Global News Podcast (BBC World Service) | iPlayer
The Daily (New York Times podcasts) | nytimes.com
John Cleese Presents (BBC Radio 4) | iPlayer
If you’re getting a bit sick of the Westminster nit-pickery, the manifesto deconstructions, the scrutinisation of Jeremy Corbyn’s beard or Theresa May’s marriage, then may I recommend a larger view of the world? Two podcasts, mentioned to me by other enthusiasts, have been keeping me sane this past week.
First, the Global News podcast from the World Service. A half-hour daily programme, Global News takes three or four big stories of the day, gives a summary of the main points and talks to foreign correspondents to get some on-the-ground analysis. The news comes from all over the world and makes our own worries re elections and Brexit seem rather petty.
This week we learned that Venezuela’s maternity services are struggling, heard from Islamic State soldiers who want to leave it, and gained an understanding of the difficulties that face the new president of Somalia (they got an interview with him). There are still “fun” pieces – the lighthearted one-liners at the end of the news – but, mostly, the show is sober and informative. It’s very BBC.
Offering similar stuff is The Daily podcast from the New York Times. This takes the big American story of the day, summarises and analyses it, and then offers one or two extras at the end. The major difference, other than the US bias, is that the person who’s interviewed for the lead story has been working on it for the paper. Sometimes they are actually called back into the office to get on with their proper job mid-phone call (this happened on Wednesday’s programme). Other than that, presenter Michael Barbaro is a constant (at Global News, the role is passed around a pool of journalists), and there are more aural tricks than the BBC would ever offer. When someone is quoted in a contextual context, you hear an actual voice clip from the past. You sometimes hear Barbaro making the phone call. Casual elements in the conversation are not edited out. These techniques are very American podcast: they personalise the presenters. The BBC rarely does this. Its impartiality requires its reporters to be politically neutral, but its broadcast habits means they are often neutral as personalities too.
Both shows are worth hearing, because both do their job well. And it’s been interesting to compare their differing approaches to the same stories, whether that’s Donald Trump sacking FBI chief James Comey, or Moon Jae-In becoming the new leader of South Korea. The BBC missed a trick when it came to Trump’s Comey-sacking letter (if Comey is supposedly being “terminated” over Hillary Clinton’s emails, why did Trump mention his investigation into Russian influence on the election?). But The Daily was much less strong on South Korea. Listening to both means you get a rather wider perspective than that offered by Today, or anything concentrating on our general election.
John Cleese was on Radio 4 last week, flogging his autobiography by pretending to host a phone-in programme that goes so wrong that he has to read his book out on air. Though this may have seemed a sweet idea on paper, it did not work at all in real life. The jokes were off-key and bitter, the acting preposterous and stupidly irrelevant (were we meant to believe he thought his microphone was a camera? Not even a six-year-old thinks that). The tone was really off. I was surprised Radio 4 put it on air. Just let him read his book!
