Stuff that occurs to me

All of my 'how to' posts are tagged here. The most popular posts are about blocking and private accounts on Twitter, also the science communication jobs list. None of the science or medical information I might post to this blog should be taken as medical advice (I'm not medically trained).

Think of this blog as a sort of nursery for my half-baked ideas hence 'stuff that occurs to me'.

Contact: @JoBrodie Email: jo DOT brodie AT gmail DOT com

Science in London: The 2018/19 scientific society talks in London blog post

Friday 3 March 2023

My favourite podcasts by middle aged white guys

I often see Twitterers and columnists opining that we don't need any more podcasts from middle aged (or middle class) white men and I would like to be an outlier on this, and recommend the following excellent and entertaining podcasts from that demographic. Other demographics are available.

Kermode and Mayo's Take: Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode
https://www.kermodeandmayo.com/
Apple podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music

A continuation of the excellent 'Wittertainment', the BBC 5 Live show that ran for ages before Simon and Mark parted company with the BBC and set sail under their own steam. Fabulous interviews with people who make films and streaming series, pithy film reviews, amiable complaints about various annoyances, audience emails, terrible jokes and a general feeling of warm film-fan community. There have been a couple of live events too in London, hugely popular.

There's a free version and a paid-for version and a whole bunch of extras. The free version has some rather funny adverts. 

Bunk Bed: Peter Curran and Patrick Marber
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0735nh6/episodes/downloads
BBC Sounds

Love this. Late night chats recorded lying down in the dark while in bunk beds. Gentle and funny bickering and story-telling with occasional guests on the pull-out mattress, all in 15 minutes. I love the sounds of the duvets rustling and the conversations veering off in directions. 

Here's a lovely review from the Royal Television Society: https://rts.org.uk/article/ear-candy-bunk-bed

Really? No, Really?: Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden
https://reallynoreally.com/
iHeart Radio | Apple podcasts | Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Music | Simplecast

The new kid on the block. I have recently been bingeing Seinfeld on Netflix, getting me through a miserable bout of Covid (now recovered) and just so delighted that the end of that coincided with Jason Alexander launching a podcast with his pal Peter Tilden. It's a lovely buffet of odd facts and interesting guests in which they're trying to get to the bottom of why the things that make them go "Really? No, Really?" are that way. It's funny and fact-checked so ticks my boxes.

Coincidentally both Patrick Marber (Peter O'Hanraha-hanrahan on The Day Today) and Jason Alexander (George Costanza on Seinfeld) have been making me laugh for 30 odd years and both are now directing (Marber, Leopoldstadt) or about to direct (Alexander, The Cottage) plays on Broadway. I wonder if they know each other! Also, perhaps there are other left-handed, Jewish, poker-playing actor-directors whose podcasts I might like to hear about...?



No comments:

Post a Comment

Comment policy: I enthusiastically welcome corrections and I entertain polite disagreement ;) Because of the nature of this blog it attracts a LOT - 5 a day at the moment - of spam comments (I write about spam practices,misleading marketing and unevidenced quackery) and so I'm more likely to post a pasted version of your comment, removing any hyperlinks.

Comments written in ALL CAPS LOCK will be deleted and I won't publish any pro-homeopathy comments, that ship has sailed I'm afraid (it's nonsense).