podcasts
It’s who you know
All the world’s on stage again so where to go to for insight into what to see and why? Podcasts,…
Shawn again
Pity the aesthete, the flâneur and the opera-goer. Those who find the contents of their own heads so dull and…
Grand designs
Passenger List opens with a carefully structured ripple of breaking news bulletins: a mysterious catastrophe, an unconvincing official explanation, the…
Miliband’s last supper
You have to hand it to Ed Miliband. After bacon sandwich-gate, he might never have eaten in public again, but…
Star trek
Now that all of the billionaires are going into space, the night sky holds a special new kind of allure.…
Title deeds
The best thing on the radio last week was, without question, Kind Hearts and Coronets. You may have missed it…
No yelling necessary
It’s interesting that we have decided shaming and yelling are the easiest ways to change people’s minds. Which is not…
Big hooks but no mackerel
The narrative podcast remains a form in search of a genre. The template set by the hit show Serial —…
Inside stories
Prison-based podcast Banged Up, now in its second series, is far more uplifting — and less soapy — than its…
Dumber and dumber
Truly we are living in the golden age of the grifter. From Fyre Fest to the WeWork empire to Theranos…
Sins of the father
I’d forgotten what a rich and deep and characterful voice John le Carré had. Listening to author and lawyer Philippe…
Lightbulb moments
Last Saturday on Radio 2 Claudia Winkleman was inaugurated as the host of what was formerly Graham Norton’s mid-morning spot.…
From worst to best
It was something a friend said to me about The Revenant, Leonardo diCaprio’s bloody-minded and brutal Oscar vehicle: ‘The problem…
They had it coming
This year marks three decades since Robert Maxwell fell naked to his death from the deck of his yacht, The…
Sitting pretty
With the arts world still largely in hibernation, the launch of a big podcast is as close as we get…
King of chat
In my parents’ house, the radio is always tuned to one of two stations: Magic FM and LBC. When Magic…
Englishness vs California dreaming
On Archewell Audio, Harry and Meghan’s new podcast, ‘love wins’, ‘change really is possible’, and ‘the courage and the creativity…
The Midas touch
It’s well known that you should never meet your heroes because they will only disappoint you. Less commonly said, but…
A salmagundi of tedium
The White Pube started life as an influential art blog, written by Zarina Muhammad and Gabrielle de la Puente. The…
No more Mr Nasty
‘I used to be Mr Nasty! That was good! Mr Nasty was easy!’ Jeremy Paxman bellows at Michael Palin on…
Concrete poetry
Since technology is developing at such light-speed pace, why does it feel so strangely slow? There is a sense that…
Lamb to the slaughter
The Slightly Foxed podcast, like the quarterly and old bookshop of the same name, is almost muskily lovely. It’s the…
Limelight and lucre
Italy has long captivated romantics from rainy, dreary, orderly northern Europe. Goethe, Stendhal, Keats and Shelley all flocked to Italy…
Lost in translation
Listening to the tacky and incomprehensible audio-adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s graphic novel seriesSandman, I couldn’t stop thinking about the 19th-century…
A podcast about the literary canon that actually deepens your knowledge (sort of)
While most of life’s pleasures can be shared, reading is lonely. It’s more than possible for six friends to enjoy…
