If you cast your mind back to our last visit, you'll recall we also said "it's been a while" and now, well, now it really has been a while hasn't it? But we're back, although we never actually went away. We just kind of huddled in a tree, guarding our sketches like the last few nuts of a harsh podcast winter, valuable fats when the shelves are empty. Anyway, now we're ready to give them up. We'll start with a story, so close your eyes and forget where you are, we're about to-- Right, they're not reading anymore...because their eyes are closed...look...that last batch of sketches came in quite late and we won't pay full price....it's shoddy...no...no, you listen....I've got a dozen cut-price back-alley next-hyphen sketch dealers who want my business and, well look, what is it about sketches like Gerbil Midterms (00:32), Football Focus (05:56), Nothing Worse (11:50), erm, Imaginary Solicitor (13:53) or Flat Whites on the Moon (20:58) makes you think I'm desperate to keep buying from you? 

Once again, it's been a while. But gone are the days when one guy would stay home looking after the podcast while the other could go to work and support all three on a factory wage. Whatever. In this edition we ask: is there anything the IT team can't do? Can a cat have an accent? How does facial recognition actually work? And finally, what happens when an intrepid reporter gets bored on a family holiday? Thems the contents. This is the show. The big show. The Hamburg Design Review SketchPod 4 (four).  Running order: 00:32 (Facial Recognition), 06:17 (Irish Cat), 10:08 (Data Sync), 21:14 (Belpress), 25:32 (Ice Cream Crisis). 

Welcome to Shadplex, London's newest community-based 'community' living project. Come and bask in the reflected glow of fresh windows and chrome-detailed room-for-one balconies in this break clause-free and frozen interest rate-rich paradise. This is a place where agents of the estate can be themselves, clad in slimfit, viewing properties with abandon, ordering non-romano-style pizzas... even raising families in this holy image. But things aren't always what they seem. High in these semi-towers, these... these units, machinations are at play.  Afoot, even. For young father Joshua Oglesby, the extent to which things are afoot is about to become all too real. So... what do you think? Spacious, right?

Cast your tired mind back to those precious days, those most hallowed of days on which you convinced mum you were too ill for school. Sick, headache, dizzy - all masterfully faked, and why? So you could sit in an unnecessary blanket and watch daytime TV and soak in the waves of the radio. Culture, all of it. Look, let's keep this short, it's been a while since you heard from us at the HDR. I'd say "our bad", but it's not, it's actually all your fault. Anyway, even though you did...that, here's the long anticipated return of the Hamburg Design Review's Sketch Pod, number 3 - of which the running order can be found hence:
CLBAITS1 - 00:26 / CouldSoundLike - 03:05 / CLBAITS2 - 07:05 / Bookcast - 08:24 / Mars Rover - 10:10 / CLBAITS3 - 18:02 / Frisky Finance - 20:06

Wow! For me? It's heavy....what could it be? Years of betrayal? The instant erosion of familial trust? Goofy sushi socks? Oh my god! It's the Hamburg Design Review Christmas Special! 
That's right. After months of silence we're back with hot Xmas fire. Join our family in that tender space we all know so well, that little moment between the scoffing of a Christmas lunch and the discovery of some dreadful truths. As usual, IT'S ONLY LIVE ONCE, which isn't now, but it's still here with the HDR's standard musical background and lack of monetary sponsorship. Enjoy xxX. 

As far as Otto Meirtendel was concerned, his trip to Zurich, Switzerland, was about tagging along with chess's primary law enforcement body - routine stuff. HDR's special reporter would then half-arsedly pen a simple piece, file it, and collect his really quite generous rate of €0.57 per word (pre-tax). Little did he know the extent to which the road ahead of him would twist, turn and fragment, writhing kaleidoscopically until all thoughts (not least those of his aforementioned and indisputably ample remuneration) were blitzed...are mushed...will be yada yada.  
This first episode covers Otto's arrival and rendezvous with the CSI's agents. As usual the story is bedded in a lush and newly clarinetted original soundtrack, ensuring your ultimate immersion. 
Enjoy, HDR xxxx
 

A busy train rattles its way through London's subterranean dirt. On board, one man asks for any spare change and another tells a bold lie. 'Sorry, mate...I don't have any cash on me' (SMIDHACOM) is a story of lives intertwined and the uncomfortable  foibles of very minor personal finance. Episode 1: The Bag introduces us to Angus, a young man full of Snickers Duo with a bag full of £54,000,003.65, whose day (and perhaps life) turns around his brazen denial of fact. It's a story! There's our usual musical bedding, plus more real-world sound simulations! It's shorter! And there's more to come! 
We hope you enjoy. HDR xxx

Are park benches comfortable?
No.
Does it depend on who they're in memory of?
No.
What's the difference between suture calipers and an electronically assisted tailgate?
Don't care.
Where do adverts come from?
Don't know.
Great, well, if you're at all curious (I'm not) then you can find more detailed answers in this, the second episode of the HDR's acclaimed Sketch Pod. That's more music, more voices, more better, more right now! Enjoy. I won't.
HDR xx.
x

What do I look like to you? Like a guy who knows how to write an engaging episode description? Like someone who thinks people really read this far into it? Well, if you have read this far in, then you can expect lasers, thermal vision, and an early lunch. I don't know, whatever. Join us in the near future, in New York City, as an honest man's honest day goes awry in the most unexpected way. This is a Hamburg Design Review story special, accompanied as always by the blooping bleep-work of our house band. 
We hope you enjoy....
...HDR xx...

Is AI an instinctively political animal?  Why would a man grill doggies in the pouring rain? Are you turned on by sci-fi gear? Like, sexually.... 
Hopefully you can find the answers to some of these in this, the Hamburg Design Review's first ever Sketch Pod. That's sketches, short stories, our first sponsor (!), and other bits, all knitted together rather artfully by the musical wool of our house band. 
We hope you enjoy it. 
The Editor,
HDR xx(x)