The Constant: A History of Getting Things Wrong · Mark Chrisler

It's a Secret 4 Everyone

July 15, 2025·54 min·4 clips

The Voynich Manuscript is a 15th-century book written in a language and alphabet that doesn't exist anywhere else.

It begins with housekeeping. A third release date has appeared because the Gregorian calendar has opened one more odd little slot. The host treats the Secret Feed setup plainly: bonus style stories, patron support, and the familiar promise of early, ad free access for people who want it. Then Democritus Junior takes over. The memorial stone at Christ Church gives the episode its tidy ending, since the Latin inscription packs identity, melancholy, and reputation into one small knot. Known to few, unknown to fewer. The host clearly loves the line: a little funny, a little beautiful, and hard to leave alone. The Anatomy of Melancholy is still easy to find. It is public domain, readable through Project Gutenberg or Google Books, available in newer printed editions, and, as the host jokes, maybe something a determined listener could actually read all the way through. That joke keeps the book alive instead of leaving it on a shelf. The ads interrupt, because of course they do. Indeed copy slides in with alchemists, drinkable gold, sponsored jobs, and worldwide hires, a strange but fitting crash between scholarship and commerce. The ending circles back to patrons. The host thanks listeners, points them to patreon.com slash the constant, and says new support helps continue and improve the show. The credits name Epidemic Sound and Blue Dot Sessions, then the signoff lands in Chicago, Illinois, with summer in full swing. The whole thing is odd in a likable way: epitaph, old book, patron pitch, hiring ad. The Constant does not hide the clutter. It lets the scholarly bit, the ad read, and the genuine fondness for one old memorial line sit in the same room.

As heard by us

A bonus Constant episode that treats Burton's melancholy classic as a lively, digressive read.

This bonus Constant episode spends its time on Robert Burton, the seventeenth-century writer who signed The Anatomy of Melancholy as Democritus Junior and is memorialized at Christ Church under that name.

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Why you'd press play

For a secret-feed detour that lands on Robert Burton, a memorial stone, and a book dare.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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