My Perfect Podcast: Eleanor Morton
In this column, we ask a pod person about the ‘casts that mean a lot to them. This time around it’s Eleanor Morton who records a podcast with fellow comic Alasdair Beckett-King. Their own blurb can’t be bettered so here it is in full: ‘Two red-headed comedians revisit classic kids’ books. Will our childhood treasures stand the test of time? Or will we be forced to make fun of them on a podcast?’ See? Just perfect. Now let the Q&A commence…
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Which podcast educates you? Assume Nothing on BBC Sounds has so many great stories from Northern Ireland, including a fascinating series on a cult in Donegal and miscarriages of justice during The Troubles. Then I love After Dark and Betwixt The Sheets on the History Hit network, about unusual and morbid historical stories which are a perfect blend of funny and informative. And Cautionary Tales by Tim Harford is brilliant. He takes stories from history and explores what they teach us about human behaviour. I’m so jealous of people who haven’t already listened to them all.
Which podcast makes you laugh? The Last Podcast On The Left. It features three comedians talking about paranormal cases, UFOs, cults and serial killers, but it’s really well researched and they all balance each other so well. I like dark humour, especially when it comes to true crime because I think too often killers are given this status as evil geniuses, when in fact they are most often pathetic weirdos who only got away with their crimes because of police failings. This podcast demystifies them. And then the paranormal stuff is just very funny. Plus, they have historical deep dives into things like The Great Molasses Flood and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Which podcast makes you sad or angry? Swindled is a fantastically funny and dry series all about con artists and scammers, covering everything from Ponzi schemes to big company cover ups to compulsive liars. There are so many sad stories about justice not being served or ongoing repercussions for victims of these scams that still haven’t been dealt with. I recommend the episode ‘The Crusader’, all about Nicholas Alahverdian who was involved in a big court case here in Scotland recently, where he was on the run from justice in the US, disguised as an ‘Irish orphan’ called Arthur Knight. The longer you listen the weirder it gets.
Which podcast is your guilty pleasure? I don’t know about guilty pleasure but any true crime podcast always makes me feel like I’m rubbernecking a bit, even if they’re really well done. There’s one that’s just an Australian man reading out grim stories in a grim voice and after a while I think, ‘hmmm, probably enough of that today’. But even then I would say it’s a great podcast, very sensitive to its subjects.
Tell us someone who currently doesn’t have a podcast but totally should. And why do you think their one would be amazing? Myself, Esyllt Sears and Mary Flanigan definitely should have one. We do the game show 8 Out Of 10 Celts (still waiting on a cease and desist from C4) where we each represent our Celtic nation and compete to be the best one. I think we’ve got great chat, if I do say so myself, and Celts in podcast form really would be so much fun.
Pitch us a new podcast idea in exactly 25 words. ‘Doctor, Doctor’. Each episode I interview a medical doctor and someone with a PhD about their areas of expertise and we all leave feeling smarter.
New monthly episodes of Eleanor & Alasdair Read That are available in all the usual places; Eleanor Morton’s Edinburgh Fringe show The Mermaid is at Monkey Barrel Cabaret Voltaire, Thursday 6–Sunday 30 August.