In the matter of podcasts...
<etymological-note>
(a porte-manteau word that preserves in the aspic of common usage, two words neither of which is relevant and the latter of which never was: iPod and boadcast – a recent guest on Armando Iannucci's Strong Message Here {Stuart Lee?} pointed out the inappropriatemess of 'broadcast' [which podcasts aren't], though the historic nature of the iPod had been bothering me for years. Well, not exactly bothering me – I just noticed it and added it to my mental list of words like 'hang up' or 'tinder-box' or 'fast-forward' or 'the final reel' – expressions that preserve an obsolete technology in current vocabulary.<tangent>
I was once the proud owner of an iPaq (when PDAs – personal digital assistants – were all the rage). This was in the '90s, before Apple had bagsied words with an initial i- and Compaq came late to the PDA market. I wonder how Apple and Compaq came to a peaceful settlement; presumably a Cease and Desist order was issued,
</tangent></etymological-note>
... I am a relative newcomer, in that I have stuck mainly to ones that spun off from BBC radio programmes ...
<parenthesis>
on which subject I was initially sceptical when some time ago (at the beginning of the retirement shenanigans) someone on the BBC described Melvyn Bragg as {≅} 'a pioneer of podcasts at the BBC'.But I see now that he was, provided that the last three words are borne in mind (which this 'AI Overview doesn't do:)
He realized that he could extend a 44 minute program by overflowing into the new medium. Pretty good for 1998, but not really Davy Crockett-like.
</parenthesis>
There are thousands (millions? Anyway, oodles) of non-BBC podcasts. As I wrote here when I first dipped a tentative toe in the misinformation-infested waters ...
<tangent>
I've been listening recently to A Carnival of the Animals – a series of very short (3/4 minutes each) pieces on endangered animals, by Katherine Rundell. She memorably just said words to the effect of 'There's no such thing as "shark-infested waters", just as there's no such thing as "child-infested schools". They belong there.'. [Just saying.]
<etymological-note>
I wonder if Rundell (or her producer) had in mind the theory (that Etymonline dismisses as 'folk etymology) that carnevale (Italian, 'Shrove Tuesday', literally 'farewell to flesh') has something to do with leave-taking. As the series is about the depradations done to the planet during the anthropocene...
<meta-tangent>
{the period when the Earth's systems have been changed by homo sapiens (sapiens? More like homo gastator ['wasteful/spendthrift'], if you ask me, if not homo <shooting-himself-in-the-foot> (my latin's not up to that – auto-pedal-something I suppose). Perhaps homo exmordens-manum-nutrientem ['biting-off-the-hand-that-feeds-him']}
</meta-tangent>
...it seems to me that this farewell thing is a possible explanation, although as the theme music is an extract from the 'Aquarium' movement of the Saint-Saens work, and the series is about animals, perhaps I'm over-thinking it. Over-thinkimg? Moi?
....
</etymological-note></tangent>
...of the podosphere:
<prescript date="Aug. 2021">
One can get sucked in to a black hole of true crime and unsolved mysteries; there is a lot of dross out there. And there are vain attempts at sticking to a format that must have seemed worth sticking to at some stage: a prime example is British Scandal (not BBC so interlarded with toe-curling advertisements): the creators seem to think that scandal means "any-old fairly noteworthy thing that caused a bit of a stir once and involved skulduggery of some kind".
</prescript>
There is a way to avoid these toe-curling ads (made worse by being voiced [sometimes] by the hosts themselves), but it nvolves paying to be a privileged member and getting ad-less podcasts (and other perks). But MrsK and I have just changed power supplier, and as it happens our new supplier is giving away The Rest Is Politics Plus membership. But to get it, you have to click on a TRIP+ link, which we didn't do.
I threw myself on their mercy, and after an initial 'Sorry, too late' they relented. So, for the next year I'll get loads of perks (that I'll never use), but at least I don't have to listen to those HP ads (which, as I said here) underline the pension injustice that I'm not obsessing about, honest.
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