As promised, a bonus email based on some of your recommendations, to celebrate reaching 300 people in our gang. Delightfully this is now closer to 400, so I will have to find another gimmick to mark that. Any suggestions very welcome.
I can’t vouch for all of these personally, because there are so many hours of audio here. I will listen to them all eventually, but I promised you this email promptly and deadlines are my primary religion. Happy to pass them on: I trust your judgement, because it is clearly excellent if you like these emails. (subs pls check)
I’ve also thrown a few recommendations from irl pals that I’ve had in the last couple of weeks. Anything before then sadly has disappeared into the void that is my brain.
Anyway, that’s the deal. Have some podcasts, as recommended by you.
Documentaries
Slow Burn, recommended by Patrick via Substack
Patrick calls Slow Burn ‘one of the consistently great podcasts’ and I absolutely agree. We also agree that the Watergate and Monica Lewinsky series are the best ones. Basically the podcast looks at the unexplored stories behind recent major events in American history. It is one of the big canonical podcasts: one of the early ones like This American Life that everything else now copies.
Patrick also recommends West Cork which I have listened to and found interesting, and Chameleon: Wild Boys which I haven’t, but it is from the same series as Hollywood Con Queen which I recommended to you in the first email, so expect it to be good.
Fake Psychic, recommended by Smyth via Twitter
Symth says: ‘a wild ride that has the most unexpected and touching denoument.’ The BBC website says ‘Vicky Baker investigates the stranger-than-fiction story of Lamar Keene, a renowned psychic who confessed to being part of an underground network he called the "psychic mafia."’ Absolutely sold. Can’t wait.
The Habitat, recommended by irl pal Nicky
Six volunteers are enclosed in a fake space ship in the desert for a year, as part of a NASA project to examine how humans would respond psychologically to a mission to Mars. Amazingly, the podcast host has somehow negotiated getting regular audio updates sent from them. Claustrophobic, novel and remarkably touching.
The Habitat | Podcast on Spotify
A couple from Mike via Substack which both sound great.
Mike says:
Series: Containers. All about how shipping containers changed the world. A well told story about something fairly mundane
Episode: The Boring Talks (BBC) Model Villages! Tiny bricks, big drama https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05xtn7j
Music
Word in your Ear, recommended by Neil via Subtack
Neil says: It is essentially a weekly chat between two veteran and renowned music journalists in the UK, who worked on and edited some of the top pop and rock music magazines in the 70s and 80s. They riff on music but also on other topics. It genuinely feels like sitting down with the pair of them in the pub for a meandering and entertaining chat, peppered with some interesting and funny anecdotes of their time in the business.
Word In Your Ear on Apple Podcasts
Song Exploder, recommended by irl pal Finn
This is a really great podcast if you want to get properly into the weeds of how pop songs work and how the writing process happens. The podcast consists of interviews with the artists, breaking down their work piece by piece. Everyone is here from HAIM and Dua Lipa to Robert Plant.
Song Exploder | Podcast on Spotify
Other
Always Take Notes, recommended by irl pal Patrick
Speaking to writers about writing is their pitch. Everyone from novelist David Nicholls to the editor of The Athletic. Whimsical and interesting – a real delight.
Another recommendation - Harsh Reality, the Wondery podcast about the 2004 Sky reality series “There’s Something About Miriam”
As a series, it just stopped me in my tracks. It made me think about how much (and how little) society and reality TV have changed in the last 18 years. It’s really well done.
https://wondery.com/shows/the-story-of-miriam-rivera/
Apologies if I’ve banged on about this before but have you tried A History for Rock in 500 songs? It is a fantastic look at popular music from the 50s.