Worth a Minute: Recent Episodes
Mike Elder & Bex Elder
The podcast where every word matters and each episode is carefully crafted to bring you interesting and entertaining content from a broad range of contributors. What can be covered in a meaningful fashion in podcast episodes that last just 60 seconds? Quite a lot, it turns out! Cicero is credited with saying, “I have only made this letter longer because I have not had time to make it shorter”. Our aim is to apply that principle to the 'Worth a Minute' podcast by cutting down content to its essence and then expressing it in a striking and memorable manner.
Inspired by Krista Tippett’s assertion that there is something redemptive and life-giving about asking better questions, Kenny Primrose, creator of 'The Examined Life' Podcast, selects his best ever question.
This show has been brought to you by Free Range Podcasting.
Please listen to Trailer 3 and visit this page on our website if you would like to submit an episode of your own to be considered for publication as part of our ‘Best Evers’ season.
Any queries or feedback can be sent to worthaminute@freerangepodcasting.co.uk.
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Mike's best ever ‘Dance Your Own Steps’ movie is Baz Luhrmann’s 1992 romantic comedy, ‘Strictly Ballroom’.
Not only does the plot celebrate individual creativity and personal convictions, the film-making deliberately breaks barriers and is extravagantly entertaining.
Ultimately, though, it also inspires, with its core message of ‘a life lived in fear is a life half-lived’ being epitomised by the lead character’s father finally breaking the shackles imposed on his own creativity to initiate the brilliant Paso Doble finale!
It is truly a movie that dances all its own steps!
This show has been brought to you by Free Range Podcasting.
Please listen to Trailer 3 and visit this page on our website if you would like to submit an episode of your own to be considered for publication as part of our ‘Best Evers’ season.
Any queries or feedback can be sent to worthaminute@freerangepodcasting.co.uk.
If you are interested in receiving news and updates about this podcast, please enter your details in the brief form to which you will be taken when you click on this link.
Mike's best ever anagrammatic poem is David Shulman’s sonnet, ‘Washington Crossing the Delaware’, inspired by Emanuel Leutze’s famous painting of the same name.
Every line is an anagram of the painting’s title and yet the poem still works, even managing to include specialist, key references to the historical incident, including 'Redcoats', 'Continentals' and 'Hessian'!
The best place to read the poem is on Wikipedia where you can watch an animation in which the letters beautifully circulate into new positions as each new line is displayed!
This show has been brought to you by Free Range Podcasting.
Please listen to Trailer 3 and visit this page on our website if you would like to submit an episode of your own to be considered for publication as part of our ‘Best Evers’ season.
Any queries or feedback can be sent to worthaminute@freerangepodcasting.co.uk.
If you are interested in receiving news and updates about this podcast, please enter your details in the brief form to which you will be taken when you click on this link.
Dave Elder contributes a second episode to the ‘Worth a Minute’ podcast, on this occasion selecting his best ever compound noun.
German, with its unwavering determination to exploit any and all word combinations, was, inevitably, a strong contender to provide Dave’s favourite word produced from other words.
In the end, though – despite strong competition from Spanish, Finnish and Icelandic - a Welsh word, literally meaning ‘pinging bakehouse’, won the day!
This show has been brought to you by Free Range Podcasting.
Please listen to Trailer 3 and visit this page on our website if you would like to submit an episode of your own to be considered for publication as part of our ‘Best Evers’ season.
Any queries or feedback can be sent to worthaminute@freerangepodcasting.co.uk.
If you are interested in receiving news and updates about this podcast, please enter your details in the brief form to which you will be taken when you click on this link.
Mike reviews the interesting history of anagrams, including the appointment by Louis XIII of a Royal Anagrammatist, Walter Begley’s Anagrammatic Bible and Galileo’s deliberately scrambled message to Johannes Kepler.
Despite loving the fact that ‘A Decimal Point’ turns into ‘I'm a Dot in Place’, Mike plumps for a different option when selecting his best ever anagram and provides a numerical justification for his choice!
This show has been brought to you by Free Range Podcasting.
Please listen to Trailer 3 and visit this page on our website if you would like to submit an episode of your own to be considered for publication as part of our ‘Best Evers’ season.
Any queries or feedback can be sent to worthaminute@freerangepodcasting.co.uk.
If you are interested in receiving news and updates about this podcast, please enter your details in the brief form to which you will be taken when you click on this link.
Mike likes the way that Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius, wrote ‘to himself’ in his ‘Meditations’ as Mike often puts things down on paper for his own benefit, hoping that it will help him to work out his view on a matter!
Very often simple and succinct, the philosopher emperor’s observations and comments are thought provoking and memorable, including the following:
“If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.”
“Our life is what our thoughts make it.”
“The only wealth which you will keep forever is the wealth you have given away.”
However, Mike’s best ever nugget from Marcus Aurelius is a statement that is centuries ahead of its time in its profound environmental significance:
“That which is not good for the beehive cannot be good for the bees.”
This show has been brought to you by Free Range Podcasting.
Please listen to Trailer 3 and visit this page on our website if you would like to submit an episode of your own to be considered for publication as part of our ‘Best Evers’ season.
Any queries or feedback can be sent to worthaminute@freerangepodcasting.co.uk.
If you are interested in receiving news and updates about this podcast, please enter your details in the brief form to which you will be taken when you click on this link.
Mike’s best ever abseil is the seventeen metre descent from the Inaccessible Pinnacle on Skye, purely because it meant that he didn’t have to revisit the mountain’s ‘knife-edged ridge’, which has been described as having 'an overhanging and infinite drop on one side, and a drop on the other side even steeper and longer'!
If, however, you feel somewhat short changed by this risk averse celebration, look up Mike’s best ever YouTube video, which shows Danny MacAskill taking Munro bagging to a whole new level as he scales the In Pinn, without being roped up, while carrying his mountain bike!
This show has been brought to you by Free Range Podcasting.
Please listen to Trailer 3 and visit this page on our website if you would like to submit an episode of your own to be considered for publication as part of our ‘Best Evers’ season.
Any queries or feedback can be sent to worthaminute@freerangepodcasting.co.uk.
If you are interested in receiving news and updates about this podcast, please enter your details in the brief form to which you will be taken when you click on this link.
It may seem odd that Mike has a ‘best ever poem for dark times', but his argument is that if a poem captures the intensity of emotions and conveys those feelings in a striking manner, it can impel us to reflect in a new way on our circumstances.
The achievement of Gerard Manley Hopkins in ‘No worst, there is none.’ is to explore and probe - within the fourteen-line constraints of a sonnet - the depths of human depression through language, sounds and imagery.
This show has been brought to you by Free Range Podcasting.
Please listen to Trailer 3 and visit this page on our website if if you would like to submit an episode of your own to be considered for publication as part of our ‘Best Evers’ season.
Any queries or feedback can be sent to worthaminute@freerangepodcasting.co.uk.
If you are interested in receiving news and updates about this podcast, please enter your details in the brief form to which you will be taken when you click on this link.
The prompt for Mike to think about his best ever crossword clue was his brother-in-law’s use of ‘H I J K L M N 0’ (5 letters) as a bit of a party piece.
Mike’s penchant for puns and his enjoyment of the absurd led him to consider seriously the following contenders:
‘Fail to understand decimals correctly?’ (4, 3, 5)
‘Amundsen’s forwarding address’ (4)
‘Bar of Soap’ (6, 6)
Ultimately, however, nothing could eclipse the joyous simplicity of ‘Gegs’! (9, 4)
This show has been brought to you by Free Range Podcasting.
Please listen to Trailer 3 and visit this page on our website if you would like to submit an episode of your own to be considered for publication as part of our ‘Best Evers’ season.
Any queries or feedback can be sent to worthaminute@freerangepodcasting.co.uk.
And if you are interested in receiving news and updates about this podcast, please enter your details in the brief form to which you will be taken when you click on this link.
Mike’s best ever school project is the Youth and Philanthropy Initiative, which gives Scottish young people the opportunity to champion a local charity.
Requiring pupils to work closely with local charities, this inspirational activity not only helps young pupil to develop teamwork, research and presentation skills, it also gives them the opportunity to make a real difference by winning a £3,000 grant for their chosen charity.
So far, YPI has enabled more than 270,000 young Scots to be involved in the transformational distribution of six million pounds across local communities.
This show has been brought to you by Free Range Podcasting.
Please listen to Trailer 3 and visit this page on our website if you would like to submit an episode of your own to be considered for publication as part of our ‘Best Evers’ season.
Any queries or feedback can be sent to worthaminute@freerangepodcasting.co.uk.
And if you are interested in receiving news and updates about this podcast, please enter your details in the brief form to which you will be taken when you click on this link.
Mike’s best ever foreign saying is the Polish expression “Nie mój cyrk, nie moje małpy”, meaning “This is not my circus, and these are not my monkeys”.
As well as making it clear that the speaker is not going to be trapped into taking on someone else’s problems, it creates a brilliant visual image of the chaos that will ensue if he or she weakens in their resolve and is in fact persuaded to become ringmaster of a circus full of rampant monkeys!
This show has been brought to you by Free Range Podcasting.
Please listen to Trailer 3 and visit this page on our website if you would like to submit an episode of your own to be considered for publication as part of our ‘Best Evers’ season.
Any queries or feedback can be sent to worthaminute@freerangepodcasting.co.uk
And if you are interested in receiving news and updates about this podcast, please enter your details in the brief form to which you will be taken when you click on this link.
Mike’s best ever walk-on part during a thoroughly undistinguished acting career was undoubtedly his appearance – on separate evenings – as both the front and rear end of the bovine star of ‘The Mortgage on the Cow’, a surreal comedy sketch that can best be described as ‘Hi-de-Hi!’ meets ‘Waiting for Godot’!
On the plus side, it took neither great effort nor much time to commit to memory his only, but much repeated, line for the role: “Moo, moo! Moo, moo, moo!”
This show has been brought to you by Free Range Podcasting.
Please listen to Trailer 3 and visit this page on our website if you would like to submit an episode of your own to be considered for publication as part of our ‘Best Evers’ season.
Any queries or feedback can be sent to worthaminute@freerangepodcasting.co.uk
And if you are interested in receiving news and updates about this podcast, please enter your details in the brief form to which you will be taken when you click on this link.
Despite being strongly tempted by ‘A Man, a Plan, a Canal - Panama!’, Mike reverts to Latin for his best ever palindrome, opting for the beautifully symmetrical, ‘sum summus mus’.
The following palindromes were ultimately found wanting but were given a brief moment in the limelight: ‘Do geese see God?’; ‘Borrow or rob’; ‘Too hot to hoot’; ‘A Toyota’s a Toyota’ and ‘Able was I ere I saw Elba’.
This show has been brought to you by Free Range Podcasting.
Please listen to Trailer 3 and visit this page on our website if you would like to submit an episode of your own to be considered for publication as part of our ‘Best Evers’ season.
Any queries or feedback can be sent to worthaminute@freerangepodcasting.co.uk.
Fending off stiff competition from ‘All the President’s Men’, ‘Good Night, and Good Luck’, ‘The Post, ‘She Said’ and ‘The Killing Fields’, Mike’s best ever film with a journalism theme is ‘Spotlight’.
This show has been brought to you by Free Range Podcasting.
Please listen to Trailer 3 and visit this page on our website if you would like to submit an episode of your own to be considered for publication as part of our ‘Best Evers’ season.
Any queries or feedback can be sent to worthaminute@freerangepodcasting.co.uk.
Mike’s best ever folk-rock historical song is ‘Roads to Moscow’ by Al Stewart because of its human interest, epic scope and continuing relevance.
Al Stewart's extensive catalogue of interesting and thought-provoking historical songs also includes 'Warren Harding', 'Lord Grenville' and 'A League of Notions'.
This show has been brought to you by Free Range Podcasting.
Please listen to Trailer 3 and visit this page on our website if you would like to submit an episode of your own to be considered for publication as part of our ‘Best Evers’ season.
Any queries or feedback can be sent to worthaminute@freerangepodcasting.co.uk
Despite the strong claims of ‘Ticket to Ride’ and ‘Settlers of Catan’ to be Mike’s best ever strategy board game, his vote ultimately goes to ‘Sagrada’, the aim of which is to become the Master Artisan by creating the most beautiful stained glass window for the Sagrada Familia.
This show has been brought to you by Free Range Podcasting.
Please listen to Trailer 3 and visit this page on our website if you would like to submit an episode of your own to be considered for publication as part of our ‘Best Evers’ season.
Any queries or feedback can be sent to worthaminute@freerangepodcasting.co.uk
Having mentioned some well-known mnemonics (such as ‘Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain’, SOHCAHTOA and BODMAS), and having dismissed the claims of a mnemonic rhyme to aid snake identification, Mike reckons that his best ever mnemonic becomes self-selecting!
This show has been brought to you by Free Range Podcasting.
Please listen to Trailer 3 and visit this page on our website if you would like to submit an episode of your own to be considered for publication as part of our ‘Best Evers’ season.
Any queries or feedback can be sent to worthaminute@freerangepodcasting.co.uk
Mike explains why he reckons that the red-necked phalarope pips the Arctic tern to the accolade of ‘best ever migratory bird’.
This show has been brought to you by Free Range Podcasting.
Please listen to Trailer 3 and visit this page on our website if you would like to submit an episode of your own to be considered for publication as part of our ‘Best Evers’ season.
Any queries or feedback can be sent to worthaminute@freerangepodcasting.co.uk
Mike’s best ever multi-role film performance is the memorable portrayal by Sir Alec Guinness of eight doomed members of an aristocratic family in the 1949 Ealing comedy, ‘Kind Hearts and Coronets’.
This show has been brought to you by Free Range Podcasting.
Please listen to Trailer 3 and visit this page on our website if you would like to submit an episode of your own to be considered for publication as part of our ‘Best Evers’ season.
Any queries or feedback can be sent to worthaminute@freerangepodcasting.co.uk
Mike’s best ever piles of stones walk is the Balmoral Cairns Trail in the royal estate of Balmoral in Deeside, Aberdeenshire. The final memorial of stones on the walk was erected in 1862 by Queen Victoria following the death of her husband, Prince Albert, and is actually a pyramid!
This show has been brought to you by Free Range Podcasting.
Please listen to Trailer 3 and visit this page on our website if you would like to submit an episode of your own to be considered for publication as part of our ‘Best Evers’ season.
Any queries or feedback can be sent to worthaminute@freerangepodcasting.co.uk
Mike’s best ever memorial to an item of footwear is the Boot Monument, which marks the location where Benedict Arnold was wounded in the leg on 7 October 1777, during the Battle of Saratoga.
This show has been brought to you by Free Range Podcasting.
Please listen to Trailer 3 and visit this page on our website if you would like to submit an episode of your own to be considered for publication as part of our ‘Best Evers’ season.
Any queries or feedback can be sent to worthaminute@freerangepodcasting.co.uk
Dave Elder is our first ever guest contributor to the Worth a Minute podcast. He selects a trip to the ‘Lost City’ of Colombia as his best ever trek and explains why it was not only a memorable and enjoyable expedition but also a very humbling experience.
This show has been brought to you by Free Range Podcasting.
Please listen to Trailer 3 and visit this page on our website if you would like to submit an episode of your own to be considered for publication as part of our ‘Best Evers’ season.
Any queries or feedback can be sent to worthaminute@freerangepodcasting.co.uk
Mike confesses to having been an inveterate dictionary browser, with his best ever random discovery of a definition being “mallemaroking”: the carousing of sailors on icebound Greenland whaling ships!
This show has been brought to you by Free Range Podcasting.
Please listen to Trailer 3 and visit this page on our website if you would like to submit an episode of your own to be considered for publication as part of our ‘Best Evers’ season.
Any queries or feedback can be sent to worthaminute@freerangepodcasting.co.uk
Bex explains why Nicholas Winton is her best ever hidden hero.
This show has been brought to you by Free Range Podcasting.
Please listen to Trailer 3 and visit this page on our website if you would like to submit an episode of your own to be considered for publication as part of our ‘Best Evers’ season.
Any queries or feedback can be sent to worthaminute@freerangepodcasting.co.uk.
In the absence of universally agreed criteria for selecting a best ever ruined fortress, Mike puts forward a number of reasons to support his claim that Dunnottar Castle, near Stonehaven, Scotland, deserves that accolade.
This show has been brought to you by Free Range Podcasting.
Please listen to Trailer 3 and visit this page on our website if you would like to submit an episode of your own to be considered for publication as part of our ‘Best Evers’ season.
Any queries or feedback can be sent to worthaminute@freerangepodcasting.co.uk.
Grappling with the conundrum of selecting a Best Ever Plotline of 'Neighbours', Bex considers various possibilities before opting for the Jacob Marley-inspired visitation by Jim Robinson in which he urges his son, Paul, to turn from his wicked ways!
This show has been brought to you by Free Range Podcasting.
Please listen to Trailer 3 and visit this page on our website if you would like to submit an episode of your own to be considered for publication as part of our ‘Best Evers’ season.
Any queries or feedback can be sent to worthaminute@freerangepodcasting.co.uk.
Faced with the difficult choice of selecting his Best Ever Opening Sentence of a Novel, Mike opts for ‘Moby Dick’ on the basis that its three-word curtain-raiser packs a punch and compels the reader to continue in order to discover answers to the intriguing questions posed.
This show has been brought to you by Free Range Podcasting.
Please listen to Trailer 3 and visit this page on our website if you would like to submit an episode of your own to be considered for publication as part of our ‘Best Evers’ season.
Any queries or feedback can be sent to worthaminute@freerangepodcasting.co.uk.
Mike explains that to kick off the ‘Best Evers’ season, he has revisited a 2004 article in a pupil newspaper, which featured a double page spread of ‘Best Ever’ choices submitted by staff and pupils from across the school, including the following: Best Ever Pet – a fire salamander called Ivan Best Ever Goldfish – Bubbles Best Ever Hair Gel – DAX Wax Best Ever Skateboard Moves – Big Spin and Ollie Best Ever Theme Park Ride – Hulk Coaster Best Ever Bit of Grammar – Dangling Modifier Best Ever Car – Aston Martin DB4GT Best Ever Live Performance – ZZ Top in concert at the Apollo Theatre, Glasgow, in 1983 Best Ever Piece of 19th Century Legislation – the 1802 Health and Morals of Apprentices Act
Almost twenty years on, this piece of pupil journalism still works and has also provided the inspiration for the inaugural ‘Worth a Minute’ podcast season, which is why it is Mike’s best ever ‘Best Evers’ article! This show has been brought to you by https://www.freerangepodcasting.co.uk/ (Free Range Podcasting). Please contact us with feedback and queries at worthaminute@freerangepodcasting.co.uk.
Mike explains that the hope is that the ‘Worth a Minute’ podcast will be a collaborative activity, with many different people contributing content. Mike provides the pointers noted below for anyone interested in submitting an episode for consideration: Identify a ‘Best Ever’ item, experience, memory etc that you would like to share Plan a script that will do it justice and will make an impact on your audience Record your script, taking care to make your audio as clean and clear as possible Review your recording - check that it’s between 45 and 75 seconds long and do your best to deal with any glitches Email your file (ideally in .wav or .mp3 format) to worthaminute@freerangepodcasting.co.uk, or email us at that address to arrange a file transfer.
Relevant information can also be found on the https://www.freerangepodcasting.co.uk/worth-a-minute-challenge (Free Range Podcasting website). This show has been brought to you by https://www.freerangepodcasting.co.uk/ (Free Range Podcasting).
Mike introduces Season 1 of the ‘Worth a Minute’ podcast – Best Evers - explaining that a contributor will select a favourite item, experience, event, activity, memory etc and will then outline the ‘why?’, describing why it is a ‘best ever’ for them. This show has been brought to you by https://www.freerangepodcasting.co.uk/ (Free Range Podcasting).
Bex asks Mike whether a sixty second podcast can communicate anything meaningful. Mike assures Bex that it can, explaining that the 'Worth a Minute' podcast aims to cut down content to its essence and then express it in a striking and memorable manner. Mike concludes by mentioning haiku, a poetic form that relies on brevity and structure for its impact, and makes reference to the poem below, which has been penned to mark the launch of the 'Worth a Minute' podcast. 'Worth a Minute' Miniature podcasts: Crafted, curated, cogent – One minute magic! This show has been brought to you by https://www.freerangepodcasting.co.uk/ (Free Range Podcasting).