In-house translation – outside the box

Tag: podcasts

  • Summer 2026 – Reading and Listening List

    Summer 2026 – Reading and Listening List

    This summer I have put down the following books to read, as well as a number of podcasts to listen to. I have expanded by original reading list as I have found that I also need to listen to audio content on quiet days to make the auditory shock of leaving the office less pronounced.

    As part of my intention to spend less time on social media, I have loaded my Kindle with many of the books ahead of my summer holiday. In addition, the Pagnol book will accompany me as a paperback – to read in a café over breakfast in Cannes, once I have finished reading the current edition of Le Monde Diplomatique. The Lee Onhwa book is one that I will be reading to solve a geocache in Vienna.

    Reading List

    Alex Baratta, How to Read and Write Critically

    Eva Dou, House of Huawei

    Seth Godin, The Dip

    Sam Illingworth, Slow AI

    Duncan Mavin, Meltdown: Scandal, Sleaze and the Collapse of Credit Suisse

    Cal Newport, So Good They Can’t Ignore You

    Cal Newport, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout

    Sarah O’Connor, We are not machines: The Fight for the Future of Work

    Lee Onhwa, A Midnight Pastry Shop Called Hwawoldang / Kleine Wunder in der Mitternachtskonditorei

    Marcel Pagnol, Le château de ma mère

    Alok Sama, The Money Trap

    Nina Sattler-Hovdar, Transcreation, The all-in-one Handbook and Workbook

    Listening List

    Cyber Hack, BBC World Service

    Endgame: Can we live with Artificial General Intelligence, The Observer

    Everything is Fake, BBC Radio 4

    Nicht zu fassen: der Investigativpodcast, Profil

    Page 94: The Private Eye Podcast

  • Spring 2026 – Reading and Listening List

    Spring 2026 – Reading and Listening List

    It has been a while since my last reading list, and this time there are a couple of podcasts that I have added. This winter I felt exhausted and struggled to even pick up a book or my Kindle. The stack of papers and publications to read grew on my desk. I stopped watching TV due to tinnitus problems and retreated back into my shell. I am still feeling very tired, but a lot of the sources of tiredness and pressure are now behind me. On the positive side, I did manage quite a bit of CPD and am now writing my presentation and a background paper for the ASTTI Financial Translation Summer Conference in Spiez feeling refreshed for having listened to myself and taken it slightly easier.

    So, it is time for a new reading list – some of which I have already made considerable inroads into. I am also very grateful to friends and contacts who have carried on suggesting books to read frequently through LinkedIn posts and goodreads lists – the stack has got longer thanks to your efforts.

    Here are the books that I am hoping to get through this Spring.

    • Jamie Bartlett, How to Talk to AI (and how not to)
    • David Bellos, Is that a fish in your ear?
    • Humphrey Berkeley, The Life & Death of Rochester Sneath
    • Daniel Kahnemann, Thinking Fast and Slow
    • Joachim Lépine, YouGPT before ChatGPT
    • Vic Marks, The Cricket Captains of England
    • Lucian Randall, Disgusting Bliss (a biography about satirist Chris Morris)
    • Mark Sands, Stars on Sunday
    • Manuela Schauer, Autismus. Ich spüre was, was Du nicht siehst
    • Thinknetic, The art of note taking (recommended by Andy Gillies)

    Here are two versions of the same original book that I read in the winter.

    • Michiko Aoyama, What you are looking for is in the library (translation by Alison Watts)
    • Michiko Aoyama, Frau Komachi empfiehlt ein Buch (translation by Sabine Mangold)

    The reason for reading two versions was as an idea to illustrate translation decisions in literary translation. I took a look at this in a LinkedIn post – as mentioned below.

    Podcasts:

    Given that I suffer from tinnitus, you might wonder why I mention podcasts. I actually have to put on podcasts from time to time to help me adjust gradually from quiet surroundings to the overly noisy surroundings of say a school playground, or to help get me used to encountering more sound, after having a focused session translating. Good podcasts also boil down to good storytelling.

    This was one of the reasons I was very happy when the BBC Sounds podcast announced the return of some fresh episodes of Jamie Bartlett’s Missing Cryptoqueen podcast. Hie latest podcast, “Everything is Fake” was one I subsequently binged.

    • Cyber Hack, BBC World Service
    • Everything is Fake, Jamie Bartlett, BBC Sounds
    • Nicht zu fassen. Der profil-Investigativpodcast
    • Reden wir über Geld, FMA
    • Share Inspire Explore, Chris Wilson, Where I’m At
    • The Europeans,
    • The Sweeper, Lee Wingate and Paul Watson
    • The Missing Cryptoqueen, Jamie Bartlett, BBC Sounds
    • Today in Focus, The Guardian

    Finally, I have also started moving to Substack to consume written content. I can be found over there at: https://humantranslator.substack.com – I am looking into exploring it as another channel to write on.