podcasts
We-ness rising
Back in March, I made a long-odds bet that Michelle Obama would be the Democratic party’s vice-presidential nominee. I knew…
The Michelle Obama Podcast is wholesome, intimate and suspiciously vague
Back in March, I made a long-odds bet that Michelle Obama would be the Democratic party’s vice-presidential nominee. I knew…
Viva la vulva!
I spent half an hour this week listening to a woman make a plaster cast of her vulva. Kat Harbourne,…
The grand inquisitor
I always want to know more about Louis Theroux, which is odd, since I’ve seen so much of him already.…
Corona-gardening
The American diet was probably at its healthiest in the second world war. Fearing interruption to supply chains, Washington launched…
Audio onanism
In Beeb-dominated Britain, the commercial triumph of podcasting — epitomised by Spotify’s recent £100 million deals with Joe Rogan and…
Is Bannon back?
Has the Trump campaign finally grown desperate enough to bring back Steve Bannon? The double whammy of the COVID-19 pandemic…
Gnarly men and pretty boys
If you study History of Art, people generally assume you’re a nice, conscientious, plummy-voiced girl. Sometimes, people are right. It…
Cheap thrills
Noël Coward was so right that his words have become a cliché: it is indeed extraordinary how potent cheap music…
A sting in the tale
Did the US secretly write a power ballad in order to bring down the Soviet Union? That’s the question behind…
The real deal – or not
One of the stranger things that happened in the period just before lockdown was the sudden disappearance of audiences from…
Hogsflesh and herring
Wilhelm Nero Pilate Barbellion, real name Bruce Frederick Cummings, earned his living measuring the legs of lice in the Natural…
Nerd mentality
How do you tell a great story? According to Craig Mazin, you have to be a sadist. ‘As a writer,…
Watcher of the skies – and the coffee pot
‘To be recognised and accepted by a peregrine,’ wrote J.A. Baker in 1967, ‘you must wear the same clothes, travel…
An ordinary Joe
Last month, just before coronavirus conquered the airwaves entirely, millions of Americans gave up two hours to hear a professor…
Form, dogs, kids and jam
Whee-ooh-whee ya-ya-yang skrittle-skrittle skreeeek… Is it a space pod bearing aliens from Mars? No, it’s a podcast featuring aliens from…
Rules of engagement
With theatres shut, radio must lighten the darkness. The Guilty Feminist is a wildly popular podcast performed by Deborah Frances-White…
Notes on a scandal
Kevin Katke was quite a man. He had no military training, no political background and no espionage experience. Nonetheless, his…
Oracles, perverts and the Dirtbag Left
For 500 years the State Oracle of Tibet has worked as a kind of angry immortal advisor to the Dalai…
Double agents and dog-ears
When will the definitive history of the modern Middle East be written? For 20 years and more, a continent has…
Anyone for a Sussex Royal potato?
Earlier this week, we accompanied our daughter-in-law, Hannah, to her British citizenship ceremony, she having passed the necessary tests. (Hannah…
Why everyone loves Dolly Parton
When her musical 9 to 5 opened at the Savoy Theatre earlier this year, Dolly Parton stayed at the Savoy…
How did Richard Herring become the comedy podcast king?
What does it mean to be a successful comic? Richard Herring isn’t sure. He’s been a ‘professional funnyman’ for nearly…
Can giving voice to the horrors of the past re-traumatise?
It is 50 years since Ronald Blythe published Akenfield, his melancholy portrait of a Suffolk village on the cusp of…
I was born to be on this Bob Dylan podcast, says Geoff Dyer
Podcasts will soon be like porn. Every interest, desire or idle flicker of curiosity will have been anticipated and catered…
