Welcome to Podcastland, Matthew McConaughey! He’s starring in and producing a new one — as are many, many others.
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This week’s counts: 54 notable guests, 26 new podcasts, six deep dives and one podcast about being bald.
Pod Take of the Week
“I can’t imagine a wave of anything like nostalgia for this very crappy time.”
Listen: Pop Culture Happy Hour: Predictions of How COVID-19 Will Impact Pop Culture (9:21)
- That’s Glen Weldon, who believes that once we get through the COVID-19 gauntlet we’re not going to want to look back on it right away. For years, even.
- The “helpless dread,” he says, resembles the feeling people felt in the wake of 9/11. But the narrative is different.
- The COVID-19 experience doesn’t fall into an easy-to-digest narrative, and artists will need some time to process it.
Go Deep
1) The State of the Coronavirus
Listen: America Dissected: Coronavirus, Technopolis, Public Health on Call, Epidemic, Coronavirus: Fact vs. Fiction
- Staying on topic, a few more podcasts with insight on developments surrounding COVID-19:
- America Dissected: Coronavirus looks at how “COVID-19 has changed so much of the fabric of our lives, especially our relationship with music.” Among the guests: singer/songwriter Zola Jesus.
- The CityLab podcast Technolopolis is two episodes into a series of episodes on how the coronavirus is changing cities.
- Public Health on Call features a Q&A with Tom Inglesby, about what we’re learning from universities that are opening their campuses and other pressing issues.
- Epidemic looks at “what sports can teach us about mass testing.”
- CNN’s Coronavirus: Fact vs. Fiction talks to a mental health advocate about coping with all of this.
2) The Kennedys
Listen: Even the Rich, 60/20
- The second season of the series about prominent family dynasties focuses on Ted Kennedy and “the tragic saga of Chappaquiddick,” a single-car crash that killed Mary Jo Kopechne.
- In 60/20, an eight-part series from the JFK Library Foundation, tells the story of the 1960 John F. Kennedy presidential campaign and “how it has influenced American campaigns since.”
3) The Tuskegee Syphilis Study
Listen: You’re Wrong About
- A two-part series about the “longest ‘non-theraputic’ experiment in medical history, a highly unethical study of untreated syphilis in African-American men.
- Listen time: 2 hours, 27 minutes.
4) Falling
Listen: Radiolab
- The beloved pod dives deep into what falling means. It promises to ”plunge into a black hole, take a trip over Niagara Falls, and upend some myths about falling cats.”
5) The Victims of Samuel Little
Listen: The Fall Line
- The four-part series looks at the serial killer Samuel Little and “how he nearly got away with four decades of murder.”
6) Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
Listen: Rivals
- The three-part series on the rivalries among the members of the group goes 3 hours, 26 minutes.
Guest Appearances By…
($L) = Luminary, behind a paywall. (S) = Spotify exclusive. ($A) = Audible, behind a paywall.
Baldwin, Alec Literally! With Rob Lowe
Banks, Tyra Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!
Berninger, Matt The Pitchfork Review
Black, Ashley Nicole Busy Philipps is Doing Her Best
Black, Jack Kickass News
Brockovich, Erin Work in Progress with Sophia Bush, Forever35
Buress, Hannibal People’s Party with Talib Kweli
Chang, David The Sporkful, Stay Tuned with Preet
Collette, Toni WTF with Marc Maron
Coon, Carrie Kickass News
Cross, David Dads: The Podcast
Erskine, Maya Bullseye
- Convo with the co-creator of PEN15.
Etheridge, Melissa Rolling Stone Music Now
Fridman, Lex The Joe Rogan Experience
Gass, Kyle Kickass News
Gibney, Alex The New Abnormal
Hayes, Sean Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend
Hilton, Paris Anna Faris is Unqualified, I’m So Obsessed
Hilton, Perez The Adam Carolla Show
Howerton, Glenn Pardon My Take
Karamo Bald Talk
Keys, Alicia The Zane Lowe Interview Series
Kimmel, Jimmy Smartless, Mike Birbiglia’s Working It Out
Kiwanuka, Michael People Have the Power
Koechner, David Bald Talk
Konkle, Anna Bullseye
- Convo with the other co-creator of PEN15.
Lowe, Rob Doughboys
- The actor and podcaster weighs in on In-N-Out Burger, the best fast-food burger on the planet.
Manning, Taryn Hustling with Vivica A. Fox
McHale, Joel Life is Short with Justin Long
Moriarty, Erin ID10T
Mutzabaugh, Ben On Air
Neistat, Casey Impaulsive
Oswalt, Patton Full Release with Samantha Bee
Paltrow, Gwyneth On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Pierce, Wendell WTF with Marc Maron
Price, Margo Sodajerker on Songwriting
Ratajkowski, Emily The Cut
Raz, Guy The Jordan Harbinger Show, a16z
Robertson, Ed The Rhino Podcast
Roy, Arundathi Touré Show
Scott, Adam The New Abnormal
Shetty, Jay The goop Podcast
Shore, Pauly The Last Laugh
Siddiq, Ali Good One
- The stand-up comic breaks down his story “Mexicans Got On Boots.”
Sidibe, Gabourey Good For You
Sonnenfeld, Barry The Originals
Souza, Pete The Press Box, I’m So Obsessed
Snowden, Edward The Joe Rogan Experience
Stiller, Ben Star Trek: The Pod Directive
Trump, Mary The FRONTLINE Dispatch
Urban, Keith Armchair Expert
Villaseñor, Melissa The Three Questions with Andy Richter
Was, Don Broken Record
Wilmore, Larry It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders
Notable New Podcasts
1) Paper Ghosts
- M. William Phelps hosts a true crimer about “[f]our separate cases, four young girls. All of whom go missing in the early to mid-1970s, all within miles from one another in neighboring New England towns. And not one arrest has been made in over 50 years.”
- Apple Podcasts rank: No. 2.
- Spotify Trending Podcasts rank: No. 7.
- Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey stars in and executive produces the pod about the dog — the “self-declared ‘Head of Ranch Security’” — who “finds himself smack dab in the middle of a host of tangled mysteries and capers that span the universe of the Texas Panhandle cattle ranch Hank calls home.”
- Apple Podcasts rank: No. 10.
3) Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen
- The pod from President Donald Trump’s former fixer claims to offer “a candid conversation with the self proclaimed ‘gangster lawyer,’ as he sets to dismantle the Trump legacy and finds the truth and nothing but the truth.”
- My take: Probably not the place you’re gonna find truth.
- Apple Podcasts rank: No. 23.
- Lisa Vanderpump “spills the ‘English Tea’ about today’s hottest topics.”
- Apple Podcasts rank: No. 28.
5) Battleground with David Plouffe & Steve Schmidt
- They’re “friends, former rivals and two of the top strategic minds in America” and “they’ll draw on 50+ years of combined experience inside campaigns and in government to break down how the Democrats and Republicans are fighting for votes.”
- Apple Podcasts rank: No. 44.
- Maggie Freleng tells stories of “innocent people locked away in US prisons.”
- Each week she focuses on “one of those people and takes a deep dive into the crime they were convicted of. Through her original interviews with the convicted, their lawyers, families, and friends, Freleng chronicles each inmate’s fight for exoneration and their hope that justice can still be served.”
- Apple Podcasts rank: No. 48.
- Spotify Trending Podcasts rank: No. 22.
- Dan Cummins profiles people who’ve “broken records, made history, and turned the impossible into the incredible.”
- Apple Podcasts rank: No. 49.
- Spotify Trending Podcasts rank: No. 6.
- BBC broadcaster Alvin Hall and activist and former attorney Janée Woods Weber host this one.
- They “drive from Detroit to New Orleans, collecting powerful, personal testimony about how Black Americans used the historic travel guide The Negro Motorist’s Green Book during the height of segregation as a vital resource to quell fears, find safe havens, and travel with dignity.”
- Apple Podcasts rank: No. 52.
- The chef will “talk with people who have found success all while overcoming personal and professional challenges.”
- Spotify trending podcasts rank: No. 12.
- It’s a “satirical, hybrid podcast where lesbians tell their real coming out stories.”
- The crux: “The guests are real, LGBTQIA+ women from all walks of life but the host is the fictionalized character ANGELA ROSSERMAN, an inept, inappropriate, narcissist who is obsessed with her ex-girlfriend.”
11) Ecstasy: The Battle Of Rave
- The BBC pod focuses on the moment Ecstasy and Acid House “first swept Britain,” and how “a group of lives would be changed forever.”
- It’s billed as, “One Story. Half real life. Half drama.”
12) Election 101
- The CNN pod promises to get “back to the basics of what’s at stake when you cast your vote.”
13) Star Trek: The Pod Directive
- Tawny Newsome and Paul F. Tompkins offer “a wide-ranging and often hilarious take on the Star Trek universe.”
- First guest: Ben Stiller.
14) Detours
- Adam Monahan, a producer with “Antiques Roadshow,” goes “behind the scenes of the hit PBS series.”
- In an official Rotten Tomatoes pod, Jacqueline Coley and Mark Ellis “go deep and settle the score on some of the most beloved – and despised – movies and TV shows ever made.”
- The pod “digs deep into the forgotten experiences of everyday Americans.”
17) The Dershow
- Attorney Alan Dershowitz “hits the hot political and legal topics of the day.”
18) Pretty Messed Up
- “Dancing With the Stars” stars AJ McLean and Cheryl Burke like their CAPS.
- They promise to “share more than just their dancing journey…they are going to share EVERYTHING…and we mean EVERYTHING with you.”
19) Crisis: Clergy Abuse in the Catholic Church
- Karna Lozoya interviews “bishops, survivors, reporters, lawyers, social workers, and many more, to help navigate a systemic problem that has plagued the modern church for at least 70 years.”
- It’s a production of The Catholic Project.
- The pod “tells the story of this youth movement: who they are, what they’ve accomplished so far, and where they go from here.”
- A chronicle of “the unforgettable, tragic stories of superstars we loved and lost.”
- Host Kristen Miglore digs into “all the uncut gems from the weekly ‘Genius Recipes’ column and video series” at Food 52.
23) Pop Chat
- Elamin Abdelmahmoud and “the Pop Chat round-table invite you in to the group chat to help make sense of the cultural drama blowing up the internet.”
- Will Leitch hosts a “weekly (or mostly weekly) podcast with authors about their books and the process of writing, marketing and promoting them.”
- Experts from Vogue magazine “highlight the stories in fashion history that reflected this new era of connectivity.”
26) Bald Talk
- Bald comedians Brian Huskey and Charlie Sanders “interview bald performers, bald celebrities, and anyone bald about being bald.”
- They add: “While the conceit of the show is silly, the interviews and conversations are a platform for discussions about vulnerability, vanity, insecurity, and self image.”
And One to Look Forward to: Tom Brown’s Body (Sept. 29)
- Texas Monthly has been chronicling true crime for decades.
- This pod, with Skip Hollandsworth steering the narrative, “digs into a question that’s been plaguing the small Texas town of Canadian for four years: What happened to Tom Brown? The popular high school senior disappeared on Thanksgiving eve of 2016. His whereabouts were unknown until two years later, when his body was found—but what happened to him is still a mystery.