PODCASTS/AUDIOBOOKS
Political Currency Various platforms, review by Yvette Huddleston
In a similar vein to the unusual (but successful) pairing of former Labour press and communications guru Alastair Campbell and ex-Conservative politician Rory Stewart in their popular podcast The Rest is Politics, this new series brings together two former politicians from across the divide. Ed Balls, inset, who served as Shadow Chancellor from 2011-2015, and George Osborne, Chancellor from 2010-2016, will be taking listeners behind closed doors into the places where decisions are made. Not surprisingly, as economists, they will be focusing primarily on the decisions that affect household budgets. They will also explain some of the more difficult to grasp concepts in the intersection between good economics and good politics and discuss what it is like to grapple with market forces.
The Gift BBC Sounds, review by Yvette Huddleston
In this new six-part documentary series from BBC Radio Four, Jenny Kleeman meets people whose lives have been forever changed after taking a DNA test. It has become something of a fashionable gift to present someone with a test, courtesy of various genealogy companies. They are seen as pretty harmless – giving someone the opportunity to find out more about their ancestry and heritage. However, in some cases the test can reveal something totally unexpected and lead to people questioning their very identity. In the first episode, Kleeman investigates the case of an elderly man who received a DNA test as a Christmas present from his daughter. The results led to the exposure of a scandal at the heart of London’s Harley Street, a hub for private healthcare.
British Scandal: Liz Truss Wondery, review by Yvette Huddleston
There were plenty of jokes made at the time about Liz Truss’s disastrous premiership being outlived by a lettuce, but there were some pretty serious consequences. In the latest series of this light-hearted political show, hosts broadcaster Alice Levine and comedian Matt Forde take a look back over that short-lived but damaging period in British politics when Liz Truss resided at Number 10, from September 6 to October 25, last year. They track the rise of Truss as she is selected to stand as a Conservative MP for South West Norfolk, then becomes one to watch in the cabinets of both Theresa May and Boris Johnson. Her determination and ambition eventually lead her to aim for the top job in the country and it seems that nothing will stand in her way.
BBC National Short Story Award 2023 BBC Sounds, review by Yvette Huddleston
Each year for nearly 20 years, the BBC’s National Short Story Award has brought to listeners the very best of short fiction. The top prize for the overall winner is £15,000 and all the five finalists also have their stories featured on BBC Radio Four. In the opening part, Call the Midwife and Ghosts actor Charlotte Ritchie, inset, reads Comorbidities, by writer Naomi Wood, author of The Godless Boys and Mrs Hemingway, the latter of which won the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award and the British Library Writer’s Award. In Comorbidities, a couple with two young children reassess their relationship, realise that it is in need of some change and look at how they might inject a little excitement into their lives.