August podcast picks: Wild places, wooden pallets and WCs
Featuring Scotland Outdoors, The Skewer, The Boring Talks, Get Flushed and Ways to Change the World
If you’re stuck at home this summer and “craving audio” to transport you to “wild places”, the Scotland Outdoors podcast (from BBC Radio Scotland) is a must-listen, said Patricia Nicol in The Sunday Times.
In two recent episodes its main presenters, Mark Stephen and Euan McIlwraith, meandered down the Tay from Killin to the Ben Lawers Nature Reserve, and on to Dunkeld – chatting along the way to “botanists, rangers, storytellers, anglers, craftsmen, musicians, and boat and swimming enthusiasts”. The sound quality is “stunning”, and so are the aural pictures they paint: “A wagtail just braving the rapids there… A snell blast pouring straight down the loch.”
In a different vein, but equally transporting, is Jon Holmes’s “satirical soundscape show” The Skewer (BBC Sounds), which has just won best radio podcast at the British Podcast awards. “Irreverent, moving, whipsmart, necessary, this is one of the past year’s best programmes”: its sharpness “has at times left me slack-jawed”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
One of the joys of podcasting remains its “indulgence of niche and, frankly, weird pursuits”, said Fiona Sturges in The Guardian. Among the “crème de la crème of obscure stuff to stick in your ears” is The Boring Talks, in which the writer James Ward and an array of guest speakers expound on dry subjects with the “utmost passion”.
Their perversely compelling topics include the influence of the wooden pallet on the global economy, the historical significance of crinoline, and how algorithms dictate the price of books. Lots of podcasters “talk crap”, but Get Flushed “gets down and dirty with actual effluent”, sharing “dispatches from the sharp end of the sanitation industry”, covering subjects such as the best (and worst) loo paper, chemical treatments and odour elimination.
And if you’ve “ever wondered what the job of a skeletal articulator, an anatomical pathology technologist or a pet mortician really entails”, then Specimens, hosted by “millennial taxidermist” Elle Kaye, is the “slightly icky” podcast for you.
The Ways to Change the World podcast by Channel 4’s Krishnan Guru-Murthy – which features interviews with politicians, journalists, geographers, chefs and more – is excellent, said James Marriott in The Times. There’s something for everyone, with guests ranging from Margaret Atwood and Michaela Coel to Yotam Ottolenghi and the Dalai Lama.
“If you are starting at the top, the two most recent episodes are very good. Manchester’s Labour Mayor Andy Burnham comes across as “convincing and likeable”. And I found journalist George Packer’s description of the US as “four Americas (which he calls real America, just America, free America and smart America) so intriguing I immediately bought his recent book”.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
5 ladylike cartoons about women's role in the election
Cartoons Artists take on the political gender gap, Lady Liberty, and more
By The Week US Published
-
The right to die: what can we learn from other countries?
The Explainer A look at the world's assisted dying laws as MPs debate Kim Leadbeater's proposed bill
By The Week Published
-
Volkswagen on the ropes: a crisis of its own making
Talking Point The EV revolution has 'left VW in the proverbial dust'
By The Week UK Published
-
Juror #2: Clint Eastwood's 'cleverly constructed' courtroom drama is 'rock solid'
The Week Recommends Nicholas Hoult stars in 'morally complex' film about a juror on a high-profile murder case
By The Week UK Published
-
Explore a timeless corner of Spain by bike
The Week Recommends Take a 'dawdling route through the back-country' far from the tourism hotspots
By The Week UK Published
-
Saoirse Ronan: how the actress went viral
In the Spotlight The actress dropped a 'chat-icide bomb' on Graham Norton's BBC show
By The Week UK Published
-
Edmund de Waal on this year's Booker Prize shortlist
The Week Recommends The chair of judges details works by Rachel Kushner, Percival Everett and others
By The Week UK Published
-
Griddled salmon and vegetables with miso and melted butter recipe
The Week Recommends Hokkaido comfort food classic with a delicious twist
By The Week UK Published
-
Shattered: Hanif Kureishi's 'inspirational' memoir of accident that left him paralysed
The Week Recommends 'Exhilarating' book is composed of diary entries dictated to his son Carlo
By The Week UK Published
-
Dr. Strangelove: is stage adaptation of iconic film a 'foolish' move?
Talking Point Steve Coogan puts on a dazzling performance in show that falls short of 'the real thing'
By The Week UK Published
-
Small Things Like These: 'stylish' Irish drama 'casts a powerful spell'
The Week Recommends 'Stylish' drama starring Cillian Murphy as a devoted father
By The Week UK Published