Podcasts & Blogs I like

[Chicky]

The Shrine Podcasts series has just featured one of my tweets in their final Happy Valley episode

[sally maclennane]

There is a new series of Bear Brook, only 2 episodes so far but it seems good so far.

I've also been listening to a Wondery series called Stolen Hearts about a female police officer who falls in love with a bank robber. Its pretty daft and I'd have given up but there is only one episode left now so I'll finish it off.

[Lily]

Fame at last, Chicky!

The Witch Trials of J K Rowling is interesting.

[sally maclennane]

Where is that, Lily?

[baargain]

I found it on Spotify, its made by The Free Press.

[Duophonic]

I've also been listening to a Wondery series called Stolen Hearts about a female police officer who falls in love with a bank robber. Its pretty daft and I'd have given up but there is only one episode left now so I'll finish it off.

I'm listening to this now, she's ridiculous. You know it's bad when even your armed robber boyfriend thinks you've lost your mind.

[sally maclennane]

I've also been listening to a Wondery series called Stolen Hearts about a female police officer who falls in love with a bank robber. Its pretty daft and I'd have given up but there is only one episode left now so I'll finish it off.

I'm listening to this now, she's ridiculous. You know it's bad when even your armed robber boyfriend thinks you've lost your mind.

I know, she's a total eejit isn't she?

[Lily]

I'm going off You're Wrong About due to Sarah and her exclamations.

Mmm hmmm.
Hmm.
Huh!
Wow.

That and her HU HU HU HU HU laugh which makes me want to commit violence.

I'm also going off The Evolution of Horror which is becoming very right-on. Apparently Brad and Tom were "femme coded" in Interview with a Vampire because they had long hair and long nails. Everyone knows vampires have long finger nails and everyone had long hair in the 18th century! Films or stars are frequently "problematic" and "cishet" gets thrown around a lot. It's just boring. I want to hear a discussion about a film not see it through a "woke-grading" gaze.

Did you find The Witch Trials, Sal? It's so well done and interesting from both sides.

[Wiggle]

Just finished the latest episode of The Witch Trials of JK Rowling. A really well made and insightful podcast. Lots of interesting background details and information. The sound bites from the activists really made me roll my eyes

[sally maclennane]

I just downloaded the Witch Trials so will check it out!

[Chicky]

I’m on episode 3 and really enjoying it (well I don’t enjoy what’s happened but it’s a very good podcast). I didn’t realise that her publishers made her put her name as JK Rowling even though she doesn’t have a middle name because they thought she’d sell more books with a gender neutral name.

[Squirrel]

Has anyone listened to this one?

Review from the guardian:
Ooh, a new true crime cold case podcast from Serial! Stop the clocks, etc. Actually, don’t stop them, but turn them back to the first series in 2014, just to remember how different the audio and TV climate was when true crime wasn’t a thing. Imagine! Now, as the recent tragic death of Nicola Bulley has demonstrated, true crime has ballooned from a successful media genre into a lunatic, hands-on approach to the news. Don’t just shout at the telly, spout unproved theories on TikTok and rock up at the crime scene with a spade and a phone camera. After all, these days, who would trust the police?

Which brings me to The Coldest Case in Laramie, a new eight-episode podcast from Serial Productions and the New York Times. Over lockdown, searching for a story, journalist Kim Barker remembered a strange case from the town she lived in as a teenager: the murder of Shelli Wiley, 22, in 1985. Wiley was stabbed and her flat set on fire. No one was convicted of her murder. So far, so standard podcast fare, but there’s a twist and it’s this. Everyone in Laramie, Wyoming, says they know who did it and the person they name – a former Laramie cop named Fred Lamb – was even charged at one point. He’s even seemed to admit to the murder, on tape. So why is he still free?

Barker is excellent: dogged but fair, utterly reasonable, on the side of Wiley’s family. She gets access to all files and tapes and, as she investigates, this cops-protecting-their-own yarn develops into something sadder and more infuriating. Old prejudices sent police down blind alleys, old friendships stopped them following up leads. (An example: every member of a mostly black student sports team comes under suspicion, simply because Shelli, a white woman, had a “friends with benefits” relationship with one of them.) The podcast also becomes a story about memory and how human recall – even of such a shocking event – is never as accurate as we think. It’s a gripping but subtle listen that exposes the biases, hopes and assumptions that everyone brings to a case such as this. No amount of evidence can help with that.

[Squirrel]

I’ve just started listening to Bone Valley which is excellent.

Thank you for this, I listened to the whole thing and it was excellent.

[Lily]

Has anyone listened to this one?

Yes; it wasn't as good as I hoped to be honest. It didn't really get anywhere, although I found the narrator's "personal journey" quite interesting.

[sally maclennane]

I've not heard of that Squirrel, is it good?

I've been listening to Shot in the Dark, which is by the same team who did The Lady Vanishes. Its about a woman who took her own life but her family feel there were some suspicious circumstances. Its not as good, and the latest episode was talking about the way the police treated the family (same theme came up in TLV) but it all seemed very subjective eg about the "tone" of emails which I think is a difficult thing to prove.

[Squirrel]

I've not heard of that Squirrel, is it good?

I haven’t started it yet, I was wondering if there were any real-world reviews on here before I dive in. It sounded good but something’s not quite grabbing me to get started. I want a new Bone Valley really .

[Lily]

I prefer ones where there is a real ending at the, er, end.

[TracyA]

Does anyone else listen to ‘betwixt the sheets’? It’s hosted by Kate Lister , who is apparently a sex historian, but many of the episodes aren’t about sex (some are). She has a guest every week and I find them entertaining .

[Derek Nimmo]

I've just listened to the first episode of The Retrievals. It was very very good but will also make you fucking furious.

Also, Spellcaster: The Fall of Sam Bankman-Fried is well worth a listen as is Flipping The Bird about Elon Musk's planet-sized ego (and the Twitter takeover).

[Derek Nimmo]

And....i couldn't sleep much last night so I listened to Yeti (BBC Sounds) which is, funnily enough, all about a search to see if the yeri exists. Very entertaining.