Summary
Overview
A wide-ranging conversation covering synesthesia, Queen Elizabeth I's court, Formula One racing, and 16th century medicinal ale. Angela Barnes shares her personal experience with multiple types of synesthesia, including grapheme color synesthesia where numbers and letters have distinct colors and personalities. The discussion moves through royal history, exploring Elizabeth I's Master of the Horse and the strict rules about touching royalty, then into modern Formula One racing with its super licenses and physical demands. The episode concludes with tales of Dr. William Butler, a 16th century physician who sold laxative ale on tap and employed unconventional medical treatments.
Angela Barnes's Experience with Synesthesia
Angela reveals she has multiple types of synesthesia, primarily grapheme color synesthesia where numbers, letters, and abstract concepts have specific colors. She was diagnosed at 19 after attending a university lecture on language acquisition, realizing not everyone experiences the world this way. She's now part of research studies at Sussex University exploring conception location synesthesia, where her thoughts occupy physical locations in space. Her synesthesia also includes ordinal linguistic personification, where numbers have distinct personalities - she finds number four kind and orange, while number five has an attitude problem.
- Angela has grapheme color synesthesia where numbers, letters, and days of the week have specific colors
- She was diagnosed at age 19 during a linguistics lecture at Sussex University
- Number four is orange and kind, while number five has an attitude problem
- She experiences conception location synesthesia where thoughts occupy physical locations from the real world
- Synesthesia is hereditary and linked to the X chromosome, caused by extra white matter connections in the brain that don't get pruned in childhood
- People with synesthesia often also have misophonia and misokinesia
- For Angela, orgasms have colors, usually through the red spectrum
" The number four is orange and a lot kinder than number five, which has an attitude problem. "
" It's always saying my husband knows it's been a good night if he says, how was it for you? And I say burnt umber. "
Types and Examples of Synesthesia
The conversation expands into the diverse world of synesthesia, with over 150 known types. Mirror-touch synesthesia allows people to physically feel what they see happening to others, which can be problematic for medical professionals. Chromesthesia pairs color with sound and is common among musicians like Stevie Wonder, Beyoncé, and Jimi Hendrix, whose 'purple chord' inspired the song Purple Haze. Lexical gustatory synesthesia causes people to taste specific flavors when hearing certain words, leading James Wannerton to create a London tube map based on what each station tastes like.
- There are over 150 documented types of synesthesia
- Mirror-touch synesthesia causes people to feel sensations they see happening to others
- Dr. Joel Salinas, a doctor with mirror-touch synesthesia, felt cardiac arrest sensations when treating patients
- Chromesthesia pairs colors with sounds and is common among musicians
- Jimi Hendrix's 'Hendrix chord' is also called the purple chord because he saw purple when playing it
- James Wannerton visited every London tube station to document what they tasted like
" One of the things he did was make this thing called purging ale which had aniseed caraway licorice and beer and if you went to quite a lot of pubs in london you would be able to get it on tap and it was good for you because you would purge your body "
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