David Hepworth

“Radio people can't entirely shake off radio habits when they start doing podcasts. They sometimes bring with them things we don't need, like producers and explanatory voiceovers.”

“The packaging of Led Zeppelin's IV doesn't have the name of the band, doesn't have the name of the album: It's got a guy on the cover with a load of sticks on his back. This record didn't quite get to No. 1 in the United States - it went to No. 2 - but stayed on the charts for years and years and years.”

“'Twenty Thousand Hertz' investigates the role of audio professionals in our daily lives, from the engineering that ensures a car door closes with that reassuring finality to the Foley artists of Hollywood who synthesise the sounds of marine life using old kitchen equipment gathered at the pound shop.”

“Some of the vintage comedy on Radio 4 Extra wasn't very funny to begin with, whereas some things just get funnier regardless of the changes in public attitudes over the years.”

“Both traditional broadcasters and podcasters are betting heavily on the growth of voice-driven technology and so-called smart speakers, the theory being that it is as easy to ask Amazon's Alexa to play you the 'Guardian Books' podcast as it is to get it to play Capital FM.”

“The ads that podcasts manage to sell tell you a lot about who they think is listening. They include services that promise to make your investment portfolio ethical, deliver exotic, ready meals to your home, or guarantee better sleep thanks to luxury bed linen.”

“The neurologist calls it 'Non-REM parasomnia'. For the sufferer, it might mean rising in the middle of the night, getting your motorbike out, going for a ride, and waking in the morning with no memory of the experience.”

“John Lydon must be more famous for his efforts on behalf of dairy products than his music.”

“'Adrift With Geoff Lloyd and Annabel Port' features Absolute Radio escapee Geoff and erstwhile colleague Annabel doing something similar. All are appealing individuals with plenty to say, tentatively getting used to their new freedom to talk about anything.”

“Radio 4 Extra is the network which offers the broadcasting version of eternal life.”

“Podcasting is a personal medium, and I savour those moments where details of the podcasters' lives glint through.”

“If you don't work near a water cooler and hanker for the company of fellow natural history enthusiasts, 'The Blue Planet II Podcast' has Emily Knight and Becky Ripley enthusing infectiously about and delving deeper into the most recent episode.”

“When Shanthi Ranganathan was the featured turn on 'Hip Hop Saved My Life With Romesh Ranganathan,' we learned she didn't allow him to have a girlfriend until he'd finished university, and she learned - to her unfeigned horror - that he used to sneak girls into the house when she was out.”

“Richard Hoggart's cultural analysis 'The Uses of Literacy' was published in 1957, but its influence still hovers over anyone setting out to write seriously about people's affection for things that aren't serious, such as the products of pop culture.”

“Famine is a consequence of poverty.”

“Radio 3 shows such as 'Between the Ears' also make the kind of podcasts that draw the most from your noise-cancelling headphones. The programme commissions ideas that make adventurous use of sound.”

“Jim MacLaine was the hero of Ray Connolly's 1973 movie 'That'll Be the Day', about a young man turning his back on a university education at the turn of the '60s in order to try his hand in a rock n' roll band.”

“'The Weeds' is a timely podcast from the news and opinion website Vox. It leaves the coverage of the Punch and Judy politics to others and confines itself to the details of policy.”

“There's only one podcast subject that can give Donald Trump a run for his money when it comes to vulgarity, excess, and base comedy, and that's football.”

“'The Canon' is a film podcast that also has much in common with books podcast 'Backlisted.' Both suggest you can get a lot of pleasure out of things that aren't new.”