Presenter Josie Long, an established comedienne in her own right fits the mold perfectly as she introduces every link with easy and fills in the gap between every story with precision and enthusiasm. Every episode follows a theme which all the stories are connected, for example the episode from the 4th season 'The Fear' which follows stories that are genuinely scary.
In addition to this Short cuts is extremely well produced and highlights some of the most diverse and engaging stories. One highlight includes the story called "The Manager's club" a story about Dave Lory, the manager of the late vocalist Jeff Buckley who drowned in the Mississippi river and how he dealt with the death of his client by striking up a relationship with Danny Goldberg, the manager of another rockstar in Kurt Cobain. This can be heard on the episode 6 of the 4th series called 'After dark.'
Short Cuts is essential listening because it really condenses a large number of features and stories all into 28 minutes of outstanding radio which I cant recommend enough. The contributors and respective producers deserve an immense amount of credit as does Josie Long and producer Eleanor McDowall. The show also deserves credit for its fantastic use of multi media as it includes imaginative imagery which accompanies each episode on the BBC website which really sets the tone and the pace as well as their use of video for mini snippets of their episodes and last but not least I couldn't applaud them enough for having their own Tumblr page.
It is a well presented, well thought out show that will only naturally draw obvious comparisons from This American Life, but it also hits all the same notes as countless storytelling podcasts like The Moth and previously mentioned Risk! at least in terms of their epic production values and their diverse range in subject matter.
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