to do so.
24 March 2025 — Final episode — Café de Halle — Tampere Market Hall — Past, present, future — The decision to end this podcast was made before David Lynch left for the White Lodge — Major Briggs — Timings converging — Five years, seasons, and books — Started on 24 March 2020 in Iceland — The last two transcript books — Modern type of journal — Looking back — Hallituskatu — Lake episodes — Episodes in cafés — Tea with honey and ginger — Finishing things — David Lynch throughout this podcast — Inspiration — Short story “The Scarecrow” — At Dawn: Early Short Stories — Fully me — Every human soul — Successes and failures — We fail because… — Life humbles most of us — The edges of your life — Limitations as keys to freedom — True to the roots — Just a private talk — Five years of changes — Accents and spellings — My teenage video diary entries — Proto-podcast — Australian accent — Crocodile Dundee — TV series from Australia and New Zealand — Episodes of The Ray Bradbury Theater filmed over there — Quote from Robin of Sherwood (starring Michael Praed) written by Richard Carpenter — Forced to take a break — Addressing what just happened — Authenticity — Nauseous — 2024 diagnoses — The future — Ambulances — Certain readings — Convergence into a breaking point — Lifelong condition called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) — Further discussion elsewhere — Connections — Putting creativity in context — Disabilities, debilitating conditions — Overlap — Boxes — Bringing everything together — Invisible walls — Creating a new place — My new online home and headquarters — Dialing down social media activity — The sum total of my creativity so far — A private Patreon — No public shares — An extension of my home — Not a public forum — A private space — We need spaces where we can be at ease — Declining to enter into negative exchanges — The Better Patreon — Many meanings — From the abstract to the concrete — $3 tier: every post of every kind — Ten books, five music albums, three singles — All the ebooks in The Better Patreon Shop are in 100% print replica format — MP3s and the original full-quality WAV files — $9 tier: every post + all my creative works so far for no additional cost — Notes on some of the works — The original and Large Print Editions bundled (single purchase) — Tales from the North, Book I book + demonstration album (likewise) — 3-day weekly cycle (Monday to Wednesday) — Ideal to have days off as well as the cycles of activity — Some of the weekly series — A little poetry each day — One short story per week — Art & Love non-fiction chapters — Full Northern Exposure rewatch and creative appreciation — Connecting the various topics — Early thoughts on video and audio content — Invitation — Thanks for all your support in all its forms — On to The Better Patreon — Signing off
20 Sept 2024
5.16 On a Train, Mystery, Love, and the Four Elements
Train — Substantial — The aims of this podcast — Monty Python’s Flying Circus — Village idiot sketch with John Cleese — Providing a useful service — An effect behind the surface effects — Writing sketches also for or featuring the others — Introducing the next topic — The themes of mystery, hope, and love — “Platitudes” — Shorthand for something less damning? — Troubling — A sickness of thought — Authentic realities — Love or not? — A creator who absolutely believes in love and mystery — David Lynch — Wild at Heart (1990) — Earlier mention of this film in season 4 — The Wikipedia article — Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern as Sailor Ripley and Lula — Mystery, love, hope — Barry Gifford’s novel Wild at Heart: The Story of Sailor and Lula (1990) — Hope and the ending of the story — Things work out — The love of Sailor and Lula — Their own world — In love, devoted to each other, and into each other — Important in any romantic love — Getting off on each other — Mr. Lynch’s clear belief all along — Twin Peaks (1990–1992) — Blue Velvet (1986) — Film critic Roger Ebert’s comments on Wild at Heart — Misunderstanding — He had taken the film to be parody and satire — No, presented without guile — Eraserhead (1977) — Leaving Dune (1984) out of the discussion — More Frank Herbert’s creation — No interest in seeing the new film — Plastic and oil — Side track, main track — Icons and iconography vs. living, conscious, evolving, human beings — Mr. Lynch was into all of it — No parody, no satire — It’s a love story — Humour also — No dishonest moments — Trilingual (Finnish, Swedish, English) announcement (Jämsä) — Twin Peaks season 3 (2017) — Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) — Evolving understanding of “mystery”, “mysticism”, “mystic” — Murder mystery — Mystification — Nature mysticism — Direct experience of something — Problem about talking about these things — Anecdote about speech and experience — Being taken out of the moment — Failed communication — Deflated moments — Beyond words — Words and deeper feelings — Language came after — Its limits — Experiences beyond language — Acknowledging my contradictions — Walt Whitman on contradicting oneself — “I contain multitudes.” — A matter of authenticity and of compatibility — Lifelines — Fresh air, water, wood, the sky… — Forgot to mention stone (earth) — Shoulder bag as pillow — Grounding element — My rock collection once upon a time — Eventually let go of it — Who owns rock? — Downsizing — Owning stuff as a mental and physical burden — Hoarders — Back into nature — The hippo stone — Playground sandbox — The four elements as a principle applicable to both art and life — Philip Glass — Koyaanisqatsi — Director Godfrey Reggio — The Qatsi trilogy — Koyaanisqatsi (1982), Powaqqatsi (1988), Naqoyqatsi (2002) — The basis or bases of all matter — Something missing? — Balancing the elements — Applies vastly — Differing ratios — An ideal balance — A matter for intuition — Many works these days try to be all earth and fire — None of the creative arts? — Water, fluidity — This understanding goes back to our earliest art — Prehistoric cave art — Discussions between Pierre Estève (much more knowledgeable than me on this) and me — Monolingual (Finnish) announcement (Orivesi) — Creative record — Already an understanding of the four elements — Elegance a very advanced quality — Pablo Picasso — Panoramas and layouts — Disclaimer about personal ignorance — Later in time — Not an expert — Philip Glass and Samuel Beckett — Letting go of things tiring or even nauseating — Burdens of the past — The elements applied to our own places of living — A tool for troubleshooting daily life — Balcony drenched with fresh air — Phone alarm — Bathing in fresh air — Bath tub — Perfecting the elements — Good sleep — Journey ending — Returning
19 Aug 2024
5.15 Windows of Opportunity, Aims, and Seven Works in Seven Months
8 August 2024 (recording date) — Beautiful summer morning — Slice of dream country on the outskirts of Tampere — Rowing service gone — The wooden bridge — The cover of At Dawn: Early Short Stories — Bridge modifications — Lagoon — Esthetics — Windows of opportunity — True also with creative works — This podcast — No song-and-dance person — Leafing through the volumes of the podcast transcript books — Word-for-word transcripts — My favourite type of interview or discussion to read — Interview articles used to be edited to a very high degree — With recitations of facts — Thousands of interviews — Some humility — A journal — A place to reflect on my own and other people’s works — Some autobiography — Goose-stepping — Looking back on episode 4.15 — A new freedom in music in the early 1960s — A few pieces by The Scorpions and The Ventures — Speed — Cars and motorcycles — Being able to go fast and freely — Emerged in the 20th century — Rock music — Expressing new feelings of freedom — Related feelings of exhilaration — In earlier centuries — Trains — Horses — Not the same thing — Creative update — Backlog — So far this year — One full work per month — What Now with Simo, Season 3 transcript book — Discussions with David Lee Homb and Pierre Estève — Land of Youth & Beauty: Early Poems (Large Print Edition) — Singles “That Dark, Dark Night” and “In the Fog, Deep” — Album Passages Dark and Light II — Sheet music book Tales from the North, Book I (12 piano duets) — The real world premiere of any of the pieces or the full set — Intentionally crude demonstration album — At Dawn: Early Short Stories (Large Print Edition) — Accessible for people with any visual impairment — A dear project to me — 18-point font for the book of poetry — 24-point for the book of short stories — Also for people who simply prefer to read a large font — Different editions of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass — Enjoyed the large print edition most — Inspired by the references in Northern Exposure — Certain things happen only when reading physical works — Mind quietens down, goes calmer — Tactile and sensual elements — David Lynch tweet — Emphysema — Smoking can’t be removed from the equation — Otherwise in great health and filled with happiness — Will never retire
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Spotify
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 22 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
21
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
60
Contact What Now with Simo
Guest appearances
Does not typically book guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Host of What Now with Simo?
Claim your podcast to manage its listing and keep your show details accurate.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
