Investigations. Brainwashing. COVID-19. Fears of voter suppression. Mourning RBG. It’s been a week for serious podcasts. Let’s get to it. The counts: 53 notable guests, 12* new podcasts, seven deep dives and one notorious icon.
* More than 12, if you want. Details below.
Pod Take of the Week
“The time and space for anyone’s private grief over this loss of a national heroine has just been trampled by the pounding hooves of outrage and whiplash.”
Listen: Amicus: Quiet Words That Remain (:41)
- That’s Dahlia Lithwick, talking about the political reaction to the death of Supreme Court Justice and American icon, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
- Lithwick steps back from the public mourning and fear of what comes next to “honor the justice by reflecting on her legacy and maybe some of the lost details of her work.”
- She says: “I don’t think RBG herself would have wanted us to be girding for an all out take no prisoners civil war as the result of her death. That’s just not how she saw the world.”
Go Deep
1) RIP Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Listen: Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, The Daily, The Ginsburg Tapes, NPR
- Tributes to and remembrances of RBG rang out among many podcasters. Among the outpouring:
- Priscilla Chan narrates the story of her life and legacy for Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls.
- The Daily produces a two-parter, one on her life and the other on the battle for her vacant seat on the court.
- The Ginsburg Tapes rebroadcasts a five-episode series on six cases RBG argued in front of the court in the 1970s, before she was a justice.
- NPR’s Nina Totenberg recounts her five-decade-long friendship with the justice. She says, “If you are lucky enough to be friends with someone like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, you both understand that you each have a job and that it has to be done professionally, and without favor.”
2) Voting Rights in 2020
Listen: The Weeds
- The Vox pod begins By the People, a series on the issues “facing voters in the upcoming election, and [lays] out various policy proposals and practical ways to overcome that obstacle.”
3) 1980: A Critical Year in Music
LIsten: Lost Notes
- Poet and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib explores “the brilliant, awkward and sometimes heartbreaking opening to a monumental decade in popular music.”
- Seven episodes dropped, including ones on Stevie Wonder, The Sugarhill Gang, and the connection between John Lennon and Darby Crash.
4) Washington D.C. Statehood
Listen: What’s With Washington
- It’s a six-episode series focused “on Washingtonians’ fight for representation and why attempts to secure statehood have been repeatedly thwarted.”
5) David Fincher’s Work, Ranked
Listen: The Big Picture
- The Ringer pod goes 3 hours, 12 minutes over two episodes to “analyze the filmmaker’s work and build a hierarchy of his top 25 works.”
6) COVID-19 and Sports
Listen: Death, Sex & Money
- The WNYC pod launches Game Changer, a series about “how the COVID-19 pandemic has upended the lives and livelihoods of athletes.”
7) Whitney Houston (and Mariah Carey)
Listen: The C-Word ($L), Rivals
- Lena Dunham and Alissa Bennett finish a two-episode arc on “‘The Voice,’ the myth, the legend” that is Houston. Listen time: 1 hour, 41 minutes.
- Rivals goes an hour deep on Houston’s competition with Carey.
Guest Appearances By…
($L) = Luminary, behind a paywall. (S) = Spotify exclusive. ($A) = Audible, behind a paywall.
Abagnale, Frank The Perfect Scam
- The “Catch Me If You Can” con man answers questions about scams.
Arnett, Will The Three Questions with Andy Richter
Atwood, Margaret Full Disclosure with James O’Brien
Bamford, Maria Mike Birbiglia’s Working It Out
Bareilles, Sara Armchair Expert
Bass, Lance Uncool With Alexa Bliss
Black Thought This Must Be the Gig
Bolton, John The FRONTLINE Dispatch
Bridgers, Phoebe People Have the Power, You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes
Brown, Millie Bobby The Big Ticket
Buress, Hannibal Sound Opinions
Burgess, Tituss Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!
Burke, Cheryl The Gift of Forgiveness
Cattrall, Kim Skimm’d From the Couch
Colbert, Stephen Angry Americans
Daniels, Jeff The Bill Simmons Podcast, The Axe Files, Kickass News
Desus & Mero The Bill Simmons Podcast
Dudamel, Gustavo Smartless
Earnhardt Jr., Dale Danica Patrick Pretty Intense
Fauci, Anthony Coronavirus: Fact vs. Fiction, Today, Explained
Fonda, Jane Full Release with Samantha Bee
Gomez, Selena Song Exploder
- The singer and actress breaks down her song “Lose You to Love Me.”
Hasselhoff, David At Home with Linda & Drew Scott
Hadfield, Chris The Jordan Harbinger Show
Hastings, Reed TED Talks Daily
Heckerling, Amy Unspooled
Iverson, Allen All the Smoke
Jeff, Jazzy Questlove Supreme
Jones, James Earl Conversations
July, Miranda The Treatment
Kennedy Jr., Robert Hotboxin with Mike Tyson
Keys, Alicia WTF with Marc Maron
Khan, Sal How I Built This with Guy Raz
Leguizamo, John WTF with Marc Maron
Levinson, Barry WTF with Marc Maron
Lo Truglio, Joe The Last Laugh
Marley, Ziggy Eric Krasno Plus One
Mould, Bob The Moment, Talkhouse
Navratilova, Martina Holding Court
Newsome, Gavin Sway
Pelosi, Nancy Sway
Phetasy, Bridget The Joe Rogan Experience
Ratajkowski, Emily Ringer Dish
Ross, Alex Conversations with Tyler
Rucker, Darius Biscuits & Jam
Sandler, Adam That Scene with Dan Patrick
Stevens, Cat Yusuf All Songs Considered
Urban, Keith Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend
Vanallen, Lisa Red Table Talk
- In a two-parter, the R. Kelly accuser “shares the details of her decade-long ordeal with the R&B singer.”
Waithe, Lena Going Through It
Way, Gerard Pass-Through Frequencies
Weiner, Eric The Gist
Notable New Podcasts
Schrödinger’s format update: I’m contracting and expanding coverage of new podcasts. Starting today, the newsletter will include a curated list of the most notable and best new podcasts of the previous seven days. Think high-charting debuts, pods with buzz and a bit of my own critical judgement.
Broader coverage now resides at weekinpodcasts.com, where I’ll show my work with an evolving list of new and upcoming podcasts. The list currently includes more than 70 just-released and upcoming podcasts. I’ll update it regularly.
Know of any podcasts that should be included? Reply and let me know.
1) Suspicious Activity: Inside the FinCEN Files
- The five-part pod investigates ”how the most powerful banks in the world facilitate the worst of humanity.”
- It’s a co-production of Pineapple Street Studios and BuzzFeed News.
- Apple Podcasts rank: No. 17.
2) The Dave Portnoy Show with Eddie & Co
- Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy and Chicago Eddie talk about “the inner workings of Barstool.”
- It’s the highest-ranking debut on Apple Podcasts: No. 7.
3) Sway
- Kara Swisher’s new pod for the New York Times is “about power – and holding those who have it accountable.”
- Apple Podcasts rank: No. 13.
- Spotify Trending Podcasts rank: No. 11.
4) Brainwashed
- The CBC pod investigates “the CIA’s covert mind control experiments – from the Cold War and MKULTRA to the so-called War on Terror.”
- Apple Podcasts rank: No. 27.
- The WWE superstar and her guests “dish on their most cringeworthy moments from before the fame and success.”
- Spotify Trending Podcasts rank: No. 12.
- Mark Shanahan “shares a deeply personal, sometimes harrowing, often funny, always true story about prostate cancer.”
7) The Red Note
- Lydia Cacho and a Mexico-based creative team examine “the story of the Juarez femicides through the voices of investigators who tried to solve the mystery of these crimes, and the families of the victims, whose lives have been reshaped by tragedy.”
8) Whirlwind
- Pulitzer Prize-winner Tim Weiner “provides a penetrating look at the decisions, mistakes, and mischief that led us to this point” where “America is edging toward autocracy under the leadership of a president that Russian spies helped elect.”
9) Timber Wars
- Oregon Public Broadcasting chronicles the 1990s fight to save ancient trees in the Pacific Northwest and “the most controversial bird in the country,” the Northern Spotted Owl.
- The seven-part series tells the story of how “this conflict reshaped the Northwest and the nation as a whole, in ways we’re dealing with still.”
10) Living & Learning with Reba McEntire
- It’s “inspired and informed” by the way the musician and actress “approaches life: with an insatiable curiosity, dedication to expanding her knowledge, and reliance on her own lived experience.”
- Spotify Trending Podcasts rank: No. 3.
11) Daughters of DC
- It’s “an original scripted teen political thriller” from iHeartRadio.
- The plot: “At Washington DC’s most elite prep school, Jaymes – the tech-savvy daughter of the Speaker of The House – and her best friends Peyton, Natalie, and Celia share their deepest secrets on a private app called DODC. When the girls are hacked by a mysterious figure, they’re thrust into a global conspiracy that threatens to expose DC’s most influential families.”
- In the BBC pod, Leah Sottilet investigates the legacy of the Oklahoma City Bombing, the “largest domestic terror incident in American history.”
For 14 more podcasts that launched this week, plus upcoming debuts, visit the This Week in Podcasts website.