At 81 it’s always possible that I haven’t a clue about podcasts! Some 81 year olds can’t even turn on a computer and never will. Luckily, as soon as I knew there was such a thing as email, I had to learn how to do it and I’ve been working on home computers, laptops, MacBooks and iPads for over 25 years!

I started off on computers with writing essays when I was studying with the Open University, back in the 90’s and then, as soon as I could, I got an email address and wrote to friends (who had email addresses) and, when I had little to say, I played spider solitaire. A few years on, when we had broadband and didn’t have to take over the telephone line, I started my online games and jigsaws shop and kept a look-out on eBay for things I thought my customers might be interested in – at that time I still had my antique and collectables shop, so I was buying and selling little items I liked, while assuming that if I liked them, someone else would too.

When we sold our shop in 2005, we moved to the seaside but I kept my online shop open and concentrated on late nineteenth and early twentieth century wooden jigsaws, though I carried on buying and offering games and a few toys for sale.

From 2005 until 2014, I bought and sold quite happily. No one bothers to tell you (in case you’re thinking of dealing in second-hand items), when you buy a ‘lot’, sometimes it’s a lot of stuff, and some of it you will never sell! One time I bought a lovely ‘lot’ of calling card cases at a famous London auction house. I sold four or five of them and still have four or five! Usually, though, you can make most of the costs back on the one or two really good pieces and sell the others for less but still making a profit.

In my understairs cupboard, if you could get past the clothes hanging in front of its door, you would find around six crates of china – mainly 19th century plates and a nice late 18th century earthenware teaset. In the 90’s, before minimalism, people used to buy single plates, presumably as decorations for a wall. I used to buy the plates from a ‘runner’ (I think that’s what he was) called Des who would turn up every week or so. He would have spent the previous week going from shop to shop searching for things to buy which he could make a profit on but so could the person buying it from him. He was a mine of information and could tell me who made it, what it was made of and how much to ask from my customers. I sold a lot of what I bought from him but, sadly minimalism came and the customers for the plates I still had didn’t! But, someday the trends will change – maybe when my grand daughter is in her 60’s and opens a shop!

My online shop was called nostalgiagames.net. I was the only person selling old wooden jigsaws for a good few years. I had customers from all over the jigsawing world but mainly the US and UK. I bought most of the jigsaws that I sold, from auctions online.

The end came when other sellers realised how much money they could get for the best jigsaws. I just couldn’t afford to offer such high prices because I also had to pay for the goods to be sent to me and, of course, there are commissions and VAT to be paid on top of all the rest.

I closed my site down and was left with quite a few things in my store-room. But, in 2015, I heard about an Emporium opening with very reasonable rented spaces and went ahead and opened a stall. I thought people might be wanting to buy plates again but – no – I sold one plate in the first week or so – not enough to pay the rent! But I also sold some old games; in fact for the next two years I sold mostly old games but I ran out of stock and tried to find more online. Some things people wanted, others no one wanted. So I closed in 2017, selling much of my stall fittings to someone else starting up.

Since then I have fully retired, so now I have time to listen to podcasts! At the moment I have no idea what is available. I did listen to several of Rachel Maddow’s podcast series about how fascists tried to take over in America in the 30’s and 40’s. In a few years, if I live that long, I may find that they have finally succeeded. I hope they don’t, but I don’t live there anymore and I won’t be affected by the terrible and ridiculous things the coming government seems to want to do. I do feel very sad for those who live in America who fought so hard to stop them, especially my relatives. Maybe it won’t be so bad….fingers crossed.

I am sitting here a year later and have realised, after reading the above post, that I didn’t answer the question posed. At this moment I am not listening to any podcast and haven’t for several months but I have listened to a few during the last couple of years.

The first podcast I listened to was an interesting one about an artist whose name – and the name of the podcast – has completely slipped my mind. The next was a series by Rachel Maddow describing the way the far right almost took over the country in the 1930s. It was called Ultra and it was fascinating!

I also listened to Bagman, another political series by Rachel Maddow. I spent very little time thinking about American politics until around 2015, so had no knowledge of the things that Nixon and Agnew did.

I must admit that I don’t spend much time on ‘listening’ when I can either ‘watch’ or ‘write’ or ‘read‘. For me, listening to a podcast means sitting still and doing nothing other than – listening! It is silly, I know, but I find it very difficult to just sit and listen. Sitting and reading or sitting and watching are things I do much of the day, now that I’m older and I can do either quite happily but, sitting and listening? Nope! It’s wasting time! Why? I can’t explain it.

(I am partly deaf and this may be part of the reason. If I could be doing a household chore or painting, perhaps I would listen to broadcasts more but whenever I try this I start thinking of what I’m doing rather than listening then I find I’ve missed important details.)