UKH

The latest one with Al Burgess was amazingly good - it is one of my favourite. 

What's your favourite episode?

Is "episode" the right word for a podcast? What's your favourite stream? Pod? Cast? Offering? Electronic Verbal Ejaculation? 

Anyway - what's your favourite?

I found the Burgess episode quite amusing. Others might not! 

Most memorable for me probably Bob Smith and Dave Cuthbertson

From the top of my head, I really enjoyed:

Taylor Parsons - a really informative and interesting conversation on the experience of a Trans person

Tommy Caldwell - one of the result ones where Niall basically kidnaps him and asks different questions to those he usually gets

Will Bosi - comes across really well, and fascinating to hear from someone who is at the top of his game

Ben Moon - I've long been a fan and found this really interesting

Franco Cookson / Dan Varian beef

Paul Pritchard - amazing guy and incredible stories

Dave Birkett - rare insight of a dark horse

Looking back there's so many, need to give a few a second airing! 

Cubby pt.1&2

They're superb for long drives - Bob Smith while driving through Norfolk sticks in my mind, "Big watch wearing f**ks..." rant (can't remember the interviewee, but the intro had me laughing in a morning traffic jam in Bristol!). Glenn Robbins, Redhead, Ed February and Taylor Parsons as much for the non climbing stuff. I've got 16 hrs in the car over the next week, so the Bosi and Burgess twins pods are lined up.

I reckon Niall, interviewed by Niall would be good and he's one of the few that could pull it off.

My local area is the Wye valley and Gary Gibson has some history there. So it was interesting to learn more about him.

I really enjoyed the Ned Fehally one, remember a long sunset drive home listening to it where the mood of the conversation perfectly matched the setting.

Similarly nice atmosphere on the Jude Spanken one.

Gus reading out, Do the right thing is my fav. Must have listened to it 10 times. 

Climbing dystopia!

Brian Hall was good too. I always think Niall is a better interviewer when he doesn’t personally know the interviewee and/or doesn’t have much personal experience of their discipline of climbing.

Has anyone else heard the coronation special? I have no idea how the hell he managed it, I guess as climbing royalty he has contacts at the palace, I suppose he promised to only let that special crowd of little people, the ones who listen to the whole intro, in on the secret. What a podcast, Charlie has obviously been into adventure sports his whole life, but I should guessed from his hands that he's been into some pretty top class crack for a long time. 

Nick Bullock

Part one of the interview "Hello Al Burgess" was exceptional.

The Beastmaker 5000 story is excellent. Never been into climbing fiction but that really made me chuckle!

Karin Magog - hearing her talk about the climbing in North Wales, Scotland etc helped me get my psyche back

Wasn’t it just!

I listened to that episode whilst walking around Manchester on my lunch break and spent the whole walk in fits of laughter!

I really like the one with Martin Boysen

Lots of memorable interviews, eg Dawes/Dixon, Anna Taylor, Martin Boysen, Paul Pritchard. Of the non-interview bits, his "motivational training tape" was pretty good.

yes! the motivational training tape was excellent - do you remember which one that was from? i have tried and failed to re-find it

Is it Mark Leach referee he starts with an "interview" with Adam Ondra? Howling with laughter at that sketch 😄

For some reason I didn't really get on with the burgess one. I found it more like a lecture, didn't feel as much like a conversation as some of the other ones. 

Will Bosi was fantastic. 

Oh wow! Nice to hear people enjoying them

The climbing world will be a poorer place if you get another job

It's in the intro to the Martin Boysen one, episode 15.

Niall, thanks for the consistently brilliant podcast!

What's your favourite episode?

Ha loads. Glenn, Taylor, john allen, Judith, Dean fidelman ( not out yet)

I have been trying to think about what my favourite is and I actually can't there are so many.

The Gary Gibson and John Redhead are particularly good examples of the way characters that do get kind of lost as climbing becomes more mainstream but still made a huge contribution.

I was never sure about the stories but actually they mix it up and change the rhythm really nicely.

I listened to the one about Red Rocks twice by accident and liked it even more the second time. The Beastmaker 5000 was perfectly timed for lockdown but then the image of delivering that to an audience at a Working Men's club in Preston just took it to another level, a kind of tragical realism.

The fact that Niall seems to be reading the thread just gives me a chance to say thanks. Its an amazing insight into sport and a community that has changed so much and there is so much in the series that could have easily dropped out of history for everyone other than the people who remembered the individuals who told their stories. As someone else said we would all be poorer without it.

This is when I think it comes into its own - Jazz podcasting. 

I also enjoy the persona he creates of a benevolent god blessing the little people with his time / wisdom - so funny. 

Ditto this.

Ah hey thank you for the +ve vibes everyone. They are fun to do and glad you enjoy xx

Toppest climbing podcast around. Better than the enormo for sure.

There's been a few classic episodes, but John Redhead talking about digging out for a shit pipe on his property was certainly a highlight - the guy is a masterful piss taker.

Recent highlights: Dan Varian and Franco Cookson back to back, Chris Doyle, Paul Pritchard (NDE), Martin Boysen. Unexpected bonus was Brian Hall, a world I don't have much insight into. Wil Bosi and super timely. Dixon/Dawes double act.

I've just realised how male that list is!

Also Joe Healey and Glenn Robbins. And ‘hands delved boldly into the rectum of the rock’ from You’ve been Popped.

Thanks to the OP, I'd forgotten about the Jamcrack podcast, I'd only listened to one a few years ago and only because it was with a friend.

I'm working my way through them and really enjoying them, especially the first Burgess one you rascal. Just finished the John Long one while doing braindead garden work.

The Cubby ones were my favourite so far but I know, knew or know of most of the characters and stories. Enjoyed the Bob Smith one and really looking forward to Andy Parkin, Sean Villanueva O'Driscoll, Nick Bullock, Andy Cave, Zippy and Franco.

Keep it going. 

I listen a lot less these days as they've got a bit long, I'm afraid.  An hour is the longest I'm interested in for a podcast.

The otherwise rather good engineering podcast "Well There's Your Problem" has fallen into this similar trap, so I hardly ever listen to that any more either.

Not to sound sarcastic, but why not just listen to it in 2 parts? I often work my way through one over the course of a few days. 

It's an interesting point, but just as I don't like TV serials, preferring movies or standalone-episode series*, I don't really like to do that.  I can't really justify it, it's just a personal preference.  Kind of like I lose the thread a bit and don't get back into it properly.

I just tend to find I like to go out for a walk/run for an hour and listen to an entire episode.  It's just a nice period of time.  It's also the amount of time the stopping train to London from Bletchley takes.

* For instance I was very pleased that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds returned to the old standalone 1 hour episode format rather than the US style 6 episode serial.

Fair enough! 

Bernadette MacDonald reading from Winter 8000. Horrific but utterly captivating. Listened to it one sleepless winter’s night. Won’t spoil it other than to say it didn’t help me to get to sleep. Link below:

https://pca.st/episode/684d78b9-ec99-47fa-9978-4d3cbd12fda8

Also found the recent pod with Charlie Torrance a really good listen. Again won’t spoil it, but her grit & determination in the face of extreme personal adversity was both insightful & inspiring. 
 

The readings Helen Mort has done on the pod have been excellent. Natalie Berry reading ‘A Scotsman’s Duty’ also.
 

And the interview with Rose Merret, aged 10 at the time in 2020 I believe, was really joyful. 

That was really good. Gordon Smith used to post on the forums a fair bit. His wit was undiminished. I'm sure that article is on here somewhere.

"The Honour of Being Human" read by Anna Paxton was probably my favourite in recent memory. Played it in the van whilst ferrying the school kids back from Stanage up Winnat's. For a bunch of kids diagnosed with a lot of acronyms, it certainly had them captivated and quiet for half an hour.

The Taylor Parsons pod was excellent. I found her brutal honesty about gender dysphoria, transitioning, the discussion of PEDs in elite sports & her sheer self-reflective honesty was quite something to listen to. 

I really enjoyed the Jerry one,  and Ben Moon