Speechification

Radio 3’s The Essay is such a strong strand we seem to find ourselves posting a lot of it, but this tale is so fascinating and so entertainingly told, it demands inclusion. Stuart Clark recalls The Great Solar Storm of 1859, its effects on its observers, and on the nascent Scientists of the day, illuminating the heavens, and our understanding of them. [MP3]

Clark, in case you didn’t know (I didn’t) is an astronomy journalist, and the essay is based on his book The Sun Kings

A little snippet from Today: “Can Gandhi calm down commuters? David Sillito reports on why the words of the Indian leader - as well as Einstein, Jean Paul Sartre and other great thinkers - are to be included in service announcements on the London Underground. Comedian Arthur Smith says a good announcement can somehow bring people together on public transport.” His own suggestions, of course, trump Jeremy Deller’s… [MP3]

“A bit of a documentary, a bit of a panel game, and a lot of archive: if it was an animal it would be a platypus.” That’s how Sir David Attenborough describes this little oddity (although he could be describing Radio 4 itself). If you like this, you should check out ‘Beardyman And The Mimics‘ for more animal-noise action.

David Attenborough hosts a celebration of bird impersonator Percy Edwards, who enjoyed a 70-year career impersonating birds and beasts. The programme combines the strange story of Percy’s life with archive of his impersonations, interviews with those who knew him and a quiz. Guests include Bill Oddie and the comedian Alex Horne.

Thanks to Matt for the tip. [MP3]

If you’re interested in work or life or mixing the two in the way most are obliged to these days, you’ll like this. One of Radio 3’s almost-always excellent five-part series of The Essay, this one presented by Professor Hugh Cunningham. It’s about the ‘work-life balance‘ but Cunningham doesn’t waste any time explaining how contingent the phrase is and how recently it is that we were concerned more with ‘leisure’ than wih ‘life’. This is episode one of five.

In 1929 the Rockefeller Institute published a scientific study of a “typical American city.” Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture took an intimate look at church, school, family and work in Muncie, Indiana. Never intended to be generalised, Muncie nevertheless became a symbol of “average” or “real” America - and one of the most studied places on Earth.

In Hard Times in Middletown Stephen Smith reports from Muncie on how the economic crisis is affecting the people who defined the American middle class - and finds that many are struggling. None more so, perhaps, than Ashley, whose run of bad luck assumes almost unbelievably horrific proportions during recording.

There’s more info on Roy and Ashley, and many of the others, at American Radio Works, from where the original programme was sourced.

Crossing Continents episodes are available as an official podcast, but I didn’t want anyone to miss this, so am reposting here. [MP3]

Last Word is almost always a treat, and particularly when they have such good material. Here’s an extracted eight minutes on Clement Freud, writer, journalist, MP, gambler, father, husband, and, definitely not least, star of Radio 4. [MP3]

Annotation: Clement Freud’s funniest joke, courtesy of the Telegraph/BoingBoing.

I have a weakness for people talking fondly and appreciatively about their craft, and this Tommy Cooper doc is full of them, with the added bonus that they’re all either comedians or magicians. Barry Cryer’s appreciation is particularly telling: “That chaos was totally professional.” [MP3]

To celebrate 50 years of the Antarctic Treaty, Tom Heap reports on the unique agreement that has kept the southernmost continent not only free of conflict and exploitation, but made it a model of scientific practice and co-operation. [MP3]

A disturbing little tale from the disturbingly recent past. In the 1960s and 1970s Dr William Sargant developed the controversial Deep Sleep Treatment in the Sleep Room of St Thomas’s Hospital in London. James Maw talks to some of those who worked under Sargant in the late-1960s and to some of his former patients, who all say that they are still suffering from his treatment to this day. Visions of Cyphermen come to mind, but it’s a bit more serious and sad than that. [MP3]

For Radio 2, Stephen Fry looks at how Hitler’s Germany pioneered many - if not most - of the recording techniques that made later music possible. This, the second episode, covers the Rock’n'Roll years and tells how the multi-track recording process changed the face of music production forever. [MP3]