Podcast episodes I enjoyed this month - the etiquette of revolving doors, Kim Yo Jong, Chuck Berry, the Labour Party, Dr No as a monkey, 'civilizational erasure', the New York Shakespeare riots, Mary Beard, and Tom Hanks on the moon-walkers

These are the podcast episodes that I particularly enjoyed last month.

Episodes I’ve enjoyed previously are on the podcast pages for this year, for 2024, 2023, and for 2022

Word in your ear - Al Stewart - Al Stewart was rooming next to Paul Simon, and was the first to hear many of Simon’s songs. Simon played him Richard Cory and Homeward Bound on the same day. Stewart said Richard Cory would be a massive hit, but didn’t think much of Homeward Bound

The Penguin Podcast Episode 8: Christmas gifting with William Hanson - etiquette advisor William Hanson says that in Victorian times if a lady and a gentleman had to go through a revolving door then the etiquette was that the gent would go round twice so the lady would not have to push the door at all

The Hated and the Dead - Kim Yo Jong - South Korean scholar Sung-Yoon Lee refers to the Kim dynasty as a “royal family”. He says that the one thing he wishes people knew more about was the starvation in North Korea

McCartney: A Life in Lyrics - Back In the U.S.S.R - Chuck Berry’s original song was inspired by a visit to Australia, especially by seeing how poorly the indigenous population had been treated

Talk ’90s to me: Thelma & Louise – The ’90s most important chick flick - a suggested ending of the film was that Thelma pushes Louise out of the car (or vice versa), just before it goes over the cliff

Origin Story - Labour Party part 3 - there are some great ‘factoids’ for political geeks here. An effort to rid the party of the Trotskyist Militant Tendency was known as Operation Ice-Pick. Tony Blair told Michael Foot that ‘he came to socialism through Marxism’

Documentary On One: Harwood, Johanna Harwood..Meet the Irishwoman who wrote the first James Bond movie. - Johanna Harwood wrote the first draft, and most or all of the final draft of Dr No. In between, at one stage some more established screen writers had decided ‘Dr No’ himself should be a monkey. She was responsible for ‘the Goya joke’

Full Disclosure - Alistair McGowan: My friends laughed when I said I was doing comedy - MacGowan says that impressionists' shows don’t get repeated because they are seen as too ‘of their time’. This is a shame - I really enjoyed listening to old Dead Ringers episodes

Strong Message Here - Civilizational Erasure - according to Reuters, a new executive order requires enhanced vetting of Visa applicants “to see if they have worked in areas that include activities such as misinformation, disinformation, content moderation, fact-checking, compliance and online safety"

Origin Story: The Labour Party – Part Two – War and Peace - Harold Macmillan said that “it wasn’t Churchill that lost the election [in 1945] but the ghost of Chamberlain "

Inheritance Tracks - Sandi Toksvig - Toksvig says that her father, Claus Toksvig, arranged for Tom Lehrer to play an anti-nuclear protest song before the UN Security Council

Where There’s a Will: Finding Shakespeare - Episode 1: Is Shakespeare American? - a dispute about Shakespeare sparked the 1849 Astor Park riot in New York. Over 20 people were killed.

The Rest is History - Classics - Mary Beard says that the inscription on the statue of Boudicca, on the Embankment, says something like ‘Your descendants’ empire will be bigger than the Roman empire '

The Moonwalkers, with Tom Hanks - The Rest is History - Hanks says something like Kennedy’s “We choose to go to the Moon” is “about as bold a statement as was ever to be made, I think, by any politician. "