Tagged “podcast”

At the height of my playing career, David Baddiel wore blackface and put a pineapple on his head to mock me on national television every Friday night. While the chants have remained ever present, and David’s name has become synonymous with mine, it’s taken 25 years for us to finally meet face-to-face. In this episode, I talk with David about the impact his racist sketches had on me, my family and the wider community, and why allyship needs to become a bigger part of football.

While watching David Baddiel's excellent Jews Don't Count documentary on Channel Four I was intrigued by the section in which he spoke to Jason Lee, leading me to seek out this podcast episode.

In the nineties at the height of “lads’ culture”, Baddiel and Frank Skinner essentially bullied and abused footballer Lee, mocking his appearance in particular.

This conversation, difficult as it sounded, is fascinating. It throws up so many moral ambiguities, such as whether or not Baddiel is a fit person to publicly campaign against racism, and related questions around acceptance, rehabilitation and moving on.

It also made me question my own prejudices and behaviours, past and present.

Most of all I was impressed by Jason Lee. His past treatment has meant that he and his family have had a lot to endure, but he speaks with such dignity, positivity and resolve.

Loved this short listen from Clearleft, on a subject close to my heart! New job titles can feel a bit “emperor’s new clothes” but with Design Engineering I think Clearleft, GitHub et al. might be onto something. It was fascinating hearing people from both design and engineering backgrounds give their perspectives, and how ultimately they’re addressing the same thing—the need to “finesse the overlaps/gaps” between design and the realisation of that design in engineering, especially in light of the complexities of the modern front-end.

(via @Stugoo)

An interview with Ashley ‘Dotty’ Charles, a writer and broadcaster, on the topic of online outrage.

By shouting about the little things, are we neglecting to talk about the bigger issues in modern society? We discuss performative outrage, the role of the social media provocateur and the strange case of Rachel Dolezal.

I really enjoyed this. It totally chimed with how I currently feel about the state of online discourse, and Dotty has some great ideas and insights. I’ve already bought her book, Outraged and am looking forward to reading that soon.

Thanks to Rita (Kelly) for the tip!

During the COVID situation, people have an urgent need to access critical information online. But in 2020, the average webpage is rammed full of large JavaScript files, huge images etc, and as a result is slow to load. This problem is likely to be most keenly felt by those who don’t have the luxury of fast internet – potentially the same people who need access to that critical information the most.

Here’s a brilliant discussion between Gerry McGovern and Jeremy Keith on that problem, suggesting tactics to help fix things such as performance budgets, introducing tactics at the design stage to mimic slow connections and other access constraints, optimising for return visits, progressive enhancement and more.

Loved this!

(via @adactio)