finlaymagui.re

Podcasts

National Public Radio (NPR)

• '’This American Life’’ random real stories / journalism about massive range of things.

• '’Radiolab’’ about various scientific events with nice/sometimes a bit experimental production.

• '’99% Invisible’’ - about how design/architectural choices underlies various things we don’t notice around us.

• '’CarTalk’’ 2 wise-cracking brothers talking about cars with people phoning in with their car problems - sounds shit but is surprisingly entertaining and easy listening.

• Other people have also recommended ‘‘Freakonomics’’, ‘‘Hardcore Histories’’ and ‘‘My Dad Wrote a Porno’’.

BBC

• '’Infinite Monkey Cage’’ is great too if you haven’t finished everything on BBC (comedic panel show about a scientific topic).

Audiobooks

Fiction

• '’Dresden Files’’ by Jim Butcher - first one is “Storm Front” - amusing wisecracking urban fantasty wizard/detective. They get a lot better as the series goes on too (in my opinion)

• '’The Martian’’ by Andy Weir was a really good audiobook too (better than the film).

• I’m also a fan of the Ian Rankin’s ‘‘Detective Rebus’’ audiobooks.

• Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

• Iain M. Banks’ ‘‘Culture’’ series.

• '’Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrel’’ by Susanna Clarke audiobook.

Non-fiction

• '’Emperor of All Maladies’’ by Siddhartha Mukherjee is a super interesting summary of the history and treatment of cancer.

• '’The Dead Hand’’ by David Hoffman - looks at cold-war weapons of mass destruction and their regulation/control etc, kinda terrifying.

• '’Under the Banner of Heaven’’ by John Krakauer - really good history of the mormon church interspersed with stories about fundamentalist off-shoots.

• '’Tom’s River’’ by Dan Fagin - about the pollution of a river by a chemical plant, it’s impact on the town, cover-ups, investigation of it etc.

• '’Flash Boys’’ by Michael Lewis - about high frequency trading (with varying biases but still interesting)

• '’Confessions of an Economic Hitman’’ by John Perkins - account of a US based economic adviser and the way he was made to manipulate the economies of developing countries.