Podcast Corner: Kurt Cobain and Terry Hall feature in new podcasts
Kurt Cobain performing at MTV Unplugged in 1993. Picture: Getty Images
There are many stories that linger after reading Aoife Barry’s Social Capital, a book about the dark side of social media and tech’s grip on Ireland. It begins with influencers - their rise but also the online hate they have to deal with. This is something Going Viral seeks to investigate as well, through interviews with some of the biggest Irish names online. Hosted by Éadaoin Fitzmaurice, it aims to create a space for open, candid, and informative conversations with the people who have made a career within this misunderstood industry.
There are three episodes to date, with Miriam Mullins, the most followed TikToker in the country; fashion content creator Damien Broderick, who grew his account from 40,000 to 1.2m followers in just 90 days; and Ali Ryan, the founder of Goss.ie. It’s not a victory lap for the guests though. For example, the latter, after detailing struggles with bullying at school, talks about the sexism, from men and women, she has faced despite her success, something with which Fitzmaurice instantly relates. “The problem with social media in general is that everyone is getting dehumanised,” opines Ryan.
If Going Viral makes you think twice about what up-and-coming stars of our current era are faced with, the long-running BBC biographical series Great Lives finds guests choosing someone who has inspired their lives. Episodes this year have included comedian Chris McCausland on Kurt Cobain, TV presenter Gillian Burke on Kofi Annan, and last week, Jon Ronson, one of our favourite podcasters, on the late Terry Hall of The Specials. Ronson, after revealing a cunning plan to meet Hall when he was younger, which included fainting at one of their shows, points out that Hall was talking about his mental health struggles - his manic depression - long before it became popular to do so. Even the biggest stars of yesteryear had their troubles.
Another tortured soul, Cobain’s 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' is the first song discussed in the return of this self-admittedly poorly titled series from the Ringer, hosted by the excitable Rob Harvilla - by the end of its current run it’ll be up to 120 songs. We’ve written about it before but basically the first half of the episode is Harvilla musing on the song before he’s then joined by a guest to talk about it - and what a guest to discuss Teen Spirit: Cobain’s wife, Courtney Love. The episode is over two and a half hours long, but it’s worth it as Love brought with her some of Cobain’s unpublished lyrics for the song. A whirlwind of a show.
