Trashfuture live

It has been ten years (!!) since I last wrote about podcasts which, given how much time I spend listening to them, is probably a mistake.

My regular walks, c20km a day on average, are spent listening to them or to BBC radio drama and I subscribe to podcast on news, science, comedy, politics, drama, technology and design. At any one time I generally have about thirty waiting to be listened to.

I got into Trashfuture both of whom are paid subscribers; I am not and I just get the weekly free episode. 

Trashfuture calls itself a "podcast about business success and making yourself smarter with the continued psychic trauma of capitalism", which it is. The format is a team discussion on current affairs that skilfully and entertainingly combines an intelligent and knowledgeable analysis of the failings of capitalism with some decent jokes; the adage a spoonful of sugar comes to mind.

Occasionally the Trashfuture do live shows and when one coincided with a son's birthday it was quickly agreed rhat the whole family would attend.

Being a family meeting meant going for a walk, Rower Bridge to Waterloo, and being a birthday meant going to Pizza Express.

Our progress towards Between The Bridges on Southbank was hampered by some event connected with Albania's independence day which is one reason that we were sat towards the back of a packed marquee. I did have time to buy a decent beer for a not frighteningly expensive £7.2.

I had been to many recordings of TV and radio shows and was interested to see how a podcast would differ. As expected from listening to the show for a while, recording it live made little difference, e.g. there were no retakes and no additional material that would disappear on the cutting room floor. What was different was that the four of them (the fifth was ill) sat in a line across the stage, so that we could see them all which is not the natural arrangement for a discussion and there were times when they spoke over each other a little.

The topic of the discussion was Nadine Doris' new book The Plot. One of the team, Alice, had drawn the short straw and had read it and she took us through both the content and the style with the other responding with analysis and humour. It was very like a normal show and so delivered on my expectations.

They talked for about an hour then the conversation reached a natural end and we all applauded enthusiastically before heading back out into the cold night.

I hope they pick this episode as a free one so that I can listen to it again.