David Hepworth

“Anyone born in the year 1950 who grew to fancy themselves as a soulful 18-year-old bought 'Songs of Leonard Cohen' upon its original release in 1968. For many of them, it was the beginning of a lifelong friendship.”

“I think getting people's focus, getting people's attention on anything has never been harder, because the media has done everything in its power to try and dissolve people's attention, shift it round absolutely all the time.”

“The opening solo on 'Once in Royal David's City' is still the most dramatic radio moment of the year.”

“'The Anthill' is the podcast wing of The Conversation, the site that presents news and views derived from the academic and research community.”

“It is the melancholy fate of all young legends to becoming better known for the things they did to exploit fame than the things that made them famous in the first place.”

“The 'Sodajerker' podcast is the work of Liverpool songwriting duo Simon Barber and Brian O'Connor.”

“Upload Radio is a new venture offering content creators and bedroom DJs the chance to get their own programmes on the air by buying time.”

“For magazines seeking to extend their reach into podcasting, half the battle is finding members of staff who don't sound like the kind of people you wouldn't care to be stuck in a lift with.”

“If, like me, you've never watched 'Game of Thrones', the podcast 'Binge Mode: 'Game of Thrones'' ought to be unlistenable. It isn't, thanks to the energy of the two expert presenters Mallory Rubin and Jason Concepcion, who have the wit to laugh at their own deep-dive devotion and are helped out by some smart editing.”

“History is written by the victors. The victors in daily life tend to be those who live longest.”

“All political careers end in failure, but few did it so quickly as David Cameron's. He came to power promising not to 'bang on about Europe' and ended up having the continent's name chiselled into the lid of his political coffin.”

“Lucy Kellaway's columns in the 'Financial Times' lend themselves to podcasts because they usually consist of her giving a brisk ticking off to some CEO or subversively wondering whether we're really as busy as we pretend we are.”

“The podcast by 'The Kitchen Sisters' celebrates the staggering variety of a society of immigrants via its food, from the Sheepherders' Ball in Boise, Idaho, through the favoured cuisine of Emily Dickinson to the unbelievable rituals of the great rural barbecue.”

“The age of the rock star was coterminous with rock n' roll, which, in spite of all the promises made in some memorable songs, proved to be as finite as the era of ragtime or big bands. The rock era is over. We now live in a hip-hop world.”

“'Athletico Mince' started life as a football podcast but has dropped the football, unless the latest on the state of the 'hair island' atop Steve McLaren's head is your idea of football coverage.”

“Half the battle with successful podcasts is in the naming; here, the big media owners have a lot to learn from the smaller operators.”

“Formed in 1967 and still performing regularly half a century later, Fairport Convention are Britain's equivalent of the Band. Unlike the latter they have maintained cordial relations.”

“Mongolia is a country of only three million souls. One million of them live in Ulaanbaatar, where, despite the skyscrapers, half the population sleep in tents. One of the few Mongolians to become famous outside his home country is Ariunbaatar Ganbaatar, who won the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World prize.”

“Justin Hayward was a teenager when he was drafted into the Moody Blues in 1966. He brought with him one song he had written for his girlfriend. This was called 'Nights in White Satin,' which subsequently made a fortune for a lot of people.”

“There are lots of podcasts that look at films from the audience's point of view. There are also plenty that look at it from the combatants' point of view. It's invariably the case that the less likely you are to have heard of the people talking, the more interesting they'll be.”