We’ve set a newsletter record for the amount of new podcasts featured this week. Congrats to all!
The counts: 54 notable guests, 23 new podcasts, six deep dives and one endangered letter of the alphabet.
Pod Take of the Week
“The alphabet should be reordered.”
Listen: The Hottest Take (:46)
- That’s Tyler Parker, with a scorching take during the debut week of the Ringer’s new opinion/comedy pod on Spotify.
- Parker just ain’t having R, S and T — “elite letters, superstar letters” — positioned behind Q.
- Q, he says, can just be banished. K and W can do the work.
- Says Parker: “If Q’s in the alphabet after this I’m gonna be furious.”
- Additional Reading: “The Mixed-Up Alphabet.”
Go Deep
1) The World of Comedy
Listen: The Gist
- The five-part, week-long series devotes an episode each to stand-up, improv, podcasts, film and late night.
- Guests include Aparna Nancherla, Ron Funches and John August.
- Binge time: 3 hours, 1 minute.
2) “Baby Shark”
Listen: Switched on Pop
- A 36-minute deep dive into the “dark magic” of the earworm, aka the parents’ “nightmare that will not end.”
3) Puerto Rico
Listen: Throughline
- A 1 hour, 6 minute dive into the relationship the territory has with the U.S. mainland.
4) How to Make Meetings Less Terrible
Listen: Freakonomics Radio
- A 41-minute look at how to not waste time in conference rooms and on Zoom calls.
5) “American Idiot”
Listen: Reminiscent
- The indie punk and emo music pod devotes 54 minutes to breaking down the landmark Green Day album on its 15th anniversary.
6) U.S. Interstate System
Listen: Stuff You Should Know
- A 1 hour, 3 minute dive into the power — both positive and destructive — of America’s superhighways.
Guest Appearances By…
($L) = On Luminary, behind a paywall. (S) = A Spotify exclusive.
Abrams, Stacey Lovett or Leave It
Ali, Laila Splitting Upward
Aukerman, Scott Off Camera with Sam Jones, Kickass News, Doughboys
- The co-creator of “Between Two Ferns” talks about the Netflix “Ferns” movie, Marie Callender’s.
Baran, Madeline Inside Podcasting
Batiste, Jon The Open Ears Project
- The bandleader discusses his love for Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring.”
Black Keys, The The Joe Rogan Experience
Black, Michael Ian Filling the Void
- The comic talks about poker.
Braverman, Blair With Friends Like These
Carroll, E. Jean Death, Sex & Money
Carroll, Sean The Joe Rogan Experience, Science Weekly
Coates, Ta-Nehisi Longform Podcast
Cornwell, Patricia StarTalk Radio
Cummings, Whitney The Hilarious World of Depression
Day, Charlie Armchair Expert
Folds, Ben Conversations
Gadsby, Hannah Studio 360
Galifianakis, Zach Comedy Bang! Bang!
Gladwell, Malcolm Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations, The Bill Simmons Podcast, It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders, Larry Wilmore: Black on the Air
- Gladwell makes the round of podcasts with long names to promote his new book about strangers.
Glazier, Ilana The Thrive Global Podcast
Godin, Seth The Moment with Brian Koppelman
Gyllenhaal, Jake Talks at Google
Hale, Tony Life is Short with Justin Long, You Made it Weird with Pete Holmes
Hannah-Jones, Nikole The Ezra Klein Show
Howard, Britney The New Yorker Radio Hour
Jacobson, Abbi The Thrive Global Podcast
Jefferies, Jim Not Too Deep with Grace Helbig
Kantor, Jodi Skimm’d From the Couch, Call Your Girlfriend, Recode Decode, The Daily
Kardashian West, Kim Foodgod:OMFG
Koenig, Ezra Keep It
Koepp, David Scriptnotes
Kramer, Julia Women Who Travel
- The editor of Bon Appetit’s Best New Restaurants in America list talks restaurants, rhubarb danishes.
Lake, Katrina How I Built This with Guy Raz
Lang Lang Here’s the Thing With Alec Baldwin
Lapkus, Lauren Comedy Bang! Bang!, Yo, Is This Racist?
Lorenz, Taylor Ringer Dish
Lynch, Jane The Three Questions with Andy Richter
McKenna, Aline Brosh Without Fail
Mendes, Sam The Open Ears Project
- The director talks about his affection for Carl Orff’s “Gassenhauer.”
Munroe, Randall The Ezra Klein Show
Newmark, Craig Recode Media
Nye, Bill Getting Curious with Johnathan Van Ness
Offerman, Nick The Poscast
Raphael, June Diane WTF with Marc Maron
Ray, Rachael Beyond the Plate
Ringwald, Molly UnStyled
Samuelsson, Marcus Off Menu
Sanders, Bernie Latino USA
Schine, Cathleen Bookworm
Snowden, Edward Fresh Air
Steinem, Gloria Work in Progress
Sturridge, Tom Talks at Google
T.I. Forked Up
Twohey, Megan Skimm’d From the Couch, Call Your Girlfriend, Recode Decode, The Daily
Zombie, Rob The Joe Rogan Experience, ID10T
Notable New Podcasts
1) Motive
- The murder-adjacent true crime podcast from WBEZ Chicago chronicles “a cruel sociological experiment. Lock up a 13-year-old boy for a murder that he swore he didn’t commit. Release him as a 30-year-old man. Then, give him $25 million.” The boy-turned-man is Thaddeus “T.J.” Jimenez.
- Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Frank Main hosts.
- The true-crime pod from Keith Morrison and Dateline NBC focuses on a murder that sets off “a chain of events that would leave one man dead, another man implicated, and expose a diabolical scheme.”
- It’s the No. 1 podcast on iTunes.
3) Correct Opinions with Trey Kennedy
- Comic and video-maker Kennedy just wants us to “take a deep breath, make fun of some people and enjoy some remedy through roasting.”
- It’s the No. 10 podcast on iTunes.
- Kelly Marie Tran and Patti LuPone star in the fictional pod about a flight that disappears while crossing the Atlantic.
- Tran plays a college student whose brother was in the flight, and she’s searching for answers.
- Another promising true crime pod about art theft, specifically Van Gogh’s “Portrait of Dr Gachet.”
- This one from the Stadel Museum “traces the painting’s eventful history – to get to the bottom of the question: where is the masterpiece now?
- A non-news daily pod from WNYC “where people share the classical track that means the most to them.”
- Episodes run around 10 minutes each.
- A podcast in which host Dan Cummins tries “to scare his wife Lynze to death with two tales of alleged-to-be-true horror.”
8) The Lead
- A daily pod about sports from The Athletic.
9) Campaign HQ with David Plouffe
- President Barack Obama’s campaign manager “digs into what the [Democratic presidential] candidates are trying to accomplish in their messaging.”
10) Working Daughter
- Host Liz O’Donnell focuses on “the millions of family caregivers juggling eldercare, career and life, telling their stories and answering their questions.”
- LMTR goes for season-long deep dives into a band, its fans and “the journey that made them one of the most successful touring bands of all time.”
- Season one: Phish.
12) Sports Criminals
- The focus is on “professional athletes who thought they could get away with anything, including blackmail, theft, prostitution and even murder.”
13) My Life of Crime
- 48 Hours’s Erin Moriarty launches a six-part true crime series that kicks off with a two-parter on the case of accused ax-murderer Lizzie Borden.
14) Three Big Points
- The management pod from MIT’s Sloan Management Review focuses on “one new idea from the world’s leading academics, researchers, and executives” and delivers it “with three takeaways.”
15) London, Actually (S)
- London Hughes’s Spotify-exclusive dating podcast finds the stand-up enlisting “various celebrity friends to help her find a man.”
16) Foodgod: OMFG
- Reality show regular Jonathan Cheban talks” about his lifestyle, travels, food and more, often with his friends and celebrity guests.”
- Like with his initial guest, Kim Kardashian West.
- The pod from Glamour and iHeartRadio ”shares intimate, unscripted stories from women across the country along with advice from financial experts to help guide these women—and women everywhere—forward.”
18) Work in Progress with Sophia Bush
- It’s about “frank, funny, personal, professional, and sometimes even political conversations with people who inspire Sophia.”
19) We Hear
- The podcast version of the New York Post’s Page Six column. Hard to believe this wasn’t already a podcast.
20) Out Travel the System (S)
- Nisreene Atassi hosts Expedia’s Spotify-exclusive travel podcast.
21) Wide Open with Tony Gonzalez
- Former NFLer Tony Gonzalez has conversations “with the brightest minds in the worlds of business and entertainment to discuss health, wellness and mindset.”
22) The Hottest Take (S)
- The folks from the Ringer “will debate, defend, and parse a controversial opinion on a pressing topic of the day,” like fantasy football and indoor volleyball.
23) Down to Date with Kendall Long
- Bachelor in Paradise’s Kendall Long hosts and listens in “to two complete strangers on a first date inside a recording studio.”
And One to Look Forward To: Frontier Tween (Sept. 24, $L)
- In the “coming-of-age scripted comedy series from Team Coco, the all-female writing staff takes you on a journey of 12-year-old poet Tilly Mulch’s life on the untamed prairie.”
- It’s a place “every day is full of adventure and the cows know all her secrets.”
- It’s from the team that created The Onion’s beloved A Very Fatal Murder.