Friday Five: Podcast Update

Goodness, it's been a year since I last wrote about the podcasts which accompany me on my walks, runs and drives (although never rides - it's unsafe). So it must be time for some more.

1. Desert Island Discs (BBC Radio 4) - This has been going since 1942 and is obviously a popular and simple format, which has lasted for more than 3,000. The host (currently Lauren Laverne) asks her guest (or 'castaway') what eight tracks, book and luxury item they would take with them if they were cast away on a desert island. There's one every week and I pick people who I think might have interesting stories to tell and suitably accompanying sounds (and I always cheer when someone picks You'll Never Walk Alone). Recent episodes to which I have listened include Cate Blanchett, Baz Luhrmann, Richard E Grant, Bono, Jon Ronson, Oti Mabuse, Deborah Levy, Richard Osman, Joanne Harris, Peter Schmeichel, Tracey Ullman, Baroness Hale of Richmond, Michael Holding, Alexei Sayle, Billie Piper, Professor Sir Simon Wessley, Dame Louise Casey, Mark Strong, Malala Yousaafzai, Tim Peake, and Simon Armitage.
2. Limelight (BBC Radio 4) - Audio drama at its most thrilling. It began with The System, a six-part thriller about a group of young radicals and the hunt for their leader. When Jake signs up to a personal training program that promises to turn the meekest man-boy into an alpha male, he hasn't got a clue what he's getting himself into. Two years later his sister Maya sets out to uncover the truth (there has been a second season that I have not yet heard). The next drama was The House that Vanished, a real-life mystery from the West Coast of Ireland that does exactly what it says on the tin, and then there was Harland, a Halloween special in which a town has been built on the site of a medieval plague village abandoned 900 years ago. These are great and there are many more in store for your listening pleasure.

3. Something Rhymes with Purple (A Somethin' Else and Sony Music Entertainment Production) - Gyles Brandreth and Susie Dent both have voices to which I could happily listen all day. They talk about words; their origins, development and meaning. Apparently it won the Gold Award for Best Entertainment Podcast at the British Podcast Awards 2020, so it appears plenty of other people enjoy these linguistic lessons about anything from clothing to food; travel to sport; professions to poetry and anything else that verbs your noun.
4. That Peter Crouch Podcast (BBC Radio 5Live/ Acast) - Lads talk about football. They have got knowledge; their humour is a bit blokey, but they also have clout, and have 'blockbuster guests' including premier league referees, international coaches, past and present players, and Prince William. Ostensibly a guide on how to be a professional footballer, the episodes include insight on everything from dressing-rooms, transfers, managers, training, kits, analysis, and other details of the modern game. Peter Crouch (former professional footballer - one of 33 to have scored over 100 Premier League goals), Tom Fordyce (sports journalist and author) and Chris Stark (radio personality, co-presenter and executive producer) are a good mix and present an hour-long chat full of insight and anecdote. In what is being described as a 'mass exodus of talent from the BBC', Peter Crouch has just moved to Acast for an undisclosed sum - probably quite a high one considering That Peter Crouch Podcast was the fourth most popular podcast on BBC Sounds last year and the largest sports podcast at the BBC with 60 million listeners.



5. The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling (The Free Press) - No one knew who she was; she wrote some books; everybody knew who she was; she championed the underdog; lots of people loved her views; lots of people hated her views; these two groups of people hated each other; she made some comments about sex and gender; lots more people hated her, including some of the ones who had previously loved her; she mentioned her privilege in that the hate mail and death threats she received didn't bother her as much as they would some younger, more vulnerable people; she was vilified. 'Witch' is a word used for a woman who doesn’t submit to patriarchal power; someone who dares to take up space and live their lives outside their socially prescribed roles. Personally, I am proud to be a witch, and I do not think that the sex/gender debate is 'binary'. Critical feminists and trans-right activists actually have a lot in common if they put the mental and physical safety of the individual first; and stridently conducting TERF wars is not helping anybody. I'm four episodes in to the seven-episode podcast series by Megan Phelps-Roper featuring extensive interviews with J.K Rowling and with several of her critics, supporters and readers. Billed as 'probably one of the most controversial podcasts of 2023 so far', it is undeniably well-made and hugely listenable, and will surely just fan those flames even higher.

Shepherd Island Discs

Umbagong Park

Today I went for a walk, as I often do in the later afternoons and evenings. The clocks go back tomorrow, so there will be fewer opportunities to get out in the coming months. My knees don't like to run anymore but I still love to get out in the fresh air, and I usually listen to podcasts as I walk around the parks and back roads.

Desert Island Discs is one of my favourite podcasts, and today, as the sun lowered towards the horizon and inflamed the branches of the autumn trees I listened to an episode from a couple of months ago featuring James Rebanks, Shepherd and Writer. He mainly talked about Herdwick sheep, The Lake District, and farming in general, as you would expect. I like these things, and he was erudite and interesting about them, his family, and the education he embarked upon later in life. 

He had sound musical choices (by which I mean I liked them all, apart from Johnny Cash). He chose tracks by Kirsty MacColl, Nina Simone, Pulp, and Billy Bragg & Wilco. I was a bit disappointed that he chose Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea as his book and said that he didn't really want The Bible or the Complete Works of William Shakespeare. He claims to be a writer, so surely even if he has no interest in religion or sixteenth-century drama, he can appreciate the stories and the storytelling within these literary canons. 

What really stood out for me in the program, however, was a throwaway comment that he made. He said he had read somewhere that the average British child today spends less time outdoors than the average prisoner. I looked into this when I got back indoors and found a survey from 2016 which seems to verify this. I was shocked. 

I love being outdoors and I did as a kid. Climbing trees, riding my bike, playing a peculiar version of badminton, walking by the river, even just sitting on the grass and making daisy chains are some of my favourite childhood memories, and the basis of some of my earliest friendships. Being outdoors and breathing fresh air restores my mental and physical health. I know that some places are too polluted to enjoy these environmental benefits and that I am lucky to live where I do. 

And yet, it's true that I rarely see young folk playing outside, despite the beautiful scenery, parks and open spaces that make up this Bush Capital of Canberra. My walk takes me past this rather odd sculpture of a group of kids playing football. They are regularly given different shirts to wear, dressed up warmly in winter, and treated to Santa hats at Christmas time. People obviously care about them and in some strange way want to incorporate outdoor play into their community. Sadly, these motionless mannequins are displaying way more activity than most young people today.