Category Archives: Podcasts

Michael Wolff’s Trumpland tell-all, Fire and Fury, has set Washington ablaze

Here’s the Thing with Alec Baldwin: Michael Wolff, Chronicler of Chaos in Trumpland. (Listen or download, 53 minutes.)

“The man behind the book has gotten surprisingly little attention, even though it was partly Wolff’s position at the top of New York media’s social heap that won him Trump’s trust, and access to the White House. Alec set out to do a different Michael Wolff interview. At a live event at Manhattan’s Town Hall, audience-members learned about the Jewish kid from Jersey with a shoeleather reporter for a mom, who gave up on being a novelist to do big-money media deals – even as he wielded his poison pen against peers in the New York media elite. And Wolff lives up to his reputation as one of New York’s best conversationalists, giving answers by turns open, cantankerous, and very, very funny.”

If you prefer, you can also listen to the interview on YouTube.

This was published on 13 February, 2018, but I only listened to it tonight.

“Here I am, brain the size of a planet and they ask me to take you down to the bridge.”

The Guardian: Don’t panic! The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is back. “It’s the biggest thing to happen to the universe since the Vogons blew up Earth. Our writer grabs a babelfish and goes behind the scenes as the space satire returns.”

“The original cast has been reunited to record a new radio series of the intergalactic comedy that, from small beginnings in 1978 on Radio 4, grew into a juggernaut that spawned a TV series, a Disney film, a much-loved series of books, several stage shows and even a video game.
[…]
The new series combines unpublished material, dug out of Adams’ notebooks by archivist and superfan Kevin Jon Davies, and newer plotlines drawn from And Another Thing, Eoin Colfer’s book continuing the saga, which was commissioned by the Adams estate after the author’s sudden death at the age of just 49 in 2001.”

I’ve read the four-part trilogy and enjoyed the original radio play. Looking very forward to this!

Link via MetaFilter.

Der “Papa” des Sams

Mensch Otto – Mensch Theile: Mensch, Otto! – Mensch, Theile!
Paul Maar, Kinderbuchautor. (Podcast, 39min)

“Ein Pferd, mehr Taschengeld oder dass die Eltern sich wieder versöhnen: Kinderbuchautor Paul Maar kennt die Wünsche von Kindern und weiß, was sie fühlen und denken. Seit über einem halben Jahrhundert begeistert er Kinder mit seinen Büchern – rund 100 sind es mittlerweile. Seine berühmteste Figur: Das Sams. Paul Maar bekommt fast täglich Briefe von seinen kleinen Fans, die er handschriftlich beantwortet. […] Maar will Kinder unterhalten und sie natürlich fürs Lesen begeistern. Aber er will sie auch stark machen und ihnen Selbstvertrauen geben.”

Watergate’s Legacy in the Age of Trump

Here’s the Think with Alec Baldwin: John Dean: Watergate’s Legacy in the Age of Trump. (Podcast, 58 minutes.)

“When John Dean found his conscience, America found its backbone and impeached a president. The Nixon Administration tried to undermine American democracy during the election of 1972 through now-legendary dirty tricks aimed at their Democrat opponents. They almost got away with it. Dean was Nixon’s White House Counsel, and participated in the cover-up of the Watergate break-in. Then he began cooperating with investigators, and blew the case wide-open. Dean is one of the most complicated and fascinating characters in modern American history. In a frank and funny conversation with Alec Baldwin in front of a live audience, John Dean opens up about how it all went down – and how it could go down now under Trump, who he says shares Nixon’s paranoia and authoritarian instincts.”

“White House or Buckingham Palace?” – “White House, just because Buckingham Palace looks like it would take a really long time to mop.”

BBC Radio 4 Best of Today: Prince Harry interviews Barack Obama. (Audio, 39 minutes.)

“2017 began with Barack Obama leaving the White House and handing over the baton of the presidency to Donald Trump.

Our guest editor today, Prince Harry, met President Obama, in Toronto in September during the Invictus Games to talk about his memories of the day he left office, his post-presidential work with the Obama Foundation and his hopes for the future.”

This interview was published on 27 December 2017 and is available for listening or downloading for three more days.