Podcast roundup
Craphound is the home of BoingBoing contributor, prolific blogger and author Cory Doctorow. His latest podcast consists of a four-part reading of his “dark and mean fantasy” tale, Return to Pleasure Island. Don’t be put off by that “fantasy” tag: it’s possible to enjoy it without even noticing its genre; although the recording is occasionally marred by background noises (Doctorow records his podcasts in hotel rooms or wherever he happens to be while he’s out on the road). His next podcast will start soon: a three-part reading of his story Nimby and the Dimension-Hoppers.
In the latest of the Guardian’s Culture Vulture podcasts, Nigel Newton, chief executive of Bloomsbury Publishing, speaks about the challenges facing the book industry, and calls on publishers and authors to boycott Google Book Search. It will come as no surprise to regular NZBC readers that I believe this to be wrongheaded, but have a listen for yourself. While Newton has some compelling arguments, let’s not forget that the publishing industry missed the departure of SS Digital from the worldwide wharf just as the music industry did before it. The difference is that book publishers are stuck in the 19th Century while the music industry at least made it to the 20th. Can such a savvy publisher really be so naïve as to believe that internet users will be seduced by the presence of Google’s contextualised advertising in the margins of the great, largely out-of-copyright literary works Google is scanning? I don’t think so. Newton’s opposition is clearly driven by self-interest rather than by those of authors and web users. Doubtless he’d have been happier if exclusively Bloomsbury ads were placed alongside its books on Google Book Search. Most advertising sucks, but it’s a necessary evil; the truth is that “buy it here!” advertising would trivialise these works just as much as the Great Expectations internet dating agency trivialises the pages of the Dickens classic.
We’ve mentioned the Penguin Podcasts on NZBC before. They include extracts read by Penguin authors, as well as interviews and news; but the best part is that each podcast concludes with a ‘Penguin Remix’, cunningly blending original dance, trance and ambient music by artists such as Chris Hutchings with voices from Penguin’s own audiobooks. When it comes to repurposing intellectual property for the digital age, this is smart publishing at its best. I particularly enjoyed episode 8, on 2 March, which included excerpts from Naomi Alderman’s debut novel, Disobedience, and an extract from the audiobook of Marina Lewycka’s very trendily titled but nonetheless fascinating A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian.
Paul A. Toth is a US-based author who regularly interviews writers on Tothworld. In his latest podcast, Toth chats with Ron Chepesiuk, author of Drug Lords: The Rise and Fall of the Cali Cartel, one of his most fascinating and erudite interviewees to date. Toth’s podcasts are excellent value, as most of them come in at around an hour in length. They do consist largely of telephone interviews, though, and the contrast in volume level between interviewer and interviewee quickly fatigues the ears. However, it’s worth persevering, and music provides some welcome interludes.
Nature’s website is a fabulous resource for scientists, journalists, novelists and anyone interested in the world around them, and now there’s the podcast. Nature is a weekly, international journal that publishes peer-reviewed research in all fields of science. As is the case with the Economist’s content, casual readers might be put off by the perceived dryness of the subject matter, but a quick glance at the topics covered should be enough to convince you that you won’t be blinded by science: Britannica versus Wikipedia, problems with Pokemon, Hobbits and ancient noodles, anyone?
Hosted by none other than “the best reader in America” — that’s KCRW host Michael Silverblatt, according to Norman Mailer — Bookworm is one of my newest podcast subscriptions, thanks to a dyslexic twist that rendered my previous searches for it utterly fruitless. It describes itself as “a must for the serious reader” and showcases both fiction and poetry. The latest episode features essayist David Foster Wallace.
Art Mobs for MoMA is one of those 21st Century, Wikipedia-style ideas that allows people to send in their own audio guides to the works on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. I had some problems accessing the files through iTunes, but you have to love their website logo.
Finally for this roundup, Books and Writing is ABC Radio Australia’s national literary broadcast. The latest episode is about Ukrainian author Andrey Kurkov, whose often absurdist adult novels offer “a humorous but striking portrait of post-Soviet alienation”. His first attempts at literature were poems about the deaths of Lenin and, tellingly, his pet hamster.
So, if you really can’t countenance the US$1.95 asking-price for one episode of the record-breaking podcast they previously gave away, there are plenty of alternatives that might not be as funny, but which are still free.
NZBC’s next podcast roundup will focus on comedy.
In the latest of the Guardian’s Culture Vulture podcasts, Nigel Newton, chief executive of Bloomsbury Publishing, speaks about the challenges facing the book industry, and calls on publishers and authors to boycott Google Book Search. It will come as no surprise to regular NZBC readers that I believe this to be wrongheaded, but have a listen for yourself. While Newton has some compelling arguments, let’s not forget that the publishing industry missed the departure of SS Digital from the worldwide wharf just as the music industry did before it. The difference is that book publishers are stuck in the 19th Century while the music industry at least made it to the 20th. Can such a savvy publisher really be so naïve as to believe that internet users will be seduced by the presence of Google’s contextualised advertising in the margins of the great, largely out-of-copyright literary works Google is scanning? I don’t think so. Newton’s opposition is clearly driven by self-interest rather than by those of authors and web users. Doubtless he’d have been happier if exclusively Bloomsbury ads were placed alongside its books on Google Book Search. Most advertising sucks, but it’s a necessary evil; the truth is that “buy it here!” advertising would trivialise these works just as much as the Great Expectations internet dating agency trivialises the pages of the Dickens classic.
We’ve mentioned the Penguin Podcasts on NZBC before. They include extracts read by Penguin authors, as well as interviews and news; but the best part is that each podcast concludes with a ‘Penguin Remix’, cunningly blending original dance, trance and ambient music by artists such as Chris Hutchings with voices from Penguin’s own audiobooks. When it comes to repurposing intellectual property for the digital age, this is smart publishing at its best. I particularly enjoyed episode 8, on 2 March, which included excerpts from Naomi Alderman’s debut novel, Disobedience, and an extract from the audiobook of Marina Lewycka’s very trendily titled but nonetheless fascinating A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian.
Paul A. Toth is a US-based author who regularly interviews writers on Tothworld. In his latest podcast, Toth chats with Ron Chepesiuk, author of Drug Lords: The Rise and Fall of the Cali Cartel, one of his most fascinating and erudite interviewees to date. Toth’s podcasts are excellent value, as most of them come in at around an hour in length. They do consist largely of telephone interviews, though, and the contrast in volume level between interviewer and interviewee quickly fatigues the ears. However, it’s worth persevering, and music provides some welcome interludes.
Nature’s website is a fabulous resource for scientists, journalists, novelists and anyone interested in the world around them, and now there’s the podcast. Nature is a weekly, international journal that publishes peer-reviewed research in all fields of science. As is the case with the Economist’s content, casual readers might be put off by the perceived dryness of the subject matter, but a quick glance at the topics covered should be enough to convince you that you won’t be blinded by science: Britannica versus Wikipedia, problems with Pokemon, Hobbits and ancient noodles, anyone?
Hosted by none other than “the best reader in America” — that’s KCRW host Michael Silverblatt, according to Norman Mailer — Bookworm is one of my newest podcast subscriptions, thanks to a dyslexic twist that rendered my previous searches for it utterly fruitless. It describes itself as “a must for the serious reader” and showcases both fiction and poetry. The latest episode features essayist David Foster Wallace.
Art Mobs for MoMA is one of those 21st Century, Wikipedia-style ideas that allows people to send in their own audio guides to the works on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. I had some problems accessing the files through iTunes, but you have to love their website logo.
Finally for this roundup, Books and Writing is ABC Radio Australia’s national literary broadcast. The latest episode is about Ukrainian author Andrey Kurkov, whose often absurdist adult novels offer “a humorous but striking portrait of post-Soviet alienation”. His first attempts at literature were poems about the deaths of Lenin and, tellingly, his pet hamster.
So, if you really can’t countenance the US$1.95 asking-price for one episode of the record-breaking podcast they previously gave away, there are plenty of alternatives that might not be as funny, but which are still free.
NZBC’s next podcast roundup will focus on comedy.
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