Lord of the Rings Revisited

In this week’s Flightless Bird, David Farrier travels to Madison, Wisconsin, to investigate the World Championship Cheese Contest. With 3375 entries and 150 classes, we are talking a lot of cheese. Hosted by the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association, the comp has been running since ...  Show more

On this week’s Flightless Bird, David and Rob discover that doing jigsaw puzzles is not just a hobby - it’s a sport! They talk to US speed puzzler Karen Kavett - AKA Karen Puzzles - who’s about to head off to the 2026 USA Jigsaw Nationals. How big is the scene and what does it ta ...  Show more

On a new mini episode of SmartLess Presents ClueLess, host Elliott Kalan (and Producer Devon) would like to tell you all about some very mini people: the Hobbits, from JRR Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings series! Today is Bilbo Baggins’ birthday (sort of, we’ll clarify that), so ex ...

Tim Harford's life has been building up to this moment. In this Cautionary Conversation, he discusses the works of his favorite author J.R.R. Tolkien and the social science at play in Amazon Prime's series The Rings of Power. What do elves and whistleblowers have in common? How c ...  Show more

One pod to rule them all? This Thursday (August 29) sees the return of Prime Video's epic J.R.R. Tolkien adaptation, The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power, and to mark the occasion we've put together a little preview special, just for you. In it, you'll find an in-depth inter ...  Show more

Many far-right conservatives think The Lord of the Rings is about them. They may love Tolkien, but it's very possible Tolkien would not have loved them back. This episode was produced by Peter Balonon-Rosen with help from Ariana Aspuru, edited by Jolie Myers, fact-checked by Laur ...  Show more