Two Podcasts That Should Be Better Known
There are many famous podcasts, but I regularly listen to two that, I believe, deserve to be much more widely known.
(1) A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
It does what it says on the tin, as the saying goes!
Andrew Hickey’s delightful, and personal, narrative of the blossoming and full flowering of “rock music” is deeply researched, carefully crafted, engagingly narrated, and includes plenty of audio snippets to deliver the full flavour of the song story being related.
Hickey is insistent that his is “A history”, not “THE history”, as the story could be told quite differently. For Hickey, the story begins in 1939 with the Benny Goodman Sextet’s “Flying Home”. As I type, he has arrived at Song 183: “Pinball Wizard” (1969) by the Who.
The narration is patient and engaging (to my ear, at any rate), and with a run-time of roughly thirty minutes per episode, makes for a comfortable listen.
Find it at 500songs.com. Going to specific episodes is not so simple on that site, but there is an episode listing that makes it easier to go to the episode of choice.
(2) Shedunnit
I am something of a fan of the “golden age” of detective fiction, although I don’t feel bound by that particular “age”, and enjoy the precursors (and some descendents!) very much. My preference runs to “detection” rather than “crime”, and would probably incline more to “spy” novels from the era ... except there seems to be so few (is there very much beyond The Riddle of the Sands?).
Shedunnit is Caroline Crampton’s enjoyably erudite and engaging podcast “that unravels the mysteries behind classic detective stories”. The run time is variable, but roughly between 20-40 minutes is typical, with occasionally longer episodes.
Crampton often invites guests on, especially for her series working through the “Green Penguins” which judiciously enables listening without encountering spoilers. My experience is that there’s most enjoyment to be had when one is familiar with the work or author under discussion, but Crampton has a knack of drawing the listener in, even for works that might be unfamiliar.
So, two podcasts that I believe should be much more widely known. And this little info-page is my attempt to help make them so!