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I've been binging Evil Genius.

A panel, lead by Russell Kane, take a historical figure and discuss whether their good stuff outweigh the bad. They then vote if they are evil or genius.
Good mix of people;

John Lennon (wife beater)
Coco Chanel (shagged nazis)
Richard Pryor (cruel to family)
Mother Teresa (believed poor should suffer)
Enid Blyton (racist, nasty to children and ex)
Bernard Manning (obvs)
Sid Vicious (murdered girlfriend)
Charles Dickens (cruel to wife)
Thatcher (obvs)
Frank Sinatra (mob connections)
Joan Crawford (cruel to family)
Joan Rivers (could be a viscous bullying arsehole)
Pablo Escobar (obvs)

And many others
 
I listen to a lot at work, which means I tend to outstrip supply of stuff I actually want to listen to and have to pad it out with whatever tired me can find in the morning. Any recommendations for history programs that are in the paternalistic radio fare mould (In Our Time sets a high bar) gratefully received.

Top of the list of the former is Bad Gays which takes a concept a little bit similar to the one mentioned by D'wards above, talking about historical (and occasionally contemporary) gay men and discussing their circumstances and usually arguing whether they can be considered gay as well as bad. It's very engaging without neglecting the research or devolving into chatty 'banter' which I cannot abide.

Making Gay History is wonderful, and I really wish I could find more of it's kind. Essentially the edited interview tapes from an oral history project from the '80s. Obviously the circumstances and material give it a lot of weight, but there must be so many audio archives out there full of interviews that would make for illuminating listening. I'd never sit down and read through a book of interviews, but hearing someone speak about their own experiences or reflecting back on them is fascinating.

Working Class History is great, not much more needs to be said.

Ear Hustle is again, very engaging but leaves me feeling slightly conflicted. It's produced in San Quentin Prison in California, and obviously has to work within the constraints of being made under the watchful eye of the DoC. Pretty much every episode is a resounding reminder (if it's needed) of the evils of the prison complex and the daily damage being done by institutionalised violence. However, the very slickness of its production (it's funded by tech sector charities) makes me feel slightly wary, although I'm probably being over sensitive I worry that stories of violence and resistance are being coopted into a genre of 'True Crime' of which there's a huge appetite for. The new season will apparently have material produced in other California prisons (Pelican Bay amongst them) which I'm very interested to hear about. The San Quentin institution is able to peddle a lot of soft propaganda by virtue of simply being not as terrible as other prisons in the states, which the people held there are fully aware of, so I'm interested to see what reflections come out from other environments, especially given the current high levels of organising and successful campaigning happening inside California prisons within the last few years - which to its credit the show has drawn attention to, presumably within the limits of what it is free to say.
 
I'm quite enjoying 'Behind the Bastards', 'It Could Happen Here' and 'The Worst Year Ever', all by Robert Evans, a journalist who seems to be connected to Bellingcat.
 
Now I have stopped commuting (usually 3 hours a day) I seem to have stopped listening to new podcasts. Have 17 subscribed and am not even keeping up with those :)
 
quimcunx said:
I'm quite enjoying 'Behind the Bastards', 'It Could Happen Here' and 'The Worst Year Ever', all by Robert Evans, a journalist who seems to be connected to Bellingcat.
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I thought It Could Happen Here was excellent but I find Worst Year Ever is about 3/4 smug saracsm and I can't stomach it to get at the 1/4 decent content. Apart from the episode on Rojava, that was really good (because the other two hosts mostly shut up).

EDIT: If anyone has any recommendations for podcasts covering US politics that have bearable hosts who don't talk over each other trying to prove how detached and cycnical they are, or isn't 50% advertising by weight, I'd love to know!
 
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Crispy said:
I thought It Could Happen Here was excellent but I find Worst Year Ever is about 3/4 smug saracsm and I can't stomach it to get at the 1/4 decent content. Apart from the episode on Rojava, that was really good (because the other two hosts mostly shut up).

EDIT: If anyone has any recommendations for podcasts covering US politics that have bearable hosts who don't talk over each other trying to prove how detached and cycnical they are, or isn't 50% advertising by weight, I'd love to know!
Click to expand...

I do find it a bit annoying that he has co hosts (often comedians) that don't know the subject matter so interject or react with 'ha, because XYZ!!!11! Durr!' so RE then says 'yeah, no, it's more because ABC' several times an episode. Rojava was very interesting.


Have you tried On the Media, though they are not specifically about politics. They did an excellent series on poverty myths in the US.

On the Media | Busted: America's Poverty Myths | WNYC Studios
 
Crispy said:
I thought It Could Happen Here was excellent but I find Worst Year Ever is about 3/4 smug saracsm and I can't stomach it to get at the 1/4 decent content. Apart from the episode on Rojava, that was really good (because the other two hosts mostly shut up).

EDIT: If anyone has any recommendations for podcasts covering US politics that have bearable hosts who don't talk over each other trying to prove how detached and cycnical they are, or isn't 50% advertising by weight, I'd love to know!
Click to expand...
Behind the News
Know Your Enemy
Jacobin does some useful US centred stuff but a lot of international pap.

I listened to that Rojava podcast earlier. A very frustrating listen as he got the basic facts - including chronology and events of how rojava 'happened' and 'who' did it, why and when totally wrong which gave the whole thing a false colouration from the start. He was was far far too happy to repeat PKK and US propaganda about the sdf. The stuff when he was talking to people was better and interesting - but he failed to mention that all this could happen because of the rebels fighting assad in the non-kurdish areas (100 000s of death, 10s of thousands jailed, tortured raped and executed, city after city flattened, city after city starved) and that the PKK often helped the regime in these fights Including the death blow of Aleppo, that they were the shield that rojava was based on and that the pkk from the start operated a policy of portraying these non-Kurdish fighters as simple jihadis in order to curry favour with the US and the international left - which worked (or this podcast and many more like it would not have happened or why so many western leftists and liberals know about rojava but nothing of say the LCC's) and mirrored the way assad played it, eventually helping to fatally undermine the revolution,that the regime continued to pay wages in rojava etc.

And i know that evans knows damn well that this is what happened - he hinted at this in the only bit that seemed to talk about wider syria at all when he related his story about the anti-regime rebel fighter who had lost his five sons and had no ammunition with which to fight the regime so ended up with the only people who did have adequate arms - the jihadis. That is so utterly central to this whole thing and it was basically 20 seconds of what 80 minutes.

I was also utterly flabbergasted that he could say the turkish actions ruined a part of the world that was actually getting better when millions are trapped in idlib, being bombarded daily, having their hospitals destroyed etc after just giving a pretty accurate and well informed bit on the wider geo-politics of the region. I note he said this was likely to become an 8 piece series so maybe this sort of stuff will be covered later, but he did not mention once going outside of rojava or pkk controlled territory so...we'll see.

The other two people were absolute clowns.
 
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Lord Camomile said:
On the lookout for any good rugby and/or jazz podcasts to recommend to my dad. Also anything that's reminiscent of I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, if there's anything like that around.
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Have you listened to Blood and Mud? It rambles a bit but the rugby chat is quite incisive. I also listen to the Scottish Rugby Blog podcast, but that may be a bit “local” for you! :D

I’ve just found George the Poet on BBC Sounds. I’ve only listened to a few but finding it very engaging about some complex subjects.
 
One I would recommend is Alberta Advantage. Left wing politics from the most right wing province in Canada (they really, really hate Justin Trudeau). You can find it on soundcloud.
 
I'm really enjoying the ologies podcast, the host interviews an "ologist" every episode, people that are passionate about their subject. The thing I love is that Allie (host) asks questions that I'd like answered, questions for the total [insert subject here] novice, she's entertaining, intelligent and relatable plus she has no ads.

I've just listened to this one Mythology, the guest, John Bucher "holds a PhD in Mythology and Depth Psychology and has spoken on 5 continents about using the power of story to reframe how products, individuals, organizations, cultures, and nations are viewed."

I also really enjoyed museology, teuthology (squid) and have just noticed there is one on mushrooms that I'm going to listen to now 😎
 
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