
Advertise on podcast: Playing Favorites
Rating
5from
This podcast has
70 episodes
Language
EnglishPublisher
Nathaniel Brimmer-BellerExplicit
No
Date created
2021/01/22
Latest episode
2026/10/04
Average duration
44 min.
Release period
101 days
Description
Movies, punchlines, music and travelogues. Hosted by Nathaniel Brimmer-Beller, this show invites a guest to bring in their favorite film, favorite joke, favorite album, and favorite place - and discuss two, chosen at random. Expect conversation, culture, comedy, and a compelling way to pass the time. Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/nathaniel-brimmer-beller/support
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Check latest episodes from Playing Favorites podcast
On John Sayles’ screenwriting masterpiece, a wall-to-wall album, and lookout height
2026/10/04
Live from Vienna, Austria. An unforgettable 1996 film, more proof 2013 was the best year for music in decades, and a dispatch from above.
@BlackBatUK • blackbat.ukTheme music 'Port City' by avery - @avery.el13
On an underseen debut, a Your Smith LP, and something we should all stop (or start) doing
2026/09/27
Three Underrated Things • A film by Matt Johnson, an album by Your Smith, and something we should all stop (or start, depending on how you want to look at it) doing.
-----
@BlackBatUK • blackbat.ukTheme music 'Port City' by avery - @avery.el13
On heists by Hoffman, J. Roddy Walston, and your friends’ music
2026/09/20
Three Underrated Things • We're hard at work on new Black Bat Audio pieces (and Black Bat Productions productions), so in the meantime, enjoy this roundup of three underrated things, a new series.
This week it's an album, a film, and a way of spending an evening. Have a listen.
@BlackBatUK • blackbat.uk
Theme music 'Port City' by avery - @avery.el13
On a New Play Set in 2029
2026/08/29
What should we expect from the next UK election? Writer Amy Wallace has created To Stay Mum against that backdrop, with two lead characters whose growing and shifting romantic relationship, societal resentments, and adjustments to the new normal weave a fascinating, twisty story. Well-known to Black Bat Productions history as the unforgettable Penelope White in Nines, Amy joins Black Bat Audio to discuss this new play, her background in both writing and acting, and how our personal sanity can collide with political surreality.
To Stay Mum plays 6-8 September, all details here.
@BlackBatUK • blackbat.uk
Theme music 'Port City' by avery - @avery.el13
Turner & Turner • A Radio Play
2026/08/22
Got a piece you’d love to write? Bring it to Black Bat Audio.
Black Bat Productions is now welcoming submissions of radio plays, audio pieces, writing ideas of all forms, that could have a home on this programme.
This week, enjoy one such play, Turner & Turner - originally broadcast in 2018 by Edinburgh's FreshAir.org.uk. Written by Nathaniel Brimmer-Beller.
As for new submissions: If you want to write it, we want to hear about it, and if it’s right, produce your writing as an audio play. Message us @BlackBatUK, email [email protected] with ‘Black Bat Audio Submission’ and your name in the subject line, or head to blackbat.uk. We can’t wait to hear what you have in mind.
@BlackBatUK • blackbat.ukTheme music 'Port City' by avery - @avery.el13
On avery’s new single ‘falling’
2026/08/15
Singer, writer, multi-instrumentalist avery joins Black Bat Audio to discuss her new single ‘falling’ released this week, with a lyric video and music video (directed by Nathaniel) to boot.
avery discusses her writing process for this craftily-designed song, its recording process at a venerated recording studio, her multi-instrumental talents, and her album thirteen - coming 16th October.
Find avery's new song 'falling' on all music streaming platforms - and the song's music video at youtu.be/lId7o6Q2ZMU.
(By the way, the name of the song that escapes us is “All The Small Things” by blink-182…
)
@BlackBatUK • blackbat.uk
Theme music 'Port City' by avery - @avery.el13
On 'Transcription' by Ben Lerner - Part II
2026/08/08
Michael and Nathaniel continue their discussion, examining this book and its themes' relationship with autofiction, disembodied voices, Oscar Wilde, the contemporary podcast, meta-narrative, literature as a handheld device, and noticing you sound like your parents.
Listen in for our first literary chat, make sure to follow this show wherever you're listening, and let us know what you think.
@BlackBatUK • blackbat.uk
Theme music 'Port City' by avery - @avery.el13
On 'Transcription' by Ben Lerner - Part I
2026/08/08
Michael Zwiauer joins Black Bat Audio to discuss the unique and captivating novel Transcription, written by one of our last celebrated public intellectuals, Ben Lerner. It's a short read, which we thoroughly recommend.
How does Transcription reëvaluate our relationship with fiction? Are we ourselves transcriptions? What did Michael and Nathaniel make of the book? What will you?
This is Part I, find Part II right up next.
@BlackBatUK • blackbat.uk
Theme music 'Port City' by avery - @avery.el13
On Bee Music, Theatre vs. Yelling, Directing Clowns, and My Fair Lady
2026/08/02
Renée Louise Bottern drops by Black Bat Audio to discuss what she should expect from Edinburgh Fringe, secret musical aspirations, her journey from Melbourne to this auspicious programme, and Closure Cabaret, the first show she's directed for the stage, (but by no means her first time directing), on this week in London and all month in Edinburgh. As Renée is also an experienced actor, writer, film director, composer, and more, we have a lot to talk about. A great conversation, and sure to be a great show too.
@BlackBatUK • blackbat.uk
Theme music 'Port City' by avery - @avery.el13
On New Albums by The Strokes, Charli xcx, Low Cut Connie and more
2026/07/25
Chloe Steins joins Black Bat Audio to discuss this week's brand-new Reality Awaits by The Strokes and Music Fashion Film by Charli xcx, as well as Livin in the USA by Low Cut Connie and new LPs by Jack White, Kurt Vile, Swapmeet, and mary in the junkyard.
What did Chloe and Nathaniel make of the two albums released this week? Charli follows up brat, The Strokes follow up The New Abnormal, Chloe interprets why multiple rising indie bands share a curiously similar detail, and ‘rock music’ of many backgrounds gets discussed.
The albums are:
The Strokes - Reality AwaitsCharli xcx - Music, Fashion, FilmLow Cut Connie - Livin in the USA Jack White - Frozen CharlotteKurt Vile - Philadelphia’s been good to memary in the junkyard - Role Model HermitSwapmeet - Mount Zero
Read Chloe’s criticism at: https://chloeloe.substack.com/.
Music has always been integral to Black Bat Productions. From the live jazz noir atmosphere of Mack The Knife to the pivotal 1960s radio of Technicolor, from the original compositions of In Everglade Studio to this show’s theme, ‘Port City’ by avery, from Port City Signature, every project of ours has its carefully crafted playlist. It’s a delight to welcome Chloe on to discuss brand-new rock releases, which may well find their way into playlists and productions to come.
@BlackBatUK • blackbat.uk
Theme music 'Port City' by avery - @avery.el13
On Trilogies, Remembering How To Read, and What We've Recently Seen
2026/07/18
Tell us about your favorite trilogies. Or your ‘trilogy theory’ if you have one. Listen in for what that is and why we're on it.
From Black Bat Productions, a conversation between NBB & PRJ, Live from the Balcony • Discussed: our new two-hander The Time Has Passed, drama Rock Around The Clock, what Phoebe recommends reading, what Nathaniel recommends watching, and where Black Bat is heading next.
@BlackBatUK • blackbat.uk
Theme music 'Port City' by avery - @avery.el13
On Black Bat Audio
2026/07/18
From Black Bat Productions, welcome to the first installment of Black Bat Audio.
NBB & PRJ Live from the Balcony • Director Nathaniel Brimmer-Beller and Associate Director Phoebe Rowell John introduce the programme, discuss 'What is a Black Bat Production' and kick off a new approach to new work.
@BlackBatUK • blackbat.uk
Theme music 'Port City' by avery - @avery.el13
Suani Rincon
2022/12/02
From her ASMR intro to her Sinatra-inspired sendoff, Suani Rincon proves a more subversive podcast guest than I expected.
Among many topics, we discuss Channing Tatum, Killers concerts, differences between ‘Western' and 'Eastern’ approaches to theatre, and Brandon Flowers’ singing voice - plus, Suani reads from 70 Hilariously Funny Jokes to Tickle Your Family’s Funny Bone, which is definitely not something she googled seconds before we started recording. Tune in!
Rosie Hart
2022/11/23
Actor, lifesaver, star of the Fringe and now the Canal Café Theatre stage Rosie Hart plays favorites tonight. Rosie plays Trace Marquand in Nines, the new play from Black Bat Productions, set backstage at a fashion show in 1966.
In this episode Rosie discusses her stepping in last-minute to the role of Kate in Press in Edinburgh Fringe 2021, her admiration of Roberto Benigni, the word “apocryphal,” and in one of my favorite pieces of audio ever featured on this show, how she’s originally from “near Nairn.”
Nines is playing at the Canal Café Theatre on the 23rd, 24th and 26th November at 7.30pm ONLY. Book your tickets on our website blackbat.uk or here: canalcafetheatre.com/our-shows/nines.
Amy Wallace
2022/11/22
Master of the mid-Atlantic, mid-century atmosphere Amy Wallace, who plays Penelope White in Nines, sits down on Playing Favorites for a bubbly, wide-ranging chat about, among other things, this “scandalous, at times a little bit sexy” new 60s-set show from Black Bat Productions.
In this episode we compare how and when to go to shows by yourself, and discuss whether generating serotonin is enough to justify when TV is making the world objectively worse. Also a mostly visual joke gets told on a podcast, and Amy asks who my favorite cast member of Nines is. Tune in!
Nines is playing at the Canal Café Theatre on the 23rd, 24th and 26th November at 7.30pm ONLY. Book your tickets on our website blackbat.uk or here: canalcafetheatre.com/our-shows/nines.
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