As printed in the Weekend section of The Tribune on March 6. http://www.tribune242.com/photos/galleries/sets/weekend/
Black Girls Talking
READER, I have failed you.
As a reviewer, I always strive to carry
on until the bitter end. After all, the subject of the review might
be brilliant in the last ten minutes, right?
Alas, I tried. I tried very hard. But
after half an hour of the Black Girls Talking podcast, I could not
carry on. There's really only so much one can take of gossip about
the latest Twitter row featuring Kardashians, Kanye, Amber... there
was a tiger in there too – no, wait, a Tyga?
Black Girls Talking bills itself as
four black women discussing pop culture, representation of people of
colour and... stuff, really. It feels very much like the kind of
gossip you'd hear from friends over a few cocktails, and seems all
very genuine. Believe me, I'm all in for the cocktails, but after 30
non-stop minutes of reading out celeb-war tweets, I felt the urge for
something stronger.
Website: www.blackgirlstalking.com
Stuff You Missed In History
Now here's a website with an admirable
goal. Picking out people or events through history that perhaps might
be undiscovered by the listener, hosts Tracy Wilson and Holly Frey
pick their way through time to shine a spotlight on the neglected.
The two podcasts I tried out were connected, both about major civil
rights cases in the US – one focusing on Plessey v Ferguson, the
second on Brown v Board. As they say in the podcast, for many people
these cases may be regarded as important – but the details remain
vague. And so the hosts seek to show the human side of those cases.
The first, Plessey v Ferguson, was a
landmark decision upholding the constitutionality of state laws
requiring segregation under the doctrine of “separate but equal”.
The focus of this became a man named Homer Plessey, who was not
allowed to sit in the “white” car of a train – but there was no
other car to sit in, despite the supposed requirement for equal
facilities to be available. The consequences of the ruling are
discussed in detail – and the knock-on effects led to the Brown v
Board case, which pulled down the laws allowing segregated schools in
the US.
The hosts are knowledgeable and pick
out major points of the cases – but sometimes, it has to be said,
it sounds like they're reading from a script and not really engaging
with it. Too many adverts, too, interrupt the flow. Still, that pays
their bills.
Website: www.missedinhistory.com
The New Yorker podcasts
Lastly, a publication that needs no
introduction – but perhaps you might not know of their regular
Fiction podcast. In it, a short story is first discussed by the host
and the guest choosing a short story, and then the short story is
read and subsequently analysed. It's all very elegant, all very
well-produced, as you might expect, and very much the kind of
relaxing fare that might serve as background sound while cooking
dinner. Fairly short, but very sweet. The most recent episode
features Israeli writer Etgar Keret selecting and reading a piece
published in the 1980s in the New Yorker, written by Donald
Barthelme. There's clearly love and reverence for writing on show,
and all the better for that.
Website: www.newyorker.com
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