BTW this is the kind of throwable mic I've seen used a couple of times catchbox.com/for-conferen... which I imagine you could also drop-kick in bigger rooms…

That's what they did at the conference I was at recently, and it's fine in a smallish room (even with the lapel mic which was all we had!) but not great in a big plenary hall. Might volunteer to man a big old boom mic next time!

I agree, but hard to know what the best solution is when mics are limited but everything needs to go through one for accessibility / online participation. I quite like those throwable mics, but that might just be because I have never really grown up…

When my brother lent me this he said something like 'think Succession written by Franzen' and that's about right (with echoes of The Virgin Suicides in the first person plural narration at the end). Took me a while to get into it, and ages to get though it, but ultimately really enjoyed it.

South Africa, on the other hand…

I follow it up with one on conservation of marine megafauna, which is nearly all pictures, so I think I just about break even!