PODCASTS — LISTEN AT YOUR LEISURE

The Dublin Podcast Festival www.dublinpodcastfestival.ie

This is a first, and promises to be excellent, bringing together many of the people behind our favourite podcasts, to talk about the hows, whys and whos of what they do. Running from September 19-30, in various venues including the Bord Gais Energy Theatre, Vicar Street, the Tivoli Theatre and the NCH, this is a chance to get up-close with Brian Reed, creator of S-Town, the crew behind Welcome To Night Vale and the hilarious, iconic My Dad Wrote A Porno. Local talent is in abundance too. There’s An Irishman Abroad with Roddy Doyle, Fascinated, with Gearoid Farrelly and Juvenalia with Alison Spittle, as well as a masterclass — the ultimate guide to creating your own podcast — with Ben Green, senior producer at The Guardian. Truly, if ever proof was needed of just how intimately podcasts now inhabit the mainstream of our lives, this is it. Some of the smaller venues are sold out already.

Appearance Matters www.soundcloud.com/appearance-matters

This is hosted by Nadia Craddock and Jade Parnell, and takes as a departure point findings from the Centre for Appearance Research — yes, that does actually exist; it’s a world-leading research facility based in Bristol, investigating everything related to the way we look.

There are discussions around body image and surgery, feminism, mindfulness and social media, with Craddock and Parnell talking to Dr Amy Slater and body positive blogger and Instagrammer Megan Crabbe. Together, they go deep into the psychology, anthropology and pressures of social media for young women where it relates to body image, with plenty of smart suggestions for dealing with the fall-out.