We’ve come to the end of one hell of a week of podcasts.
Podcasts broke news. Podcasts soothed (me, at least). Podcasts put things into perspective. Podcasts featured A-listers. Podcasts interviewed inanimate objects. And people are still listening to Serial! As of this afternoon, it’s No. 13 on the iTunes chart.
Lastly, shouts to all who sent podcast recommendations about Achilles, tales of your own Achilles woes and well wishes. Thank you, and thanks for reading.
7 Pod Takes
1) “I don’t think joy is a privilege. I think freedom can be a privilege; I think luxury and comfort can be a privilege. But joy is a piece of basic human resilience. It’s a human birthright.”
Listen: On Being: Living the Questions with Krista Tippett (7:58)
- So says Tippett in just a snippet of her wise and beautiful response to the question: “How can we stay present to what’s happening in the world without giving in to despair and hopelessness?”
- She adds: “[H]owever seriously we must take what’s happening in the world and what the headlines are reflecting, it is never the full story of our time. It’s not the last word on what we’re capable of. It’s not the whole story of us.”
- My take: Tippett’s the guide we need for these extraordinary times. A highly recommended pod.
2) “I’m Jewish, and there’s a set of people who deny that the Holocaust happened. I find that deeply offensive. But at the end of the day, I don’t believe that our platform should take that down because I think there are things that different people get wrong. I don’t think that they’re intentionally getting it wrong.”
Listen: Recode Decode: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg: The Kara Swisher interview (20:25)
- That’s Facebook’s Zuckerberg, with the horrifically bad take that triggered countless hot takes and baffled millions.
- My take: See Jaron Lanier’s take from last week, arguing that we should delete our social media accounts.
3) “He might be another Alexander Hamilton in American history.”
Listen: Trumpcast: The Pieces of the Mueller Puzzle (5:35)
- That’s host Virginia Heffernan, on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s importance and potential place in history books.
- She adds: He’s a non-president who “has moral authority who wears it well and acts on it with integrity.”
- Heffernan talks to Garrett Graff, Mueller’s biographer and a critical voice chronicling the day-to-day of the Special Counsel’s investigation. Graff believes Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is the investigation’s linchpin.
- Graff says: “In a world of foxes and hedgehogs, Rod Rosenstein is the ultimate hedgehog. He knows how Donald Trump’s presidency ends.”
4) “Can you count to 27?”
Listen: The Bill Simmons Podcast: Denzel Washington on ‘He Got Game,’ the Yankees, and LeBron (4:48)
- That’s Denzel, in a disappointing performance as a cliched New York Yankees fan taunting Boston Red Sox fan Simmons with the number of championships won by the guys in pinstripes.
- My take: Overall a strong pod, recommended for sports fans or Denzel fans. Or both.
5) “It’s cost us ‘Take your hand off my leg, you creepy boss’ money.”
Listen: The Indicator from Planet Money: Saving Women (2:36)
- That’s Sallie Krawcheck, highlighting the damage of the gender investing gap.
- The numbers: Women save 74 percent of their income as cash. Men save 61 percent, and invest the rest.
- Says Krawcheck, who’s spent her career in Wall Street power positions: The costs of that gap are substantial, from having to stay in awful jobs to losing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of a lifetime.
6) “[Red pepper flakes are] the Meryl Streep of the table toppings.”
Listen: Bon Appetit Foodcast: Pizza, Pizza! (8:35)
- So says Alex Delany, touting red pepper flakes as the go-to topping during his effort to eat 30 slices of New York cheese pizza in 36 hours.
7) “I thank God every day of my life that I was not born a can of minestrone soup.”
Listen: Everything is Alive: Louis, Can of Cola (16:02)
- So says Louis, a can of cola and the star of Ian Chillag’s new interview show where all the guests are inanimate objects.
- My take: Brilliant and weird. Mostly brilliant.
Go Deep
1) “Nanette”
Listen: Srsly, Pop Culture Happy Hour, Original Content
- Hannah Gadsby’s stand-up special that somewhere in the middle turns into “something else entirely,” according to PCHH’s Stephen Thompson, has become a cultural phenomenon.
- It’s been talked about, written about and fawned over for weeks, but it seems to have hit a critical mass among the pods this week — the “backlash to the backlash,” says PCHH’s Glen Weldon.
- Why? The “something else entirely” of Gadsby’s show has created space and urgency to discuss gender, trauma, art history, abuse, anger, storytelling and the limits of stand-up comedy.
- Guest Kumail Nanjiani shares the perspective of a stand-up on PCHH.
- SRSLY says Gadsby shows how comedy works in a way that isn’t boring or technical.
2) Bo Burnham
Listen: Bullseye, Fresh Air, Late Night Whenever with Michelle Buteau, The Big Picture, Filmspotting, Mortified, The H3 Podcast
- Peak Burnham? The YouTuber, comedian and director of “Eighth Grade” makes the pod rounds in support of his much-loved movie about a 13-year-old girl’s last week of eighth grade and the videos she makes.
- Why a girl? Burnham researched videos of kids talking online. He says on Late Night Whenever: “The boys tended to talk about Minecraft. The girls tended to talk about their souls. So it was like, obviously I’m going to write about the girls.”
- He adds: “The story about the boy would be just like 90 minutes of Fortnite references.”
- Fact check from a father of an almost middle grader: True.
3) Nuclear Energy
Listen: American Innovations
- Wondery’s six-part series hosted by Steven Johnson chronicles the rise and future of nuclear energy.
- Binge time: 4 hours, 7 minutes
4) The Avett Brothers
Listen: You Made it Weird with Pete Holmes
- A 3-hour, 54-minute pod with the brothers Avett, perfect for those who are sad because they have to miss them on tour this summer (read: me).
Guest Appearances By…
Bharara, Preet Remade in America with Bassem Youssef
Brooks, Arthur The Ezra Klein Show
Case, Neko I Think You’re Interesting
- The singer-songwriter of one the best songs ever featuring a killer whale talks about her process, women in the music industry.
Charli XCX And the Writer is…
Couric, Katie The Dan Wootton Interview
Danson, Ted The Good Place: The Podcast
Diggs, Daveed WTF With Marc Maron, The Deadline Podcast
- “Hamilton” star on Oakland, his new movie “Blindspotting.”
D’onofrio, Vincent Curious with Josh Peck
Duritz, Adam This Must Be the Gig
Esposito, Cameron Modern Love
- Comic and actress reads an essay about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.
Gaffigan, Jim The Adam Carolla Show
Gillan, Karen Inside of You
Ginsburg, Josh Recode Decode
- Zignal Labs CEO on the rise of bots in social media.
Greenwell, Megan Longform Podcast
- Convo with Deadspin’s EIC, the first external hire to lead the site.
Grossman, Mindy Skimm’d From the Couch
Hannah, Liz Scriptnotes
- The screenwriter of “The Post” talks storytelling.
Jay-Z Oprah’s Master Class
Johnson, Dwayne Oprah’s Master Class
Koppelman, Brian Recode Media with Peter Kafka
- Convo about poker, restaurants and “Billions” with the show’s co-creator.
Kroll, Nick Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Madden, Steve How I Built This with Guy Raz
Manson, Shirley Dear Sugars
- Garbage singer on being an outsider.
Macdonald, Kelly Maltin on Movies
Nancherla, Aparna Late Night Whenever with Michelle Buteau
Newhart, Bob WTF With Marc Maron
Ocasio-Cortez, Alexandria Pod Save the People
Pfeiffer, Dan The Axe Files
Roker, Al It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders
Rooney, Wayne Pardon My Take
Smith, Jeron Strictly Business
- Steph Curry’s media partner talks expanding into entertainment.
Souza, Pete Here’s the Thing with Alec Baldwin
- Convo with the presidential photographer for Obama and Reagan.
Stanhope, Doug The Joe Rogan Experience
Totenberg, Nina Stay Tuned with Preet
Tyler, Aisha The Tim Ferriss Show
Van Sant, Gus WTF with Marc Maron, The Treatment
Waithe, Lena The Dave Chang Show
Whitehouse, Sheldon Important Not Important
- U.S. Senator on speaking about climate change in Congress 200 (!) times.
Williamson, Marianne The Goop Podcast
Youssef, Bassem Forked Up
Notable New Podcasts
- Jon Favreau and Crooked Media launched a 15-chapter pod that chronicles the history and future of the Democratic Party “through conversations with strategists, historians, policy experts, organizers, and voters.”
- The Queen of All Media spins off another pod, this one not-so-surprisingly about big achievers’ personal stories and lessons learned.
- It’s “an interview show in which all the guests are inanimate objects.” Ian Chillag hosts.
4) Race Chaser
- Alaska and Willam break down every episode of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
- The binge-worthy show about business rivalries spins off a daily pod focusing on current biz issues.
- A simple but compelling premise: Joe Posnanski speaks with guests about their biggest passions.
7) Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone
- The comedian pitches her pod as “a comedy field guide to life.”
8) The Realness
- The pod “goes behind Prodigy’s music to reveal his lifelong struggle against his own body, and how that struggle informed his lyrics and fueled his success.” Prodigy suffered from sickle cell disease. He died in 2017.
9) Wrong Skin
- A new true crime pod about “a relationship banned under traditional law. An investigation into an unsolved suspicious death and a missing person in the Australian outback.”