Paul May

I don’t really read blogs; but I listen to a lot of spoken-word Podcasts. To put this in context I’ve been in love with radio since I was a child. We listened to Aunty Poppy’s Story Time, Scrap Saturday and everything in between. The daily rhythms of school, homework and play were timed around 5-7 Live and the Sea Area Forecast.

I love podcasts now in a similar way - I’m able to listen to some of the best radio from around the world whenever I like, and I’m able to quickly listen back to my favourite episodes as many times as I like. Here are some of my favourites in no particular order and a quick review. You might like them too:

On The Media - WNYC
To say that On The Media is light years ahead of any type of media analysis programme on Irish radio would be an understatement. On the Media casts a critical eye on the behemoth that is the US media landscape; from advertising to blogs and television to sports print journalism. It *analyses* the way the media deals with topics; with input with some of the best media practicioners and researchers in the world.

I can’t recommend On The Media enough…but it’s also painful listening; there is practically no serious analysis of the *media* of radio, print, web or television here. What we do get is pithy commentary on pithier journalism, personality driven analysis (Pat Kenny is boring, Joe Duffy is an oul-one, RTE is wooden) and “comment” rather than analysis. We are stuck in the “what”, and ignoring the how, why, when, who. Listen to OTM and weep for the way it should be done.

Radio Lab - WNYC (NPR)
The first time I listened to Radio Lab I felt dizzy and a bit sick - it’s just so good. I remember a few years ago I visited Alcatraz and took the audio tour - an immersive soundtrack to the ramble around the island, complete with the gloomy foghorn, prisoners’ footsteps and creaking doors; it was the type of experience that would make the hair on anybody’s neck stand up. Radio Lab treats its subject matter, popular science, like the Alcatraz tour. The programme is basically a spoken-word programme expanded into a full auditory experience; stereoscopic and meticulously recorded sound effects, background noises and vox-pops - all clipped and edited lovingly, carefully and with total respect for the subject matter. It’s hard to describe; you’ll just have to listen yourself.

Film Reviews with Mark Kermode - BBC
Mark Kermode is an experienced, somewhat cranky, British film reviewer who writes for Sight and Sound, The Observer and is a contributor to the Simon Mayo programme on Friday afternoons. Kermode is cinema; he lives it, believes it - and after decades of devotion to the “church” of cinema (his term) he doesn’t seem jaded by the mounds of badly made schlock that passes for cinema. I like his reviews because he has a good understanding of genre cinema, and knows that comparing Apples and Oranges is usually pointless - and I usually agree with his reviews…which can be handy.

Other podcasts I listen to include:

• This American Live - WBEZ Chicago (NPR)
• Off the Ball Football Show - Newstalk
• Fresh Air - WHYY (NPR)
• In Our Time - BBC
• Travel Destinations on the Right Hook - Newstalk
• Conversations with Eamonn Dunphy - RTE
• The Meaning of Words on Seán Moncrieff - Newstalk

This entry was posted on Monday, May 21st, 2007 at 1:18 pm and is filed under Miscellany.