PODCASTS

LISTEN AT YOUR LEISURE

10 Things That Scare Me www.wnycstudios.org/shows/10-things-scare-me

A simple, genius idea — “a tiny podcast about our biggest fears”. This has various writers, musicians, artists and commentators discussing the things they fear the most. Everything from spiders to climate catastrophe, the deepest part of the sea and clowns.

These are short — around five minutes each — and will have you baffled, or full of horror-empathy as you listen. For actor and comedian Jo Firestone, fear comes from the entirely logical idea of being chased at night. For former Trump spokesperson Anthony Scaramucci, it is slightly more metaphysical: “D.C. people are the worst. I’m not sure I can ever go back there,” he says. Blair Braverman, dogsled racer and author, dubbed the “21st Century feminist reincarnation of Jack London” says: “A storm doesn’t care about anything. It’s just a storm. A human with an agenda? That’s another story,” while for music producer Rob Lewis it’s heights, and “being a black man in America. No elaboration needed”.

First Ladies of Fleet Street www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001l9d

A two-part documentary in which Nina Myskow delves into the all-boys-together history of Fleet Street, a place where no woman was editor of a national paper between 1903 and 1987 (eight years after a woman took up residence in Downing Street).

Contributors, including Eve Pollard, Katherine Viner and Janet Street-Porter, discuss their experiences of being the boss, as well as the contributions of early pioneers such as Rachel Beer, editor-in-chief of The Observer and The Sunday Times; Mrs Beeton, who came up with the idea for the first ‘glossy’ style magazine, Queen, and Elizabeth Mallett who created The Daily Courant, in 1702.