Podcast Club – Part Two

As mentioned in my previous post, Podcast Club, true crime podcast Casefile is all the rage. In my head anyway. I did however mention the one other true crime podcast that has captured my attention, and that is Crime Junkie.

Crime Junkie was found by me in a desperate attempt to get my true crime fix when I brought myself completely up to date on years worth of Casefile episodes in a short month, and craved more stories. In my desperation, I became a Crime Junkie.

The show is two friends who love true crime stories. Run by Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat, their gimmick is two long-time friends telling each other a true crime story, interjected with questions and gasps, just as if you were there having a coffee with them.

I was slow to start, but didn’t hate it from the first listen, which I have most other highly recommended podcasts due to either their formatting, presenter or presentation. Ashley does most of the presenting, with Brit coming in with questions to further the story. While sometimes you can call out the obvious scripting, and of course most of it would be scripted for the show, it’s endearing to hear the two go over how awful the police or the public had been for certain cases.

Their focus remains largely American, but due to this there’s only been a couple of crimes overlapped by the Australian Casefile show.

Another plus that this podcast holds is the regular tips for keeping yourself out of bad situations. Regular catch phrases pop up, as well as their recommended “If I Go Missing” folder, a list of accounts and passwords of things usually tied up in the waiting game of warrant and information requests the police would ask for should you go missing.

It’s a really unusual format, but I’ve stuck with them and am almost entirely up to date. It’s definitely not something for everyone, and is really, really different from how Casefile is presented, but is a good option at the other end of how you’d like your dose of true crime.

Be Weird. Be Rude. Stay Alive.

A thick winter scarf completed mostly during my listening of Crime Junkie.

Regards,

Alex

Have a listen on Spotify, and most other major podcast hosts, including Patreon.

Podcast Club

I’m not usually a fan of the Australian accent. Overall, something about it just grates me. I have family in Australia, whose accents go mostly unnoticed to me due to years of conversation, but mostly I just can’t stand the twang of it all.

In saying that, you may be surprised to know that my favourite podcast is hosted by an Australian presenter. I found Casefile on recommendation from a good friend, who also happens to be the one who taught me to knit. I was seeking to try a true crime podcast, and to keep myself busy while I knit away my weekends.

I actually think being Australian based is working in this podcasts favour. When I was sampling a few other true crime podcasts, most of the episodes stuck to their homes’ area. Casefile does post a fair amount of Australian crime, but also a large number from all around the world.

It has a great story-telling theme to it, following the events in a chronological order with a great sample of different types of crime. Robberies, murder, serial killers, bombers, as well as mass-shooting. It also keeps the mystery alive, occasionally following a more theatrical way of telling the facts by keeping the culprit out of the obvious for a while. There is also a healthy mix of solved and unsolved crime, including a scattering of updates on previously unsolved episodes.

Casefile is, to me, my flagship podcast, and is definitely the podcast that sold me on podcasts being a good thing. It led to me finding a bunch of Roman history podcasts, one (only one) other true crime podcast in a completely different format that I’m keen on (post to follow) and a great series by How Stuff Works under their Stuff To Blow Your Mind banner, Black Holes. The link will take you to episode 1 of 3, and it’s a great series on the basics of the black holes.

A baby blanket knitted mostly while listening to Casefile.

Regards,

Alex

Listen to Casefile on Casefile Website, Stitcher, Spotify, or most other podcast platforms.

A Podcast and a Book Club

While I’ve been away, I’ve started knitting. It’s just basic things at the moment, but it’s keeping the fingers nimble and is distracting from the big black dog that sits in the corner.

I’ve found a few podcasts that keep my brain very well occupied. The first one I’ll talk about is The History of Rome (Spotify Link).

As we all know from my blog posts around Europe, I am a huge fan of Rome. I studied the history in high school Classics, and went on to University continuing papers in Ancient Roman and Greek History. The episodes are on average 20 minutes long, and while short and sweet, are in depth enough at 179 episodes that you feel like you get a really good picture of Rome. Their history puts their arrogance on display, but for a kingdom that ruled for 2000 years across multiple era, why wouldn’t they be arrogant?

I was also recommended a book to read while I’ve been away. It’s called First, We Make the Beast Beautiful. It’s a story about anxiety, and the writer, Sarah Wilson’s, journey through it. At first it was interesting to me, and I got about halfway through. Of course, having a gorgeous book to read required I make a bookmark for it, so off on a cross-stitch adventure I went. I do believe the cross-stitch was what I enjoyed most about reading the book, and I returned it half read.

It was a a book that held some really important wisdom and I did enjoy the first half, but I just stopped reading it and couldn’t bring myself to pick it up again. In some weird way it felt like I already knew the rest of the book and had gotten from it as much as I would. That doesn’t make sense, considering I’ve no idea what’s in that second, unread half. I suppose it made sense to me.

I’m now using my bookmark in another borrowed book, Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness. Peter Godfrey-Smith, a philosopher of science, explores the origin of consciousness and how it seems to have appeared in ourselves, and in other creatures separated by billions of years on the evolutionary chain. I love octopodes, which is probably the main reason I started reading this book, but it’s turned out to be really interesting overall and I’m looking forward to finishing it.

Another book that is soon to be on my borrowed shelf is The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. I’m looking greatly forward to reading this, as a lot of my depression isn’t so much about caring too much – but pretending not to be bothered by things that do really bother me. Maybe this will help me actually not be bothered, maybe it’ll help me cope with being bothered, and maybe it will do nothing but be entertaining, and that’s okay too.

I have a lot of poetry saved to my Amazon wish list, which I haven’t read any of in years and am keen to get back into.

On that note, I’ll leave you with my all-time favourite poem. Why is this my favourite? I don’t know. It just is.

Regards,
Alex

Stealing – Carol Ann Duffy

The most unusual thing I ever stole? A snowman.
Midnight. He looked magnificent; a tall, white mute
beneath the winter moon. I wanted him, a mate
with a mind as cold as the slice of ice
within my own brain. I started with the head.

Better off dead than giving in, not taking
what you want. He weighed a ton; his torso,
frozen stiff, hugged to my chest, a fierce chill
piercing my gut. Part of the thrill was knowing
that children would cry in the morning. Life’s tough.

Sometimes I steal things I don’t need. I joy-ride cars
to nowhere, break into houses just to have a look.
I’m a mucky ghost, leave a mess, maybe pinch a camera.
I watch my gloved hand twisting the doorknob.
A stranger’s bedroom. Mirrors. I sigh like this – Aah.
It took some time. Reassembled in the yard,
he didn’t look the same. I took a run
and booted him. Again. Again. My breath ripped out
in rags. It seems daft now. Then I was standing
alone among lumps of snow, sick of the world.

Boredom. Mostly I’m so bored I could eat myself.
One time, I stole a guitar and thought I might
learn to play. I nicked a bust of Shakespeare once,
flogged it, but the snowman was the strangest.
You don’t understand a word I’m saying, do you?