'Podcasting House' is pivotal to the BBC's plan to scatter the seed of its various non-broadcast audio products beyond the narrow silos of the people who happen to listen to the programmes from which they arise.

The age of the rock star ended with the passing of physical product, the rise of automated percussion, the domination of the committee approach to hit-making, the widespread adoption of choreography, and, above all, the advent of the mystique-destroying Internet.

'Unjustly Maligned' is a neat idea for a podcast. Antony Johnston invites a believer to make the case for a cultural artefact that consensus tends to deride.

Mongolia is a country of only three million souls. One million of them live in Ulaanbaatar, where, despite the skyscrapers, half the population sleep in tents. One of the few Mongolians to become famous outside his home country is Ariunbaatar Ganbaatar, who won the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World prize.

A gap in tone is opening up between podcasts and broadcast radio. The people who produce the former know their listeners have given them permission to go deep into their subject. The people who do the latter live in fear they've already gone too far.

Bobby Bones is a young country DJ who does a widely syndicated morning show. He's at his best with his BobbyCast, in which he talks to Nashville up-and-comers such as Kelsea Ballerini and Lauren Alaina. Guests are encouraged to relax on Bones's couch and talk about anything they like.

When Shanthi Ranganathan was the featured turn on 'Hip Hop Saved My Life With Romesh Ranganathan,' we learned she didn't allow him to have a girlfriend until he'd finished university, and she learned - to her unfeigned horror - that he used to sneak girls into the house when she was out.

It is the melancholy fate of all young legends to becoming better known for the things they did to exploit fame than the things that made them famous in the first place.

Back in the 1980s, state-of-the-nation fictions were all set in Manhattan. Now, they're all in Trump country. Early in 'S-Town,' we're introduced to an actual maze, every branch of which leads to a further junction. This may also be a metaphor.

Fortunately... 'With Fi and Jane' features BBC veterans Fi Glover and Jane Garvey sitting in the BBC cafe, nattering about whatever interests them.

It's been a while since I checked in with Malcolm Gladwell's 'Revisionist History' podcast. The episode 'The King of Tears' suggests the author is raising the bar. His argument is that country music is the genre that makes us cry because, unlike rock, it's not afraid of specifics.

If you don't work near a water cooler and hanker for the company of fellow natural history enthusiasts, 'The Blue Planet II Podcast' has Emily Knight and Becky Ripley enthusing infectiously about and delving deeper into the most recent episode.

The opening solo on 'Once in Royal David's City' is still the most dramatic radio moment of the year.

In 'The High Low', in some respects an audio version of 'Grazia,' Pandora Sykes and Dolly Alderton wonder whether they missed something in their survey of the Harvey Weinstein story. Maybe they did, they decide.

I once interviewed Anthony Burgess on the radio. I played pop records between the conversation.

'I Was There Too' talks to people who played non-starring roles in big movies. That means the likes of comedian Jimmy Pardo, who didn't make it to the finished 'Dreamgirls.' Still, he recalls that when an actor is put on hold for a movie, he gets paid for two weeks just for sitting at home waiting to be called.

Many pop songs seem to be more potent now than in their heyday.

If you listen to 'Pod Save America', which is run by former Obama staffers and Democratic party partisans, you'll be exposed to ads for home delivery of everything from gourmet meals to underwear, presumably in the belief that you're too busy being fabulous to go near a shop.

Lucy Kellaway's columns in the 'Financial Times' lend themselves to podcasts because they usually consist of her giving a brisk ticking off to some CEO or subversively wondering whether we're really as busy as we pretend we are.

Radio 3 shows such as 'Between the Ears' also make the kind of podcasts that draw the most from your noise-cancelling headphones. The programme commissions ideas that make adventurous use of sound.

Radio people can't entirely shake off radio habits when they start doing podcasts. They sometimes bring with them things we don't need, like producers and explanatory voiceovers.

Both traditional broadcasters and podcasters are betting heavily on the growth of voice-driven technology and so-called smart speakers, the theory being that it is as easy to ask Amazon's Alexa to play you the 'Guardian Books' podcast as it is to get it to play Capital FM.

For magazines seeking to extend their reach into podcasting, half the battle is finding members of staff who don't sound like the kind of people you wouldn't care to be stuck in a lift with.

Richard Hoggart's cultural analysis 'The Uses of Literacy' was published in 1957, but its influence still hovers over anyone setting out to write seriously about people's affection for things that aren't serious, such as the products of pop culture.