We talked last week about my recent passion for the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast and my ongoing trip through its back catalog (Today: Ari Shapiro on Miley Cyrus at the VMAs! Relatedly, I would like to register my love for the giant picture of Mr. Shapiro on the NPR Careers website. Work at NPR: We don’t all have faces for radio!). And I got to thinking.
You could say I’m a bit of a podcast junkie. I’ve got your This American Life; I’ve got your RadioLab; I’ve got your Splendid Table; I used to have your Fresh Air, until they changed the format and I fell behind and iTunes gave up. I’ve cried over many episodes of The Tobolowsky Files, with Stephen Tobolowsky, and I’m well-versed in the entire back catalog of the excellent Official LOST Podcast. I regularly listen to a number of podcasts where people discuss knitting for an hour or more, and then I listen to them again, because they’re just that interesting.
What kind of podcast do I NOT listen to? Jane Austen podcasts. That’s because, as far as I can tell, there are none.
Really. I looked. There are podcast episodes about Jane, and versions of her works read aloud, but I didn’t find a single instance of a serial podcast covering all things Jane.
HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? A complete lack of Jane-oriented podcasts seems implausible to me from any direction.
First of all, we Janeites have a lot to say. Have you seen how many websites we’re able to keep populated? (The Jane-adjacent book review sites alone!) We’re a large community with diverse views on a lot of topics, and it’s not like don’t want to talk about it. It’s completely strange to me that nobody’s regularly switching on the mic to talk Jane, if only to drunkenly MST3K all the movie adaptations. (…Mrs. F and Miss O, I believe I hear our calling calling.)
Second of all, there are podcasts about everything. Did I tell you about the multiple knitting podcasts? There are so many general literary podcasts out there, and so many other podcasts about seemingly un-podcastable topics, that I just can’t believe that Janeites have decided to sit this one out.
So, tell me, readers: Are Google and iTunes lying to me? Do you all know of any Jane Austen podcasts, and do you have any favorites? Hook your Janeite sisters and brothers up!
austenacious 