StartUp (Gimlet Media) | Listen
The Invisible College (Radio 4) | iPlayer
The John Moloney Show (Radio 4) | iPlayer
LBC’s Investigation Into Vishal Mehrotra’s Disappearance (LBC) | Podcast
A few small programmes this week. By small, I mean not noisily promoted or demanding of your time. Not small in ambition, though.
First, the return of StartUp. This US podcast began, last year, as a story about itself: producer/presenter Alex Blumberg wanted to set up a company that offered podcasts, so made a podcast about himself trying to do just that. I enjoyed the series a lot, though Blumberg’s un-CEO-style dithering could be irritating – but then that was the point: to show how a non-business person could set up a fully functioning business. This time round, the startup company is not Blumberg’s Gimlet podcasting but a matchmaking site called Dating Ring, which is run by three young women; I’m enjoying this series much more. For starters, the Dating Ring founders – Lauren Kay, Emma Tessler and Katie Bambino – are more switched on than Blumberg. Kay makes an inspiring speech in front of hundreds of potential fundraisers, after being picked to go on a prestigious course for startup companies; Tessler talks honestly about wanting to be made a founder partner. Still, they are young, and inexperienced. Also female: which, as the third and latest episode shows, can bring particular problems when it comes to dealing with powerful men with money.
What’s engaging about this series of StartUp is the fact that the Dating Ring, as an idea, sits somewhere on the long line between boo.com and Airbnb. When you hear potential investors asking awkward questions, you understand why they do so: this is far from a perfect company. You feel, somehow, that you might be able to do things better… Then you hear the machinations of personnel and of money, of tech and expansion, how tough it all is. All great podcast material, expertly handled.
Another little show that might have passed you by is Radio 4’s The Invisible College, in which Dr Cathy FitzGerald uses the advice of established writers to work out how to write fiction. She’s spent the past year digging out hours of audio, from Norman Mailer, Maya Angelou, Elmore Leonard, lots of others, and has woven their advice into a bewitching series of shows. The voices are so compelling, and FitzGerald has an intimate way of talking that makes me think of late nights.
An actual late-night show that’s also about storytelling is The John Moloney Show. Moloney is a standup who’s long been revered on the circuit for his beautiful jokes and delivery. He’s not a panel show type, though, so he’s not particularly well known outside the comedy world. This 15-minute programme plays to his strengths: it’s recorded as live, at a great comedy club, the Stand in Edinburgh, with Moloney on stage, telling you a story. Last week it was about his cat going to the vet’s. Delightful, and deserving of a 6.30pm transfer, I would have thought.
Finally, a weird one from LBC. The station’s chief reporter, the dogged Tom Swarbrick, has taken on a cold case: the death of Vishal Mehrotra, who disappeared on the day of the royal wedding in 1981. The show is clearly inspired by Serial – it even has spooky music – but has several key differences. First, the case is truly horrible, involving child abduction and killing. Second: it potentially has links to the British establishment, via the paedophilia cases that keep popping up. And third: LBC doesn’t have American Life funding. The first episode was just nine minutes long. Still, one to keep your ears on. It could lead to nothing at all; but it could also lead somewhere where all the doors are locked and someone has ensured that the key has been thrown far, far away.
