The work of Ian Boldsworth

[PaoloTramezzani]

The Cryptid Factor is a good podcast if you like this kind of thing, though they intentionally don't talk about ghosts.

It's Rhys Darby from Flight of the Conchords, Dan Schreiber from No Such Thing as a Fish and Buttons, a strange man. They're all giddy on the possibility of these things being real and have their own pet theories and if you're lucky Rhys goes off on one making up silly stories in character.

It's annoyingly infrequent though and in the meantime I'm loving Dan Schreiber's new(ish) pod We can be weirdos, long form interviews with guests in this realm, more serious than the Cryptid Factor but still a lot of fun.

[Mobbd]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-HFoJsjWuY&list=PLFeQqabyxPX6zFG8yhaMkeBEcIeavoWhc

Found all these on YouTube this morning after they'd gone missing off the internet for years.

Hopefully Parapod will follow suit.

[DrGreggles]

All Parapod episodes are on Patreon.

[MoreauVasz]

Me too. I've said this already but "belief" is a red herring in all this. I have no idea why we can't just talk about folklore. Whether it really happened is way besides the point to me. I like the idea of Ian or another funny person being present for comic relief but there must be other ways to handle this than pouring scorn on the bullshit element. It's one-note if nothing else. And if he held back, we'd get so much more from Kate and, frankly, so much more material for him to work with. He so often sees a "loop hole" in the basic premise and immediately savages it, end of story.

I think this is really insightful.

I don't think belief functions as a binary in these situations. I don't believe in life after death and I don't think that ghosts are really real but I have been to a few ghost hunts because it's fun to set aside the question of whether or not something is real.

It's like in literature and art: When the Lumiere brothers first filmed a train pulling into a station, people reportedly left the screening because it seemed real and they didn't know how to react. Similarly, when Robinson Crusoe was first published, people demanded that Crusoe be brought before the London stage as they couldn't cope with the idea of something being made-up but also being presented as though it were real.

In truth, being able to see something, know it is false but go on to treat it as though it were real for fun is a skill. Think of the people who would write to Sherlock to ask for advice.

I think that approaching the paranormal and going 'Pfft... Bollocks, there's no such thing as ghosts!' is a bit like being one of those people who won't read novels because they're not real.

At the other end of the spectrum you have the likes of Barry who is on a par with the people who think Coronation street is a documentary but I think Kate, as a modern paranormal bod, is adopting quite a complex philosophical footing.

I think it's most evident when they talk about religion as she's clearly someone who is half-in and half-out like a lot of post-Catholics.

[typeforty]

Has anybody read Ed Gamble's new book yet? Just curious as to whether Mr Boldsworth gets a mention...

[DrGreggles]

Is it an autobiography? Or just about food?

[BritishHobo]

I've got the audiobook downloaded, but need to finish Partridge first. I get the vibe it's supposed to be an autobiography by way of food. The different stages of his life seen through his relationship to food. Of course, the Peacock and Gamble years they always talked about the massively unhealthy stuff they ate on tour, before Ed began to lose weight, so I have wondered if that'll be in there. I'll report back.