I’m including eleven new and returning podcasts this week. A move also known as blowing up your listening queue. And my own, too.

7 Pod Takes

1) “Don’t be afraid to sit down in a crappy place and order every single thing you don’t recognize on the fucking menu.”

Listen: The Trip: A damn fine mezcal (11:57)

That’s José Andrés, distilling a lesson learned from the late, great Anthony Bourdain in a bittersweet episode of the Roads & Kingdoms pod.
Andrés joins Nathan Thornburgh and Matt Goulding in a heartfelt pod lamenting the loss of their friend and partner Bourdain, and celebrating a worldview that Bourdain championed.
My take: Still feeling Bourdain’s loss. Glad to see R&K keep the pod going.

2) “Grievance and anger is a powerful motivating force in politics.”

Listen: I Have to Ask: Nate Silver (6:03)

That’s FiveThirtyEight’s Silver, with a take on one potential dynamic at play in the 2018 U.S. midterm elections next month, and potentially beyond, in the wake of the Kavanaugh hearings and almost two years of Trump.
Adds Silver: “The more you gain policy-wise, particularly when you try to push forward policies whose popularity is ambiguous to slightly negative, then voters want to balance and you pay a price for that.”
My take: Here’s to some righteous anger.

3) “I don’t love gentle things anymore.”

Listen: Recode Decode: ‘Full Frontal’ host Samantha Bee (32:03)

So says Bee, who isn’t interested in just being entertained.
She adds: “I like someone to take my hand and drag me into a world.”
Host Kara Swisher conducts a compelling interview with Bee, ranging from her entertainment preferences to dealing with the fallout from her description of Ivanka Trump to the gamification of everything.

4) “It makes the telemarketing era look quaint.”

Listen: Today, Explained: All my friends are robocalls (11:10)

That’s Simon van Zuylen-Wood on the rise of robocalls, a scourge of the digital era. About 4.2 billion robocalls were made last month.
He traces the exhausting history of phone scams and unwanted calls back more than 100 years.
My take: Same as yours, I’m sure. Someone make ‘em stop.

5) “A focus on quality, on uniqueness, on locality, on experience, ends up amounting to a kind of claustrophobic sameness.”

Listen: Decoder Ring: Hotel Art (30:17)

That’s Willa Paskin, who goes deep on the evolution of hotel art and ends up in a familiar place.
It’s the same as what’s happened at farm-to-table restaurants and “impeccably sourced coffee houses.”
She adds: “Everywhere you go, there you are in a room with perfectly bespoke art that so carefully reflects presiding good taste. It looks like all the other rooms full of bespoke art.”

6) “Even if you’re famous, you shouldn’t go around stealing people’s memories.”

Listen: Heavyweight: Rob (19:45)

So says Jonathan Goldstein, investigating whether Rob Corddry really broke his arm when he was eleven, as he remembers, or if he’s making it up, conflating his experience with his brother Nate’s, as his family believes.
My take: It’s a poignant, entertaining pod about memory and the dynamics of family.
Spoiler: Goldstein gets to the bottom of the mystery. Corddry ain’t stealing nobody’s memories.

7) “Pretty much everyone who’s fifty-one and still making rock ‘n’ roll is embarrassing most of the time.”

Listen: The Great Debates: Kurt Cobain Would Not Have Embarrassed Us(17:35)

That’s Dave King, who takes the position that Cobain, should he have lived to be 51 and still with us today, would have embarrassed us because all old rockers embarrass us.

My take: Wrong. Exhibit A: Without Bob Dylan still doing it into his fifties and beyond, we wouldn’t have this amazing moment.

Go Deep

1) Artificial Intelligence

Listen: American Innovations

The six-part pod on thinking machines ends with an interview with chess legend Garry Kasparov.
Binge time: 3 hours, 13 minutes.

2) That Infamous Sarah Palin Interview

Listen: Katie Couric

The two-part docupod looks back 10 years to Couric’s interviews with the then-VP candidate, and asks how Palin’s rise helped usher in a new brand of politics.
Binge time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.

3) “Dazed and Confused”

Listen: The Rewatchables

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey go deep, “kick some ass, and drink some beer” with the Linklater classic.
Binge time: 1 hour, 16 minutes.

4) “Halloween” the Movie Franchise

Listen: Halloween Unmasked, Nerdificent

Two pods take a deep dive into the scary movie franchise, with Halloween Unmasked kicking off an eight-part look.
Nerdificent goes deep for 1 hour, 17 minutes.

Guest Appearances By…

Armisen, Fred The A24 Podcast

Baldwin, Alec Origins: SNL

SNL’s Trump talks SNL, Trump.

Bardem, Javier Off Camera with Sam Jones

Barinholtz, Ike It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders

Bell, Kristen Keep It

Bloom, Rachel Remote Controlled

Bridges, Jeff Kickass News

Brown, Alton The Sporkful

Charles, Larry Waking Up with Sam Harris

Chazelle, Damien Playback with Kris Tapley

Cummings, Elijah Off Message

D’Apolito, Lisa The Adam Carolla Show

Convo with the director of “Love, Gilda.”

Damon, Matt The Bill Simmons Podcast

Deneen, Patrick The Ezra Klein Show

Faris, Anna WTF with Marc Maron

Garbus, Merrill Talkhouse

In conversation with Meghan Remy.

Gay, Roxane How It Is

Glaser, Nikki The Joe Rogan Experience

Green, Hank How to Be Amazing with Michael Ian Black

Haberman, Maggie The Moment with Brian Koppelman

Hague, Nick Houston We Have a Podcast

Convo with the astronaut.

Hawke, Ethan Mad Influence

Hirono, Mazie Hysteria

Hozier All Songs Considered

The singer/songwriter guest DJs.

Jett, Joan The New Yorker Radio Hour

Jones, Radhika Recode Media with Peter Kafka

Kardashian West, Kim Pretty Big Deal with Ashley Graham

Kid Mero, The The Bill Simmons Podcast

Kramer, Jana Inside of You

Kroll, Nick Comedy Bang! Bang!

Lewis, Michael Fresh Air

LL Cool J Oprah’s Master Class

Maher, Bill Waking Up with Sam Harris

Mayer, Jane Stay Tuned with Preet

McFarlane, Bonnie The Church of What’s Happening Now: With Joey Coco Diaz

McLendon-Covey, Wendi Armchair Expert

Michaels, Lorne Origins SNL

Nosrat, Samin The Tim Ferriss Show

Osnos, Evan Fresh Air

The New Yorker writer talks Facebook and Zuck.

Pelosi, Nancy Larry Wilmore: Black on the Air

Phair, Liz This Song

Power, Cat Song Exploder

Chan Marshall breaks down her song “Woman.”

Remy, Meghan Talkhouse

In conversation with Merrill Garbus.

Richards, Cecile How It Is

Ryan, Joey You Made it Weird with Pete Holmes

Santaolalla, Gustavo This Movie Changed Me

The Oscar-winning composer talks “Wings of Desire.”

Schwartzman, Jason The A24 Podcast

Silverman, Riley Queery with Cameron Esposito

Smith, Kevin Anna Faris is Unqualified

Spacek, Sissy WTF with Marc Maron

Tenacious D Bullseye

Todd, Chuck The Axe Files

Traister, Rebecca Why Is This Happening? with Chris Hayes, The Ezra Klein Show, The Gist, Longform Podcast

The writer makes the pod rounds promoting her new book, “Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger.”

Notable New Podcasts

1) Crimetown

In season two of the pod Marc Smerling and Zac Stuart-Pontier go deep on the culture of crime in Detroit.

2) Halloween Unmasked

The Ringer launches an eight-part pod “celebrating the remarkable and terrifying phenomenon of America’s most revolutionary horror film, ‘Halloween.’”

3) Fangs

A four-part pod about Dracula as a pop culture phenomenon.

4) Without Fail

In the conversational pod, Gimlet’s Alex Blumberg talks to “visionaries of all kinds — about their successes, and their failures, and what they learned from both.”

5) Wild Thing

The Los Angeles Times calls this pod “’Serial’ for Sasquatches.”

6) Mad Influence

GQ gets in the pod game with “a conversational deep-dive into the behind-the-scenes stories and hard-won wisdom of iconic creative careers.”

7) Bear Brook

The true crime pod from New Hampshire Public Radio covers a “cold case that changed the way murders will be investigated forever.”

8) Unobscured

The pod from Lore’s Aaron Mahnke promises “to dig deep and shed light on some of history’s darkest moments.” The first-season topic: The Salem Witch Trials.

9) Heavyweight

It’s season three of the pod that “goes back to the moment everything changed.”

10) Pretty Big Deal with Ashley Graham

The “supermodel, style icon and barrier-breaking body activist” launches a pod with conversations about “culture, beauty, business and owning who you are” with noted podcast aficionado Kim Kardashian West.

11) Threedom

Scott Aukerman, Lauren Lapkus, and Paul F. Tompkins “focus on the basics of being funny with each other.” The Wrap describes the pod as “casual conversations that suddenly veer into sharp bits of improv.”