Adam Buxton is doing some furtive googling. Under one of those hats that looks like a cap but doesn’t have a peak, and wearing a dad-ish green fleece, his eyes are very subtly sliding from his webcam to his computer screen. We’re talking about why farts are funny, and he wants to get his references to 16th-century French essayists right.
“ How much more fundamentally relatable does it get than shitting, pissing and farting? Michel de Montaigne, he said…” The eyes dart to the side. “‘Kings and philosophers shit, and so do ladies.’ Can you imagine that? Even ladies. That was his way of saying, like, ‘This is universal stuff. It’s not beneath consideration.’”
That mix of silly and serious is there on his new podcast Successpod, a new six-part series mixing sketches, songs and walks with his dog Rosie in an attempt to answer big questions. What is success? How do you get through a midlife crisis? And are we all doomed?
It’s not just a handy conceit. Every now and again, he does worry – not that often, but sometimes, usually when he’s seen someone else get nominated for a podcast award – he’ll fret that he’s done.
“On the one hand, I am not maxxing. I am not squeezing every drop of optimisation out of my fortunate position, and sometimes I feel guilty about that, and I think it’s a bit stupid because at some point it’ll evaporate, and then I won’t have the option to carry on in my fortunate bubble.”
