Podcasts
Whether as a distraction from lockdown anxiety, or the need to fill our days with stimulating activities, we’re all more reliant on external forms of entertainment right now. TV shows may be running out of episodes, condemning us to more repeats than usual, and the physical library is out of bounds, but podcasts are still going strong. Most podcasts have always been fairly “homebrew” affairs facilitated by a healthy “do it yourself” ethos, with hosts recording from their own homes and studios. Thankfully for us, this has made it a virtually indestructible form of entertainment at times like these. Right now, they are the balm we all need to distract us from the lack of routine and the mundanity of our lives. So dig out your laptop, phone, or command your smart device to play one of Learn for Pleasure’s top 6 podcasts.
1. The Folklore Podcast
The Folklore Podcast is created and presented by author and folklore researcher Mark Norman. It is a longstanding podcast now it its fifth season, with, at time of writing, 73 episodes available for your listening pleasure. It’s an exploration of folklore from around the world, and features many eminent folklore authors, researchers and professors. The many episodes include “Black Dogs and the Wild Hunt”, “Gef! The Extra Special Talking Mongoose”, “Witch Bottles” and “Celtic and Western European Fairies”, so take a trip into the fascinating realms of folklore with The Folklore Podast.
2. The Sound Of The Hound
Chronicling the journey of the people and the technology that brought recorded music to the masses, and focusing specifically on Fred Gaisberg, who the hosts describe as a ‘nineteenth century amalgam of Steve Jobs, Simon Cowell and Indiana Jones’. Writer James Hall and music industry executive Dave Holley begin the podcast journey with the opening of the first recording studio.
3. Field Recordings
Understatedly, and amusingly, describing itself as a podcast where ‘audio-makers stand silently in fields (or things that could be broadly interpreted as fields)’ an array of human (and animal life) is here. The sound of a thunderstorm over Brittany, a saxophonist playing amidst lockdown in Rome, or the chatter of a starling murmuration that builds to a crescendo in County Meath, Ireland – this is the podcast to lift you from your lounge and place you somewhere, almost anywhere, different.
4. Philosophy For Our Times
Bringing together high profile figures and leading figures to discuss the news, politics, and culture. With a new episode every week, this will stimulate the brain matter while pondering over whether the mind is part of the world, or the world is part of the mind, the myth of the self, and philosophy versus quantum theory.
Visit: Philosophy for our Times
5. Grounded With Louis Theroux
This one is a bit of a gamble, as it’s new and devised specifically during lockdown. That said, it’s Louis Theroux, and his documentaries have always been insightful, provocative, and entertaining. In his podcast he’s interviewing (in his pyjamas) all of the high profile people he’s wanted to talk to from both sides of the Atlantic . . . and occasionally interrupted by his kids. This is lockdown, after all!
6. North West Footwear Database
Last, but certainly not least, is this atmospheric podcast series, with its 1970s inspired synth soundtrack, and more than a hint of hauntology about it. It is written an performed by Tim Foley, and is described as “stories from a strange institution hidden in the Peak District”. We’ll say no more and let you discover the intrigues of the North West Footwear database for yourself!
Visit: the North West Footwear Database
(by Learn for Pleasure on 28th April 2020)