Podcast episodes I liked over the last month - Bonnie and Clyde, 60 songs that explain the 90s, 9/11 and Gander, the Pyramids, Nile Rodgers, the Panama Canal, Susannah Hoffs, Vlad the Impaler, Llareggub, Thonis-Heracleion, pilot's voices, Saint Cris
This was stuff I found interesting in various podcasts over the last month
There more at the links below
Short History of…… Bonnie and Clyde - W.D. Jones, a member of the gang who lived long enoughto see the 1967 film, said it “made it all look sort of glamorous, but like I told them teenaged boys sitting near me at the drive-in showing: ‘Take it from an old man who was there. It was hell.'” It’s interesting to me that he saw the film at a drive-in.
Rolling stone podcast - ‘60 Songs That Explain the ’90s’ - there are mentions of the Prodigy, KLF, Radiohead and the Spice Girls but none of Oasis, Blur or Pulp. Made me realise how ‘Brit’ Britpop really was
Witness History - 9/11 The generosity of Gander - about the true story behind the musical Come From Away. The ‘witness’ here is Beverley Bass, who is represented in the show. I think she says that pharmacists in Gander prepared 2000+ prescriptions in one night for people who were stuck on the planes on the runway
Short History of……the Pyramds - the year that Cleopatra was born is closer to the completion of the Empire State Building than it is to the completion of the first pyramid
Bullseye - Nile Rodgers - “the song is just an excuse to get to the chorus, the chorus is just an excuse to get to the breakdown”
Short History of….The Panama Canal - there was a lot of sickness amoung the builders of the canal. There was a problem with ants in the hospitals. To stop the ants getting onto the patients’ beds, they stood the legs of the beds in bowls of water. This fixed that problem, but, sadly, the bowls of stagnant water were a bredding environment for mosquitos
Broken record - Susannah Hoffs - I did know that the Bangles hit Eternal Flame was inspired by the eternal flame memorializing Elvis at Graceland. I didnt know it was specifically inspired by the Bangles visiting Graceland at a time when the Eternal Flame had gone out.
A short history of….. Vlad the Impaler - an account of Vlad Dracula’s life said that he dipped his fingers in the blood of his executed enemies. This was mistranslated as dipping his bread into their blood, which gave rise to the idea that he consumed blood
The Rest is Entertainment - The Real Rich List - Marina says that the cosmetics industry got a boost during the pandemic from people seeing their own faces on Zoom and thinking they needed more cosmetics
That Reminds Me - Nerys Hughes - Nerys Hughes says that she’s played every female role in Under Milk Wood bar one. The play is set in a Welsh village called Llareggub, which is slightly rude backwards
History Extra - The Princes in the Tower: has the mystery been solved? - Philippa Langley, whose work helped to locate the bones of Richard III under a Leicester car park, discusses whether he had the Princes murdered
Witness History - Discovering the ancient city of Thonis-Heracleion - I’d not heard of this - a lost city, mentioned by Herodotus, that has been found 7km off the coast of Egypt
Revisionist History - This Is Your Captain Speaking - podcast about why all pilots sound similar. This reminded me of a relative who did announcements on the railways - his normal voice was completely different from his railway voice. More significantly, the podcast includes the original audio from the aeroplane that landed in the Hudson
The Rest is Entertainment - South Park vs Trump - I didn’t know that the CEO of Paramount was the son of Larry Ellison, who was CEO of Oracle
Shakespeare: Past Master | 1. Henry V History Extra podcast - Jerry Brotton says that the repeated references to Saint Crispen’s Day in the famous speech are an invocation of the working classes, Saint Crispen being the patron saint of shoemakers
How tickled I am - Arthur Askey - Askey was a scouser but had to get rid of his accent to get on in show business. He popularized the idea of Diddy Men, and jam butty mines before Ken Dodd picked them up. I’m not sure whether Askey invented these things, or whether they were part of Liverpool culture.
Talk ’90s to me: Friends! Could a TV show be any more influential? - ‘Friends’ was originally going to be called ‘Couples’
The Rest Is Politics: Leading: 150. Nicola Sturgeon: What Really Happened In The Scottish Referendum (Part 2) - during the referendum campaign the ‘No’ campaign argued that Scots would no longer be able to watch EastEnders if they left the UK, and that they would not be able to be part of the European Union