Happy “Hamilton” day! Disney+ has the movie debut, podcasters have you covered with analysis and interviews. I’ll be partaking tonight, so let’s get right to it.
This week’s numbers: 44 notable guests, eight new podcasts, five deep dives and one more true crime podcast at the top of the charts.
Pod Take of the Week
“Fandom is a translatable skill set.”
Listen: Popcast: Pop Superfans Are Getting Politically Active. What Happens Next? (18:47)
- That’s Jon Caramanica, in a fascinating conversation with Stan newsletter writer Denisha Kuhlor on the evolving role of fandom.
- Exhibit: K-pop stans registered for President Donald Trump’s Tulsa rally in June with no intention to attend, leaving the arena two-thirds empty.
- Kuhlor says in the social media era there’s a new, evolving contract between fans and artists, and that the collective power and tools of fandom are changing what it means to be an activist.
Go Deep
1) “Hamilton”
Listen: Pop Culture Happy Hour, The Hamilcast, Bullseye, Fresh Air, Strong Songs, We Got This!, The Ensemblist
- Podcasters are pretty satisfied with the movie version of “Hamilton,” which debuts on Disney+ today. Among the highlights:
- PCHH reviews the movie. Soraya Nadia McDonald calls it “a very satisfying television experience.”
- The Hamilcast completes a three-part interview series with George Washington, aka Christopher Jackson.
- “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda makes the promo rounds, guesting on Bullseye and Fresh Air.
- Strong Songs does a 50-minute breakdown of “Satisfied.”
- We Got This! goes through the whole soundtrack to try to determine the best “Hamilton” song.
- The Ensemblist analyzes the role of the ensemble in the production.
2) Coping With Our Challenging Times
Listen: Future Perfect
- The eight-part series posits “[p]eople have confronted crises for millennia, grappling with the same anguish and anxiety we’re feeling now. And they’ve left us with rich wisdom about how to navigate suffering.”
- The series explores “different philosophical teachings and faith traditions from around the world to help us process what we’re living through — and maybe even find something meaningful, ennobling, and fortifying in this common experience.”
3) “Skin Hunger”
Listen: Death, Sex & Money
- The two-part collaboration between D,S&M and Love + Radio focuses on how people have been deprived of touch during the COVID-19 pandemic and how they’re “coping with a lack of physical touch in their lives.”
4) The Career of the Red Hot Chili Peppers
Listen: R U Talkin’ RHCP RE: Me?
- Adam Scott and Scott Aukerman return with their third deep dive into the discography of a long-running popular band, this time focusing on the 36-year recording career of the Chili Peppers.
5) The Gallagher Brothers
Listen: Rivals
- A 1-hour, 9-minute dive into the sibling rivalry that fueled Oasis, which hosts Steven Hyden and Jordan Runtagh approach as a proxy battle “about the value of art vs. rock ‘n’ roll chaos.”
Guest Appearances By…
($L) = On Luminary, behind a paywall. (S) = Spotify exclusive. Andrés, José In the Bubble with Andy Slavitt
Barris, Kenya The Big Ticket
Black, Ashley Nicole Yo! Is This Racist?
Brodesser-Akner, Taffy How To!
Brooks, Max The Three Questions with Andy Richter
Brown, Karamo At Home with Linda & Drew Scott
Burke, Doris Changing the Game
Byer, Nicole It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders
Caine, Michael Kickass News
Cheadle, Don Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!
Cox, Laverne The School of Greatness
Duke, Annie Conversations with Tyler
Fonda, Jane Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations
Foxx, Jamie All the Smoke
Frantz, Chris The Bob Lefsetz Podcast
Gadsby, Hannah Mike Birbiglia’s Working It Out
Gates, Bill Coronavirus: Fact vs. Fiction
Gore, Al The TED Interview
Groban, Josh Life is Short with Justin Long
Handler, Chelsea Anna Faris is Unqualified
Hodgman, John Doughboys
Hughley, D.L. The Adam Carolla Show
Jackman, Hugh The Tim Ferriss Show
Johnson, Magic Literally! With Rob Lowe
Lee, Spike The Black List Podcast ($L)
Lewis, Huey Broken Record
Lewis, Juliette Armchair Expert
Lopez, George WTF with Marc Maron
McWhorter, John The Gist
Method Man People’s Party with Talib Kweli
Minhaj, Hasan Good One, The New Yorker Radio Hour
Moore, Mandy The Big Ticket
Morissette, Alanis Rolling Stone Music Now
O’Dowd, Chris Grounded with Louis Theroux
Park, Randall The Margaret Cho
Petri, Alexandra The Maris Review
Rees, David Doughboys
Saget, Bob The Jordan Harbinger Show
Sandler, Adam You Made it Weird with Pete Holmes
Sia The Zane Lowe Interview Series
Smigel, Robert The Last Laugh
Thompson, Kenan The New Yorker Radio Hour
Tomlinson, Taylor Your Mom’s House
Zweibel, Alan WTF with Marc Maron
Notable New Podcasts
1) Guru: The Dark Side of Enlightenment
- Another popular deep dive on a criminal character from Wondery.
- This time the focus is on “Oprah-endorsed self-help teacher” James Arthur Ray, who “achieved fame, fortune, and influence. But friends and family members of his followers questioned his unorthodox methods, and tried to stop him.”
- Matt Stroud hosts.
- It’s No. 1 on Apple Podcasts
- Isadore Banks was lynched on the Arkansas Delta. Now, “[m]ore than 60 years later, journalists Taylor Hom and Neil Shea join members of the Banks family on a quest to find out who killed Isadore and restore his legacy.”
- It’s No. 38 on Apple Podcasts.
- NPR has replaced Coronavirus Daily with “an essential guide to what happened today and why it matters.”
- A look at “the individual traits that set high-achieving women apart — what they value most about themselves and how these attributes have shaped who they are.”
- Lilliana Vazquez hosts.
- Filmmaker Kevin Smith and his daughter Harley Quinn “join forces so the two can provide plant-based answers to the Vegan-curious questions they get from a meat-eating and dairy-drinking audience.”
- It’s “a shameless podcast that explores sex, sexuality, relationships and love from angles you could have never imagined in health class.”
7) Resettled
- The podcast series from VPM showcases “stories of refugees as they adjust to their new lives in Virginia.”
- Baratunde Thurston “explains and explores what feels like a defining moment in American history.”
And Two Bonus Episodes to Look Forward to: Wind of Change (July 6)
- The excellent Wind of Change podcast returns with two bonus episodes on Spotify, starting Monday.