Podcasts you like

[crazy canuck]

I think schools should not cancel people because the twitter mob screams bloody murder. I don't think there should be a law against them refusing to allow someone to speak, I just think they should not do it because that is not a good idea.

And people like you, instead of making excuses, strawmen, and insisting that cancel culture does not exist, should have the courage to demand that people who do agree with you be allowed to speak, rather than demanding for them to be silenced, and then pretending like it never actually happened.

You saying you want to understand, then simply repeating what you know perfectly well is a sequence of strawmen, makes it clear that you do actually understand fine, you would just rather not argue against my argument, but the one you wish I had made instead. There is no circle that needs squaring.

Ok so your belief in freedom of expression is qualified.  It is ok if it is exercised in a way consistent with your view of the world, but if it is exercised in a manner you deem to be "screaming bloody murder" that should not occur.  I think that is explanation enough.

[Eddie Teach]

There is a world of difference between saying someone shouldn't do something and saying they can't do something.

[Jacob]

I've made a thread for discussing free speech here: https://languish.org/forums/index.php/topic,16540.0.html

[mongers]

I've made a thread for discussing free speech here: https://languish.org/forums/index.php/topic,16540.0.html

Excellent idea.

[Sheilbh]

Very interesting podcast on Aufhebunga Bunga about the trucker convoy:
https://bungacast.com/2022/03/22/249-dances-with-truckers-ft-ashley-frawley/

Disagree with chunks of it but an interesting conversation.

[Berkut]

I think schools should not cancel people because the twitter mob screams bloody murder. I don't think there should be a law against them refusing to allow someone to speak, I just think they should not do it because that is not a good idea.

And people like you, instead of making excuses, strawmen, and insisting that cancel culture does not exist, should have the courage to demand that people who do agree with you be allowed to speak, rather than demanding for them to be silenced, and then pretending like it never actually happened.

You saying you want to understand, then simply repeating what you know perfectly well is a sequence of strawmen, makes it clear that you do actually understand fine, you would just rather not argue against my argument, but the one you wish I had made instead. There is no circle that needs squaring.

Ok so your belief in freedom of expression is qualified.  It is ok if it is exercised in a way consistent with your view of the world, but if it is exercised in a manner you deem to be "screaming bloody murder" that should not occur.  I think that is explanation enough.

That is the most tortured defense of an attack on freedom of speech by a left wing cancel culture warrior I've ever seen. Well done.

I am standing here saying people should be allowed to say what they like, and *I* am the one who has a "qualified" belief in freedom of expression. This is straight up Orwell - congratulations.

[Sheilbh]

So not a podcast tip (but I really enjoyed the latest episode of Politics Theory Other on decolonisation and its legacy) and not totally linked to the whole Spotify controversy - but there's been a really striking trend in the last few months of BBC star journalists and producers who've worked on podcasts either getting poached by commercial radio/podcast networks, or setting up their own radio/podcast station.

It's happened with Emily Maitlis and Job Sopel (who were both talked about as possible BBC Political Editors - which is one of the biggest jobs in the BBC for journalists), as well as the producer behind Brexitcast and other podcasts in recent years. But also Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode who've been doing a very popular film review show on various radio stations (and as a podcast) for over 20 years are off to their own radio station (where they also do other shows) and producing the podcast independently - again taking their producer.

At the same time, from what I understand, advertisers get a broadly similar (and more easily tracked) return on podcast advertising as they do through online advertising via Facebook or Google - but it's a fraction of the cost. This is probably something that makes media publishers very happy and excited as it's a new revenue stream that's more or less directly between them and advertisers with no need to give most of their cut to Google.

It's not I think where anyone would have guessed media going a few years ago - and is quite interesting as a trend

It feels like one that broadly does tilt the balance (for now) back in favour of established media companies because they can basically have their journalists cover something for the newspaper, then do the explainers on how they broke the story plus analysis from commentators on the podcasts etc. And as ever one of the first to get this was probably Rupert Murdoch - News UK launched Times Radio with lots of Times (and some Sun) journalists moving over as full or part time hosts on this new commercial radio channel. It was announced pre-pandemic and the main purpose was to drive subscriptions to the Times, but has probably actually become its own thing with radio shows running through each day with some also doubling as podcasts.

I wonder if the move to newsletters will end up in a similar way - and similarly it's an advertising revenue between publishers and advertisers without any need for Facebook or Google

And it sort of makes sense because I suppose this is where people thought the interview would go - you can personalise your content to the podcasts/newsletters on topics you're interested in. But that stuff still needs curating/editing and there's no-one better for that than existing newspapers who use them to cross-subsidise other bits of their operation.

[mongers]

An interesting radio programme about 'The Little Black Book' starting on Radio 4 in 5 minutes and available to catch up on BBC Sounds:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0017t95

Growing up in New York in the 1980s, Laurence Legall was more than aware of the dangers of walking down the street. It didn't take much for a young black man to be stopped and searched by the city police - and if you made a wrong move, you could end up dead.

In this programme, from his home in Brooklyn where he has lived for much of his life, Laurence tells the story of the small but vitally important book created by his mom to help young black men stay safe on the streets of NYC.

It all began one day in 1985 when he went to buy some shoes with friends. They were robbed by a group of young men. Seeing a police car, they flagged them down but the NYPD didn't take their complaint seriously. When he got home, his mom was furious. But rather than just accept it, she decided do something about it.

And she was no stranger to 'doing something about it'. Back in 1957, Carol Taylor fought discrimination on the airlines to become the first black flight attendant in the United States. A few years later, she took her place on the podium at the March on Washington in 1963 with other civil rights campaigners.

And then years later, she wanted to make a stand for her son and all other young black men. Laurence's experience had been the last straw and, that evening, Carol sat down and wrote a list of survival rules for not just her son but for all black men to follow in the event of being stopped by the police. She called it The Little Black Book. This programme charts the story of that book, its important list of 30 rules and how it continues to be relevant nearly 40 years after its first publication.

Producer: Caroline Heywood
Executive Producer: Ashley Byrne
A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4

[Sheilbh]

I've mentioned the excellent Bad Gays podcast before - but they've now got a book about Bad Gays which I'm looking forward to getting. In part it'll be about how we can learn about the historical construction of homosexuality through looking at the bad gays as much as the icons and heroes - in particular because, they argue, it is linked to colonialism and (obviously particularly in the UK) class which are two areas with lots of villains.

Anyway an excerpt from their book on Ronnie Kray:
https://www.huckmag.com/art-and-culture/books-art-and-culture/bad-gays-extract-ronnie-kray-huw-lemmey-ben-miller/

[Sheilbh]

Another really impressive hire into podcasts - Global have now got Dinos Sofos (star BBC producer who did shows like Brexitcast and Americast for the 2020 etc), Emily Maitlis (former host of Newsnight, the BBC's flagship news show), Jon Sopel (BBC Washington correspondent and considered a leading candidate to become Political Editor) and now Lewis Goodall (BBC Policy Editor).

It's really striking to see companies making this sort of investment - and raiding really good BBC staff - for podcast, although Goodall's also been brought in to do more video content. I think they all also work for LBC which is basically a private version of talk radio in the UK - so they do radio shows but then also podcast content.

As I said before I can't believe that 10 years ago - with the launch of (the very good) Buzzfeed News, multiple pivots to video, social news etc - that anyone would have predicted there'd be big hires and investment in, basically, radio. In part it is very much helped by people being willing to pay for some subscriptions more than other content channels, but also I understand that the return on ads on podcasts is really, really good - plus you can do live shows/tours plus merch etc. It's an impressive bit of the media that can very much turn a profit.

And it was there underneath radio station's noses all this time I remember when the BBC wouldn't even call them "podcasts" because they thought that term was just associated with Apple so it might be accidentally/inadvertently promoting Apple products - but just think of all the Melvyn Bragg merch opportunities they missed out on

[mongers]

Another really impressive hire into podcasts - Global have now got Dinos Sofos (star BBC producer who did shows like Brexitcast and Americast for the 2020 etc), Emily Maitlis (former host of Newsnight, the BBC's flagship news show), Jon Sopel (BBC Washington correspondent and considered a leading candidate to become Political Editor) and now Lewis Goodall (BBC Policy Editor).

It's really striking to see companies making this sort of investment - and raiding really good BBC staff - for podcast, although Goodall's also been brought in to do more video content. I think they all also work for LBC which is basically a private version of talk radio in the UK - so they do radio shows but then also podcast content.

As I said before I can't believe that 10 years ago - with the launch of (the very good) Buzzfeed News, multiple pivots to video, social news etc - that anyone would have predicted there'd be big hires and investment in, basically, radio. In part it is very much helped by people being willing to pay for some subscriptions more than other content channels, but also I understand that the return on ads on podcasts is really, really good - plus you can do live shows/tours plus merch etc. It's an impressive bit of the media that can very much turn a profit.

And it was there underneath radio station's noses all this time I remember when the BBC wouldn't even call them "podcasts" because they thought that term was just associated with Apple so it might be accidentally/inadvertently promoting Apple products - but just think of all the Melvyn Bragg merch opportunities they missed out on

Shelf do you ever reccomended much BBC podcast/radio out put or does it have to wait for them to join non-state media/broadcast companies?

[Sheilbh]

Not really. I don't really listen to BBC podcasts to be honest - I listen to In Our Time and I listened to Kermode and Mayo (and followed them to their new home - again interesting that they set up a private radio/podcast company as an exciting media venture in the 2020s ).

I think probably because I don't really listen to the radio very much and I've never downloaded the BBC Sounds app I'm not that exposed to what's going on there. Having said that, except for Football Weekly and maybe some of the Athletic affiliated podcasts, I don't really listen to any podcasts that are by a legacy media company.

But I couldn't tell you what's on BBC or ITV or Channel 4 either. I use iPlayer, All4, ITV Hub but don't really watch linear TV - I don't have an aerial and haven't for years.

[The Larch]

I do listen to a couple of popular history podcasts by the BBC, "You're dead to me", by Greg Jenner, and "Evil genius", by Russell Kane. 

Both are a good mix of proper history and comedy. In "You're dead to me" they analyze most of the times a character and sometimes a topic or event with a guest historian, a specialist on the topic, and a comedian that provides banter and wittycisms, sometimes with a personal connection to what is being discussed. "Evil genius" discusses a controversial historical character and provides sometimes little know facts about their lives, and a 3 people panel of comedians have to vote to decide if that person was a genius or evil depending on what they did historically and what they've learned about their lives during the program.

[Syt]

Some games podcasts I've enjoyed recently:
- Three Moves Ahead; well over 500 episodes, focused on strategy and wargames
- Single Malt Strategy; similar strategy focus, but I feel they cover more niche/wargame titles
- eXplorminate; also covering strategy games, but looking more at 4X games
- Space Game Junkie; mostly about Space Games (duh), but also branching out into other genres or more general gaming related discussions

[mongers]

Not really. I don't really listen to BBC podcasts to be honest - I listen to In Our Time and I listened to Kermode and Mayo (and followed them to their new home - again interesting that they set up a private radio/podcast company as an exciting media venture in the 2020s ).

I think probably because I don't really listen to the radio very much and I've never downloaded the BBC Sounds app I'm not that exposed to what's going on there. Having said that, except for Football Weekly and maybe some of the Athletic affiliated podcasts, I don't really listen to any podcasts that are by a legacy media company.

But I couldn't tell you what's on BBC or ITV or Channel 4 either. I use iPlayer, All4, ITV Hub but don't really watch linear TV - I don't have an aerial and haven't for years.

Right so your choices are idealogically driven. :p

Incidentally there's an interesting Johnathan Freedland series starting on R4 today, about the Jewish guy who escaped Austwitz so as to alert the world to what was going on in the death camps.