Menowercogitatus; Tickling The Little Greys

Time for another podcast post. I suspect you will all have surmised by now that I am partial to reading/listening to things that will make my brain work. The intellect is a tool that can be honed, stretched, moulded and challenged. It does not always have to be a forensic enquiry, history, or current affairs situation. It's okay to have a bit of lighter entertainment without necessarily 'dumbing down'. That is why I quite enjoy the distraction of foodie podcasts. 

Podcasts such as Comfort Eating with Grace Dent...

...or Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster.

Both have a silliness about them, but also a degree of pathos and a lot of deep and meaningful about the importance of food in life and community/society. And then there is Empire Of Tea with Sathnam Sanghera. (It's a BBC podcast; I hope it is available for all, but maybe a search on your chosen streamer will bring it to you.)

And sport. Sport is distracting, right? I am following a series just now for the cycling enthusiasts among you - and I know I have several readers who fall into this category! Ghost In The Machine looks at the case of "motor doping" and the one and only person who, thus far, has been caught and banned from riding.

Then, reverting to type, we have Legacy with Peter Frankopan and Afua Hirsch in a somewhat more intellectual, exegetical series that has recently been launched.

This pair of presenters, both good in their own right, are not quite as slick and easy together as William Dalrymple and Anita Anand on Empire, and the show does feel rather more scripted... but this may simply be due to the nature of the approach being taken.

Legacy takes a long, deep look at some key historical figures through the lens of modern mores. This subject is very much to the fore these days, as in many corners, there is the discussion on maintaining historical accuracy versus interpretation and 'sanitisation'. So far, the three characters explored have been Napoleon, Rhodes, and Picasso, and just starting is the series on Gorbachev.

That's the lot for this quarter's roundup of listenings!