[duncan]

Really enjoyed Bag Man, a great follow-up to Slow Burn as you say. I remember getting terribly excited at Agnew’s resignation: we all knew it was now game on for Nixon. 

There are plenty of similarities with the current regime but the parallels are lightly drawn until the epilogue (episode 7) when the legality of impeaching the president is discussed.

[moose]

I enjoyed this, Charlie Brooker and a couple of other comic writers talking about Airplane.  Lots of interesting details about how it was made and general insight into the process of making comedy.  I always realised how unusually sustained the funniness was in Airplane, but hearing about the work that went into refining the structure and script was still a surprise.  Also... it's just good to hear lots of funny excerpts from the film.

https://play.acast.com/s/ruleofthree/51ae9b31-71dc-4d8c-a914-00da465d692b?fbclid=IwAR0_Oi_TZmJ-PY1Hc4ZWGRl2T7XUFg_HmL7SBLQ2Xq8aGwMr2oVTANFqlOg

The main site for the pod is here, https://www.ruleofthreepod.com/

Each pod is a different comedian / scriptwriter discussing their love for a particular work with the hosts.  I've downloaded the ones on Garth Marenghi's Darkplace (Nish Kumar is the guest), Blue Jam, Father Ted, Time Bandits (Daid Quantick) and Bottom.

[andy_e]

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace

Interest piqued...

[moose]

I have not got around to the Dark Place episode but the best so far for me has been the one on Bottom - Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson's grimy slapstick comedy. It has some great insights into the craft, rather than the art, of making comedy.  To me, it's perhaps more interesting than it would have been if about a "cleverer", more script orientated show - like some of the US comedies that have had dozens of Ivy League educated tyros polishing every line. 

I really liked the nuggets about the lost art of filming for live studio audiences (you apparently need "vision mixers" who can cut between cameras on the fly, a skill now best found in editors of fly-on-the-wall programmes about schools etc).  And, how a live audience can give more freedom for scriptwriters to have unrepentantly horrible characters, compared to point-of-view stuff like Peepshow, which supposedly has to have a more nuanced, empathic approach (as audience laughter on the soundtrack can pull along an audience at home, despite their misgivings, giving more leeway for going OTT).  Also, there is some interesting structural stuff about the role of status between characters (real compared to perceived); the "matriarch, patriarch, craftsman, and clown" paradigm for ensemble comedies (and how the lack of one role can introduce a tension); and a brief Stewart Lee going to clown-school annecdote.

[cheque]

I used to love Bottom as a kid. When I was 13 I went to see their first live tour. Me and my mate thought it was hilarious (may mate's dad, who'd accompanied us, not so much) particularly the unscripted bits where they corpsed, adlibbed and bickered amongst each other. Imagine our surprise when my mate later got the VHS, filmed at a different tour date, which featured exactly the same adlibbing and "mistakes". Lots of the laughs in the live show came from the fact that they said fuck a lot, unlike on the TV show.

I'd forgotten all about Bottom until I came across this clip a few years ago:

I really liked the nuggets about the lost art of filming for live studio audiences (you apparently need "vision mixers" who can cut between cameras on the fly, a skill now best found in editors of fly-on-the-wall programmes about schools etc). 

and live sport.

[peewee]

If you're into cars the Collecting Cars Podcast by Chris Harris worth a listen.

[Will Hunt]

Had a go on the Beyond Today podcast and thought it was good. They talked about a podcast by Matt Forde called the Political Party so I listened to the Keir Starmer episode. Nice to hear a candid interview with him in a relaxed setting. Need to listen to one with somebody that Forde doesn't like to see what the difference is - his tongue was firmly in Starmer's arse for most of the interview.
Anyone heard any good ones from that?

[moose]

I really like this, the Bellingcat podcast on the shooting down of MH17.

https://www.bellingcat.com/category/resources/podcasts/

From what I can gather, Bellingcat are a Wiki-Columbo, a group of concerned citizens who investigate stuff using publically available online information (Geo-locating, social media analysis) and a bit of old fashioned detective work (site visits, wheedling information from suspects).

The podcast follows their investigation into the MH17 crash with lots of interesting details about their methods. Such as, how they traced the BUK launcher that brought down MH17 from its base to the launch site, via facebook posts from along its route and matching unique feature of that particular launcher.  And, how they identified the people involved by matching military radio recordings from the incident to deviousnessly obtained recordings of suspects.

[tommytwotone]

Found this the other night - Men Against The Eiger, from the BBC Archive.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07525kg


Dougie Haston, Chris Bonington and Ian McNaught-Davis talking about climbing the North Face. Pretty enlightening stuff.


Also:


Will Self has done the last two episodes of "A Point Of View", the most recent of which (about the bathroom!) is very good:


https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qng8/episodes/player


Finally - the ever-brilliant The Why Factor (worth checking out in general) had a good one about the shortcomings of working in shared offices:


https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csytzq

[tommytwotone]

Moose, kudos on the tipoff for Rule Of Three, some absolute gems in there.


I'm a massive Frasier geek anyway, but the Miles Jupp one on the show is just brilliant. One of those situations where someone way more experienced and eloquent than you tells you something you already know, but couldn't previously explain yourself.


John Finnemore on On The Hour is brilliant for any Chris Morris / Partridge / Brasseye etc fans on here too.

[TobyD]

The Shrink next Door

Listened to episode one. It's really unsettling but oddly compulsive. Interested to see how it develops. (8 episodes)

[TobyD]

Men against the eiger, on BBC sounds. 

Great interview from 1966, Dougal Haston's description of prizing open his frozen eyelids with a peg is particularly memorable.

[tommytwotone]

Found this the other night - Men Against The Eiger, from the BBC Archive.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07525kg


Dougie Haston, Chris Bonington and Ian McNaught-Davis talking about climbing the North Face. Pretty enlightening stuff.

COUGH

[TobyD]

Found this the other night - Men Against The Eiger, from the BBC Archive.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07525kg


Dougie Haston, Chris Bonington and Ian McNaught-Davis talking about climbing the North Face. Pretty enlightening stuff.

COUGH

You can get pills for that, Tom.  Great minds, obviously. 

[crzylgs]

No love for Freakonomics yet? Probably my all time fave. Lover their economics, fact, numbers and science approach to all manner of subjects.

Also there was a fascinating short series by ABC News called 'The Dropout' - covers the story of Elizabeth Holmes - who managed to pull a multi-billion dollar fraudulent pharma company based on a pyramid of lies and faked results. Plus the fact she was a young blonde female who all the old boys club fell over their feet wanting to be associated with.

Also the BBC's Flagship Film Review Podcast - Kermode and Mayo. Takes a bit of getting used to the silly and repetitive in jokes, also possibly a bit chalk and cheese due to their 'old man' / 'Dad' kinda jokes. But having said that Kermode is an absolute final boss when it comes to film knowledge and vocabulary.

Honourable mentions to 'F! This movie' and 'Movie Crush' both movie pods from over the Pond but i like most of what they do. The exception being when F! This movie geeks out on horror genre which is my least fave.

[Will Hunt]

Jon Ronson's book, So You've Been Publically Shamed, has been abridged and is available on BBC Sounds. Very relevant and essential listening.

[spidermonkey09]

Ones I look forward to appearing each week ( some may not be relevant if you're not a sport fan)

- The Grade Cricketer - irreverent Australian take on world cricket. Has been excellent through WC and Ashes
- 5 Live Boxing w/ Costello & Bunce - Costello is probably the best sport broadcaster around. He's a good gambling man too so worth backing his judgment.
- Bellingcat - have really enjoyed this.
- History of Hate - BBC Sounds. I knew a lot of this from a highly depressing genocide module at uni but very good regardless.
- New Statesman podcast - solely for Stephen Bush, who is great.
- Hurricane Tapes - Bob Dylan/Rubin Carter investigative journalism
BBC Reith Lectures- always good. Jonathan Sumption's were particularly good this year.

[Ged]

May have been mentioned already, but radiolab has some absolute gold on it. The last few episodes in particular.

[Ged]

One that was recommended to me but I thought was a bit gash is stuff you should know. I thought they seemed way out of their depth on a lot of topics, and dumbed things down way too much. For example, repeatedly using the word "design" when discussing evolution.

[crzylgs]

One that was recommended to me but I thought was a bit gash is stuff you should know. I thought they seemed way out of their depth on a lot of topics, and dumbed things down way too much. For example, repeatedly using the word "design" when discussing evolution.

Agree they REALLY dumb stuff down and probably only have a 30% hit rate for me. I tend to put this on when I don't really need/want to listen to anything properly. Upon occasion they cover an interesting topic, but its like looking at the wiki page... If they cover something you're interested in you should really follow it up with further reading.

[lukeyboy]

Don't tell me the score on BBC, has an episode with Alex Honnold about fear. Not listened yet, sounds good though.

There have been some other pretty interesting pods in that series, entirely dependent on the contributor though - some have just seemed like adverts for "lifestyle" books.

The Honnold one was really good, in my opinion. He has an interesting analysis of fear and risk.

I've started listening to these recently, enjoyed the Honnold one. The format of having a topic ("Fear") made it a refreshing change from the same old interview.

I'd highly recommend the one with Jasmin Paris, phenomenal / understated ultra runner who won the 268 mile Spine race, breaking the men's record by 12 hours in the process, alongside having young children and a career in science research. Respect 

[SA Chris]

And expressing milk along the route, as she was still breastfeeding!

She reckoned being used to sleep derivation with a newborn was a major advantage..

Hope this isn't a spoiler. I'll give it a listen anyway, thanks.

[Doylo]

Listened to the Factor 2 podcasts with Patch Hammond and Leo back to back stuck in traffic yesterday. Really good, such a legendary tale that El Niño ascent. Leo’s first big wall and Patch’s second. It was only the 3rd free route on El Cap at the time and they started at the bottom and just tried to onsight the whole thing. Outrageous really. Doesn’t seem like it their effort has been improved on much in terms of onsight. Ondra and Yuji got close to Salathe. Leo grabbed a quickdraw low down on one pitch then onsighted the rest including 8a and 8a+ pitches and plenty of E6. He was climbing outrageously well.

[petejh]

That A55 road works is good for something!

[Doylo]

That A55 road works is good for something!

Got some sneaky beta for you if you’re keen. For Friday/ w ends especially. Knocked 30 min off from y day and more traffic today