Most radio listening takes place in the car or while doing other things that allow freedom for the ear, but not the eyes and hands. Podcasts permit a shift of listening time from a set appointment to virtually any convenient occasion. I do it while “power walking” (most) every morning in what sometimes seems like a vain attempt to diminish the results of sitting behind a desk for 35 years. The act of putting one foot in front of the other can be pretty monotonous and by “podding along” while plodding along the mind also gets something useful to do. So it is with the time spent commuting to work day after day.
Podcasting has expanded almost exponentially so very quickly that it can justly be considered a medium all its own. Therefore, the attempt here has to be to highlight only a small portion of it, just one corner where excellence reigns. Some of the best radio comes from the public networks of the UK, Australia, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand and the U.S. Apart from the originating program’s web site, most programs are made available through any number of other amalgamation sources such as iTunes and TuneIn. Admittedly, these are thoroughly subjective recommendations, but my interests and tolerance for incompatible views are pretty wide-ranging. Here’s another in a continuing series of small samplings, offered in a 90 minute scope (more of less): —— “Coffee” IN OUR TIME - BBC Radio 4 Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history and social impact of coffee. From its origins in Ethiopia, coffea arabica spread through the Ottoman Empire before reaching Western Europe where, in the 17th century, coffee houses were becoming established. There, caffeinated customers stayed awake for longer and were more animated, and this helped to spread ideas and influence culture. Coffee became a colonial product, grown by slaves or indentured labour, with coffea robusta replacing arabica where disease had struck, and was traded extensively by the Dutch and French empires; by the 19th century, Brazil had developed into a major coffee producer, meeting demand in the USA that had grown on the wagon trails. (56”) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000c4x1 “Back When I Was Older" INVISIBILIA - NPR As a parent, what do you do when your four-year-old starts telling you about memories that can't possibly be his? Memories that he says are from a past life? (21”) https://www.npr.org/2019/10/24/773097960/back-when-i-was-older __ __ A monthly (well, mostly monthly) compendium of these newsletters, plus on occasion additional pertinent material, is now published in The CIDX Messenger, the monthly e-newsletter of the Canadian International DX Club (CIDX). For further information, go to www.cidx.ca John Figliozzi Editor, "The Worldwide Listening Guide” NEW! 184 page 9th EDITION available NOW from Universal Radio [universal-radio.com], Amazon [amazon.com], Ham Radio Outlet [hamradio.com] _______________________________________________ Internetradio mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/internetradio To unsubscribe: Send an E-mail to [email protected]?subject=unsubscribe, or visit the URL shown above.
