Have you ever heard of vitrification? Crudely put, it’s the process where super-hot liquids cool rapidly and turn to glass. In this episode, I explore how hot ideas, if cooled too quickly, turn to glass and shatter. You need to cool those ideas down by degrees if you want them to survive. Listen in.

I filmed a behind the themes video to go with this episode, and you can watch that here: https://janeenmccrae.substack.com/p/behind-the-streams-six-degrees

If you want to read about the glass brain man, you can do that here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/vesuvius-turned-a-roman-mans-brain-into-glass-now-scientists-reveal-how-the-extremely-rare-preservation-happened-180986145/

And here’s a story about the frescos: https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2025/03/dionysian-fresco-pompeii/

This is an audio reading of the post “Six Degrees of Ideation” originally published on March 26, 2025. Additional creative inspirations can be found at that link.

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About Field of Streams
This podcast provides audio readings of The Stream newsletter's main feature. The Stream is written by Janeen McCrae, and aims to provide a weekly dose of personal essays and creative inspirations that'll get you revved up to 'make the thing.'
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