Sunday 19 October 2014

Podcasts: The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds

I came to know the name of Dave Anthony through Wil Anderson's FOFOP podcast which I am a great fan of. Dave was one of the most prevalent guests on the podcast and I enjoyed his humour and interaction with Wil.

But Dave has his own newish podcast that is just something that you have to hear to believe. It's hard to put some great adjectives to, but it really does appeal to me in so many ways.So the format is that Dave investigates a story, event or person from American history and presents it as a story to the audience and Gareth. Gareth is totally out of the loop to what the story is. OK sounds a bit dull? Sounds like Civil War reenactments right?

Well it does all come down to the stories that Dave picks. These are not your average events or people. To use the term 'quirky' is just so inadequate. And they are also helped by their fine sense of humour. Basically these are some of the most WTF stories you will come across.

I'll use a couple of examples, but I have to be really mindful about spoilers. I knew about one of these obscure people that had an episode dedicated to his shenanigans. I came across his story briefly while reading a chemistry book.  Davis Hahn was a special boy who was really into science, kind of like I was. But I didn't have the sheer willpower of David's nor did I have access to weapons grade plutonium.

I listened to an episode yesterday that dealt with John C Lilly, a neuroscientist during the fifties and sixties who pioneered work with dolphin intelligence. Unfortunately it all came to a head during his experiment with a woman and a male dolphin living together for 40 days.

There are cults, rainbow wigs, vampires, navy mishaps, french orphansand so many others,

The Dollop is my favourite podcast because it exemplifies the old saying that truth is always stranger than fiction. You just could not make this shit up. And not only is it informative, it's hilarious.

I urge you all so much to download an episode. Start with the David Hahn episode.



You can get The Dollop at libsyn.com or via iTunes

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