Podcast recommendations this week

I've not found the need to engage with many of the hard journalism podcast takes on the coronavirus, but I would recommend listening to BBC World Service's daily Coronavirus Global Update podcast. It tells you everything you need to know about the coronavirus related headline stories around the world that day, and it's under ten minutes.

Another podcast that caught my ears this week would be the BBC's Now Wash Your Hands, which is best described as a kind of aural Zoom slumber party for comedians, and, while having a funny almost cuddly tone to it, can wrong foot you sometimes with it's content. As such, it is definitely not suitable for children.

Taking a more analytical, policy and economic lens to corona is this weeks Reasons To Be Cheerful, in which Ed Miliband and Geoff Lloyd discuss economic bailouts, and how they could be done better.  One word: Denmark.

In 'Masking for a friend', design podcast 99% Invisible (which has podcast queen Amanda Litherland's seal of approval) takes a long look at Chinese society's relationship with the face mask.

Speaking of Amanda Litherland, last week's Podcast Radio Hour focused specifically on educational podcast content, and is well worth a listen if you either want to educate yourself or have children at home who you are currently home schooling.

And finally, the excellent We Are History recently ran an episode on the Suez Crisis. It should tell you everything you need to know about the tone of the series if I tell you that one of the main protagonists of the crisis is described at one point as being "Off his tits on amphetamines". Their episode on the Siege of Paris also feels most apt at the moment.

Photo by Alireza Attari on Unsplash