Today I listened to...

JohnnyFlash

Really liking the new Financial Times podcast, The Big Picture. 30 minute episodes on a different topic each week. They first talk to a few experts, then have a debate to finish things off. Topics so far around the rise of AI, the Chinese economy, the crisis of democratic capitalism etc.

igCorcaigh

Dark Histories podcast.

Check out the bizarre story of Omm Sety, an Egyptologist who claimed to have had a past life as an Egyptian priestess and reincarnated 3000 years later.

http://darkhistories.com/episodes/omm-sety-reincarnation/

D'Agger

How I Built this with Guy Raz (NPR)

Friend sent me on one of the latest episodes with Patrick & John Collison, two Irish men who created Stripe. Very good interview, obviously two incredibly intelligent guys and very interesting to hear how they scoped out & grew the company.

D'Agger

D'Agger wrote: »

How I Built this with Guy Raz (NPR)

Friend sent me on one of the latest episodes with Patrick & John Collison, two Irish men who created Stripe. Very good interview, obviously two incredibly intelligent guys and very interesting to hear how they scoped out & grew the company.

love this podcast. pretty much all the episodes are quality. the one with James Dyson I particularly liked. Yer man Guy is an insightful interviewer and the stories are all engaging.

Lady Spangles

Death in Ice Valley on the BBC iPlayer.

It's an in depth investigation into the true identity of the Isdal Woman, an unidentified woman found dead in a remote area of Norway. The circumstances around the death were strange enough, but it turned out later she was travelling around Europe using numerous fake identities.

So far, it's been fantastic.

fixXxer

eviltwin wrote: »

All Bad Things - a look at natural disasters, accidents, basically depressing stuff

I've listened to the first three episodes of this. But, my god the hosts are irritating. The keep talking over each other, he just seems to speak whatever pops in to his head with having done no research. Might give it a few more as the subject matter is interesting but they do make it hard work.

Birdsong

glasso wrote:

love this podcast. pretty much all the episodes are quality. the one with James Dyson I particularly liked. Yer man Guy is an insightful interviewer and the stories are all engaging.

D'Agger wrote:

How I Built this with Guy Raz (NPR)

Another fan here, great interviews with very interesting people

JohnnyFlash

fixxxer wrote: »

I've listened to the first three episodes of this. But, my god the hosts are irritating. The keep talking over each other, he just seems to speak whatever pops in to his head with having done no research. Might give it a few more as the subject matter is interesting but they do make it hard work.

This is a problem with a lot of podcasts - the group of 'zany' individuals sitting around a table cracking terrible jokes, and thinking they are hilarious. Maybe it's just my personal preference, but I prefer the more formal documentary or debate style. Can still be light-hearted, or irreverent, but doesn't have some neckbeards doing that fake laughter in their futile attempt to demonstrate they have a personality.

I always imagine they look like these two dudes:

youngblood

We're no Doctors, funny interesting ramblings of two hypochondriacs, one "the non academy award nominee from dawson's creek" and her male "something in the industry" friend, funny with lots of interesting funny backstories, v enjoyable

Arghus

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

This is a problem with a lot of podcasts - the group of 'zany' individuals sitting around a table cracking terrible jokes, and thinking they are hilarious. Maybe it's just my personal preference, but I prefer the more formal documentary or debate style. Can still be light-hearted, or irreverent, but doesn't have some neckbeards doing that fake laughter in their futile attempt to demonstrate they have a personality.

I always imagine they look like these two dudes:

Just look at them; you know those guys aren't funny.

You've hit the nail on the head there for me too. It's a chronic problem with loads of podcasts: hosts who love the sound of their own voices far too much and even if they have something interesting to talk about it can just become an irritation after a very short while. Anything that mixes "humour" with True Crime is a particular red flag and improv comedy based shows are in general best avoided.

Honestly, any American pod that's meant to be in some way funny usually, for me, just seems full of windbags blowing hard.

JohnnyFlash

Arghus wrote: »

Just look at them; you know those guys aren't funny.

You've hit the nail on the head there for me too. It's a chronic problem with loads of podcasts: hosts who love the sound of their own voices far too much and even if they have something interesting to talk about it can just become an irritation after a very short while. Anything that mixes "humour" with True Crime is a particular red flag and improv comedy based shows are in general best avoided.

Honestly, any American pod that's meant to be in some way funny usually, for me, just seems full of windbags blowing hard.

There's some great topics out there that aren't being properly covered by podcasts in the space. I love conspiracy theories for example. I believe none of them to be honest, but there's a niche for a properly produced show that doesn't involve a group of neckbeards sitting around guffawing at their terrible in-jokes. The Casefile model is a real winner.

Back on topic; still loving the Financial Times Big Picture podcast. Just really interesting ideas and debates presented in a really professional style. And it certainly isn't 'yes to Capitalism despite anything'. Really nuanced and thought provoking material.

eviltwin

Disgraceland. A true crime podcast about the music industry.


While I'm waiting for You Must Remember This to come back I'm catching up on Old Hollywood Realness

Also getting into more drama, The Walk and The Diarist being two I'm enjoying

The Black Oil

Snap Judgement - Shrapnel.

Stories of two veterans. Not the easiest to listen to, but worth doing so.

Arghus

There's a new Common Sense with Dan Carlin out.

Creol1

How to Build a Country, a BBC radio podcast. Interesting.

pyramuid man

Arghus wrote: »

There's a new Common Sense with Dan Carlin out.

Thanks for posting this. I deleted this when he gave it a break.

igCorcaigh

BBC radio 4: The life scientific

For a long time Fay Dowker was mathematically precocious, but emotionally uncertain. These days, despite working in an area with few academic allies, she is more confident than ever. Her approach to a Theory of Everything, known as causal set theory, acknowledges the quantum nature of the universe and takes the arrow of time more seriously than Einstein. Bye bye time travel. Fay started her Life Scientific working on the assumption that the texture of the universe was continuous and smooth, with Stephen Hawking as her supervisor. But mid-career, she changed her mind. She now thinks in terms of 'atoms' of space-time. Down at the tiniest scale imaginable, the universe is granular, made of discrete entities that represent a point in space and a moment in time. Most theoretical physicists were shocked to discover in 1998 that the expansion rate of the universe was accelerating. Not the causal set theorists. Unlike everyone else, they were expecting this result. What's more, if causual set theory is right, there will be no need to explain dark energy, an idea which seems 'just wacky and a little bit malicious', to Fay.

http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/5/redir/version/2.0/mediaset/audio-nondrm-download/proto/http/vpid/p0529qtm.mp3

Gentleman Off The Pitch

Covert - Killing Bin Laden 3 parter - I enjoyed it

Owryan

In recent times i've found "thinking sideways" to be more miss than hit, but this week they are looking into an old Irish mystery i had never heard of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Missing_Postman_of_Stradbally.

http://thinkingsidewayspodcast.com/

Another Irish Centric episode after casefile's last podcast.

fixXxer

Owryan wrote: »

In recent times i've found "thinking sideways" to be more miss than hit, but this week they are looking into an old Irish mystery i had never heard of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Missing_Postman_of_Stradbally.

http://thinkingsidewayspodcast.com/

Another Irish Centric episode after casefile's last podcast.

Cheers for that. I remember reading about it in yer man's book about missing people in Ireland. Looking forward to a more detailed dissection.

Gentleman Off The Pitch

Gentleman Off The Pitch wrote: »

Covert - Killing Bin Laden 3 parter - I enjoyed it

decent. have some more episodes now about Mossad offing a Syrian general and the SAS in Angola.

retro:electro

I don’t know how anyone can listen to True Crime Garage. The two guys are fcuking painful. Especially the one who has nothing valid to say only saracastic interruptions. Two twats.
Have started Generation Why, it’s far superior. I just want to listen to the facts of the case. What happened, when, why, how; and the outcome.
I don’t want to listen to two geebags tugging themselves over someone’s murder and a wealth of unfunny jokes and off topic remarks.

sheroman01

Listened to David Baddiel on Second Captains the other day which then led me to listening to his Desert Island Discs interview on the BBC. What an incredible interview that was. Didn't think I'd get so emotionally involved in a podcast. Was never necessarily a fan of Baddiel but he's incredibly open and honest which is nice to listen to. Kirsty Young, the interviewer, is one of the best interviewers I've heard. Would recommend it for sure.

optogirl

Dublin Podcast Festival is on in Sept/October - will be heading along to see Adam Buxton do a live taping of his show with David O'Doherty

http://entertainment.ie/trending/news/The-Dublin-Podcast-Festival-is-back-with-another-great-line-up/406650.htm

fixXxer

optogirl wrote: »

Dublin Podcast Festival is on in Sept/October - will be heading along to see Adam Buxton do a live taping of his show with David O'Doherty

http://entertainment.ie/trending/news/The-Dublin-Podcast-Festival-is-back-with-another-great-line-up/406650.htm

Thanks for that, would be interested in Buxton and the Motherfoclair show.

By the By, new Hardcore History up today

mrsdewinter

I've devoured The Teacher's Pet over the past week, and realised only tonight that the final ep is out this week.
It focuses on the real-life case of a young mother who went missing from her home in suburban Sydney in 1982. Her husband claimed she left to get some head space because their marriage had hit a dead-end. Within a couple of days, he'd moved his teenage lover - a girl he'd taught - into the marital bed.
To say the least, he wasn't proactive in finding the mother of his children & it becomes clear that by the time the police get involved, detectives don't cover themselves in glory.
I like the reporter: he's thorough & asks the questions the listener wants answers to. It's nothing you haven't heard before but I enjoy the way the story develops merely because this podcast is going out.

ElChe32

I'm half way through Caliphate a New York Time's podcast about the Islamic State. Pretty interesting listening so far.

Bainneban

desert island disks - Kelsey Grammar

Bainneban

Bainneban wrote: »

desert island disks - Kelsey Grammar

This the only time I'll get to do it this way

*Grammer

The Black Oil

Before and After - from This American Life's back catalogue. Picks up in Oct 2001, shortly after Sept 11th. Tbh, I wasn't aware the show goes back this far. Very good piece.

Radiolab piece on sex education.

I see Alan Alda's just started a podcast. Will check it out.