Podcast recommendations this week

Having homed in on Covid-19 related content last week, I'm now in the mood for something more sumptuous and escapist. Something very luxurious sounding, sonically, that creates a little world for itself.

If you've seen and enjoyed the film Kamikaze Girls (or the novel that inspired it) or are just interested in fashion, you might enjoy Articles of Interest (a fashion sub podcast housed within the excellent design podcast series 99% Invisible) and their take on knockoff's and copyright infringement within the fashion world.

Similarly, this episode of the British Library podcast, Anything But Silent, features a crime solving librarian, more general sleuthing, and suffragettes.

Reply All are also in sleuth mode, as ever, and are - in their most recent episode - trying to untangle a festive related music puzzle.

This episode is particularly worth listening to if you want in depth discussion of appropriate and inappropriate shop music, particularly today, or at Christmas. It also ties in with the theme of copyright violation, which dovetails nicely with Articles of Interest's take on knockoffs.

Intrigue is a series of narrative, interrogative historical podcasts made by the BBC. Their two most recent triumphs, Girl Taken (following the story of a British man's search for a young refugee girl and her father who he tried to assist when they were in the Calais refugee camp, the jungle) and Tunnel 29 (a cold war thriller about an escape plot from East Germany) are both well worth a listen.

Photo by Mpumelelo Macu on Unsplash

Podcast recommendations this week

Given the graveness of the pandemic, I've been thinking that what you might need this week is levity and quirkiness in your podcast listening rather than hard news. There are podcasts out there who are explicitly covering coronavirus, including the podcast formerly known as Brexitcast and Newscast, plus the daily update as provided by the World Service. I might look at them in a week or two but, for now, I'm going to focus on factual podcasts that are interesting, informative, a bit quirky, and a bit funny.

Last weeks Podcast Radio Hour, while focusing largely on religious content for Easter weekend, did include a mention of 99% Invisible, a design podcast that Amanda Litherland likes and has mentioned before. The episode she mentioned was 'Wipeout', which discussed the history of toilet paper. Beginning with pandemic panic buying, the episode provided a detailed, funny, informal history of the humble roll.

Taking a similarly sideways look at history and social phenomena is the '[Redacted]' episode of The British Library podcast Anything But Silent, which discussed censorship and libraries alongside weeding, library humour, and the Awful Books website. While this episode was released last summer, it's a great, timeless listen that provides a fascinating insight into library culture. Given that libraries are having to work in completely different ways under lockdown, with a much bigger emphasis on e-resources, online enquiries and social media to connect with readers, this podcast will continue to be a fascinating resource.

Image of headphones by Lee Campbell on Unsplash