This week's guest, author Rob Drew, traces how a lowly, hissy format that began life in office dictation machines and cheap portable players came to be regarded as a token of intimate expression through music and a source of cultural capital in his new book Unspooled: How the Cassette Made Music Shareable. For this episode, he curated a mixtape of some of the music featured in his book and discusses it with Rob. TWO Rob's for the price of one!

Songs discussed in this episode: Louis Quatorze - Bow Wow Wow; Sailin On - Bad Brains; Crazy - Patsy Cline; I Just Want To Feel You - R. Stevie Moore; King Heroin (Live in New York 1980) - James Chance & The Contortions; Pay To Cum - Bad Brains; Golden Lane - The Cleaners from Venus; Psychotic Reaction - Shockabilly; Redneck Jazz - Eugene Chadbourne & Evan Johns; Watchin' Girl - Shonen Knife; Don't Mix The Colors - Beat Happening; Honey - Marine Girls; Missing - Everything But The Girl; C30 C60 C90 Go - Bow Wow Wow; EMI - The Sex Pistols; Go West (Girly-Sound version) - Liz Phair; Subtle Holy Gift - Sentridoh; Going To Maryland - The Mountain Goats; Tuesday Moon - Neutral Milk Hotel; Speeding Motorcycle - Yo La Tengo; Living Life - Daniel Johnston; Living Life - Kathy McCarty