Nine Podcasts
observations draw you into periods of history you may not have thought very much about. 3. 13 Minutes to the Moon. Another engaging BBC World Service podcast series that tells the story behind the 13-minute descent by the Apollo 11 lunar module from the moment it detached from the mothership until it touched down on the moon’s surface in July 1969. Listen to the surviving astronauts, the twenty-somethings that staffed the Houston command centre, those that designed and built the spacecraft and those that wrote the software programs used by the navigation systems. For anyone who believes the conspiracy theories that the moon landings never actually happened, I challenge you to listen to this - it will change your mind.
Podcasts have been around for at least a decade and if you look around you can probably find one on just about every topic imaginable. Podcasts are great in that you can listen to them at a time and place that suits you, whether travelling, at home cooking or doing other daily tasks, or even perhaps while lying in bed before sleep. For some, podcasts are educational, for others entertaining, or just a way to keep up with current affairs. Here are nine recommendations (not in any order): 1. Death in Ice Valley. This has been one of the most gripping podcasts that I’ve listened to over the past 12 months. From the BBC World Service and the Norwegian NRK, it tells the true story of an unidentified woman’s body found in mysterious circumstances in a snow and ice-covered valley near Bergen, Norway in 1970.
4. Storycast: The Hunt for Brink’s Mat Gold. The true-life three-part crime story about the maverick Flying Squad undercover detectives hunting for the gold stolen from the Brink’s Mat depot at Heathrow Airport in 1983. It didn’t take very long for the police to identify the gang who carried out the robbery, but understanding the complex money trail to find those that handled and disposed of the gold was another matter.
2. History of England. A great podcast to dip into when the mood takes me. Told in a lighthearted way, each episode continues the story of England starting from the very beginning of recorded history. The narrator David Crowther’s dry humour and insightful 20
5. Kermode and Mayo’s film review. Always interesting insights into the latest movie releases from Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo.
