Short Cuts

“If you’ve recently ended a romantic relationship - press one. If you believe yourself to be suffering from empty nest syndrome - press… you have pressed one ‘ended romantic relationship’. If your friends are tired of hearing you complain and you would like some time to lament your fate please do so after the tone”

Today’s programme features an insert from the awesome Canadian podcast WireTap. If you’re intrigued by the Automated Relationship Replacement Hotline and want to hear about more of their inventions - including a toothpaste dispensing toothbrush, a lie-down toilet, and edible pen tops - or you want to just explore their audio inventiveness we heartily recommend a visit to the WireTap archives. Today’s Short Cuts on splits, rips and break ups can be heard here.

“….part of what I was thinking in this meditation was about the wonder of love and of being in love and to know it’s on those two spacecraft… Even now, whenever I’m down, I’m thinking - and still they move, 35,000 miles an hour leaving our solar system for the great wide open sea of interstellar space”

…if you were caught by Radiolab’s heart-achingly beautiful interview with Ann Druyan about love, Carl Sagan and great leaps of the imagination then we heartily recommend listening to their episode ‘Space’ in its entirety. (And while you’re at it - falling down the rabbit hole of their back catalogue….).

You can hear their story ‘Looking Up’ in Short Cuts: Taking Flight

“When we were breaking up he destroyed my clothes, put my laptops in the bathtub, cut up my shirts and put family pictures in the bathtub and all my stuff in the toilet so it turned out that she saw this other side of him that I was either unable to see or ignoring…”

If you enjoyed the Profiler Mom story from episode one - dive into the wonderful Bob Carlson’s Unfictional Podcast to hear the tale in it’s entirety (including another dip into the world of dating troubles with ‘Please God Let It Be Herpes’). You can listen to ‘Cracking the Love Code’ here or hear the short story in Short Cuts: Someone to Watch Over Me

We are also GIDDILY excited to announce that the wonderful Josie Long will be presenting this series and that we are now available as a podcast which you can download HERE. The first programme will be available from 3.30pm today!

“It’s advisable to treat her with care because she can turn on you in a split second…”

Paolo Pietropaolo explores the personality of music tonality in CBC Music’s Signature Series. Listen to the femme fatale ‘D Minor: The Ice Queen’ on the ever excellent Third Coast site here

“Without that social contract…it leaves the door open to any bad behaviour they can think of”

Eerie, brilliant episode of the Digital Human on Transgression - listen here

“…a journey to the eroding coastline of British normality”

Great ‘Jon Ronson on’ (produced by Lucy Greenwell for Unique Productions) exploring the shifting borders of ‘normality’ with Adam Buxton and David Aaronovitch. Listen here

“…the dust and burnt edges of that voice, it was the voice that drew me in”

Laura Barton offers an impressionistic portrait of chanteuse Juliette Greco on BBC Radio 4 here