There once was a podcast called Bloodthirsty Vegetarians. Long before the podcast days of Adam & Joe and Mark Kermode, it was the first podcast I ever subscribed to, after just figuring out what the hell a podcast was.

Intrigued by the title I was just in time to download the first ever episode. This was all the way back in the summer of 2005, and I listened to every single episode until it sadly ended without notice last summer.

Richard Wielgosz and John Talarico were the presenter/creators of Bloodthirsty Vegetarians. They were indeed vegetarian, as the name implies, but this was not the focus of the show. In fact the focus was unclear and undefined. For me, it was their personalities that were the focus. Geeky, highly political yet fun; I was thoroughly entertained by the show and learned many things over the years, about subjects as varied as Floyd Landis, coeliac disease and cryptology. Their personalities were different enough to provide great banter, but their friendship clearly created a great on-air chemistry between them.

They played two songs every week, sadly a bit of a bugbear for me, as I have a decidedly different musical taste to John and Rich. However, the passion with which they spoke about the music made it worthwhile (except for a notable exception when I was offended by a discussion where they claimed hip-hop wasn’t ‘real’ music).

Left wing enough to agree with many of my ideologies, Bloodthirsty Vegetarians was extremely unique and a joy to listen to. Now it is gone I deeply regret not getting in touch with its creators, and become a part of that community. I was a silent listener, but I should have let my voice and support be heard. So here is my belated gesture of support I suppose.

I don’t know why Bloodthirsty Vegetarians disappeared, and I guess I never really will, but the fact that it has gone is a shame. There isn’t anything quite like it around now, and I definitely miss it.

The website for the show is still around, so here is my plug for it – www.bloodyveg.com

I can hear a klaxon!