I happily spent most of my listening time this week on “Origins: Almost Famous,” a behind-the-scenes deep dive into the Cameron Crowe classic. Most listeners, as usual, turned to true crime. Park Predators (No. 1) and Guru (No. 2) top the Apple Podcasts charts.
This week’s counts: 58 notable guests, 15 new podcasts, six deep dives and one very important sound bite.
Pod Take of the Week
“It’s a good sound bite. Say it again. Outdoors is always better than indoors.”
Listen: The Journal.: Dr. Anthony Fauci: America Faces a ‘Serious Situation’ (21:06)
- That’s Fauci, imploring us all to take to take proper steps to protect ourselves and others from the coronavirus.
- Fauci’s making the podcast and media rounds this week, trying to get a signal through the noise.
Go Deep
1) “Almost Famous”
Listen: Origins
- James Andrew Miller conducts a five-part deep dive into the Cameron Crowe classic, including a look at the casting process and how the lead guitarist role almost went to Brad Pitt.
- Writer and director Crowe joins, as do cast members Kate Hudson, Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, Jason Lee, Patrick Fugit, Zooey Deschanel and Jimmy Fallon.
2) “American Rehab”
Listen: Reveal
- The Center for Investigative Reporting pod takes a multi-chapter look at “how a treatment for drug addiction has turned tens of thousands of people into an unpaid shadow workforce.”
3) Curtis LeMay
Listen: Revisionist History
- Malcolm Gladwell and Pushkin Industries kick off a four-part series on “the extraordinary life of the Air Force General Curtis LeMay” and “the deadliest night in history—March 9, 1945.”
- On Twitter Gladwell says, “I think this is some of our best work yet.”
4) Wendell Scott
Listen: Past Gas
- A multi-part deep dive into the story of NASCAR’s first Black driver.
5) D.B. Cooper
Listen: Infamous America
- IA goes deep on the legend of D.B. Cooper and “one of the most infamous unsolved crimes in American history.”
- For the uninitiated: “In November of 1971, a man calling himself “Dan Cooper” hijacks an airplane out of Portland, Oregon. He demands four parachutes and a ransom of $200,000. When he receives the money, he leaps out of the back of the plane and disappears into the stormy night.”
6) Kanye West vs. Taylor Swift
Listen: Rivals
- Another deep dive into the multi-faceted feud and how it “explores the fickle nature of public tastes, the weaponization of social media, and the way “reality culture” impacts our actual reality.”
Guest Appearances By…
($L) = On Luminary, behind a paywall. (S) = Spotify exclusive. Azaria, Hank Off Camera with Sam Jones
Baker, Julien Talkhouse
Barinholtz, Ike The Three Questions with Andy Richter
Bryant, Aidy Good One
Budden, Joe Touré Show
Buress, Hannibal The Joe Rogan Experience
Bush, Sophia Karamo ($L)
Byrne, Rose Bullseye
Cameron, James Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations
Carden, D’Arcy The Awardist
Chapman, Rex The JJ Redick Podcast
DiAngelo, Robin On Being
Fauci, Anthony The Journal., PODCAST-19
Florida, Richard The Prof G Show
Gallagher, Peter The Bill Simmons Podcast
Gates, Bill TED Talks Daily
Gawande, Atul The Axe Files
Gessen, Masha The Ezra Klein Show
Goodall, Jane TED Talks Daily
Green, Hank Servant of Pod with Nick Quah
Gulman, Gary Never Not Funny
Handler, Chelsea It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders
Hanks, Tom Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History: Addendum
Harden, Marcia Gay Keep It!
Irby, Samantha Anna Faris is Unqualified
Iyer, Pico Conversations
King, Regina The Awardist
Koppelman, Brian Wheels Off
Khan, Sadiq Homo Sapiens
Legend, John WTF with Marc Maron
LL Cool J expediTIously with TIp “T.I.” Harris
Longworth, Karina The Black List Podcast ($L)
Lorenz, Taylor Pivot
Menakem, Resmaa On Being
Minhaj, Hassan The New Yorker: Politics and More
Mirren, Helen WTF with Marc Maron
Mortimer, Emily Armchair Expert
O’Brien, Conan Literally! With Rob Lowe
Osbourne, Sharon The Margaret Cho
Papa, Tom The Gist
Penn, Sean The Adam Carolla Show
Pugh, Florence Sue Perkins: An hour or so with…
Rhett & Link I’m So Obsessed
Rollins, Henry The Rhino Podcast
Rubin, Rick Questlove Supreme
Santiago, Joey TigerBelly
Schefter, Adam In the Bubble with Andy Slavitt
Sedaris, David Mike Birbiglia’s Working It Out
Stiller, Ben The Last Laugh
Styles, Harry The Zane Lowe Interview Series
Theron, Charlize The Big Ticket
Trejo, Danny The Adam Carolla Show
Valentine, Kathy The Margaret Cho
Wainwright, Rufus Sodajerker on Songwriting
Wood Jr., Roy Yo! Is This Racist?
Youssef, Ramy Good for You
Zimmern, Andrew Kickass News
Notable New Podcasts
- Delia D’Ambra hosts a true crimer about awful happenings in and around national parks.
- It’s No. 1 on Apple Podcasts and No. 41 on Spotify.
- The “Try Wives” — Maggie, Becky and Ariel — “dive into female friendships, current events, and what’s going on in their lives.”
- It’s No. 26 on Apple Podcasts.
- Stand-up Nate Bargatze promises it’s “going to be real fun and funny…hopefully.”
- It’s No. 102 on Apple Podcasts.
- DJ Ghost “inspires you to be successful, take charge, be real and to overall become a boss with self motivation.”
5) Dirty Diana
- Demi Moore produces and stars as Diana, who “secretly runs an erotic website where women reveal their intimate sexual fantasies.” It’s a six-part series.
6) The Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast
- Billed as the official Grateful Dead podcast, It’s “devoted to exploring the music and mythology behind one of the most enduring, progressive, and influential bands in the history of recorded music.”
- Rich Mahan and Relix contributing editor Jesse Jarnow host.
- Pixie Lott talks to “actors, musicians and fashion icons about the age that they deem their most memorable.”
- Walter Thompson-Hernández shares a “personal journey back to his hometown of Los Angeles,” inspired by Tupac and Dr. Dre’s song “California Love.”
- Pitchfork Editor-in-Chief Puja Patel goes “deep into the week’s best new music and rising artists, plus all the industry news and culture you need to know.”
10) Spinning Plates
- Singer and mother Sophie Ellis-Bextor speaks “to busy working women, who also happen to be mothers, about how they make it work.”
11) Festival Circuit: New Orleans
- The Osiris Media narrative series harkens back to the before times and focuses “on the history and impact of festivals and cities around the world.”
- The first season: New Orleans and its annual jazz festival.
- From IHeartRadio, “Entrepreneur, humanitarian and global adventurer” Roa “explores the gray areas of success through honest, raw and entertaining conversations with the most interesting celebrities, creative leaders and entrepreneurs.”
13) Shots in the Back: Exhuming The 1970 Augusta Riot
- The Georgia Public Broadcasting pod “tells the story of one of the first major Civil Rights Era riots in the South.”
14) Great Big Story
- Host Drew Beebe tells “the delightful, the surprising, and the untold true stories all around us” in this CNN pod.
- It’s a “10-episode collection of interviews with authors about the books that made them who they are today.”
- Aaron Lammer and Max Linsky of the Longform Podcast host.
And One to Look Forward To: An Oral History of the Office (July 14)
- Brian Baumgartner, who played Kevin on the show, “pulls back the curtain on what went into creating this unstoppable force in American popular culture and why it continues to resonate with new audiences.”