Turkey Techno and the End of Civilisation

Richard built a barbecue. It didn't go to plan. His wife put the food in the oven. Jamie thinks pre-cooking in the oven before finishing on the barbecue is perfectly reasonable. Richard thinks that's the coward's way out. This is where we are.Also this week: Richard went to see Richard Birkin with a string quartet, recorded with his secret band that isn't remotely secret, got deep into plugins versus real hardware, and played a sound he could not get out of his head. Jamie travelled to Ireland, Bristol, and Rotterdam — the Eurostar felt like a Jason Bourne film and he wants Eurostar and Air BnB to sponsor the podcast. He saw Project Hail Mary and makes the case that Ryan Gosling is our generation's Steve McQueen. Richard got in trouble with his wife over his audiobooks-aren't-reading hill. Jamie actually read a book.Richard's hill: neighbours playing loud music in the garden and screaming at Alexa. His solution — get in first and play his own terrible music. A battle is ensuing. He is officially an old man. Jamie doubles down on loud speakers on public transport, the pointlessness of FaceTime, and the case that the phone speaker is the worst invention of all time.Jamie has been rewatching The Newsroom. A show made over ten years ago that holds a mirror to everything happening now — and we still haven't learned. Black Mirror enters the conversation. So does The Thick of It. So does San Junipero, uploading consciousness, and the Ray Ban glasses that are basically the Black Mirror contact lens episode made real. If the world we're living in now had been written as fiction ten years ago, nobody would have believed it.Also: Jamie's advice in the event of a nuclear explosion is to get as close to it as possible. Richard explains that if we were horses our music would be different. There is a turkey impression. There is Turkey Techno. Don't ask.The episode ends with Jamie and Richard heading to a local electronic music gig. Jamie is going to get pissed. Richard is his carer.