Episodes

  • Zeitgeist Tapes - The Finale

    Zeitgeist Tapes - The Finale
    Aug 31 2025
    Sadly, this is the last episode of The Zeitgeist Tapes as Emma goes off to take up the full time role of Editor of LabourList and Steve valiantly continues to write his book on the Labour Party.

    In this episode, we pick out a few of our favourite episodes from the eight years of the show. We discuss our bizarre origin story and the unfortunate original naming convention.

    Read Steve's book that inspired the show:

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/State-Play-British-Politics-Trollope/dp/1780933169

    Steve's Choices:
    The Campaign: https://audioboom.com/posts/7581395-the-campaign-1983
    My Fair Lady: https://audioboom.com/posts/8281940-my-fair-lady
    Scrooged: https://audioboom.com/posts/7126205-podded
    Mr Smith Goes to Washington/Meet John Doe https://audioboom.com/posts/8707552-capra-double-bill-mr-smith-goes-to-washington-and-meet-john-doe

    Emma's Choices:
    Parks and Recreation: https://audioboom.com/posts/7524657-parks-and-recreation
    Vote for Froglet: https://audioboom.com/posts/7416090-vote-for-froglet
    Our Friends in the North: https://audioboom.com/posts/6327558-3-our-friends-on-the-podcast
    Running on Empty: https://audioboom.com/posts/8551366-running-on-empty

    Our Joint Favourite:
    Dirty Dancing: https://audioboom.com/posts/6941048-dirty-podding
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    43 mins
  • The Spectator (Novel)

    The Spectator (Novel)
    Aug 27 2025
    This month after a somewhat hilarious mix up Emma and Steve read and discuss the Spectator - a Novel by Timothy Balding. This book has an odd format and may be too light on story as a result. Ultimately tries too hard to make answering the question "But what if the Daily Mail is actually awful?" an interesting one.

    Read the Spectator: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Spectator-Novel-Timothy-Balding/dp/1935830767
    Read the Director: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-director/daniel-kehlmann/ross-benjamin/9781529435115?sv1=affiliate&sv_campaign_id=57434&awc=3787_1756317426_f55f2a16a2d20e6ace48ecf531d0ef13&sn=1&utm_source=57434&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=Easyfundraising
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    35 mins
  • Conclave

    Conclave
    May 26 2025
    This month, slightly later than planned (or is timely) Emma and Steve discuss Conclave.

    The film has pretensions to high drama, but is it really just an Agatha Christie style novel set in the Catholic Church? Not so much a 'whodunnit' as a They all done something innit!.
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    33 mins
  • Capra Double Bill: Mr Smith Goes to Washington and Meet John Doe

    Capra Double Bill: Mr Smith Goes to Washington and Meet John Doe
    Apr 19 2025
    In a Zeitgeist Tapes first, we have a double bill for your delectation.

    Given all that is happening in the USA and the wider world, we delve back to the late 1930s and early 1940s to see how one of the most popular directors of the time dealt with populism - positive and negative. We discuss both Mr Smith Goes to Washington and Meet John Doe - both by director Frank Capra.

    Political corruption abounds; the little guy is always the hero and the stooge. But Capra - an immigrant and Republican - did not want to break the American system - he wanted to show that it could be great again. Perhaps a lesson for those who oppose Trump now.

    Watch Meet John Doe on Youtube
    Find Steve on BlueSky
    Find Emma on BlueSky.
    Buy tickets for Emma's play.
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    46 mins
  • Brian and Maggie

    Brian and Maggie
    Feb 19 2025
    This month Steve and Emma discuss Brian and Maggie - the 2 part TV drama about the interview that - according to the drama at least - led to the fall of Margaret Thatcher.

    We ask if long-form interviews really are dead? If TV interviews really were as good as the nostalgia would have it and if arch-Thatcerite Brian Walden really did bring down his friend?
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    33 mins
  • 1984 (1954)

    1984 (1954)
    Dec 23 2024
    This month instead of getting festive, Emma and Steve round off the year looking at the 1954 BBC adaptation of 1984. A dystopian tale of hopelessness and the triumph of evil.

    Merry Christmas!


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    35 mins
  • The Contender

    The Contender
    Nov 14 2024
    This month - in the wake of the US election and the defeat of Kamala Harris - Steve and Emma look at The Contender (2000).

    This is a film that is posited as a liberal feel-good film about making a woman the Vice President under unusual circumstances. It might be 'of its time' or it might be - as Emma argues - a timeless liberal man's idea of what a feminist film looks like.
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    34 mins
  • Running on Empty

    Running on Empty
    Aug 4 2024
    In this episode Emma and Steve discuss 1988 film Running on Empty. Described by Steve as a 'Hallmark film for terrorists' the film follows the Pope family as the evade the police living in suburban domestic bliss - but only for short periods at a time.

    Directed by Sidney Lumet and starring River Phoenix, Judd Hirsh, Christine Lahti and Martha Plimpton this film combines a discuss of radical politics with a more traditional coming of age family drama.

    Link to the New York Times article discussed: https://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/18/movies/film-view-sentimentalizing-60-s-radicalism.html?unlocked_article_code=1._U0.Se0R.62RNH6uMNg0H&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

    Link to the Dirty Dancing episode discussed: https://audioboom.com/posts/6941048-dirty-podding
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    36 mins