{"podcast":{"title":"Word In Your Ear","slug":"word-in-your-ear-66565","podcast_index_feed_id":66565,"rss_url":"https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/5fe229a1f896715ee8319608","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":"2026-07-24T06:19:52.971578+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-66565"},"episode":{"title":"Brian Epstein & the Beatles - what he did and what he hid","slug":"brian-epstein-the-beatles-what-he-did-and-what-he-hid","published_at":"2026-06-09T11:53:55+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-66565/brian-epstein-the-beatles-what-he-did-and-what-he-hid","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-66565","url":"https://shows.acast.com/word-in-your-ear-2/episodes/word-podcast-921-philip-norman","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/5ff0586154e2a73589267809/e/6a27fed3a917ce4c706541ca/media.mp3","summary":"Philip Norman has written books about the Beatles – and John, Paul and George - and now turns the spotlight on the man who launched them and the extreme personal and professional obstacles in the dramatic path of his short life, the man who built a shield around them but couldn't protect himself. We talk to him here about ‘Mr Moonlight: Brian Epstein and the Making of the Beatles’ with particular attention to …   … how he changed Britain’s image and was mortified to get no recognition for it   … the Beatle whose demands he was always fastest to execute   … the level of homophobia and anti-Semitism he had to absorb   … his reckless pursuits in the days when homosexuality could mean life imprisonment   … contract killers, blackmail, rigged roulette wheels and why the Krays said “it wasn’t us” when they heard he’d died   … the way he fashioned his own myth and airbrushed others who’d helped the Beatles succeed   … why McCartney’s 21st birthday party could have ended the band   … his genius (and fraudulence) as a salesman      … the double catastrophe of Brian’s US merchandising deal   … John, Aunt Mimi and “a story about the British class system”   … and the chaperone on George and Pattie’s first date.   Order copies of ‘Mr Moonlight’ here: https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Mr-Moonlight/Philip-Norman/9781398542266 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":"Philip Norman has written books about the Beatles – and John, Paul and George - and now turns the spotlight on the man who launched them and the extreme p…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1787,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/word-in-your-ear-66565/episodes/brian-epstein-the-beatles-what-he-did-and-what-he-hid/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-66565/brian-epstein-the-beatles-what-he-did-and-what-he-hid.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}