Feature: Taking a trip – Podcast Style

19 year-old-student Thomas Rofe discusses his favourite podcasts, that help keep him awake on those long journeys back and forth from university. 

Podcasts are the most underrated form of media. I mean there’s rarely a bad time to be listening to one, a podcast has the capacity to make any menial task a great joy, from just washing the dishes to those 5-hour car journeys. Since its rise in 2008, podcasts are growing stronger and stronger attracting millions of listeners across a wide range of topics and themes. The raw and accessible outlet for creators means the podcast world has many emerging personalities a medium that doesn’t just consist of already household names but also aspiring amateurs. There is no better time than now to immerse yourself in the world of podcasting and in this blog (in no particular order) I’ll run through a selection of my favourites.

If I Were You

After a near-decade run of creating the Webby award-winning web series ‘Jake and Amir’, the natural next step for these comedic titans was an advice podcast. Obviously not your average advice series, the duo do a magnificent job of combining what could be described as genuine advice with a comedic twist. The lads are often joined by a guest, be it a Collegehumor alumni, one of Jakes family members or a comedy pal in which they’ll manage to answer about three to four questions. It feels like the shortest hour of my week but always leaves me anxious for the next episode to be released.

Recommended Episode – Episode 123: Best of 2014 – An episode I’ve personally listened to many times. A great highlight reel of what to expect from ‘If I Were You’.

Serial

Serial has by far been one of the biggest successes of the podcast world, even if you don’t personally listen to podcasts you’re likely to of heard of it. The buzz around its first series swept across the USA and quickly went worldwide. It captures the imagination of everyone’s inner amateur detective, this is helped by Sarah Koenig gift for storytelling and pushing the boundaries of a given story to find the hidden truths. Season 1 explored the murder of high schooler Hae Min Lee in Baltimore 1999 in which Adnan Syed has spent over a decade in jail for her murder, but is the case as clear as it seemed? (I still don’t even know). Season 2 deals with the case of Bowe Bergdahl, unravelling the truth behind him leaving his post and finding himself in Taliban captivity for five years. Whilst it’s gripping, Serial often leaves you underwhelmed with many unanswered questions, but definitely due to the nature of the podcast and is a symptom of the cases that are being explored.

Recommend Episode – All of Season 1

Twinnovation

A podcast for your inner schemer and dreamer. Mama Bear Mike Karnell hosts the show alongside the identical Rosenberg twins. The trio take turns pitching their ideas to the world, searching for customers and investors. Some are potential multi-million-pound ideas, others are on a smaller scale including hustles to help you save money day-to-day. Idea highlights have included the Bowieja Board, Pocket Guac and the Bwonzie (You’ll have to listen to the podcasts for the details). The boys fill out the podcast with great segments like ‘Beef of the Week’, ‘Catch of the Day’ and schemes from the Twinnovation Nation. It’s a podcast that gets more and more enjoyable the more you listen and like I have you’ll fall in love with the in-jokes between the boys. #SleuthCrewth

Recommended Episode – 8 Pocket Guac

Final Games Podcast 

Final Games is the Desert Island Discs of the video game world. Host Liam Edwards is an example of the podcast world allowing people to talk about the things they love. From his small house in Japan Liam does a fantastic job of taking you on a nostalgia trip each week where the games you love or loved can be someone’s chosen ‘disc’. With guests stopping by to discuss the eight games they would take with them you get a real range from the modern era blockbuster to old school niche titles. Guests tend to be in the thick of the Gaming industry, so while bringing a highly knowledgeable approach to their final games Liam’s personality helps to create a friendly atmosphere. Each episode feels like you and your friends are sitting around talking about all the games you used to play.

Recommended Epsiode – Episode 24 – Peer Schneider

By Thomas Rofe

Is Today’s Media having a damaging impact on 21st-Century beauty?

21st-century beauty standards are portrayed as quite straightforward: tall, long-legged, white-skinned, all in an athletic-looking body. It’s amazing how for many women this has become the prime definition of beautiful. Worryingly, it’s young girls who have come to believe that a Victoria Secret Model’s body is the ultimate goal when it comes to aesthetics.  In reality, these hopeful body goals are down to what we call media: Hollywood star Instagram accounts, magazines headlines “how to achieve that summer bod!”, and model pictures with the caption: #goals, all of which are being used by the younger generation to compare and depict all their flaws.

It saddens me to think that many young women will put themselves down for not looking a certain way, instead of embracing who they are, they will criticise themselves,a habit we’re all guilty of doing. They think they’re unattractive, ugly and go as far as using words like ‘disgusting’. I’m sure you’re thinking “that’s a harsh word to describe yourself” but, the reality is it is these types of personal judgements that lead girls to drastic measures to be ‘beautiful’. This ugly turn causes young girls to forget to value themselves and can lead to threatening health issues.

As a victim of Anorexia, I googled perfect bodies, pointed at them, and said “I want to look like that.” I would look through magazine articles which told you what eating/exercising regimes stars use to look the way they do. I was obsessed. Many praised me for my quick weight-loss, and at the time I enjoyed everybody praising and complimenting me for my quick achievements. But, it’s impressive how people find a 16-year-old obsessing to lose 10 kilos to be a success, a body which I realise now is perfectly fine.

It was only when I began to look sick that people worried. And this, like it did for me, happens to so many girls, actually 1 in 5 women struggle with an eating disorder or disordered eating. I believe this all comes from the stigma of what the perfect body is created by the media. It is an extremely easy trap to fall into, when you are naturally critical of yourself, you are therefore, already placing yourself into a vulnerable position.

Not everyone falls into the category of having a disorder but, frighteningly many do live thinking they’re not good enough, oblivious to their true self-worth. Here is the important part: humans are all built differently, we all have different metabolisms, different body types, and come from completely different heritages. We fail to forget that genes play a massive role in how we look, and the issue is that these givens just can’t be changed. It is so much easier and less self-destructive when we learn to embrace our personal traits. You would never taunt the people who gave you your body, the people you love, so why do it to yourself?

Being curvy is not being fat, having an athletic body is not looking like a boy, being flat-chested doesn’t mean you’re an 8-year-old girl. Most importantly not looking like your favourite celebrity does not under any circumstances mean you’re any less beautiful. Our society needs to understand that girls are spending so much time on achieving something unattainable. Celebrities dedicate their lives to the way they look but, young girls have futures to aspire to. 90 % of people with eating disorders are women between the ages of 12 and 25, the peak ages whereas young adults we are trying to figure who we are, what we want to do, and who we want to be. How can anybody live to their full potential when they can’t find self-confidence within themselves? How will girls be the best they can be if they personally don’t believe that they’re worthy enough?

21st-century beauty standards are slowly changing and people are starting to not shy away from who they are. We’re now seeing more curvy models setting their own standards and a variety of celebrities speaking out on body positivity. However, this is just the beginning there is still a lot of work left in convincing our younger generation to start loving themselves, before putting their energy into looking like someone else.

Feature Contributor, Astrid Sofia Flores Moya