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The Whale Pod

Leigh Jones & Peter Mitchell

A chapter-by-chapter run-through of Herman Melville's 1851 epic about a big fish: Moby-Dick.

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22 episodes
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Avg 45 min
English

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Thursday · 38 min
Episode 30 - Brit & Squid
What do whales eat? Brit and squid, of course. Whales stranding in Northumberland after seeing naked Geordies, brit, seafaring Brits, baleen whales, Melville doing a Melville, dog-fish, Welsh animal names, the greatest long sentence in the book, fact-checking Melville, vengeful God, the carrot and stick of faith, Squid the cat (RIP), spoiler alert, a vast pulpy mass, the sociology of knowledge, folk-science versus science-science, Italo Calvino, semiotics, Norwegians in favour of Krakens and mermaids, The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife, Anglophiles, phrenology, teuthology, Archie the squid, from unknown horrors to known horrors. This episode is the discussion about chapters 58 and 59 of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick; Brit and Squid. Follow us on social media... Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thewhale1851.bsky.social Instagram: https://instagram.com/whale__pod
#29
September 17 · 41 min
Episode 29 - Herman Melville's Art History (Part 2)
It's part two of our look at Herman Melville's art history of whales. Thomas Beale's dwarf whales, Melville Marginalia, the whole internet loves Ambrose Louis Garneray, we regret to inform you Ambrose Louis Garneray is a slaver, prison hulks, the insignificance of harpoons, H. Durand, depictions of whaling, Melville enters the cosmos, famous beggars, the reproduction of reality, Joseph Johnson with a ship on his head, authenticity, Albrecht Dürer, JFK's scrimshaw collection, magnificent desolation, Magic Eye, the constellations, men's mental health, Vishnu as leviathan. This episode is the discussion about chapters 56 and 57 of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick; Of the Less Erroneous Pictures of Whales, and the True Pictures of Whaling Scenes; and Of Whales in Paint; in Teeth; in Wood; in Sheet-Iron; in Stone; in Mountains; in the Stars. Follow us on social media... Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thewhale1851.bsky.social Instagram: https://instagram.com/whale__pod
#28
September 10 · 33 min
Episode 28 - Herman Melville's Art History (Part 1)
We ended up doing a two-parter on Herman Melville's dive into art history without planning it as a two-parter. This is the first part. Colourblindness, what's a whale, a whaling cat, Thomas Bewick, Guido Reni, gettin' yer waps out, leviathans, taxidermy, the Horniman walrus, platypus facts, Cuvier's squash, safer xenophobic ground (re: China), feed Pete's fetish, huge naturals, Ian Nairn. This episode is the discussion about chapter 55 of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick; Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales. Follow us on social media... Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thewhale1851.bsky.social Instagram: https://instagram.com/whale__pod
#27
September 3 · 47 min
Episode 27 - The Town-Ho's Story
GAM. Noun—A social meeting of two (or more) Whale-ships, generally on a cruising-ground; when, after exchanging hails, they exchange visits by boats' crews: the two captains remaining, for the time, on board of one ship, and the two chief mates on the other. Yer mum, gamming, Salisbury Plain, Noah Webster's Arc, captainly dignity, the whaling cinematic universe, forgetting Queequeg's name, postmodern storytelling, universal outcast seaman, Steelkilt, the funniest line in the book, Billy Budd, floggings, White Jacket, Melville's just having fun. This episode is the discussion about chapters 53 and 54 of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick; The Gam, and The Town-Ho's Story. Follow us on social media... Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thewhale1851.bsky.social Instagram: https://instagram.com/whale__pod
#26
August 27 · 35 min
Episode 26 - The Spirit-Spout
Charting the course of the Pequod, the mechanics of sailing, Melville's ableist alliteration, Pete's cats, Melville's anxiety dream, the skeleton ship, Pete's cats fight, Ahab's trance, subtext is for cowards, transformation, Ahab becomes a wankpuffin, the great mystery of reading, Melville the sicko, well, well, Welsh. This episode is the discussion about chapters 51 and 52 of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick; The Spirit-Spout, and The Pequod Meets the Albatross. Follow us on social media... Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thewhale1851.bsky.social Instagram: https://instagram.com/whale__pod
#25
August 20 · 48 min
Episode 25 - Can you enjoy racist prose?
There's a baby seagull squeaking in the background all the way through this episode, that's how good the microphones we use are these days, and it's not at all irritating, just adds to the nautical vibes. The great lost recording, "spark 'im oot", a fine joke worthy of music hall, the desperado philosophy, pissing on the Russian sun, breaking a woman's arm, the men's mental maelstrom, Melville's racism rears its ugly head again, Paul Gauguin, Cecil Rhodes, and a big old chat into whether or not one can enjoy racist prose. This episode is the discussion about chapters 49 and 50 of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick; The Hyena and Ahab's Boat and Crew - Fedallah. Follow us on social media... Instagram: https://instagram.com/whale__pod Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thewhale1851.bsky.social
#24
August 13 · 48 min
Episode 24 - There she blows!
A dog-eggs first sentence followed by a Melville masterclass, WHALE CHASE! Racism, WHALE CHASE! Reverie, WHALE CHASE! Plot twist! WHALE CHASE! Oh God, the racism, WHALE CHASE! This episode is the discussion about chapters 47 and 48 of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick; The Mat-Maker and The First Lowering. Follow us on social media... Instagram: https://instagram.com/whale__pod Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thewhale1851.bsky.social
#23
August 6 · 43 min
Episode 23 - The Affidavit
Happy birthday Melville, bronze whale bones, the whaling ports of Britain, the believability of The Salt Path, reading Marx, deconstructing fictional narrative, the gravitational mass of Moby-Dick, the whale ship Essex, George Pollard - an unlucky man, Melville's biography being more insane and fantastical than his writing, Captain DeWolf, an under-the-radar three-word Arnie quote, Lionel Wafer's Toast of London-ass name, "In conclusion, Moby-Dick is a book of contrasts...", the tyrant's precariousness, joyriding the ocean and ramraiding a whale, solving the Middle East. This episode is the discussion about chapters 45 and 46 of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick; The Affidavit and Surmises. Follow us on social media... Instagram: https://instagram.com/whale__pod Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thewhale1851.bsky.social
#22
July 30 · 42 min
Episode 22 - CARAMBA!
Twentieth century theatre, "CARAMBA!", cholos, the curse of knowledge, the best curse from Romania, stowaways, flavours of autism, normies, how to find a specific whale in the ocean, and the internal torment to which we are beholden. This episode is the discussion about chapters 43 and 44 of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick; Hark!, and The Chart. Follow us on social media... Instagram: https://instagram.com/whale__pod Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thewhale1851.bsky.social
#21
July 16 · 45 min
Episode 21 - The Whiteness of the Whale
Herman Melville at his most subtle, 'Spooge', the magnificence and terror of Whiteness, Treaty of Paris, the Iroquois Confederacy, the creation of Whiteness, racial superstructures, the albatross, Iron Maiden, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lovecraft, albinism, annihilation, white light, semiotics, de Saussure, only geniuses take four years to do a three year course, men's mental health, The Confidence Man, Melville lives, dictators, industrialisation. This episode is the discussion about chapter 42 of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick; The Whiteness of the Whale. Follow us on social media... Instagram: https://instagram.com/whale__pod Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thewhale1851.bsky.social
#20
July 9 · 49 min
Episode 20 - Moby Dick
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 mercy of the subterranean forces of fate, Jules Verne, Hollow Earth, wishful thinking, The Thing, bilocation, Donald Rumsfeld, Japanese sex hotels. NOTE: Some of Melville's collection is owned by Harvard, but Melville Marginalia is a project started at Boise State University - apologies for the confusion in this episode! This episode is the discussion about chapter 41 and of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick; which is named 'Moby Dick'. Follow us on social media... Instagram: https://instagram.com/whale__pod Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thewhale1851.bsky.social
#19
July 2 · 1 hr 3 min
Episode 19 - From Sunset to Midnight
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 patheticness, Dad's Army, eight bells, melting pots, horny Mediterranean sailors, maritime capitalism, blacking up, racist caricatures, The Dark Knight Rises, Spanish vs Spaniard. This episode is the discussion about chapters 37, 38, 39 and 41 of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick; Sunset, Dusk, First Night-Watch and Midnight, Forecastle. Follow us on social media... Instagram: https://instagram.com/whale__pod Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thewhale1851.bsky.social
#18
June 25 · 58 min
Episode 18 - The Quarter-Deck
"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 Quarter-Deck. Follow us on social media... Instagram: https://instagram.com/whale__pod Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thewhale1851.bsky.social
#17
June 11 · 43 min
Episode 17 - The Mast-Head
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
#16
June 4 · 54 min
Episode 16 - The Cabin-Table
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 Melville's Moby-Dick; The Specksynder, and The Cabin-Table. Follow us on social media... Instagram: https://instagram.com/whale__pod Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thewhale1851.bsky.social
#15
May 28 · 50 min
Episode 15 - Cetology
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
#14
May 21 · 43 min
Episode 14 - Ahab
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 of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick; Ahab, Enter Ahab; to Him, Stubb, The Pipe and Queen Mab. Follow us on social media... Instagram: https://instagram.com/whale__pod Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thewhale1851.bsky.social
#13
May 7 · 1 hr 1 min
Episode 13 - Knights and Squires
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 McSweeney, Anacharsis Cloots. This episode is the discussion about chapters 26 and 27 of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick; both are called Knights and Squires. Follow us on social media... Instagram: https://instagram.com/whale__pod Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thewhale1851.bsky.social
#12
April 30 · 47 min
Episode 12 - Whale Sandwich
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. This episode is the discussion about chapters 24 and 25 of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick; The Advocate and Postscript. Follow us on social media... Instagram: https://instagram.com/whale__pod Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thewhale1851.bsky.social
#11
April 23 · 37 min
Episode 11 - Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal
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/future/article/20260225-the-whale-graveyards-that-transform-the-deep-sea This episode is the discussion about chapters 22 and 23 of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick; Merry Christmas and The Lee Shore. Follow us on social media... Instagram: https://instagram.com/whale__pod Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thewhale1851.bsky.social

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