Monthly Media #2

What I’ve been consuming when my dissertation hasn’t been consuming me…

Goodlord: An Email by Ella Frears

Available at Rough Trade Books and other book stores

Frears’s letting agent, Ava, asks her to make an account for the titular property website. What follows is a two-hundred-page poetic email in which she unravels in a way any tenant will certainly relate to. Just as much of a stream of consciousness as it is a poem, Frears takes readers through a memoir of the lives she’s lived under rented roofs, from university days subsidised by bar jobs to residencies in the middle of nowhere. ‘Ava’ acts as a through-line, an anchor to the fact that this is an email; without Frears’s semi-regular name dropping of the agent, it is easy to forget that you’re the spectator to this exchange and not the person on the other end of the thread. Candid, black, and witty in equal measure, Goodlord had me enraptured in a way I haven’t been in a while – I read it all in one sitting!

Dave Gorman: Modern Life is Goodish (Series 6)

Available on U

It’s a joy to have Gorman back on our screens after a seven-year hiatus, during which modern life has gotten all the more absurd. And though the issues (and non-issues) he tackles in this new series are much more modern, the formula remains the same, with the Powerpoint-utilising comedian stretching his observations about TV’s fake search engines, struggling work pod businesses, and the order of the alphabet as far as they can go – and then a little bit further for good measure. Usually I’m not big on pre-recorded specials – they don’t keep my attention nearly as much as live comedy – but Gorman’s masterful storytelling and interweaving of ideas feel perfect for this format, making a 45-minute episode feel half its size. Though the hedonistic side of me wishes there was more to enjoy, this three-episode series is the epitome of short and sweet (sorry, Sabrina) and the perfect size to binge in one evening.

Quorators

Available wherever you get your podcasts, videos on YouTube

Quora has always been one of my favourite online forums. I was introduced to it much like everybody else: I searched a query I had online, clicked on a forum, and was taken aback by the outlandish answers and other suggested posts on the website. I think it’s described best in a recent episode by Alex Ptak – one of the three American comedians who make up the Quorators podcast alongside Clare O’Kane and Jeremy Kaplowitz – as “Facebook for curious people, and there’s Reddits.” Think of the most ridiculous post you’ve ever read on Reddit, and now imagine it under someone’s legal name and occupation: that’s Quora, baby! It’s no wonder then that comedians deliberating over Quora threads is the perfect format for a podcast, and it’s something that I both can’t believe hasn’t been done sooner and I’m so glad Ptak, Kane, and Kaplowitz do so well. With a new episode every week (two if you’re on Patreon!), it’s been a valued companion to my Monday mornings and has allowed me to get my Internet rabbit-hole fix on the go.