Podcast Thursday

• Thoroughly Modern Mary - As repellent as I find the behaviour of their priests, the iconography of the Catholic church is a bizarre, mawkish, contradictory and fascinating thing, particularly in the subject of Mary. There are only a handful of sentences in the bible concerning Mary, and yet a whole complex mythology has been spun out of them including the doctrine of the immaculate conception, Mary's role as intercessor and the conflicting images of the sinless young virgin with blonde hair and blue eyes (rather unlikely in first century Palestine!) and the mother, goddess figure as well. This is the first episode of a short series examining these beliefs and well worth a listen, if only for the notable achievement of featuring interviews from Anne Widdicombe and Richard Dawkins in the same 15 minute programme.
• As It Occurs to ... Tiny Andrew Collings ??!??! Anyone would think that Richard Herring was making this up as he goes along, or something ...
• Guardian Tech Weekly - Fascinating interview with Conrad Wolfram this week, with Tom Watson MP championing the cause of making government databases available for public use and scrutiny.
• So Wrong It's Right - One of the better Radio 4 panel shows at the moment, always enjoyable when Charlie Brooker gets to argue with the guests about something that gets his goat.
• Coverville : Who did it better? - Two takes on 'Love Vigilantes' by New Order, and I have to confess that this is the first time that I have actually listened to the words of this rather excellent song.