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In Out of Date, each week Dave Cribb and Pete Allison go on dates then do post-match analysis.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.
In today’s Bonus Bit of Crap on the App (get it for iDevices, Android and Windows gadgets) there’s a little more about the history of Gotham. We think we’ve triangulated where Catwoman is pursuing her postgrad education.
RT @LiaBuddle: The @retrospectorshq is always great but I very much enjoyed today’s episode - I used to live by Abbey Road DLR station (whi… 6 days ago
RT @retrospectorshq: As the UK goes mad for @neighbours nostalgia, here's our episode about the day Scott and Charlene got married in 1988… 2 weeks ago