Day: October 30, 2020

There are “big bucks” to be earned from podcasts these days, said Fiona Sturges in the FT – and increasingly it is celebrities with millions of Instagram followers who top the podcast charts. The latest celebs to cash in on the boom are EastEnders actor Danny Dyer and his 21-year-old daughter, the reality TV star Dani. In Sorted with the Dyers, their new advice podcast from Spotify, the pair do little more than “pop to their garden annex, read out some emails and chat about family life”. But here’s the strange thing: it’s great. Danny makes a wonderfully no-nonsense agony uncle, while Dani “plays the soft-hearted foil, expressing love and sympathy for their correspondents, however daft their problems”. You might not “rely on them if your life was falling apart”, but the Dyers are warm and funny, and they make great company.

For something far more serious and expert, try the psychotherapist Philippa Perry’s Families in Crisis from Audible, said James Marriott in The Times. I came to it having just read Perry’s “brilliant” graphic novel about a kleptomaniac barrister in therapy, and was hoping to find her podcast just as “comfortably diverting”. But while it is certainly gripping, it is not at all comfortable. The episodes I listened to tackled anorexia, heroin addiction, alcoholism and the challenges involved in adopting traumatised children. “At times I found myself scrabbling to hit pause because it was all getting too horrible.” But when I could “bear to listen, I was thoroughly compelled”. My tip: if you “can’t take too much horrible”, listen to the anorexia and adoption episodes first. “Both offer glimmers of hope.”

In a year that has presented great challenges and stresses for many of us, sometimes all you want from a podcast is light relief and silliness, said Hannah Verdier in The Guardian. French & Saunders: Titting About provides both those things in spades. It’s a funny, mischievous, uplifting podcast from Audible that Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders bill as “two fat old women using strong language and adult content”. In it, the comic duo chat about topics ranging from sex education to the seven deadly sins. I found listening to them discuss such inconsequential subjects as organising their diaries or “trying to blag double school dinners” to be “a joy”. And the finale, in which they “imagine creating a parody of Fleabag and Killing Eve with Kathy Burke, should be a new show in itself”.

Also recommended is Timeghost, in which comedians Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller pose as “cultural commentators” Martin Bain-Jones and Craig Children, giving their “buttoned-up take on the hot topics of the moment”.

The Week Unwrapped podcast: TikTok tills, crypto banks and green cash

Are social purchases too easy? Is Bitcoin joining the mainstream? And can David Attenborough get us to invest in the environment? Olly Mann and The Week delve behind the headlines and debate what really matters from the past seven days.

This week kicked off with news that Boris Johnson is planning another climbdown over free school meals, adding to the ever-expanding list of government U-turns.

After Manchester United star Marcus Rashford again whipped up public support for the scheme, Downing Street insiders said that the prime minister is looking to boost its funding over the Christmas period.

On the opposition benches, infighting has exploded in the Labour Party following the publication of the much-anticipated Equality and Human Rights Commission report into anti-Semitism.

Ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was suspended from the party after rejecting the report’s findings, which said that the party broke equality laws and was responsible for anti-Semitic discrimination under his leadership.

To find out how closely you’ve been paying attention to the latest developments in global events, put your knowledge to the test with our Quiz of The Week:

Need a reminder of some of the other headlines over the past seven days?

In France, Emmanuel Macron provoked the ire of a string of Muslim-majority countries following his response to a string of terror attacks, including the murder of school teacher Samuel Paty.

The US election campaign also entered its final full week, with Joe Biden still leading in most national and swing state polls. In an unusual development, one of the Republican’s most promising senators came unstuck during a town hall meeting over the price of soybeans, in a slip that could help swing the Senate for the Democrats.

Meghan Markle was granted a delay in her privacy trial with The Mail on Sunday. The request was granted after the High Court judge heard “confidential reasons” from Markle’s lawyers as to why it was needed.

And a student embarrassed a number of journalists with a hoax story about former high street favourite Woolworths reopening its doors.

After Jeremy Corbyn yesterday became the first former Labour leader to be suspended from the party in its 130-year history, a full-scale civil war between the party’s left and more moderate members lining up behind Keir Starmer has been set in motion.

Starmer faces a “battle for Labour’s soul” after his former boss had the party whip removed, prompting a battle that one figure on the Labour left told The Times will “consume the leader for the next four years”.

Len McClusky, a close Corbyn ally and general secretary of the party’s biggest donor Unite, described Corbyn’s suspension as a “grave injustice”, warning Starmer that “a split party will be doomed to defeat” at the next general election.

Rumours of a split in the party emerged almost immediately, with Corbyn urging his supporters to stay put, The Guardian says. Corbyn told his backers to “stay in the party and argue the case for economic and social justice”, the paper adds, while John McDonnell, the ex-shadow chancellor, called for the Labour left to “stay calm”.

Corbyn has quite an “army behind him” and has “amassed a war chest of £350,000” which he could use to take legal action against the party, The Telegraph reports.

Meanwhile, Momentum, the pro-Corbyn campaign group, announced that it is to hold a “Stand with Corbyn” online rally this evening, saying “the suspension of Jeremy Corbyn by the Labour Party leadership is a naked attack on the left that undermines the fight against anti-Semitism”.

However, while members of the party have erupted in anger at the decision, a snap YouGov poll reveals support for the suspension among the general public and Labour members. A total of 58% of respondents said the suspension was justified, with only one in eight (13%) saying it was wrong.

Among Labour members, 41% backed removing the whip, while 26% said they disagreed with the move. Across Conservative and Liberal Democrat voters, there was overwhelming support for suspending the ex-leader.

Starmer campaigned on a pledge to bring unity back into the party ranks, but the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg says this could be quite a task after Corbyn’s comments.

“Corbyn’s forced exit once again exposes the divides in the party that Sir Keir promised to bring together,” she said. “The scars from Labour’s years of infighting are still fresh, and prone to tear.”

Olly Mann and The Week delve behind the headlines and debate what really matters from the past seven days.

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In this week’s episode, we discuss:

TikTok purchases

The social video platform TikTok is teaming up with the Canadia payment company Shopify to create ads with built-in online stores, making it easy – perhaps too easy – for app users to spend their money. Or, given the youth of the TikTok user base, to spend their parents’ money.

Crypto gets a job

In two cryptocurrency-related stories, Paypal that users will be able to buy Bitcoin on its platform – although not to use it directly in purchases – and the investment bank JPMorgan said its own digital currency, JPM Coin is now being used commercially by a big client for the first time. Both developments seem like a step into the mainstream for digital currencies – but both come with heavy caveats.

Green investments

The “Attenborough effect” has reached the world of personal finance, where it is reportedly driving a significant increase in interest in environmentally responsible investments. The asset manager Liontrust, for example, said its sustainable funds had trebled from £2.5bn to £7.5bn since 2017. And it’s not just about doing good: financial advisers say environmentally responsible companies are more likely to be resilient and could have better prospects for long-term growth.

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