Podcasts Missing Words Trivia Quiz

Answer: Politics

"The Rest is Politics" was set up as a double-header podcast between two well-known figures from the UK political scene, both exiled from their political parties, who agreed to "disagree agreeably". They bonded over shared Scottish ancestry, and agreed that the Brexit referendum was a disaster, and that Boris Johnson was unsuitable for public office. They disagreed on the value of public schools and the Conservative government's austerity policy in the 2010s. The podcast covered discussions, listener questions, and interviews, about politics in the UK and farther afield, in places like Albania or Brazil, an aspect I found particularly interesting.

Alastair Campbell was best known from various key communications roles for Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair. He inspired the foul-mouthed character of Malcolm Tucker from the satirical TV comedy "The Thick of It". He was best known for his role in the so-called "dodgy dossier" that justified UK involvement in the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Following the end of his role in government, Campbell worked to raise awareness of mental health issues, sharing his own difficulties. He was expelled from the Labour Party in 2019 because of making it known that he voted for the Liberal Democrats in a European Election.

Rory Stewart was educated at Eton College, and served in the Army and the Foreign Office before becoming a Conservative MP in 2010. He rose rapidly through the ranks and became a minister under David Cameron and Theresa May in the 2010s. He contested the Conservative leadership when May left, and refused to serve under the eventual winner, Boris Johnson. Stewart resigned from the Party and contested the London Mayoral election unsuccessfully as an independent candidate. He moved on to working for a non-profit organisation focussed on alleviating world poverty.

Answer: Rock

Andrew Hickey started his podcast, "A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs", in 2018, with an examination of "Flying Home" by the Benny Goodman Sextet. He covered the multitudinous influences that led to rock music, and went on to illustrate the history of the music through episodes, each of which was based on a key song.

Themes included the segregation of different types of music, its futility and the influences that crossed between different musical genres, the tendency of certain white rock fans to make out that black music isn't rock, and the exploitation of artists by their managers. Topics that I found particularly interesting included Brian Wilson's controlling father, Frank Zappa's fan letter to the composer Edgard Varèse, the overlooked influence Ray Davies's wife Rasa had on the quality of songs by the Kinks, Paul Simon's adoption into the English folk scene, and how he turned his back on them, Christmas discs released by the Beatles, and Stevie Wonder's inappropriate behaviour as a teen. The podcast is erudite and thoroughly researched, and full of fascinating information.

Answer: Library

"Building a Library" had already been a popular feature of BBC Radio 3's "Record Review" programme for decades when it was spun off to make a podcast. In it, Andrew McGregor is joined by an expert who examines the performances of a classical work, and plays a selection of what they consider the best, or the best to illustrate their arguments, before selecting their recommendation(s) for the listener to buy for their collection.

The podcast is illuminating about styles of instrument, fashions in performance, and improvements in recording techniques, all of which contribute to the expert's decision. It can prompt the listener out of their comfortable views about what a work should sound like. Mark Lowther, considering Bach's Violin Concerto in E, went with a new period instrument recording by Rachel Podger and Brecon Baroque, rather than more famous historic recordings by all-time greats that had been chosen in previous editions of "Building a Library".

I particularly enjoyed a review of the recordings of Beethoven's 9th Symphony by Tom Service, a piece that means so much to people and whose words of reconciliation by Friedrich Schiller were very dear to the composer. Among the various interpretations, he covered an emotional Berlin performance by Leonard Bernstein, shortly after the Berlin Wall came down. Also, a 1960s performance by the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Herbert von Karajan. Further back in time were a 1951 performance in post-war Germany from the Bayreuth Festival, conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler, plus a ferocious and problematic performance in Berlin with the same conductor, in 1942, at the height of the Nazi regime. Ultimately, Service chose a recording by the Berlin Philharmonic from 2020 under their chief conductor, Kirill Petrenko.

Answer: Mince

"Athletico Mince" was a podcast loosely based on football, but which settled on a formula of surreal fantasy based on real-life people. Bob Mortimer, the comedian who had been the partner of Vic Reeves/Jim Moir, and a regular on "Would I Lie to You?", started "Athletico Mince" with experienced podcaster Andy Dawson in 2016.

They had several regular items. "Gangs of the EPL" was a surreal feature purporting to be recordings of Premier League footballers, such as Harry Kane and Eric Dier, forming a gang to combat gangs of players from other clubs. Former England manager Steve McClaren was portrayed as the owner of a giant snake who was obsessed with carpeting. "Crime Files" featured a "nonsense potter" and his confrontations with football personalities such as Jamie Vardy or Sean Dyche. Veteran manager Roy Hodgson was portrayed as a devotee of "Warhammer". All voices were delivered by Mortimer and Dawson, in wildly inaccurate and hilarious impersonations.

Answer: News

Emily Maitlis, a BBC TV News presenter chiefly famous for the "car crash" interview with Prince Andrew, and Jon Sopel, a BBC TV journalist best known for sparring with Donald Trump when BBC North America Editor, worked together on the BBC podcast "Americast" in 2020. They left the Corporation in 2022 and 2021 respectively, and joined up with Lewis Goodall, a veteran of BBC and Sky News, to form the podcast known as "The News Agents", in the summer of 2022.

The podcast ran daily, and attempted to present the day's news in an informal way. Early topics covered included the disastrous premiership of Liz Truss, the attempt by the UK government to suppress votes from younger voters, the toll of lives from asylum seekers attempting to cross the English Channel in inappropriate boats, and the stand Joe Lycett took against David Beckham's endorsement of the Qatar World Cup.

Answer: Belief

"Beyond Belief", a BBC podcast, explored the place of faith in the modern world. Presenter Ernie Rea, a veteran in Religious Broadcasting, led a variety of guests from multiple faiths in an illuminating discussion of topics, ranging from serious to quite light hearted. Subjects of the podcast included religious symbolism in the Harry Potter books, the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II and the role of the UK monarch as "defender of the faith", chanting in religion, and the nature of religion in modern Iran. I particularly enjoyed an episode looking at the life of the Dalai Lama, who was selected for the role as a very young child.

Answer: English

"The History of English Podcast", started by Kevin Stroud in 2012, covers the evolution of the English language through history. Rather that starting with the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons in Britain, Stroud began his magnum opus much further back, with the Proto-Indo-European language that was the ancestor of nearly all the European languages. The podcast follows the language through time, and is a fascinating history of the English-speaking people as well as their language. Stroud covers very many topics, in more than 160 episodes, including the influence of French after the Norman invasion, the vowel shift, the way that Greek and Latin were brought into English by scholars, and the influence of foreign languages as English-speaking people spread over the world.

He describes the way that varieties of English diverged, such as the American and British versions of the language. I was interested by the way that certain words were cognate - coming from the same source - such as barbecue and buccaneer, which both come from the way the Taíno people of the Caribbean prepared meat on frames. Stroud also highlights the first time words or expressions were coined in print in the English language, such as "glitter" first being used in the 14th century work "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight".

Answer: Thinking

Sociology professor Laurie Taylor presents the BBC podcast "Thinking Allowed". This started as a radio programme in 1998. The podcast looks at research in the social sciences and the impact of its findings on aspect of society. There are typically two guests to discuss aspects of their published research.

A wide variety of topics have been addressed, including the oceans and the economy of using the oceans, the place of sports like skateboarding and parkour in the modern city, surveillance in the modern state, the traditional of handshaking, the evolution of office life and white privilege and racial identity.

Answer: Time

Veteran broadcaster and novelist Melvyn Bragg started presenting "In Our Time" on BBC Radio 4 in 1998. The programme became available as a podcast in 2004. Each episode consists of Bragg with a group of experts examining a subject in detail. Subjects range widely, across the arts, culture, religion, and sciences. I particularly enjoyed one on the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, nuggets like the need of Russian ships to travel to the west, past the UK, to get to their far east, the use of Welsh smokeless coal by Japan and the way Russia was overestimated as a military force.

Other episodes included Dylan Thomas, the contribution of William and Caroline Herschel to science, the Sistine Chapel, Medieval Pilgrimage, and the history of homo erectus.

Answer: History

"The Rest is History" podcast started in 2020, featuring two English historians, Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook. The podcast covered diverse topics associated with history, such as Pompeii, the rise of Vladimir Putin, and a history of Christmas drinks. To accompany the 2022 World Cup, the podcast had an episode on an aspect of the history of each of the competing nations, including Belgian artist Jan van Eyck, and the disputed story of the "Door of No Return" associated with the slave trade in Senegal. An earlier humorous highlight was a series of episodes based on "Love Island", where the winning "loving couple" were 20th century Conservative politician Stanley Baldwin, and the 6th century Byzantine Empress Theodora, ahead of General George Custer and Irish dancer and courtesan Lola Montez.