Olly has just laid a hot fresh episode of the Guardian’s Tech Weekly, in which he debates the future of your ear-tertainment what with Apple Music and Beats 1 entering the fray. Hear it here, and don’t forget to check back tomorrow for more Mann on The Media Podcast and his LBC show.
Almost certainly less raucous, but still fun and funny, is Radio 4’s News Quiz: I’ll be on it tomorrow night, 6.30pm.
In the new episode of the Allusionist, I reluctantly learn about emoji, and discover a world of misbehaving medieval nuns. Hear it at theallusionist.org/emoji.
Catch up with AMT316 to hear about dirty knickers, banana thrift and the undead Mike Oldfield, and rejoin us next Thursday for AMT317.
What have you been listening to, dear audiophiles? Tell me in the comments!
Friends, this evening I’m on a new Radio 4 panel show, Best Behaviour. It’s hosted by (AMT jingle alum) Holly Walsh and is all about manners. Hear it on R4 at 6.30pm, or afterwards on the BBC website. And you might as well remain tuned in to Radio 4 for eight days, because on Friday 29th I’ll be on the News Quiz! Finally we can test whether I really can convincingly pass as a Sandi Toksvig soundalike…
I’m also on the latest episode of the bicontinental gameshow International Waters, hosted by Dave Holmes. Arnab Chanda and I were pitted against Paul Provenza and Brigid Ryan. We recorded pretty soon after the election, so were in an emotionally weakened state rather than 100% combat ready.
The new Allusionist tackles one of the most pressing questions of our time: what IS brunch? I’m joined by Dan Pashman of The Sporkful podcast, who champions something called ‘the porklift’. Racy! There’s more information and different ways to hear the show at theallusionist.org/brunch.
What have you enjoyed listening to this week? Let us know in the comments! I’ve just started on Nocturne, which is really beautifully made audio essays about the night; and I’m catching up on ARRVLS before their second series begins next month. The Norjak episode will appeal to any of you who were into the DB Cooper theory of Mad Men. Backed the wrong horse, didn’t you? Maybe it’ll happen in one of the DVD extras.
One Bad Mother is a really fun show whether you’re a parent or not, and they just made it past the 100 episodes landmark! Well done, Mothers!
There’s some very good stuff on Everything Is Stories. I was particularly struck by the ‘Everything Can’t Be Something’ episode, combining the headiness of 60s Hollywood and the headfuckness of religious communes.
In AMT312, we advise questioneers on how to get a job in Antarctica, how to wipe their bums on gold, and how to spell yogurt/yoghurt/yoghourt (OK, we’re not 100% certain on that point). Catch up, and rejoin us next Thursday for AMT313.
What have you been listening to this week? Here’s what I have been feeding my ears:
Cheese fans, chew on this episode of Gastropod, which is a very interesting tour through the history and science of cheese (a rather more thorough one than ours). Cheese begat written language! What a magnificent substance it is.
Similarly detailed is Song Exploder, on which musicians dissect their own songs to show how they were composed and produced. It’s fascinating stuff. I was particularly tickled by the National‘s tale of harmonica versus a perforated eardrum.
In Out of Date, each week Dave Cribb and Pete Allison go on dates then do post-match analysis. Is it wrong that I kind of hope they don’t find love so they have to keep making the show? (Of course it is wrong. I know that. Shut up.)
On Monday, I was on Woman’s Hour‘s craft special, teaching Jane Garvey how to make a kimono out of charity shop scarves. She took to sewing like a duck to snooker. A triumph! Anyway, if you want to make your own and the audio is not a fully instructive tutorial, click here. It’s a lot easier than it sounds.
In the new Allusionist, I spoke to crossword-setter (and AMT listener!) John Feetenby about how he creates those dastardly cryptic clues. He even managed to come up with one for ‘Zaltzman’! That’s a career high. Visit theallusionist.org/crosswords for more.
In AMT311, we discussed the Starbucks logo, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and avoiding being eaten by rats while you’re having sex. Catch up, then return next Thursday for AMT312.
•Pitch is a newish podcast about the minutiae of music and other noises, and it’s very good indeed. Hear Pitch at hearpitch.org.
•Last month I mentionedRobin Ince‘s excellent series Heal Thyself, and he has since presented the similarly top-notch Radio 4 documentary Tears of a Clown, about the link between comedy and mental health.
•And for all of you whose Serial fever is growing worse by the episode – and to help you through next week because they’re taking Thanksgiving off – your equivalent of nicotine gum is Slate’s Serial Spoiler Specials, the AV Club’s new Serial Serial, these weekly conversations with Rabia Chaudry who brought the case to Sarah Koenig in the first place, the parodies… To be honest, I’m enjoying the fervid commentary around the show more than the show itself.
For more true crime stories, do check out the ever-absorbing Criminal (my new Radiotopia sibling!), and I’ve been told I must listen to Sword and Scale, so I’m off to do that right now. What else would you recommend I hear, dears?
Shhhhhhhhhh!!! Keep the noise down, people, I’m trying to have a quiet nap here… Not because I’m still recovering from the AMT300 rager (though I probably am, a bit), but I just got back from a Very Exciting Podcasting Trip Abroad and now am in a jetlagged fugue state. So have a listen to the AMT300 bumper bonus track while I just rest my head on the keyboard for a few minutexcnxgnxjvcvxddsdsdddddddddddddddddd
Wake me up for an episode or two of Radio 4’s 21st-Century Mythologies, which in classic ‘Only on Radio 4’ tradition manages to perform such feats as linking Roland Barthes with screw-top wine. The episode comparing the Kardashians to Ancient Greek gods is particularly priceless. “Physiological paganism” is rarely a phrase the tabloids use when writing about them.
Heal Thyself, a little series about self help by Robin Ince, has made me heal my sleepy self quite a bit, so mission accomplished, Robin. [nods off again standing up]
I am giddy with excitement about AMT300! I hope you like it as much as/even more than I do. I guess we’ll all find out next week.
Until then, alternative entertainments.
From home:
Earlier this year, I spoke at the Boring Conference. Martin’s talk about eggs was on the playlist at a previous Thursday Listening Party; now, here’s mine, about the disgusting and depressing contents of cookery books:
Something else which alternately delights and horrifies me is being a freelancer. I’ve been one for nearly ten years, and I still haven’t figured out how to even up the boom-or-bust cycle. So for this month’s Sound Women podcast, I gathered together with some excellent freelancers to discover their secrets (one of them used to work as an official Mrs Potato Head!), and to consolegratulate each other:
To accompany his question about the demise of hitchhiking in AMT299, questioneer Toby in Cheshire alerted us to this episode of Four Thought from Radio 4, in defence of hitchhiking. It’s refreshing to hear someone speaking positively about the MOBILE MURDER NETWORK.
On the subject of journeys, I’m working my way through the winners of the 2014Third Coast Audio Festival, and thanks to Linda Lutton’s Chicago to Mexico – By Bus, I’m having flashbacks to a 36-hour coach journey I endured in 2002 – a mere blink of an eye compared to hers!
The new podcast in everyone’s ears this week is Serial, the long-form investigation of a murder case by This American Life producers Sarah Koenig and Julie Snyder. I chained the first three episodes and now I NEED MORE.
And finally: early this morning I received an email from Olly saying, “It’s 5:43am. Just watched all of this.”
Fill your boots.
Tune in to our various other gigs:
• After four delightful years, my gig on <a href="BBC 5 Live’s Saturday Edition” target=”_blank”>BBC 5 Live’s Saturday Edition just came to an end. Listen to the podcast of the final episode here. •Olly’s on LBC every weekday 1am-4am. Keep pinching yourself to stay awake and join him. • Martin the Sound Man makes numerous other podcasts, including Brain Train about clever things, The Global Lab about cities and stuff, and The Sound of the Ladies music podcast. •AMT episodes 1-170 and the special AMT albums are all available for a piddling little price at answermethisstore.com, and if you buy any of them you’re bankrolling the podcast, for which we are extremely grateful. • Catch up on AMT299 and the episodes preceding it.
Hi listeners! Are you looking to get rid of any household items, or are you looking for something that Freecycle cannot supply? We ask because it seems in Answer Me This! Episode 299, the show has become the audio equivalent of Loot. It’s been a long time coming.
Plus: Olly has a HUGE…collection of tea towels; Helen doesn’t want to ride in your helicopter, unless it’s too embarrassing to say no; and can anyone explain what Martin the Sound Man meant by ‘Godwin Filter’? We pretended we knew what he was talking about, but really were shrugging inside.
In case you’ve been anxious for the past two months to find out how Helen is faring in her mission to learn to love The Great British Bake Off, you can end that anxiety by listening to today’s Bit of Crap on the App, which is available for iDevices old and new, Android or Windows playthings.
If you’re anxious about how to build a super-nice website, relax! Visit Squarespace.com, have a fiddle with their easy web-building tools, and while you’re at it get 10% off their services for a whole year by using the code Answer.
It can’t have escaped your notice that if today is Episode 299, the next episode is AMT300!!!!111!!!ZOMG!!!!! We wouldn’t have got past one episode without your questions, so please keep sending them in: call the Question Line on 0208 123 5877 or Skype ID answermethis, or email answermethispodcast@googlemail.com. And do let us know what is the best thing you’ve learned from Answer Me This! over the years (interpret ‘best’ and ‘learned’ as you will) in a comment here or over on facebook.com/answermethis or twitter.com/HelenAndOlly.
We will return on 16th October with AMT300 (aka #AMT300)! Be sure to join us!
Helen & Olly
••• AMT299 Child-Friendly Rating: 64%. Quite a few cusswords but little vulgar content until the very end, when Olly shoots his load. •••
Exciting news: Martin’s got a new album coming out on Saturday! Go here to preview three of the tracks and to buy; it’s £5 to preorder but pay what you want when it is released. Or, if you are a retronaut who prefers your music on a physical format, wait a couple more weeks and then buy one of the forthcoming limited-edition CDs with a handmade papercut sleeve (if you follow Martin on Instagram, you may have seen some sneak peeks).
There’s a new news-themed episode of the Sound Women podcast, in which Olly’s LBC colleague Petrie Hosken tells me how she felt safer nearly getting kidnapped as a war correspondent in Bosnia than as a woman working in British radio. Good times!
Apparently there’s been some Royal News this week? [Shrug] It’s an ongoing mystery at AMT that none of us give a shit about the royal family, and yet questions about them are always fruitful on the podcast. So whether you give shits or not, have a go on the Answer Me This! Jubilee album for an hour of regal hijinks.
Noises from elsewhere:
The show Strangers is always worth your time, but particularly the recent Love Hurts episodes (part 1 and part 2), in which Lea Thau transforms the question ‘Why are you single?’ from an awful thing Smug Marrieds say to a very personal and reflective investigation into why she has been reluctantly single for the past four years. At least, judging by the exes who appear on the show, she’s dated some Good Sports during that time…
From Strangers to friends: I really enjoyed this Woman’s Hour/Men’s Hour collaboration all about friendship. Of course, they cover the When Harry Met Sally adage that men and women can’t be friends, which Olly and I have been disproving throughout our fourteen-year friendship. If you need additional on-air partnerships as evidence, I direct you to the programme’s guest Geoff Lloyd, whose brilliant Hometime Show on Absolute Radio with Annabel Port crackles with sexless tension.
And finally: I was thrilled to hear two AMTpals and primo podcasters team up, when Little Atoms‘ Neil Denny went on Dave Pickering‘s Getting Better Acquainted. They talk about reading books, prayer, and masturbation – all the solitary entertainments, really.
I’m always listening out for shows to try; please recommend some in the comments.
PS In case you missed it: my Bugling brother Andy and I were interviewed by the Guardian about why the Zaltzman family communicates in jokes rather than human emotions. Click here to read it.
In the latest episode of The Media Podcast, Olly’s coming from the Edinburgh TV festival – with June Sarpong! Listen here, or here:
This month’s Sound Women podcast is all about SPOOOOOOOORT, which as you know is my favourite topic…
COUGH COUGH COUGH. OK, you know that really one of my favourite topics is My So-Called Life, and since this Monday was the 20th anniversary of the show, hear me banging on about why I love it on this episode of Little Atoms from earlier this year.
Noises from elsewhere:
• Another TV show for which, over the years, you may have noted my fondness is Twin Peaks, so I’m intrigued by this new podcast Fire Talk With Me, contemplating the show episode by episode. Good luck to them when they hit that three-episode arc starring James Hurley in the second half of series two, amirite?
• When I was at SXSW last year I saw the documentary An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story, about a man who was exonerated after serving 25 years in prison for murdering his wife. He was a local man, so many people in the audience had been following his case since the 80s and throughout the film were booing the corrupt lawyers and cheering the good guys. Then at the end, when Michael Morton came out on stage along with the lawywer who spent a decade proving his innocence, the audience went APESHIT with joy – screaming, crying, it was truly amazing to watch. The facts of the case are pretty horrific, though; here is Michael Morton talking about them on Outlook from the BBC World Service.
• At the more cheerful end of the spectrum, here’s a sweet episode of 99% Invisible about Ikea Hacking. I’m fond of an Ikea hack myself – in fact the urge runs in the family. Back in the 80s, my grandad used to do such hacks as turning an Argos flatpack black ash bookcase into a desk (he went through an inexplicable black ash phase; such were the times, I guess). A few years ago, before Ikea Hacker was even born, I was working on a daytime TV show and was asked to pitch ideas for a home improvement segment that they could do easily in the studio. I suggested getting a designer to rejig cheap, easily available flatpacks in a slot called ‘Flatpack Revivified’ or ‘Flatpack Chimera’. It didn’t happen, because OBVIOUSLY NO SLOTS ON DAYTIME TV SHOWS ARE CALLED THINGS LIKE ‘FLATPACK CHIMERA’.
But regarding the act itself, grandad and I were clearly way ahead of our time.
By the way, if you’re a big fan of 99PI host Roman Mars, check him out on 100 Words Or Less talking about creating his podcast empire and being a straight-edger.
• Aaaand finally: Radio 4 is repeating the very charming and funny Susan Calman Is Convicted. Get on board.
Learn to make your own noises:
On 20th September you can learn all you need to start podcasting at the Essentials of Podcasting Guardian Masterclass: hardware, software, editing, production, formatting, publicity, building an audience, making a show that isn’t shit, etc etc from the likes of Bugle producer Chris Skinner, Guardian podcast producer Jason Phipps, software inventor Drew White, and meeee. Book your place here.
Which shows have been delighting you lately? Recommend some in the comments.
This week, a lot of you will want to hear the 2010 episode of WTF where Marc Maron talks to Robin Williams. Here it is, with a new intro from a choked-up Marc. Get your hankie ready.
You might also want to hear Lauren Bacall tearing it up on Desert Island Discs from 1984, here. Now please excuse me while I get lost in the Desert Island Discs 60-year archive. Again.
Not a million miles from Desert Island Discs is BBC 6 Music’s The First Time With…, in which musicians talk about the songs that made them. Sorry if you were expecting a show in which famous people discuss losing their virginities. (Does such a show exist? Aside from this one?)
I’m intrigued to listen to this programme about the politics of Dr Seuss: Dr Seuss and the Butter Battle. And if you’re intrigued to hear the AMT take on Dr Seuss, you can find it in the Answer Me This! Christmas album. You may think it’s unseasonal to listen to a Christmas show in the middle of August, but there’re only 132 days to go! (‘Only’. That’s still more than a third of a year. But it doesn’t stop a film called Santa With Muscles being played on one of the more remote Freeview channels every damn day.)
Finally: if you’re keen to start making your own podcasts, you can learn everything you need to know at the Essentials of Podcasting Guardian Masterclass on 20th September. I’ll be there to share all my podcasting knowledge, which should take around five minutes; luckily you’ll also be taught all about hardware, software, editing, production, formatting, publicity etc from the likes of Bugle producer Chris Skinner, Guardian podcast producer Jason Phipps, and software inventor Drew White. Book your place here.
PS: if you’re at Green Man festival this weekend, say hi to me and Martin! I’ll be doing Pappy’s Flatshare Slamdown at 1am on Saturday night/Sunday morning. Martin will be playing songs on the Solar Stage on Friday and Sunday, and demonstrating 3D printing in Einstein’s Garden every day. 3D printing at a folk festival? Apparently so.
Which shows have been delighting you lately? Recommend some in the comments.
Do you want to see/hear Martin the Sound Man talking about eggs? Of course you do! Here he is at this year’s Boring Conference – and would you believe, he drew all his slides himself? Yes. When you see them, you will easily believe that.
I know a lot of you are champing at the bit for The Bugle‘s sabbatical to end, so to keep you going, here’s brother mine Andy Zaltzman on The Comedian’s Comedian, being interviewed at length about his comedy by AMT jingle alum Stuart Goldsmith. Here’s the episode on Soundcloud, and if you’re a comedy fan you should do yourself a favour and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.
Offering frank advice before Dan Savage was even born was Dr Mahinder Watsa, India’s 90-year-old sex columnist. This interview is well worth a read, and here he is on Outlook from the World Service (and if you can resist the episode entitled ‘My Father Was A Serial Killer’, you are made of stronger stuff than I).
Answer Me This! Podcast 