Hi all,
1.I think I’ve written about the podcast called ‘The Rest is Politics’ before. It’s a podcast which covers global political affairs (with an emphasis on the UK and US usually) and is presented by Alistair Campbell (former Blair spin doctor) and Rory Stewart (former Conservative minister). The core podcast itself is excellent, but they also run a spinoff called ‘Leading’ which is an in-depth interview with an individual politician where they dig into areas like their past and what got them to where they are, but most of it covers their political philosophy and what that means for the way they lead. They’ve had the likes of Angela Merkel and are soon to have Anthony Albanese (the present Australian prime minister who is currently fighting a general election) but they also have others like Peter Kyle (the UK Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology) and Tom Fletcher (a former UK ambassador and now the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator at the UN) who many of you will never have heard of, but who are fascinating. The interview tend to be over an hour and very well worth your time.
2.For some time now, I’ve been watching a show called Hacks. Its currently on its fourth season, and it follows a comedian, Deborah Vance, who initially needs to reinvent her aging act to avoid losing her residency at the Palmetto Casino in Las Vegas, so she’s persuaded to hire a young writer to make her material more relevant. Initially the two don’t get on, but together they become greater than the sum of their parts. It’s an original plot with sharp dialogue and very funny (given the core premise of the series) and whilst the two protaganists are excellent, there is an ensemble cast who provide a wide range of sub plots and are strong characters in their own right. Highly recommended.
3.I’m surprised I’ve not mentioned the Financial Times app before but I can’t find a mention in my archives so here goes. I’m sure you’re all familiar with the pink paper and while it certainly has the financial emphasis you’d expect, it has become my main source of daily news and not just because it has covers a wide range of topics beyond just finance. The app itself is the best news app I know. Of course, it has the usual feature of choosing your favourite topics to produce a personal feed, but a better feature is an ability to follow a specific journalist and it highlights when they publish using a bar at the top of the screen. Perhaps it’s best feature though is that all of their articles can be listened to in the car or on a dog walk because they use an AI voice to read them out. That means I can bookmark my favourite articles on a daily basis and listen to them during the day or week. They allow 20 article shares a month which seems to be enough for me. Writers like Janan Ganesh, Gillian Tett and John Thornhill are worth the subscription alone. Keep an eye out for one of their promotions and try it out.
Look after yourself,
Ben