The Whale Pod

Dreaming of Dick, Garth Marenghi's 'Dickplace', "unbridled Melville going hogwild", whaling spirituality, the legend of Moby Dick, The Essex, Melville Marginalia, Thomas Beale, converging research, Mocha Dick, "Melville, or Ishmael, rather", bold assertations about how Melville wrote the book, the unconscious, Ahab's origin story, emo Melville's cry for help, penetration, Musée de Cluny, at the me...

The fallout from Ahab's declaration that their whaling mission, stage directions, Hamlet, the Iron Crown of Lombardy facts, Napoleon, Sex Pistols, men's mental health, everything is trains, plundering interiors, railway history, Dickens, freedom, "both choo-choo and the rails", Starbuck's passivity, editors, Stubb's soliloquy (aka Live, Laugh, Stubb), Macbeth's Porter, Stubb's a cuck, poetic pathe...

"Art not game for Moby Dick?!" One of the big Ahab chapters. The aul' fella fully exploding into the story. Recording in a heatwave, Shakespeare, philosophy rears its ugly head, paranoia, prophecies of fascism, an ounce of gold, blasphemy, killing whales for money not blood, grog, Elon Musk, Donald Trump and more. This episode is the discussion about chapter 36 of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick ; The...

Thirty-five chapters in, and we've seen no whales, but we're about to learn a lot about looking for whales. Also, the all-important question: plop or splat? This episode is the discussion about chapter 35 of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick ; The Mast-Head. Follow us on social media... Instagram: https://instagram.com/whale__pod Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thewhale1851.bsky.social

Professional blunders, WhaleTok, the Dutch language is not real, discipline, Power, "who's the captain?", flattened hierarchies, the Titanic sinks, give us a break, becoming one with The Force, Manuel from Fawlty Towers, Shakespearean comedy, the sound of rain in the background, men's mental health, Charles Dickens was a racist. This episode is the discussion about chapters 33 and 34 of Herman Mel...

One of the most maligned chapters of Moby-Dick is the litany of whales and Ishmael's taxonomy thereof. Is it that bad? This episode is the discussion about chapter 32 of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick ; Cetology. Follow us on social media... Instagram: https://instagram.com/whale__pod Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thewhale1851.bsky.social

Whale news, endorsing baleen whales, whale cocktails, David's crack, the Grand Tour, "...or Ishmael, rather...", finally clapping eyes on Ahab (who then does nothing), fighting the elements, modular man, warmer weather, Virgil's Georgics , Ahab speaks, Ahab threatens, Ahab hoys his pipe overboard, chewing your ear off with dream chat. This episode is the discussion about chapters 28, 29, 30 and 31...

The litany of sailors, rationing danger, enraged and mighty men, Columbo, Dick Van Dyke, Mission: Impossible, whale-based erotica, Protestantism (again), John Bunyan, Don Quixote, Andrew Jackson pioneering ethnic cleansing, euphemism, Lyndon's Johnson, Norman Rockwell, prison, NPCs, don't worry worry, short man syndrome, fate, the racialised exotic, adventure literature, Ahasuerus and Morgan McSwe...

The two Ishmaels, whale journalism, Simon "whaler" Bolivar, whale diplomacy, Wales (not whales), squirting jets of spunk, the university of life, Modernism (again), Melville's havin' a laff, Handel, George II, the Champions League, cruelty-free whale oil, the crown jewels, a theory of baldness, Pete's nana's lipstick, whale sandwiches, the Rain Man of guessing how many words are in a piece of copy...

It's Christmas Day, we're 111 pages in, and we're finally going on a whaling voyage. This episode includes 'Jeeves and Wooster go whaling', pilots, blood and thunder, Charles Dickens, Isaac Watts, Toy Story 3, inevitable doom, waxing and waning, a six-incher, Bulkington returns (played by Channing Tatum), the existentialist manifesto. The whale graveyard can be seen here... https://www.bbc.com/fut...

The ongoing book club chatting about Moby-Dick . Elijah, prophecy, "Ahab's canny good at huntin' whales", don't show the monster, Alexander Armstrong, hyperreality, David Lynch, Brian Eno's elevator music, happy endings, "Holloa!", commodification, fattening people up, transformation, face versus arse. This episode is the discussion about chapters 19, 20 and 21 of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick ; The...

Sperm whale birth, Miriam Margolyes, looking at burly lads, the sequestration of death, cannibals, Modernism, Sally Rooney, annihilation. This episode is the discussion about chapters 17 and 18 of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick ; The Ramadan and His Mark. Follow us on social media... Instagram: https://instagram.com/whale__pod Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thewhale1851.bsky.social

It's time for an apology... In this episode we mention the character Billy Mitchell from Eastenders being played by numerous actors, when in fact - obviously - we meant Ben Mitchell. Thanks for sticking with us through this difficult time. This episode is the discussion about chapter 16 of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick ; The Ship. Follow us on social media... Instagram: https://instagram.com/whale__...

Strap yourselves in for another chat about Herman Melville's Moby-Dick as we cover CLR James, medieval Welsh poetry, Melville writing Seinfeld, Ishmael being an intolerable prick, "Say it, Frenchy!", "I sound like a wanker..." This episode is the discussion about chapters 14 and 15; Nantucket and Chowder. Follow us on social media... Instagram: https://instagram.com/whale__pod Bluesky: https://bsk...

The longest episode of The Whale Pod so far, as Leigh Jones and Peter Mitchell discuss Herman Melville's Moby-Dick . Covering only 14 pages of the novel, a lot of ground is covered, including (but not limited to)... Ishmael was the proto-Louis Theroux, Melville mocks performative readers (not us who are reading for a podcast, though, never), Ishmael loitering in the smoking area of a club, Herman...

Leigh and Pete discuss one of the most famous set-pieces of Herman Melville's novel, The Sermon. Finally, at long last, we talk about Jonah and the whale. We touch on: Orson Welles, Pinky and The Brain, God living out his terminal wishes, lads just hanging about on docks. This episode is the discussion about chapter 9 of Moby-Dick ; The Sermon. Follow us on social media... Instagram: https://insta...

Who can we blame for bad writing in Moby-Dick ? Is Ishmael a #FBPE? Leigh and Pete have a lovely time talking about death. Can you believe it's taken two white men four episodes of their podcast to mention the Nazis? Well here it is. This episode is the discussion about chapters 5, 6, 7 and 8; Breakfast, The Street, The Chapel and The Pulpit. Follow us on social media... Instagram: https://instagr...

Leigh Jones and Peter Mitchell discussing Herman Melville's ' Moby-Dick ' chapter-by-chapter. If you're reading along, this episode covers chapters 3 and 4; The Spouter-Inn, and The Counterpane. Follow us on social media... Instagram: https://instagram.com/whale__pod Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thewhale1851.bsky.social

Was Herman Melville a failson? failson ( plural failsons ) ( Internet slang, derogatory ) An incompetent, unsuccessful middle- or upper-class man who is protected from economic duress by his family's wealth or influence. Just one of the many question addressed by Leigh and Pete as they continue discussing the 1851 classic, Moby-Dick; or The Whale . This episode covers chapter 2: The Carpet-Bag. Fo...

The first episode of a new podcast all about Moby-Dick; or The Whale . Journalist Leigh Jones has never read a book. His friend Peter Mitchell writes them. The chapter-by-chapter they'll be working their way through Herman Melville's 1851 epic about a fish (and it is a fish). After introductions, this episode looks at the first chapter, 'Loomings'. All together, now... "Call me Ishmael..." Follow...

Leigh Jones is a journalist in the north east of England. He's never read a book in his life. Luckily, his mate Peter Mitchell is an author and an expert in literature. Chapter-by-chapter, the two will discuss Herman Melville's 1851 epic novel about a big ol' fish, ' Moby-Dick; or The Whale '.