Another bounty of intriguing new podcasts this week. Next week’s looking bountiful, too. This week’s counts: 63 notable guests, 15 new podcasts, seven deep dives and one music legend set for her podcast close-up.
Pod Take of the Week
“The right-wing machine for pumping out this kind of misinformation is like the chocolates moving in front of Lucy and Ethel.”
Listen: Pod Save America: “Drunk dialing for kompromat.” (31:09)
- That’s Jon Lovett, on the overload of BS as the U.S. House of Representatives begins its impeachment inquiry.
- Context: Watch Lucy and Ethel do their thing.
Go Deep
1) The Rise and Sale of Gimlet Media
- For podcast nerds, mostly. StartUp, the Gimlet Media podcast that has chronicled the company’s creation and growing pains for five years, starts its final season.
- It promises to tell the warts-and-all tale of its recent acquisition by Spotify.
- For an outside perspective, the Harvard Business Review podcast Cold Call offers a Gimlet case study.
2) The Market for Passports
Listen: The Documentary Podcast
- A 28-minute look at the “booming trade in passports” and “how easy it can be to get a second — or third — passport, for the right price.”
3) Facebook vs. Snapchat
Listen: Business Wars
- A six-part series on the tech battle between Mark Zuckerberg’s data-swallowing juggernaut and Evan Spiegel’s upstart.
4) Pocky
Listen: Spilled Milk
- A 25-minute dive into Pocky and other stickbiscuits.
5) Dave Chapelle
Listen: Still Processing
- A 42-minute dive into the comic’s latest comedy special, his place in the current culture and his highwire act of jokes about abortion.
6) Jeanne de Saint-Remy
Listen: Con Artists
- The pod kicks off a multi-parter on the 18th-century French con artist.
7) John Wilkes Booth
Listen: 1865
- The pod completes a three-part series on Abraham Lincoln’s killer and his final hours.
Guest Appearances By…
($L) = On Luminary, behind a paywall. (S) = A Spotify exclusive.
Allende, Isabel Latino USA
Anderson, Nick The Dave Chang Show
- Convo with the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist.
Armstrong, Heather B. The Hilarious World of Depression
Avett Brothers, The Armchair Expert
- Supplemental listening: The band’s new album, Closer Than Together. Or listen to this and have a cry.
Bandera, Antonio Studio 360
Banhart, Devendra This Must Be the Gig
Barr, Roseanne The Joe Rogan Experience
Brie, Alison Anna Faris Is Unqualified
Bryson, Bill Conversations
Byer, Nicole The Goodie Goodie with Sabrina Jalees
Byrne, David All Songs Considered
Cameron, David Pod Save the World
- Former UK Prime Minister talks about democracy, his book.
Carey, Drew Talkhouse
Carney, Patrick The Road Taken
- The drummer of The Black Keys talks touring, his band.
Clinton, Hillary Call Your Girlfriend
Clinton, Chelsea Call Your Girlfriend
Cochran, Jason Explore the World
Cox, Laverne LGBTQ&A ($L)
Day, Charlie Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!
DeVito, Danny WTF with Marc Maron
Ellis, Brett Easton The Portal
Faison, Donald Life is Short with Justin Long
Favreau, Jon Strictly Business
- Convo with the movie director.
Favreau, Jon Work in Progress with Sophia Bush
- Convo with the Crooked Media co-founder.
Feldman, Liz Work in Progress with Sophia Bush
Gates, Melinda HBR IdeaCast, Wisdom From the Top ($L)
Gladwell, Malcolm Happier with Gretchen Rubin, The Ezra Klein Show
Glazer, Nikki The Joe Rogan Experience
Guggenheim, Davis The Vergecast
Gulman, Gary You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes, The Gist, The Moment
- The comedian makes the pod rounds promoting his HBO special, “The Great Depresh.”
Henner, Marilu WTF with Marc Maron
Howard, Russell Full Disclosure with James O’Brien
Iger, Bob Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations
Klosterman, Chuck The Bill Simmons Podcast
Legend, John It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders
Lennox, Annie Cry Power with Hozier
Marantz, Andrew Longform Podcast
Marsalis, Wynton The Open Ears Project
Martin, Giles All Songs Considered
Miller, Chanel Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations
- Convo with the sexual assault victim formerly knowns as Emily Doe.
Neistat, Casey H3 Podcast
Newsom, Gavin The Lead
- California’s Gov. talk NCAA, allowing college athletes in the state to get paid for the use of their name and likeness.
O’Brien, Conan Off Book
Phoenix, Joaquin ID10T
Porowski, Antoni Beyond the Plate
Raskin, Rep. Jamie Pod Save America
Remnick, David Stay Tuned with Preet
Rock, Chris The Al Franken Podcast
Rodman, Dennis The Jordan Harbinger Show
Rogen, Seth Scriptnotes
Rushdie, Salman Bookworm
Russo, Joe Talks at Google
Sagal, Peter Go Fact Yourself
Sarsgaard, Peter Bullseye
Shaffir, Ari The Joe Rogan Experience
Simpson, Sturgill The Joe Rogan Experience
Smith, Ben Recode Media
Tegan and Sara Queery
Thruman, Niccole Culture Kings
Tolentino, Jia Keep It
White, Jack Broken Record
Yamagata, Rachel Wheels Off
Yang, Andrew The Portal
Notable New Podcasts
- Another week, another pod about the insidious Jeffrey Epstein.
- It’s No. 1 on iTunes.
- The pod from Ramsey Network “explores the lies we believe about college and digs into the soaring cost of tuition and the predatory nature of the student loan industry.”
- It’s No. 10 on iTunes.
- The ten-part series from Crooked Media “goes beyond the headlines to explore what really matters for our health.”
- It’s No. 27 on iTunes
- An eight-episode series about “a serial killer inspired by Rube Goldberg” in Sierra Blanca, Texas. The pod explores whether the killings are tied to a Mexican cartel turf war.
- It’s No. 33 on iTunes
5) Scam Goddess
- An Earwolf pod “dedicated to fraud and all those who practice it!”
- It’s No. 84 on iTunes
6) Condition
- The podcast from the Las Vegas Review-Journal covers the mass shooting at the Route 91 festival by sharing “the stories of two Las Vegas police officers, a woman in dire straits and the night their lives intersected.”
7) The Left Ear
- Host Dakota Johnson covers “stories of assault, abuse, and harassment from survivors around the globe.”
- The musician “talks to artists and activists about how to take action and change the world.”
9) The Law & Order: SVU Podcast
- The official pod about the TV show brings “behind-the-scenes episode intel from the cast and crew.”
10) Worst Year Ever
- It’s all about the projected craziness of the election year 2020, which “isn’t going to be fun for anybody, left, right, or center.”
11) Cryptids
- It’s a scripted show about “a conspiracy radio show host and an avid listener who go in search of an afterlife.”
12) The Road Taken
- The Ringer podcast hosted by Vampire Weekend’s Chris Tomson and Chris Baio takes “an honest look at the life of a touring musician through conversations with their peers, idols, and rivals.”
13) Sonic Boom ($L)
- The Ringer pod “tells a story of basketball and politics, wealth and power—revealing new truths about the NBA’s greatest heist.”
- That heist would be the NBA’s Seattle Supersonics departure to Oklahoma City in 2008.
- Actress Kimmy Gatewood “aims to uncover what it truly means to be a modern parent in an over-informed, Google-obsessed, placenta-eating world.”
15) Bear and a Banjo
- The music podcast from iHeartRadio “tells the incredibly tall tale of a band that time forgot.”
And One to Look Forward To: Dolly Parton’s America
- The trailer’s out for the nine-episode “journey into the Dollyverse.” Radiolab’s Jad Abumrad hosts.