Listens

The best sitcom of all time. John Finnemore’s radio series about ‘an airline for whom no job is too small but many, many jobs are too difficult’.

Irritatingly-titled dive into the surprising roots of ‘Who Let the Dogs Out’.

Malcolm Gladwell on country music, which he professes to loves and I hate. His piece makes me reconsider.

An Chinese mother hires an American surrogate to carry her baby.

Jon Ronson on the culture war. Ignore that though: this piece is excellent and highly affecting.

Damon Krukowski, once of Galaxie 500, does for audio what John Berger did to art.

The New Yorker’s ‘Writer’s Voice’ is dependably excellent. This story lingered on my mind for years.

Who’d have thought going to the moon was so complicated. Perfectly formed pod.

A post-modern, poetic sitcom with canal boats.

As it turns out, the bagged ice industry is bloody interesting.

Hari Kunzru makes an engrossing, opinionated argument. Great précis of Warwick Uni in this one.

A man finds a newborn baby on the New York subway.

David Dimbleby and A-list interviewees on the events that led to the Iraq war.

The search for a song that doesn’t seem to exist. Escalates absurdly.

The unsettling future of low-lying coastal settlements.

Deadpan cast confronts Moby to retrieve a set of CDs.

Based on a Fringe show about straight-to-DVD releases. Just wonderful.

The spectacular Jill Lepore untangles the sci-fi roots of Silicon Valley’s extreme capitalism and bizarre techno-optimism.

Jill Lepore can do no wrong. Axis-power propaganda broadcasts and the rise of doubt.