#006 A list of things to listen to, watch & read
Whether you're looking for background noise while you cook and garden, want a guaranteed good read, or have just run out of Netflix shows to binge, I've got some great reccs...
Just in time for the big bank holiday weekend, here’s my round-up of recent podcasts, TV series, films, books and essays to guzzle alongside your choccy. Happy Easter!
Listen
Fellow history nerds, this podcast is really good! It’s about the Plantagenates who were a rather dysfunctional royal dynasty that ruled England for 331 years, and boy did some stuff go down during their reign. Dan Jones is like the cool teacher trying to make learning about mediaeval times fun, comparing bloody battles to the Wagatha Christie case - and it works. Expect tales of power, greed, religion, politics and the effect it has had on how we live today.
Turns out I’m on an educational kick, lately!? Alex recommended this politics podcast to me after I tried This Is Politics and discovered it is NOTHING like Richard & Marina’s culture vulture version - literally, no game show gossip or pithy puns - and quite boring/unsettling if like me you aren’t permanently glued to the news and don’t want to stay on top of quite frankly depressing current affairs. I do want to know a bit more about world politics, broadly speaking though, and Leading by Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell is helping with this. Each week brings a new interview with one ‘leader’ (it’s a fair but varied description of their guests who range from Theresa May to Arnold Schwarzenegger to Bill Gates). I’m starting from the beginning and skipping the ones I don’t like the sound of because I can - so far I’ve loved Marina Litvinenko, Alan Milburn and Fiona Hill.
An interesting investigative-style four-part series that asks why the women in Dubai’s royal family keep trying to run away. It includes interviews with people close to the princesses who tried to help them escape and tapes recorded by the women themselves, telling the world they are not free and their father is not a good man…
The journalists behind this podcast try to solve the mystery of who created the Cicada 3301 puzzle and why. If you don’t remember this wild story: over a decade ago, a mysterious organisation (Cicada 3301) appeared on the online message board, 4chan with what would become known as the hardest puzzle on the internet and aimed to discover 'highly intelligent individuals’ AKA those who could crack it. Several instalments of the puzzle took players across the WWW and into real-life locations, then, it all disappeared, with the final puzzle seemingly never solved…
I’m quite enjoying dipping into this women’s health-centric podcast, helmed by Dr Frankie and featuring eye-opening interviewees from science, medicine, mental health and more. I loved the episode with Dr Phillipa Kaye about the Gender Health Gap, hormonal imbalances and cycle tracking and Dr Helen O’Neill, the CEO of home fertility and hormone-testing platform, Hertility who explains why reproductive health is health full stop.
Watch
A Murder At The End Of The World
A modern murder mystery set at a billionaire’s remote, glacial retreat where AI manages everything from the lights and what film you should watch to the medicine you need. Emma Corrin stars as the amateur detective, a tech-savvy Gen Z-er determined to find which of the many motivated suspects is truly out for blood, all while managing her grief over the murdered guest.
I binged all of this in a couple of days, it’s really good! It’s like The Tudors but more outrageous and salacious and with Julianne Moore. Based on the shocking true story of Mary Villiers, who trains her son to seduce King James I, we follow their family’s rise to rank and riches, and the downfall of, well basically everyone, including England.
Usually, I’m a BBC drama gal but ITV got this one very right. After The Flood is set, umm, after a flood, which reveals a dead body. When one of the small town’s policewomen begins investigating the man’s possible murder - without the authority or permission to do so, we love a head-strong female lead - she also unearths some hard truths about the place and people she thought she knew so well.
Okay, I am late to the party here! I didn’t think I would like Wednesday at all, I assumed it was only for a younger audience or die-hard gothy Addams Family fans, but that is not true! I’d categorise it as a sort of wryly dark murder mystery that happens to be set at a school for misfits, werewolves and sirens with Jenna Ortega playing the kooky, rebellious, emotion-denying main character. It is really well done and fun and clever, and the new characters and twists in every episode will make you eager to watch another.
If you’re looking for a silly, mindless American comedy a la The Hangover or Grown-Ups for the Easter weekend, allow me to suggest Ricky Stanicky, starring Zac Efron who I think is a seriously underrated comic actor - maybe even just actor, did you see the Ted Bundy film? - and John Cena (not always my fave, very entertaining in this). Basically, three friends have a made-up buddy - Ricky Stanicky - who they use as an alibi when they want to get out of ‘boring’ situations. When their families get suspicious and demand to meet the infamous Mr. Stanicky, the guilty trio hires a washed-up actor they met in Vegas to seal the deal.
Read
In Ascension by Martin MacInnes
You’ve probably seen this book in many a bookshop window of late, it has been highly hyped, which doesn’t always equal a great read, however, the masses are right on this occasion. It’s beautifully written, with lots of visceral imagery and subtle philosophising through the storyline, which sees Leigh, a marine biologist, on a mission to find evidence of the earth’s first life forms. Against backdrops such as deep-sea trenches to a secretive space agency in the desert to the edge of the solar system, Leigh is pulled further and further away from her ailing mother and closer to understanding how it all began.
Postpartum Style: It’s Tricky - The Wardrobe Edit by Anna Newton
Aimed at new mums getting to grips with how they want to dress post-babe, Anna’s succinct guide to clearing out your wardrobe and redefining your style also has plenty of takeaways for anyone in a bit of a clothing rut (enter all 30-something millennials who are still wearing lockdown leggings and fear changing room lighting/anything not navy).
Thank God, It’s the Rightmove Round-Up - The Sophist
Fun and funny commentary + excellent pictures of out-there house listings - what’s not to love?
Is Instagram killing our creativity? by Fiona McKenzie Johnston
Something I think about A LOT. I find scrolling can be so fruitful, giving me so many ideas for the house or things to bake and make. I also find myself a slave to my saved folder - time I could surely use on actually accomplishing said creative pursuits, maybe writing a book or crocheting a blanket - and unsure whether I even have my own taste or know what I like without first consulting strangers on the internet. Thoughts?