Some More Podcasts

Those otherwise blank hours of sitting on trains, walking round the park and household chores I continue to fill with podcasts. Many remain the same as earlier years' posts on this page, so I'll limit myself to a few new additions:

• When it Hits the Fan, from a couple of experienced journalists / public relations guys, comes via BBC. It always provides an interesting take on contemporary scandals in the news, and the kinds of often transient stories that we obsess about at the time, but have forgotten a few months hence.
• Smart Cookies is a niche podcast where the urbane host quizzes in-depth a guest on all kinds of subjects, often based on a recently published book. I don't listen to them all - many episodes exceed an hour - but am feeling it's maybe time I became a patron.
• Law and Disorder is an independently produced podcast addressing contemporary and sometimes historical subjects where law is at the heart of the issue. It's fairly high-brow I suppose, but I'm no lawyer and follow most of it without difficulty.
• Page 94 is another alternative take on recent events from the long-lived and estimable Private Eye team.
• Unhedged is a twice-weekly FT podcast about finance and the markets. They do a great job making sense of what could easily be a dull-dull subject.
• PC PRO is roughly an hour a week about computers and related stuff by a group of tech journalists. This is either down your street or it isn't.
• The Angry Clean Energy Guy tries to make his audience feel optimistic about the coming climate catastrophe. Maybe some of us can escape, after all.

One podcast that's now wrapped up for good is Uncle Jim's World of Bonds, which was an excellent potted summary of the bond market once or twice a week. Alas now, the podcaster has retired from financial markets.

Podcasts 2022

Welcome to my annual roundup of podcasts on my listen-to list in 2022. It hasn't been a classic year for new podcasts, at least not of the sort that interest me; and several have fallen by the wayside. This isn't a complete list, but it's stuff that I think has changed during the year.

Discards

Starting with those that I unsubscribed or muted this year: Zero Ducks Given and The Supermassive Podcast finally became too tiresome to listen to, despite the occasional good content. No complaints, because we don't pay for this stuff; and who am I to say that the participants shouldn't (seem to?) be having such a good time when they produce the material we benefit from. But to enjoy it with them, you would need to be there, and of course we aren't. So all the laughing, joshing and in-jokes can fall a bit flat when you're tramping round the park on a Monday evening in your usual hour of evening exercise.

I've also taken a break from Non Censored (Rosie Holt) and What Most People Think (Geoff Norcott). The first because it's all a bit samey, which can get dull when it's a weekly production. Ditto the second, because as a long-time listener and reader of his books, I get to intuit what Geoff thinks most people think. And the interview pieces with other comedians are likely to be interesting only to those also in the trade - I doubt that me chatting with another database dude would interest anyone much either.

Retired

We lost Taking Politics in the spring, which was a surprise and a pity. I realise that producing this stuff must be time expensive, but I'm still surprised they didn't continue on an occasional basis. I haven't heard from David Runciman since.

Looking for some kind of replacement, I quickly found The Rest is Politics, a political commentary with Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart. They approach politics from slightly different angles: one is a journalist and former member of Tony Blair's inner circle during his time as Labour PM; the other was a civil servant, soldier, Tory minister and leadership candidate. Originally intended as a debating forum ("disagree agreeably"), there is currently more consensus than dispute. The output might be described as attractive to the enlightened metropolitan elite, which is where I probably am.

To complete politics, the excellent Payne's Politics will need to be renamed as the eponymous journalist has moved on from the FT. But with so much talent in house, I'm confident I'll still be listening to something much like it each Saturday morning as I vacuum Neddyhaar Towers.

Other podcasts to fall into regretted quiescence are those from Andrew Neil, Jeremy Paxman and Mark Nicholas.

New Podcasts

On a related note, I now take In Moscow's Shadows from Mark Galeotti, which is an excellent briefing on Russian affairs. The subject matter is of course topical, and it's good enough to subscribe to with real money, though I don't suppose that's the reason he does it.

Merryn Somerset Webb has moved to Bloomberg and has launched a new podcast, Merryn Talks Money. It looks good so far, but despite the agreeable reintroduction of John Stepek (also now relocated from Moneyweek to Bloomberg), it's early days. This also seems to mean that the Moneyweek production has fallen by the wayside.

Others

The idiosyncratic Dominic Frisby is back with The Flying Frisby, which covers all manner of stuff from promoting his performance art projects to cryptocurrencies and gold. It's short - probably mercifully so - but worth a listen once or twice a week.

I also like Money Makers by Jonathan Davis, a weekly discussion of Investment Trusts, which is much better since its change of format. And of course, I always listen to Uncle Jim's World of Bonds when it's being produced.

Quite why the BBC have cajoled those of us who listen to Inside Science to use their imperfect Sounds app, I don't know. In any case, I probably listen to it less then I used to as a result. Excellent alternatives can be found with Sabine Hossenfelder's YouTube production; and Futureproof from Newstalk, lead by the excellent Jonathan McCrea.

Alan Fraser, RIP

I hardly ever post much at this site (or anywhere else much, for that matter) and today there are two. Both are some words recalling old friends who have recently slipped away. This post is about Alan Fraser, a former member of Beckenham & Bromley chess club and, for some years, a regular member of the club's London League team that I led.

Always a reliable team member, Alan would often score well against much stronger opposition, especially if the game didn't go on too long. One in particular, when we were playing a much stronger team, Alan's opponent noisily complained about having to play someone with such a low grade relative to his own. He played quickly and carelessly, whereas Alan played in his normal, unhurried style. The next thing we knew, we're one point ahead as Alan won a rook for nothing, leading to more noise as his opponent had to resign and leave in a huff! He was very pleased with that result, and rightfully so.

I only play the odd weekend tournament, but whenever I did there was a very good chance I'd find him there, and we would exchange the usual pleasantries, and gossip a little about mutual acquaintances. And if he wasn't there, he was usually playing elsewhere. He really did play an awful lot of chess, by anyone's standards.

I sometimes wondered whether he occasionally "managed" his grade, perhaps making draws at tournaments where he stood no chance of winning, just to ensure that he wouldn't be pushed up to a higher graded section in future events. Or maybe it was just the stamina failed him in better positions, who knows. In any case, the only occasion I remember playing him myself - an end-of-season, time-handicapped fun event - and he beat me!

Alan was a quietly spoken chap, but with a surprising sense of humour, happy to share opinions  that might be considered controversial within the small world of UK chess. There's a little more, with some pictures, here.

Farewell, Alan.

Nigel Jones, RIP

I was saddened to read of the death of my old work colleague, Nigel Jones, this week. We'd been colleagues at the ill-fated IT Partners, a consultancy setup by the computer manufacturer, ICL, just before the early-nineties recession. Nigel was a really nice guy who had a senior operational role there, whilst I was still pretty wet behind the ears (as they say). One of relatively few to be on paid client work, Nigel was working in the UK and all-over, whilst somehow managing the workload of a county councillor.

I only learned of his death last night, whilst repeating the story of how "a friend of mine became an MP by mistake". This was Nigel, who stood in his local constituency of Cheltenham for the Liberal Democrats in the 1992 election. At that time, Cheltenham was a safe Tory seat, and Nigel was not expecting to change that. However, it was too soon it seems, for the citizens of Cheltenham to accept a black MP, official Tory candidate or not. The rightfully aggrieved losing candidate was John Taylor, who has an interesting later story of his own.

To his shock and horror, Nigel was returned as the MP for Cheltenham.

I can still remember talking to him about his unexpected career move in the office the following week. It was a mixed blessing, he said: an MP's salary was less than he currently had, and although I'm sure he was excited by the challenge, there was the danger of being dumped out at the following election and struggling to re-establish himself in a career where five years out of the business is a long time. He needn't have worried, as Cheltenham returned him again and again, until in 2005 he entered the Lords.

We met by chance a couple of years later on a train to Paddington. He didn't seem to be having much fun: MPs were subject to a lot of abuse, he said; and there wasn't great support for day to day duties. He'd just come from a ceremonial tree-planting ceremony at a Swindon hospital. But there was no hole for it, and the ground was frozen hard. They'd had to implore the press photographers not to show that Nigel was holding the tree just to keep it from falling over, as it couldn't be planted in the ground. Funny story, in its way, though he was to suffer a much worse insult in 2000, when he was attacked by a sword-wielding, mentally ill guy.

Farewell, Nigel.

Podcasts 2021

I now subscribe to a good few cricket podcasts, too many to digest all their output. Probably the best of them are Wisden Cricket (from the magazine of the same name) and The Analyst Inside Cricket (Simon Hughes and Simon Mann). The latter is more frequent but shorter, the former the opposite; both have their place. A shout out to Zero Ducks Given, a pro-am combination that can be fun to listen to, though the banter sometimes palls - you need to be there to appreciate it. Also, The Grade Cricketer, an Australian weekly, is engaging if you've got the time (almost always an hour plus). During the year we lost The Drinks Break, which was great when it started, though I'm not surprised it ended, as I guess not many productions even break even, let alone justify the time spent. Unusually, they made it clear on Twitter that it's ceased to be, rather than leave everyone wondering.

No real change in the science podcasts though I do find time for The Supermassive Podcast from the Royal Astronomical Society. It's a really rubbish name to be honest, but the content is interesting, and being monthly is about right.

On the news and general affairs front, I can't help but subscribe to the daily (4-minutes) Coronavirus Global Update from the BBC, surely a venture we all hope can be retired in 2022. My preferred news podcasts though come from the Financial Times, notably the weekly Payne's Politics and the week-daily FT News Briefing. A new (to me) is Chinese Whispers by Cindy Yu and The Spectator.

For investment, the MoneyWeek Podcast is often excellent, especially when Merryn is engaging with her sidekick, John Stepek. Chats with fund managers, which are a big part of its output, are often soporific fare however, something which is also now true of the Investors Chronicle. The Chronicle has lost some key people this year, two of whom (John Hughman and Phil Oakley) now produce Quality Shares Podcast, though it's irregular. All in all, this parting of the ways seems to have resulted in less than a zero-sum output.

In the miscellaneous category, honourable mentions go to The Lock In with Jeremy Paxman (long-form interviews of interesting people), The Perpetual Chess Podcast (better and better it gets, though I sometimes wish it were shorter), and Atomic Hobo (a bit niche, this one). And I can't ignore What Most People Think, the excellent no-ads production from comedian Geoff Norcott. It's in two forms: solo where he shares his views on this week's news and social media storms, and the interview format. His guests are usually other comedians, though the chat is not as comedic as you might expect. All in all, I prefer the monologue version, though that puts me in the minority, apparently.

Currently dormant but expected back in the new year is The Lazarus Heist, from the BBC, which is a documentary on cyber warfare in relation to North Korea. One we may have lost is FITV, another niche production (journalists based in the Falklands, basically) that I would have probably never subscribed to were it not for the yearning to hear something different during Lockdown.

More Podcasts

Looking back two years to the last time I chose to blog about podcasts, I see that most of what I described then I continue to subscribe to now. No point in going over these again, so here are three new podcasts.

What Most People Think

This is a weekly organ for Geoff Norcott (you know, the alternative voice on The Mash Report) to provide his unashamedly right-wing take on recent events. I don't mean crazy, head-banging right-wing, but a thoughtful and well argued alternative opinion.

Sometimes it's just him, other times he does an interview with someone largely but not always sympathetic to his opinions. The only odd thing is the obsession with counting the quantity of swearing from the previous week - just skip this rather tedious curiosity, which appears every week without fail.

Like most podcasters, Mr Norcott seeks reviews on something called iTunes (have I spelled it right?), which is not a service I use (theological reasons). So instead, here is my take, albeit I doubt I'll get much publicity for the podcast, which is a shame because it is worth the time.

Uncle Jim's World of Bonds

This is obviously a niche - "for professional investors only" - but it's nevertheless an authoritative 5 to 10 minutes every few days about the bond market and allied subjects. No advertising, and you do get some funky background music that I at first hated but now tolerate. I have no idea why it's "Uncle" Jim, but don't let that put you off if you're a "professional investor" and want some informed background chat to your morning coffee.

13 Minutes to the Moon

The story of how humankind voyaged to the moon and returned. Over two series and 20 episodes, it's presented by Dr Kevin Fong as part of a BBC documentary. It includes interviews with some of the people who were there, which given the interval of time since the moon landings is maybe one of the last times this will be possible. Highly recommended.

The Worst Move On the Board

After some lamentable play by Black (me) at this weekend's excellent Bristol Winter Congress, I thought I'd share this position. Black has just captured the pawn on g2.

After 18 moves, White to Play

Frankly, I deserve to lose this; the lack of development reflects a callow attempt at setting a trap for white early in the opening, which he calmly sidetracked. My knight has been driven back to its starting square, and there is little to hope for. White, who had played quite slowly the whole game, now moved instantly and with a flourish, having obviously foreseen this position a move ago.

Alas, his visualisation at the end of Round 5 was impaired, and he chose The Worst Move on the Board, leading to mate-in-two.

And so, I achieved third place and enough cash to buy a really good bottle of whisky.