Little Atoms

Little Atoms
	A Show about Ideas
Genre	Talk & Culture
Running time	30 or 60 minutes
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Language(s)	English
Home station	Resonance FM
Hosted by	Neil Denny; Former: Padraig Reidy; Richard Sanderson; Becky Hogge; Anthony Burn; Stuart Clark; Helen Keen; Christine Ottery; Adam Rutherford; Dan Schreiber; Richard Wilson;
Created by	Neil Denny; Richard Sanderson;
Produced by	Neil Denny
Recording studio	Resonance FM Studios, Borough High Street, London Bridge
Original release	2 September 2005
Audio format	FM Radio and MP3 Podcast
Website	www.littleatoms.com
Podcast	Little Atoms Podcast

Little Atoms is a website, podcast and magazine dedicated to ideas and culture. The radio show broadcast weekly from London on Resonance FM 104.4. It is hosted by Neil Denny. The website is edited by Padraig Reidy. The first edition of Little Atoms magazine launched in November 2015.

History

The radio show was conceived by Neil Denny and Richard Sanderson at a meeting in a pub beer garden in London Bridge on 7 July 2005. The first episode aired on 2 September 2005 and featured a panel of a scientist (Sid Rodrigues), physicist and ex-born again Christian (Norman Hansen) and a folklorist (Scott Wood), along with Neil Denny and Richard Sanderson as the show's hosts.^[1]^[2] Richard Sanderson was also the producer of two previous incarnations radio shows on Resonance FM, "Sanderson's Alcove", which ran from February 2005 to July 2005 and "Baggage Reclaim" which ran from 2003 to 2005.^[3] Little Atoms is regarded as the first "rationalist" radio show in the UK and one of the first podcasts; with only the JREF's "Internet Audio Show", Rick Wood's Audiomartini, Skepticality and The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe preceding it.^{[citation needed]}

Little Atoms was the official podcast of The Skeptic magazine until 2011.^[4]^[5]

Magazine

Little Atoms's first print magazine launched in November 2015. It features a mixture of edited podcast interviews and original articles by writers including Jonathan Meades, Fergal Keane, Nick Cohen, Suzanne Moore, and more. It is designed by Wild Bill and Crazy Dave, and features illustrations by Jean Jullien.^{[citation needed]}

Awards

Nominated by physics.org web awards in the Best podcast category 2010^[6]

Reception

Little Atoms is frequently cited as one of the UK's top podcasts. In July 2015, Miranda Sawyer, presenter of BBC Radio 4's In Pod We Trust, praised Little Atoms, writing "[Neil] Denny's modesty and well-informed interest enriches Little Atoms, and there are loads of shows to choose from (the As alone include Adam Curtis, Alex Cox and Aleks Krotoski). It has recently expanded into an online magazine, packed with quirky, funny, odd features."^[7]

Esquire magazine's Andrew Harrison described the podcast as "engaging, irreverent and unashamedly intellectual", making "Radio 4's Front Row sound like the E! Channel".^[8]

Fergal Keane described LittleAtoms.com as "a thoughtful site" with "lots to provoke intelligent discussion".^{[citation needed]}

References

^ Wood, Scott. "South East London Folklore Society". Archived from the original on 14 September 2009. Retrieved 25 October 2009. Retrieved 25 October 2009
^ Sherine, Ariane (2009). The Atheist's Guide to Christmas. London: The Friday Project. pp. 293–299. ISBN 978-0-00-732261-9.
^ "Sanderson's Alcove Website". Archived from the original on 6 September 2004. Retrieved 21 November 2009.
^ Redmond, Camilla (15 October 2009). "Radio catch-up: A Good Read, Resonance FM and Cerys Matthews". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 24 April 2016. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
^ Marshall, Ben (27 February 2007). "Weekly web trawl: ephemera, anger and smut". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 16 September 2016. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
^ "Web awards shortlist – Best podcast". Institute of Physics. Archived from the original on 26 October 2010. Retrieved 28 October 2010.
^ Sawyer, Miranda (31 July 2015). "The 10 best holiday podcasts". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 12 October 2019. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
^ "21 Essential Podcasts To Download Today – Esquire". www.esquire.co.uk. Archived from the original on 11 January 2014.