I'm thinking that people might be a bit over the more sentimental aspects of Christmas by this point in crimbo limbo. So, if this is you, the most recent episode of Tim Harford's Cautionary Tales podcast may be of interest. It concerns itself with the collapse of the Christmas savings club Farepak. It's a bleak listen, but it is also a remorselessly forensic dissection of the economics of Christmas, and the consequences of the pressure to spend, spend, spend. As such, it is thought provoking as well as merely tragic.
Many, many, many podcasts and current affairs radio shows have done some kind of look back over the tumultuous, often farcical, frequently exasperating year that was 2022. As such, I'm deliberately omitting most of them as you will have your own preferences. One that I will mention is the Private Eye podcast, Page 94, and its annual Live at the National episode. Well, I say annual, but the last one was in 2019. You can hear this years episode, which is a kind of Best of Private Eye 2022 Live, here.
Another one worth mentioning is the comparatively early 19th December episode of The New Statesman podcast, if only because it features Jonn Elledge talking about goats. If you subscribe to Jonn's newsletter, you'll appreciate the festive significance of... goats. Said newsletter is also worth bigging up if only because of this years elegant festive salute to the true spirit of Christmas via the figure of George Michael.
Jonn's tribute to George Michael also leads very nicely to the final episode of the current season of John O'Farrell and Angela Barnes' irreverent history podcast, We Are History, which deals with the history of the Christmas Number One. It's about as raucous and riveting as regular listeners have come to expect.
I've been listening to a lot of Radio 4 and Radio 4Extra over Christmas, starting with a festive episode of Soul Music on Christmas Eve that did a thoughtful deep dive on Greg Lake's 'I Believe In Father Christmas'. A song that I was aware of but wasn't particularly attached to. The beauty of Soul Music is that it can take a song that you're basically ambivalent about and bring it's origin story, influence and impact into such strong focus that you can't help but be utterly absorbed.
There was also what has been the standout of festive drama's for me this year: Neil Gaiman's The Sleeper and the Spindle, which takes the fairytale Sleeping Beauty and runs with it. The result is all absorbing, subtle, full of in jokes and fairytale subtext and subversion, and... just weird in a very charming and unexpected way. The Christmas Eve episode of You're Dead to Me, which did a deep, and unsentimental, dive into Charles Dickens' literary connections with Christmas, is also worth a listen.
Obituary shows are particularly big at this time of year and it's worth giving a salute to one of the more unusual ones: Toby Haydock's annual Absent Friends: the 7th Dimension for 4Extra. Split into two 15 minute episodes (the first was on Christmas Day), it simply and effectively pays tribute to all of those connected to the worlds of Sci Fi, Fantasy and Horror who have passed this year.
By contrast, Radio 4 repeated the BBC New Comedy Awards finalists show on the 28th December, and the sheer energy coming off the contestants during their sets makes for a really inspiring listen.
An inspiring listen in a different way was the episode of The Untold that told the story of five year old Imogen the Chef from Leeds.
And finally, on the 28th December, the excellent Best Pick podcast released their take on the 2021 Oscar winner CODA. Not only is this the last episode that the Best Pick gang will do on an Oscar winner for some time, it's also their last episode for some time in the more general sense. As such, it is worth savouring.
Image one by Pavel Anoshin on Unsplash
Image two by Eric Krull on Unsplash
Image three by Matt Seymour on Unsplash
