Shift Run Stop

Meet Catherine O'Flynn and Peter Fletcher. Cath's first novel, What Was Lost was set in a shopping centre much like the one where we did this interview. Husband Peter has been documenting his sneezes, and spills the beans (and elastic bands) on what it was like working as a postie. What with magma dragons and [...]

Author Naomi Alderman drops in this week. You might recognise her name from her award-winning work Disobedience and a new but already highly-acclaimed novel The Lessons, currently 'Book at Bedtime' on Radio 4. But not just that! She's a gee-eek. She really is. She was the lead writer on Perplex City, she's a high-flying games journalist [...]

"I look for aliens" is how high-flying young astrobiologist Lewis Dartnell describes his work, and we hear the wheres and hows of that search in this week's episode. During the fascinating chat Lewis explains how aliens might resemble anything from bacteria to "sky whales", Roo has a question about methane, and Leila jumps at the [...]

Comedian and columnist Shazia Mirza drops in for a chat this week and we have a great time hearing about her former life as science teacher, her experience of playing the Edinburgh Festival, and what her parents think about what she does... Dave's similarly-voiced brother Simon joins us too, fresh from the Games Developer's Conference in [...]

It's 25 years of Back to the Future! To celebrate, we're joined by the geeky and innovative stand-up comic, Paul Kerensa, whose 2005 Edinburgh show "Back to the Futon" involved a real-life DeLorean and a Gray's Sports Almanacful of in-jokes. Since then Paul's been focused on collecting and comparing every moment in time from every [...]

Our guest this week is comedy writer and cartoonist Andy Riley, the twisted mind behind the Bunny Suicides books and the Observer's comic strip Roasted, as well as loads of great TV and radio comedy. While we were chatting, Andy drew some amazing cassette cards for us (watch a video of him drawing them and a [...]

We chatted with artist Sydney Padua this week. Sydney's animated creations appear in loads of blockbuster movies, but she's a star of the small screen too - you might have seen her extremely funny web comic Babbage and Lovelace doing the rounds lately. With Ada Lovelace Day coming up very soon, Sydney tells us about [...]

You might recognise Zeb's voice from Radio 4 news, continuity announcements and the iconic Shipping Forecast. He's also very funny and, unexpectedly, looks like he should be in a boyband. We also hear about Roo's hobbity holiday in the New Forest and Leila's trip to Decode Lab at the V&A. Dave comes back from India loaded [...]

Pepys blogger, Pretend Office worker and former Aardman animator Phil Gyford was kind enough to not only bring himself to Shift Run Stop towers, but also his Mega Drive. We natter with the Internet's Dave Green about the BAFTA Film Awards (which Roo also went to) and dorkbotlondon (which Leila also went to). Leila meets a previous [...]

What if you could play a game of Friends? Or The Wire? What would that be like? We saw Duncan at Playful 09 and were instantly hooked by his idea that dramatic storytelling and video games could merge in a new interactive concept called "Fictive Worlds". Duncan also shares his experience of developing the first [...]

We love a bit of tech abuse on this podcast, so it's a real pleasure to bring you James Larsson, mad scientist extraordinaire. James hit the headlines on the BBC news site with his most recent project, Boot Fetish Pong, but old-skool listeners might remember seeing his prawn sandwich BBC micro clock back when Dave [...]

This week we are lucky enough to be joined by technology broadcaster Aleks Krotoski, known for her work at the Guardian (particularly the Tech Weekly podcast) and most recently for her new four-part prime time BBC Two series, Virtual Revolution. Aleks tells us about some of the leading lights she spoke to on this innovative [...]

In this week's fun-packed edition of Shift Run Stop we hear the sounds of ponies, meet real life author, Guardian columnist and dad Chris Cleave, learn about the San Francisco weather system from our foreign correspondent Anna Pickard, get a topical confectionery newsflash from our snacks expert Dave Green and more besides! Something for everyone, [...]

This week we chat to Nick Pope, the former head of the MOD's UFO project (recently released into the public domain). Nick is a well-respected broadcaster who speaks on all aspects of the unexplained, so it was very nice of him to put up with our incessant questions about the Government's contingency plans for alien [...]

This week we were really honoured to talk to two fantastically clever artists who make use of technology in their work. Artist/performer Sarah Angliss has been researching the Uncanny Valley, and we hear about some of the eerie musical experiences she has created, for the Adam Curtis "It Felt Like A Kiss" piece and elsewhere. [...]

This week's episode was tremendous fun. Journalist and comedy writer Ariane Sherine tells us about her new book which features original pieces by everyone from Richard Dawkins to Josie Long. Ariane's now-familiar slogan "There is probably no God, now stop worrying and enjoy your life" was first displayed on London buses in 2008, after thousands [...]

So farewell then, 2009. We've had a great time over the last few months and are thrilled to be ending the year with what must be our most thought-provoking episode to date. Film maker Adam Curtis joins us to talk about his latest project, 'It Felt Like a Kiss' and has some brilliant theories on [...]

We have an unprecedented number of guests for you in the mystery Christmas package with airholes that is this special festive episode of Shift Run Stop. Maggie Philbin and Click presenter LJ Rich join us to talk about tea, t-shirts and the days of three-channel TV, while comedy writer-performer Daniel Maier regales us with showbiz [...]

This week we are joined by Russell Davies (the author and organiser of the Interesting conferences) and discover that he was once in a band. We also hear from Karen (wife and nightly documenter of the infamous Sleep Talkin' Man) and eat some festive snacks with Dave Green. Links: Russell Davies (blog public twitter) Egg Bacon Chips and Beans Russell's [...]

This week we meet the popular internet and TV stars Helen Zaltzman and Olly Mann and ask them about their Answer Me This podcast, Robert Brook and Dave Green taste more South African Snacks with us, Leila, Dave and Tom discuss a film (warning: there might be spoilers, though only if you can work out [...]