Shift Run Stop

Trick or treat? It's that time of year again, a time for celebrating all things spooky and autumnal, and sitting in silence in the living room with the lights off until they stop ringing the doorbell.

You're never alone with us though. As the soundtrack for your hallowe'en, we've made you a very different kind of episode – an episode in which your hosts chat to each other.

Learn about our compulsions and collections, hear our poetry, delight in our edible ancient astronauts, and play along at home with Roo's commuter hack tips. It's overdue and over there, packaged up ready for your ears, as spooky as a box of Jaffa Cakes.

(When you've listened to it all, why not send some food or other interesting things to the address we give out in the show? We'll talk about it, and perhaps you on the next episode.)

Link-well: Den of Eek | Roo's newsletter | Leila's newsletter | Boring 2012 (we're both speaking this year) | Leila's IBM tills map | Roo's collections | The SRS forum | @ShiftRunStop | Buy a tape of this episode, or any other.

Share our pleasure chatting about magic, coincidences and games with the fascinating Dave Gorman, then feel our pain as a tarry soft drink promotes the question: "What IS 'malt' anyway?"

Yes, it's like a trip back in time to the early days of the show, as once again we find ourselves hijacking someone else's office without asking, scouring the local shop for Drinks Most Likely to Withstand Nuclear Strike, and talking to someone in a room with terrible acoustics, in this all-new yet reassuringly familiar edition of Shift Run Stop.

Special thanks must go to Lee Maguire for stepping in to do the sound at the absolute last minute and co ordinating his outfit so nicely with Dave's, and to Wes West for our wonderful new jingle. If you work out what malt is, do let us know.

Link-edin: Dave Gorman (website) | Dave Gorman vs The Rest of the World (Amazon) | Lee's website | Roo's new newsletter | Leila's newsletter | The SRS forum | Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station (Wikipedia) | @ShiftRunStop | Buy a tape of this episode, or any other. We still do that.

We were slumbering, as usual, in our misty Shift Run Stop cryo-pods, when through the liquid nitrogen we heard it: the unmistakable call of a Raspberry Pi in the wild. So here we are again, temporarily reanimated for a very special and rare chat with credit-card sized computer creator, Eben Upton. As Eben reflects on a trajectory that began with writing mouse drivers for BBC Micros and ended with being technical director at Broadcom, we try very hard not to drop his baby on the floor.

And in a slightly windier location, human snack dispenser Lee Maguire delivers a fresh range of geek-friendly treats – among them Quinn Norton from Wired magazine. Your hosts try to invent a fool-proof method for measuring the size of supermarkets, pool satellite dish trivia, open some gifts from a listener and more. There are several opportunities for you to join in, too. So enjoy it, but please remember to make sure the Shift Run Stop fridge is properly closed when you've finished.

Salt 'n Linkeka: Raspberry Pi website | Lee's website | Quinn's blog | Rory Cellan-Jones's Raspberry Pi feature (BBC news) | Roo's new newsletter | Leila's newsletter | The SRS forum | Red Dwarf Bodyswap pre-edit "Two scousers on some bunks" clip | Fridgezoo pets on Firebox | Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station (Wikipedia) | BT Tower (Wikipedia) | @ShiftRunStop | Buy a tape of this episode, or any other

After a bit of a break, Shift Run Stop is back in your ears – on an occasional basis, at least.

This month, we meet Ed Jefferson, aka Ben from @shippamspaste, Danny O'Brien (from episode 34) tells us about the life of an Englishman in New York and Lee Maguire is back with Snack Time. We also work through a backlog of snacks sent in by listeners when we were last regularly on air, in 2010. So sit back, pour yourself a large glass of Pepto-bismol, and join us on as we tackle extremely out-of-date food from all three corners of the world: Japan (thanks Karamoon), Nigeria (thanks Matt) and Syria (thanks Derek).

Linky linky: Ed on Twitter | Ben's fishy story | Buy a ticket to Leila's Apocalypse conferences | Danny O'Brien's blog | Lee's website | Roo's new newsletter | Leila's newsletter | The SRS forum | Buy a tape

Yes, we are back! Well, for a one-off Christmas special at least.

As it's been so long, and you've been waiting so patiently, we've tried to make sure this episode is bursting at the seams. Put your feet up (yes, even if you're driving, it's Christmas!) and join us as we chat to journalist and psychopath-spotter Jon Ronson, his son comics expert Joel Ronson, the ingenious data artist Stefanie Posavec, the audio archivers of everyday life Felicity Ford and Paul Whitty of Sound Diaries and our snack hacker Lee Maguire.

In the in-between bits, Roo tests Leila on her Mastermind subject – Red Dwarf 1989-1995; Leila has a present for Roo, we get a Christmas card from a listener, and we speculate extensively about the logistics of a famous space weapon. No wonder it's almost two hours long.

Those links again: Stefanie Posavec (website) | Stefanie Posavec (Twitter) | Jon Ronson (website) | Jon Ronson (Twitter) | Jon Ronson (IMDB) | Jon Ronson (Amazon UK) | Joel's column on Bleeding Cool | Sound Diaries (website) | Sound Diaries (Twitter) | Felicity Ford (Twitter) | Lee's website | See in the New Year on the SRS forum | Buy a tape of any episode, in our shop!

Don't forget to subscribe on iTunes, so you don't miss any future ones we might make.

It's the end-of-the-year show you've been waiting for. Spam-baiting humorist Neil Forsyth reveals how he winds up cyber crooks, and we track down the bootleg of our live spot on London's recent Radio Roundabout where, lest auld acquaintance Rhodri Marsden be forgot, we interview him. All that washed down with a cup of kindness from snacks expert Lee Maguire in this, the only way to see in 2011. Happy New Year!

Links: Neil Forsyth | and the website and Twitter account of his alter-ego Bob Servant | Rhodri Marsden | Radio Roundabout | Lee Maguire | Neil's book "Delete This At Your Peril" | See in the New Year on the SRS forum | Buy a tape of the podcast

Happy Christmas or otherwise holidays! As you've been good this year, we've made you a very special extra-long holly-decked episode, featuring music, festive snacks and the glorious comedian Joanna Neary who tells us about everything from performing in Time Trumpet to her remarkable gloves. We're really pleased with this episode. Hope you like it too, and thanks for sticking with us through 2010. See you same time next week for the equally special New Year's show!

Links: Joanna Neary (Wikipedia) | Jo Neary's website | Jo on the IMDB | Join the party on the SRS forum | Lee Maguire's website | Buy a tape of the podcast | Try Leila's new newspaper (also featuring Roo): Hackers! | A clip of Take That singing "The Flood"

A modern nerd legend for you this week, as we chat to John Graham-Cumming about his new project, Plan 28, which aims to "finish Babbage's work" by raising the cash to build an Analytical Engine from original plans. John has previously successfully petitioned the Government to formally apologise for the treatment of Alan Turing, and is the author of the Geek Atlas. All that, plus potato printing with Kinect, space balloons, Star Wars and yet more Mexican snackfood in this unnecessarily spicy serving of your favourite podcast.

Links: JGC (homepage) | JGC (Wikipedia) | Plan 28 | Geek Atlas (Amazon) | Spot more snacks with Dave | Make a friend on the SRS forum | Buy a tape | Or just buy Leila's new newspaper, Hackers!

You know when you're on the train, and you think "Oh there's Jigsaw, just getting on at this stop. Hi Jigsaw!" You know. Usually happens the day after you watched all the Saw films in a row, like this week's guest Sarah Dobbs did recently. Luckily, she's a horror fan... she's also a journalist, and the editor of new feminist pop culture magazine re/action. Discover why The Happening is better than you think, what's the deal with all those apocalypse films and the format in which one distributes a film called Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl, in this exclusive interview.

And the offensive generalisations about foreign snackfood continue as Dave helps us demolish a range of Mexican foodstuffs, generously supplied by listener Liz Henry.

Links: Sarah's website | Sarah on Twitter | re/action magazine | Witness Dave in his natural habitat | Talk to like-minded podcast-listeners on the SRS forum | Buy a tape of this episode

We chat to a games-creator this week, the talented Minkette, and hear about some of her extraordinary projects - which range from mindbending ARGs to a radio-transmitted theatre production on the Tube.

All that plus Kinect hacking, real world point-and-clicks, and Rockband with Grannie in this foil-fresh square of your Shift Run Stop advent calendar. Now relax, settle back with a drink that tastes of Christmas, and pop open our window.

Links: Minkette (Twitter) | Investigate Dave in more detail | Join the non-stop break-neck fast-paced chat on our forum | Buy a tape of this episode and listen to it in the past.