Show Notes
James began the week attending a "speed awareness" course, having been nicked going a wee bit too fast on the way to an appointment. Early on in the programme James thinks that he has finally... FINALLY... brought Toby over to Team James, only to have his hopes dashed later in the show.
Yes, mummy and daddy have a bit a tiff this week that temporarily devolves into a cable news panel show, but we do our best to get it back on the rails so we can bring you the ever popular Culture Corner. Toby touts a new web site designed to help you discover if a show is more politics than entertainment and then offers his own advice on The Covenant, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount+), and Extraction 2 (Netflix), while James gives a thumbs up to Tour de France: Unchained (Netflix).
Opening sound this week is from Episode 3 of Tucker Carlson's Twitter monologues that sparks heated debate among James and Toby.
More from London Calling
In 1935 Cole Porter penned a tune called "Just One of Those Things" about a love affair "too hot not to cool down." And so it goes.
Everyone is a little miserable this week, fueled by the rainy summer England has had this year. Or maybe because we're all getting a little bit older. James "celebrated" #58 this past weekend and Toby isn't looking forward to #60 due this October.
This week James and Toby open the discussion with James’ recent gig in Dorset and the division in towns like Bridport and Totnes between the woke and the awake, particularly over traffic calming measures like LTNs, Ulez schemes and 15-minute cities.
It's hot in the Mediterranean and James and Toby discuss the recent forest fires in Greece and whether climate change or arsonists are to blame. This triggers an argument (From these two? Really?) about whether there are enough honest journalists left to expose such wrongdoing and that, in turn, leads to a heated discussion about whether the journalist Ross Clark is a genuine climate contrarian because concedes that the world has got a little bit warmer in the past 150 years.
"The best laid plans of mice and men," said Rabbie Burns, "often go awry." And so it is as Toby tells James about how his travel plans have gone over the past fortnight, even though he’s in Majorca with his wife and four children.