Three (and a bit) podcasts about the creative process

— 3 minute read

PC Zone Lives

If the collection of names Mr Cursor, Colin Culk, David McCandless or Charlie Brooker ring a bell then you probably read PC Zone at one point. The more anarchic end of the raft of games magazines that came out in the early 90s and went on way longer than you think (17 years!), this fairly sporadic podcast reunites a bunch of the writers, editors and designers to chat about the various different periods of the mag and how it was put together. One particular favourite of mine is the interview with Vici McDonald about her design work on the magazine and also talks about her much loved and missed brother writer Duncan McDonald.

PC Zone Lives | Substack page and RSS feed here

Better Call Saul Insider podcast

A great DVD extra deep dive where the Better Call Saul creators go on deep dives behind each episode while the series was on its original run. This really drills down into the creative processes behind all sorts of areas that you might not immediately consider, not just the actors but also the prop work, lighting and editing. The real passion and craft of everyone working on the series comes through in heaps.

My favourite quote from a recently listened to episode: “Montage is the French word for over budget.”

Better Call Saul Insider podcast RSS feed

Wrap Drinks

Wrap Drinks is a kind of spin-off of the Shitty Rigs Instagram account which shows how much abuse a camera will take when being taped to a drill to make a slow spin camera move when the budget is tight. Wrap Drinks covers the broader (mostly US) film industry and talks to people from all over within it - anyone from assistant directors, make-up artists, puppeteers, FX units and more. It can really get into the nuts and bolts of both the practical side of the industry (so if you want to learn about the mind boggling logistics of the Christopher Nolan Batman movies or how make-up is 80% problem solving then get tucked in).

Wrap Drinks podcast page with RSS feed

Special mentions

A decent whizz through food writer Jay Rayner’s career on Always Take Notes gives a huge amount of information on his approach to having a creative business and career.

Adrian Chiles interviewed by Miranda Sawyer on grinding out writing for a regular column (and obviously his urinal) on the Paper Cuts podcast.