This week in podcasts: Teen Dramas, Romance (Writing) on Amtrak and End of BBC Russian podcasts
It's time for my semi-regular look at some interesting and generally noteworthy podcasts I listened to in recent... Well, it would have been a week, but work stuff kept delaying this post, and Livejournal erased one of the drafts, forcing me to rewrite quite a bit from scratch, so it's really more of a month.
Over at made_of_fail_pc's Ango-Filles, mysticowl, ceilidh_ann and RedHeadedGirl take a look at Riverdale, CW Network's very deliberately gothic (in the classical sense), dramatic take on the iconic Archie Comics characters, while delving into the origins of soap opera-esque shows aimed at teens (because, when you think about it, it's actually a pretty interesting question).
And over at smartbitches, host Sarah Wendell interviewed romance writer and journalist Tamara Lush about her Amtrak writing residency. Even if romance novels aren't your cup of tea, she has a lot of interesting things to say about writing on the train, inspiration and how her journalism influenced her writing.
17.03.2017, 03:00
238. Writing on the Amtrak Residency - An Interview with Tamara Lush
Tamara Lush is an AP reporter, a longtime journalist, a romance author, and a recent recipient of the Amtrak writer’s residency! She traveled for over two weeks from Orlando to San Francisco by way of New York and Chicago, seeing much of the country while writing and meeting a ton of people. We talk about her work as a reporter, her decision to start writing romance, and about the people, places, and experiences she had …
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Finally... At the beginning of April, I was looking at my podcast feed, and I noticed the title of the latest episode of Пятый Этаж (The Fifth Floor), the BBC Russian Service's current affairs podcast - "The Future Fate of Radio." And my first thought was "Oh crap, did the podcast get cancelled?" And, sure enough, it was.
You may recall that, back in late December 2013/early January 2014, I went through a pretty bad bout of flu, which left me bedridden for days on end. The experience gave me a whole new appreciation for podcasts and streaming radio. When you would really rather not move, having constant stream of stuff to listen to helps. It led me to look up radio drama streams and podcasts, which led me to BBC's podcast directory, which led me to check to see what would happen if I put "Russian" in the search engine.
At the time, BBC Russian Service had three current affairs podcast - the aforementioned Fifth Floor, BBSeva and an interview program. There was also "Learn English with BBC Russian" (which, as you might guess, is a language-learning program). Over the next three years, the current affairs podcasts vanished one by one. One new podcast "Voices from the Archive," which delved into BBC Russian Service's extensive archive of interviews, was up for a while, but it hasn't been updated since the beginning of March. The English-learning program is still updated... But other than that, BBC doesn't have any Russian-language podcasts anymore.
Per BBC Russian service blog, the reason for Fifth Floor's cancellation is pretty simple - there wasn't enough demand to justify the expense of producing a professional-radio-quality program. And, as the blog notes, the podcast was an anachronism anyway, in that it was a radio show that existed six years after BBC Russian Service radio stopped broadcasting. But I still think it's a shame. sure, i haven't listened to every single episode of Fifth Floor, but the ones I did listen to were pretty interesting. They did some great feature pieces and interviews, and I always appreciated a Russian perspective on issues. It's why I included a few episodes in the birthday present for my mom.
Now, if you don't speak Russian, this podcast isn't going to interest you. But for the many Russian-speakers that I know are reading this, I strongly recommend you go to Fifth Floor's webpage and, if any episode catches your interest, download it while you can. As I learned the hard way, BBC doesn't keep its podcasts up forever.
(In fact, since I started writing this post, six out of eleven episodes vanished, and I didn't download all of them in time, so seriously - the clock is ticking)
Over at made_of_fail_pc's Ango-Filles, mysticowl, ceilidh_ann and RedHeadedGirl take a look at Riverdale, CW Network's very deliberately gothic (in the classical sense), dramatic take on the iconic Archie Comics characters, while delving into the origins of soap opera-esque shows aimed at teens (because, when you think about it, it's actually a pretty interesting question).
And over at smartbitches, host Sarah Wendell interviewed romance writer and journalist Tamara Lush about her Amtrak writing residency. Even if romance novels aren't your cup of tea, she has a lot of interesting things to say about writing on the train, inspiration and how her journalism influenced her writing.
17.03.2017, 03:00
238. Writing on the Amtrak Residency - An Interview with Tamara Lush
Tamara Lush is an AP reporter, a longtime journalist, a romance author, and a recent recipient of the Amtrak writer’s residency! She traveled for over two weeks from Orlando to San Francisco by way of New York and Chicago, seeing much of the country while writing and meeting a ton of people. We talk about her work as a reporter, her decision to start writing romance, and about the people, places, and experiences she had …
Continue reading →
Finally... At the beginning of April, I was looking at my podcast feed, and I noticed the title of the latest episode of Пятый Этаж (The Fifth Floor), the BBC Russian Service's current affairs podcast - "The Future Fate of Radio." And my first thought was "Oh crap, did the podcast get cancelled?" And, sure enough, it was.
You may recall that, back in late December 2013/early January 2014, I went through a pretty bad bout of flu, which left me bedridden for days on end. The experience gave me a whole new appreciation for podcasts and streaming radio. When you would really rather not move, having constant stream of stuff to listen to helps. It led me to look up radio drama streams and podcasts, which led me to BBC's podcast directory, which led me to check to see what would happen if I put "Russian" in the search engine.
At the time, BBC Russian Service had three current affairs podcast - the aforementioned Fifth Floor, BBSeva and an interview program. There was also "Learn English with BBC Russian" (which, as you might guess, is a language-learning program). Over the next three years, the current affairs podcasts vanished one by one. One new podcast "Voices from the Archive," which delved into BBC Russian Service's extensive archive of interviews, was up for a while, but it hasn't been updated since the beginning of March. The English-learning program is still updated... But other than that, BBC doesn't have any Russian-language podcasts anymore.
Per BBC Russian service blog, the reason for Fifth Floor's cancellation is pretty simple - there wasn't enough demand to justify the expense of producing a professional-radio-quality program. And, as the blog notes, the podcast was an anachronism anyway, in that it was a radio show that existed six years after BBC Russian Service radio stopped broadcasting. But I still think it's a shame. sure, i haven't listened to every single episode of Fifth Floor, but the ones I did listen to were pretty interesting. They did some great feature pieces and interviews, and I always appreciated a Russian perspective on issues. It's why I included a few episodes in the birthday present for my mom.
Now, if you don't speak Russian, this podcast isn't going to interest you. But for the many Russian-speakers that I know are reading this, I strongly recommend you go to Fifth Floor's webpage and, if any episode catches your interest, download it while you can. As I learned the hard way, BBC doesn't keep its podcasts up forever.
(In fact, since I started writing this post, six out of eleven episodes vanished, and I didn't download all of them in time, so seriously - the clock is ticking)