Tag: Podcasts

Leave The Laundry ‘Til Later

Mum excitedly texted me the other day to tell me of one of the brand new joys in her life:

“I’ve discovered podcasts!”

Now, she can be late to the party with certain things. She once famously (or infamously) predicted that Clean Bandit would be big after hearing them on the radio, three years after they’d actually started having hits. Louis and I still haven’t quite let her live that down – it can be all too easy to pull her leg, bless her. This time, though, I resisted the considerable urge to do so, because I absolutely understood her enthusiasm. I could feel the energy in those three small words, the same energy I felt myself a few years back. It sounds like a cheesy cliche, but discovering podcasts was like unlocking a brand new world, such is the sheer volume of content that there is to unearth. In fact, I reckon that if there’s a topic that doesn’t have its own podcast yet, it probably isn’t worth knowing about.

For a long time, I wasn’t getting into them quite as much as others were. Lara has always been fond of audiobooks – most of what she reviews on Instagram is listened to rather than read. I once asked her if she found them difficult to focus on, as she’d invariably play them while doing things around the house, writing an essay or – more recently – working on a lesson plan. She assured me there were never any issues, but I was sceptical, and that scepticism extended to podcasts as well. I was convinced I’d be far too busy sorting out my washing to take in what was being said. I was wrong. If anything, the reverse was true, and my washing tends to take a whole lot longer than it really should. What can I say – Lara always knows best, doesn’t she? I should never have doubted her.

I will say that I often cherry pick what I listen to, so to speak. There’ll be some podcasts I never miss an episode of, and others I just tune into now and then depending on a particular subject or guest. Whatever my approach on any given day, I know that I won’t take my headphones off without first having learned something or laughed out loud (even alone in a quiet flat). Let me leave you with a few of my favourites – don’t just take my suggestions, though. Do your own digging and you’ll definitely find something you love just as much:

The Dave Berry Breakfast Show – Absolute Radio

Help I Sexted My Boss – hosted by Jordan North and William Hanson

Crushed – a podcast about unrequited love, hosted by Margaret Cabourn-Smith

The BBC’s Desert Island Discs – hosted by Lauren Laverne

Bring Back V10s – a Formula One podcast covering stories between 1989 and 2005, hosted by Glenn Freeman

Mason

Me And My Microphone

I am now on the brink of Week 10 of my first university semester, and the first nine weeks alone have taught me many things about how to write and what I can do to improve my writing. Two of the more recent lessons have come in Publishing and Social Media, which I had as usual yesterday morning. As a blogger, the first was one that I found particularly useful. Even as someone who is a stickler for good spelling, punctuation and grammar, it wasn’t something that had occurred to me before. We were taught that before a post is published on any given blog, it should always be written up on Word first, so that any mistakes can be exposed by the processor. Once it has been tidied up as necessary, it can be freely copied and pasted across. This method is – as of this post – one I am officially adopting for Third Time Enabled, as it’s more than likely that one or two keyboard slips have occurred over the last three years, in spite of all my best efforts to avoid them.

We have also learned that as this is a creative degree, we are free to explore new artistic horizons that stretch beyond writing alone. This is especially true in the Publishing module, since I will soon have to submit a piece that can take almost any form I want it to. As I have a microphone sitting idle in my bag (which hasn’t had to record any lectures recently), I have decided to try something totally new – a podcast. I am neither an entirely confident speaker nor an expert on technology, but doing this will add to my skill set and – at the very least – I will be able to write what I need to say. Thankfully, I will be graded based on the actual content of the podcast, and not on its sound quality!

When I made the decision to do this, I obviously had to consider what I would talk about, and the inspiration behind what I eventually chose came at the most unlikely time. Heading towards Winchester High Street last week, I passed a rather nice hotel, which looked it must cost an arm and a leg to eat in. Leaning against the railings outside was a pizza delivery bicycle, and sure enough, I saw that a pizza was on its way in through the front door. I immediately took out my phone and made a note of what I’d seen. Call it a writer’s curiosity – I couldn’t help but wonder who would order pizza to a place like that, and why. My mind was full of stories and explanations, so there was no way I was going to ignore something that was apparently so out of place. I may have spoken before about how I am often inspired by the smallest words, phrases and observations, since I believe even the most insignificant things can bear fruit. This was no exception, and it led me to base my planned podcast on what can result from such things. My current intentions therefore look something like this – I’ll talk about the latest little source of inspiration at the start, before I read a story or other piece of writing that I have managed to develop from it. It’s a simple concept, but if it is executed well, I am confident that its unpredictability could make for an entertaining listen – and yes, we do have to publish the podcast when it’s complete! Now that I have the basic idea established, all that’s left to do is write my script and do my best to record, and I have a feeling that could involve some trial and error at first. Uncharted territory can be daunting, but also very intriguing…

Mason