{"podcast":{"title":"Word In Your Ear","slug":"word-in-your-ear-4162240","podcast_index_feed_id":4162240,"rss_url":"https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/5ff0586154e2a73589267809","website_url":"https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear","image_url":"https://assets.pippa.io/shows/5ff0586154e2a73589267809/1620937674526-4e6eb29c967e869bd9d5a9d205d55599.jpeg","author":"Word In Your Ear","episode_count":986,"summary":"Mark Ellen and David Hepworth have been talking about and writing about music together and individually for a collective eighty years in magazines like Smash Hits, Mojo and The Word and on radio and TV programmes like \"Rock On\", \"Whistle Test\" and VH-1. Over thirteen years ago, when working on the late magazine The Word, they began producing podcasts. Some listeners have been kind enough to say these have been very special to them. When the magazine folded in 2012 they kept the spirit of those podcasts alive in regular Word In Your Ear evenings in which they spoke to musicians and authors in front of an audience. Over these years they've produced hundreds of hours of material. As of the Current Unpleasantness of 2020, they've produced yet hundreds of hours more with a little help from guests kind enough to digitally show them around their attics such as Danny Baker, Andy Partridge, Sir Tim Rice and Mark Lewisohn. For the full span of the Word In Your Ear world, visit wiyelondon.com . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-24T06:20:01.393127+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-4162240"},"episode":{"title":"Star Ratings - do we love/hate/need them? Five-star debate here! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️","slug":"star-ratings-do-we-love-hate-need-them-five-star-debate-here","published_at":"2026-06-11T14:05:35+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-4162240/star-ratings-do-we-love-hate-need-them-five-star-debate-here","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-4162240","url":"https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/5ff0586154e2a73589267809/e/6a2ac0afd1dd1d4482b8a413/media.mp3","summary":"Star Ratings are now ubiquitous and inescapable and it’s not just music, films and books. Everything we encounter tends to be rated which colours our judgement before we try it. Choice can be paralyzing but do we read anymore or just count? Benji Wilson’s ‘Rate This Book: How Star Ratings Took Over the World’ traces their origin – back to 350 BC! – paints a picture of modern life and wonders here where we’re heading, along with …   … Aristotle’s 2,500 year-old system of star-rated animals   … how Michelin cooked up starred restaurants to get you to wear out your tyres   … can we spot fake reviews and the people who sell them?   … do we only tend to read one- and five-star reviews? And why writers hate the system   … the ingenious deceit of the Krays movie poster   … the value of reviews in a world where time and tickets costs are escalating   … “Star Ratings are the democratisation of criticism, the least-worst method”   … why a 2016 episode of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror now seems prophetic   … the “hidden hands” that manipulate the ratings system   … and mass Amazon ratings and the power of Mob Rule.   Order copies of ‘Rate This Book’ here: https://linktr.ee/newmodern_books#560826579   https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rate-This-Book-Ratings-World/dp/1917923651?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.","meta_description":"Star Ratings are now ubiquitous and inescapable and it’s not just music, films and books. Everything we encounter tends to be rated which colours our judg…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2274,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/word-in-your-ear-4162240/episodes/star-ratings-do-we-love-hate-need-them-five-star-debate-here/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-4162240/star-ratings-do-we-love-hate-need-them-five-star-debate-here.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}