Round and Round the Garden with a Podcast or Two

Every morning, for some time, I walk round and round the garden like the proverbial teddy

Fırın sűtlaç and ice cream, chocolate and chestnut

bear. In fact I may be starting to look like one, hair needs cuttiing and my cuddly format is returning due to cakes and rice puddings (the Turks know how to cook a rice pudding, the fırın sűtlaç, nicely browned on the top), ice cream and other puddings not to mention syrup soaked revani and baklava. The best baklava local to here comes from Dalaman Prison, now there’s a place worth a mention later. I digress it was food again, sorry.

As I walk round the garden I need something to listen to, although there are plenty of beautiful

flowers and if I’m lucky early on in the morning a pair or one of a pair for Blue Jays chatter at me from the wires up above. There is a limit to this excitement. I can climb over the fence to next door because no one is there and I might only meet a handyman (they are known as gardeners, I think my 6 year old granddaughter knows more about gardening than they do) there, but that’s unusual at the time I’m out.

I started off listening to the audiobook of Shelle Rose Charvet’s most recent version of Works that Change Minds. It’s a very good read or listen and gives far more information than the previous versions. I had almost finished that before shielding started then I listened to an Ann Cleeves book that I downloaded by mistake I enjoyed it but though I could have read it faster.

I moved onto TED Talks. Since last summer I’ve moved across to Android again after many years and here in Turkey I have a Samsung J4. What that old thing I hear you cry! Well I had to have a Turkish registered mobile, registering your UK phone is complex and may not happen even when you have paid for registration and you could end up with a blocked UK phone and SIM card. It’s easier to use a Turkish phone. I had a Huawei at one point but there’s a screen problem with these if they break here and they cost a great deal to replace over here as that is regarded as an import, in a different manner to Samsung.

Anyway TED Talks, they were easier to download on my podcast app and. I listened to many interesting podcasts, possibly the most interesting of which was one by a Turkish man, Hamdi Ulukaya who set up the USA’s most successful yoghurt company. Brilliant account of what he did and how he did it. See Wikipedia here  and Chobani Yoghurt here I find what happened totally fascinating as is his concept. This and a later TED Talk also inspired me to buy, but I haven't read it, yet -Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist by Kate Raworth,

I listened to many different TED Talks but I hate to say this I became tired of American voices. I moved onto a German podcast, very briefly by a German woman in her 70s who had ‘found herself’ at over 60 years old. She came across too patronising for me.

In between somewhere I found Lesley Riddoch again. I sat next to Lesley at a Highland Businesswomen’s Dinner many years ago. In fact at the time I was living in Caithness.

I came across the podcast through our local MSP in Moray Richard Lochhead, a man who works hard for his constituents if I ever met one. Richard mentioned Lesley’s podcast on Facebook, where I follow him. This is politics from a Scottish perspective, interesting and pertinent if you live in Scotland and/or want to know more Scottish politics click here  I do love the new logo showing Lesley and Pat Joyce her co-presenter. Just this last week the sound problems have been sorted, but I salute anyone who manages a podcast with more than one person in the current climate.

The other one I really like is very new – Grounded with Louis Theroux  I’ve never been quite sure about Louis Theroux, but what peaked my interest was seeing that Boy George and Lenny Henry were coming up. I haven’t been disappointed. I’ve learned more about Theroux and his motivations and permission to himself, about his background and Helen Bonham-Carter was, for me, a true revelation.

Boy George has always fascinated me from him being my then pre-teenage daughter’s idol (well one of them), through to things he has endured, to his recovery and renaissance now. Lenny Henry similarly has fascinated me and I did see him on stage once, when he asked some members of the audience politely, to leave if they insisted on being racist. That interview revealed Theroux is one of those people in the UK who believe there is no longer racism in the UK. When Lenny Henry told him he was wrong, Theroux maintained it must be covert. Henry was clear that it is not. I would invite Theroux to meet my grandsons and talk to them and their mother on that point. Theroux’s most recent interview (at the time I write) was with Rose McGowan. Me having had my brain somewhere else for a while didn’t know who she was to start with. After listening I felt embarrassed, luckily the bougainvilleas, roses, apricot trees and early morning birds didn’t notice.  Sorry. And here I learned some fascinating facts about Theroux’s early life, the Bonham-Carter interview provided us with one insight, but this interview went back even further.

Theroux’s first interview with Jon Ronson is also very interesting and reveals much about Theroux. I’ve changed my opinion of him and understand more about why he searches out the people he does.

Are you listening to podcasts? Which ones? Do let me know.