Rest Is Politics

Podcasts are making us stupider

The most insufferable person you know is a Podcast Person. They’re on the tube each morning, sat with a smug smile on their face, AirPods thrust into their earlobes and a performative Metro – it won’t be opened – on their lap. They’re probably tuning into The Rest is History, preparing to bore every colleague they meet at the tea station with a glowing review of Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland’s dissection of battles and monarchs of centuries past.‘I did a History degree at Durham, you know, and I’m still learning SO MUCH! SO MUCH!’, they’ll drone on, unknowingly intent on making you abandon your mug and jump out of the nearest window.

Your podcaster isn’t your friend

Sometime around the pandemic years, I began to notice that when friends called to catch up, alongside the customary news about careers, marriages, and offspring, they would update me on the fortunes of their favourite podcaster.  The trend reached a harrowing crescendo when an acquaintance of mine somehow became a devout listener to The Rest Is Politics and started keeping me informed about the latest exploits of his imagined companions, ‘Alastair’ and ‘Rory’. (Worst of all, his favourite of the two is Rory. I can think of only a handful of worse things to discover about a friend.