Podcasts permit a shift of listening time from a set appointment to virtually any convenient occasion. I do it while taking my daily (more or less) 3 mile walk, while I’m “plodding along”. While there are thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of great podcasts from other sources, the ones sponsored via public radio have been vetted through the worthy objectives of the medium. Here’s what I’ve been listening to recently. I hope you might find these suggestions — in roughly 90 minute bites -- helpful in enhancing your own enjoyment of radio, our favorite medium.
__ __ “Can I Save the Family Restaurant?” THE FOOD CHAIN - BBC World Service Running a restaurant is hard. Long hours, tight margins and constant stress. In this week's programme Rumella Dasgupta travels to Edinburgh, Scotland, to meet Lisa He and her mum Sophie. Lisa has just put her life and acting career on hold, to try and help her mum save the family's restaurant, the China Star. A video she made documenting her attempt has gone viral, with more than fifteen million views. But is a viral video going to be enough to turn a failing business into a success? Lisa's got to fix the sprawling menu, digitise the paper ordering system and cut costs. Lisa and Rumella meet restaurant turnaround expert David Hopkins from the Fifteen Group in Canada, who's on hand to give advice and to explain why restaurants are such difficult businesses to run. Meanwhile the Mand family in Sydney Australia know only too well what Lisa and Sophie are going through. Last year, son Bhav documented his fight to save his dad's failing restaurant. So how's it doing now? And, in such a difficult industry, when is the right time to walk away? Rumella hears from Carleigh Bond, who made the tough decision to close her vegan fast-food restaurant Forked Up in October 2025. (26”) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct8sw2 “Donald Trump’s Dangerous Politicization of America’s Spy Agencie"” THE POLITICAL SCENE - NPR and WNYC New York Public Media Studios The Washington Roundtable is joined by Jeff Stein, the veteran political reporter and founding editor of the newsletter “Spytalk,” to examine Donald Trump’s appointment of Bill Pulte as the new acting Director of National Intelligence, a position that, in theory, oversees the C.I.A., N.S.A., F.B.I., and fifteen other agencies. Pulte has no intelligence background and no national-security experience, but does have a track record of going after the President’s perceived enemies. Plus, the panel discusses a recent Washington Post investigation that raised new questions about the outgoing director, Tulsi Gabbard, and her alleged ties to a religious cult. (37”) https://play.prx.org/listen?ge=prx_6165_67d5845e-d14c-4796-a0bf-417d4d9e4809&uf=https%3A%2F%2Fpublicfeeds.net%2Ff%2F6165%2Fnewyorker-the-political-scene "World Cup poetry: Lines for the beautiful game" THE DOCUMENTARY - BBC World Service Describing the joy (and heartache) of football is the job of commentators at this summer's FIFA World Cup in America, Canada and Mexico. In the Studio hears how the loyalties of California's poet laureate Lee Herrick are divided between the USA and his birth country, South Korea, while UK poet Ian McMillan finds inspiration for a new poem in the lines on the pitch. (27”) https://www.bbc.com/audio/play/p0nrp3w8 — — A compendium of these suggestions, plus on occasion additional pertinent material, is published every other month in the CIDX Messenger, the monthly e-newsletter of the Canadian International DX Club (CIDX). For further information and membership information, go to www.cidxclub.ca John Figliozzi Member, North America Shortwave Association Executive Council Co-Coordinator, NASWA Annual SWL Fest Editor, The NASWA Journal “Shortwave Center” column Author, "The Worldwide Listening Guide” Opinion Writer, “The Daily Gazette - Sunday”, Schenectady, NY _______________________________________________ Swprograms mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/swprograms To unsubscribe: Send an E-mail to [email protected]?subject=unsubscribe, or visit the URL shown above.
