Johnson and Boswell

I often like to listen to podcasts while I clean the barn in the morning. It's great when I have something I'm interested in, it's frustrating when I need to find something new. The trouble is that I seem to have very narrow parameters as to what I can stand to listen to. I've lost track of the number of podcasts that I have given up on. Usually this is due to one or more factors: they're too formulaic, low production values, hosts who are annoying (ie too impressed with themselves, multiple hosts having conversations as though no one else was listening, etc.), or bad storytelling. I'm pretty picky discerning about what I spend my time listening to. 

Thus it is no small thing when I find a podcast where I want to listen to all the back episodes. My new favorite? And the Rest is History. I know I'm very late to the party for this as it's been around a very long time and has a huge following, but maybe you're like me and have been unaware of it. I'm very excited to have so many back episodes to work my way through. 

For some reason I cannot explain I chose a four part episode dealing with Samuel Johnson the James Boswell to begin with. I loved the whole thing. It doesn't sound as though it would be particularly riveting subject matter, but it was. It was so interesting I'm seriously considering reading Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson, a book up untill this point I had absolutely no interest in. The hosts are such good storytellers that you can't help but be interested. 

Next I think I'm going to move on to their multi part series on Lord Admiral Nelson. I've come across him in several books recently and realize that I don't know all that much about him or that particular time in history and I want to fill in the gaps. I like filling in gaps; it's very satisfying. 

So if you listen to podcasts, have even a passing interest in history, and haven't listened to this podcast yet, I suggest you give it a shot. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Making bias tape... otherwise known as the Sew, Mama, Sew! Giveaway

Image
( Sorry, the contest is now closed .... though you're welcome to leave a comment if you like.) [This picture has absolutely nothing to do with this post, but is here solely to give Blogger a different photo to post in the thumbnail.] It's Sew, Mama, Sew Giveaway time again.  I love bias tape.  It is so useful and so easy to use... finishing edges ... finishing seams ...  And while the pre-packaged stuff has it's place and I use it often, I really like to have patterned bias tape as well.  Enter one of my favorite little tools: the bias tape maker.  This one make 3/4 inch bias tape and I will be giving one away at the end of this post.  But first, I thought some of you might like to see what it does if you've never used one before. I don't have a rotary cutter, nice cutting mats, or even a proper cutting table (I cut-out things on my floor), so if I can do this, so can you.  Here is my admittedly quirky method. Step 1:  Lay out the fabric an...
Read more

Sew, Mama, Sew! Giveaway

Image
Sew, Mama, Sew! is hosting another giveaway day , the day where many bloggers giveaway things they have made or supplies to make things or both.  It is great fun to visit a lot of blogs and try to win cool stuff.  So fun that I thought I would participate this year. I had great hopes of making a set of coordinating mother/daughter aprons.  But reality reared its ugly head and I came to terms with the fact that my time is not limitless.Instead of aprons,  I must continue to spend quality time with yards and yards of red plaid flannel.  What am I making?  Well, as I tell my children, it is the season not to ask questions... I will be able to let you know sometime after the 25th. Instead of making something, I went to my favorite thrift store and found some supplies in the form of sheets and pillowcases (some of my favorite raw material).  I'm giving away three pillowcases and one twin flat sheet. I decided to go with bright, springy colors...
Read more

The mystery of the missing soap

You all know that I am an avid reader of mysteries, but sometimes we have our own real life mysteries here as well. Take the case of the missing soap. One of our bathrooms upstairs is the children's bathrooms, whose sink is lower than other sinks upstairs. Now, since it is the children's bathroom, it is not always pristine and things cannot always be found when they are needed. Are we the only house where things just randomly vanish, never to be seen again? This happens fairly frequently. Often the items are too big to have been taken by Borrowers , but every human in the house disavows any knowledge of the missing item. As far as they are concerned, they never even knew said item existed, so how could they have taken it? Often Mr. Nobody gets the blame and we move one, the item sometimes resurfacing at a later date and sometimes not. Early last week, when the little girls went upstairs to get ready for bed and found an entire bar of soap missing, it was classed as one of ...
Read more