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This Week in Podcasts

This Week in Podcasts: Blue Waves and Lazy Brains Edition (#37)

Big week for political podcasts. Let’s get right to what consumed podcastland this week — at least in the U.S. 5 Pod Takes   1) “How does Paul Bunyan’s ox say hello?” “How?” “It’s a blue wave.” Listen: Pod Save America: “We won.” (3:35) That’s Jon Lovett, with the corny but satisfyingly accurate take about the results […]

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This Week in Podcasts

This Week in Podcasts: Ringing Like a Bell Edition (#36)

Coming at you today from the excellent Sound Education in Boston. Made some more tweaks this week based on your feedback, with small expansions to the guest and new podcast sections. And I scaled back the Pod Takes. I’m trying to keep the length from getting out of control. As always, I’m grateful for any and all […]

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This Week in Podcasts

This Week in Podcasts: Murder, Robots, and Shady Deals (#34)

The deluge of new podcasts continues. I’ve noted 16 this week. If you’ve got a new pod coming up that you’d like me to consider covering, please send it along.   7 Pod Takes   1) “Spoiler alert: Everything’s about to get worse.” Listen: Trump, Inc.: Pump and Trump (23:23) That’s Trump, Inc.’s Andrea Bernstein, in the middle of […]

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This Week in Podcasts

This Week in Podcasts: Memories, Embarrassment, and Claustrophobic Sameness (#32)

I’m including eleven new and returning podcasts this week. A move also known as blowing up your listening queue. And my own, too. 7 Pod Takes   1) “Don’t be afraid to sit down in a crappy place and order every single thing you don’t recognize on the fucking menu.” Listen: The Trip: A damn fine […]

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This Week in Podcasts

This Week in Podcasts: Serial! Serial! Serial! (#30)

Quite the week for bingers and lovers of serialized podcasts. Have you heard Serial’s back? Also, Last Seen is finally here and Dr. Death is almost finished. Five of the top six pods on the iTunes charts today are deep-dive narratives. The intruder: The Joe Rogan Experience (No. 5). Though his three-hour episodes qualify as […]

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This Week in Podcasts

This Week in Podcasts: Remembering Anthony Bourdain, revisiting “Harry Potter” and the return of Rough Translation (#18)

Good luck to the World Cup pods out there. We’re all counting on you. 7 Pod Takes: Provocative Thoughts From This Week’s Podcasts 1) “If I heard the phrase ‘bucket list’ one more time … I was gonna just beat someone severely with a baseball bat.” Listen: The Sporkful: Is This Pizza Worth Waiting For? […]

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This Week in Podcasts

This Week in Podcasts: “The Americans,” being Ken Bone and the power of dinosaur erotica (#16)

More true crime debuts this week, and the pods were all over the finale of “The Americans.” I’m still reeling from Paige’s decision. 8 Pod Takes: Provocative Thoughts From This Week’s Podcasts 1) “Memes are people too.” Listen: Endless Thread: I, Ken Bone (23:50) Ben Brock Johnson advocates for humanity on the internet, specifically regarding those who’ve been […]

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This Week in Podcasts

This Week in Podcasts: Donald Glover’s moment, hot Malcolm Gladwell takes and a new way to look at cereal (#13)

Gladwell’s back and Glover’s artistic breakthroughs blew away podcasters. All that and more in this week’s deep dive into the podcast universe. 8 Pod Takes: Provocative Thoughts From This Week’s Podcasts 1) “Rooting for the underdog is a form of moral weakness.” Listen: Revisionist History: Malcolm Gladwell debates Adam Grant (33:58) Gladwell’s gonna Gladwell. The […]

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This Week in Podcasts

This Week in Podcasts: Trader Joe’s starts a podcast, In the Dark returns and eating broccolini during the apocalypse (#12)

Subscribe to This Week in Podcasts! Enter your email below and every Friday I’ll email you a skimmable recap of the week’s podcasts, highlighting provocative takes, great binges, new pods and a comprehensive list of notable podcast guests. Who knew we were all so eager for a podcast about Trader Joe’s? Go deep with that […]

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This Week in Podcasts

This Week in Podcasts: The power of Las Vegas, the Ezra Klein/Sam Harris debate and crying with the cast of “This is Us” (#9)

It’s Friday again and I’ve got tacos in my future. All is well. Thanks for reading! 8 Pod Takes: Provocative Thoughts From This Week’s Podcasts   1) “What happens when the thing that you’re really good at is the thing that is killing your soul.” Listen: Pop Culture Happy Hour: Barry (7:05) That’s Eric Deggans, who adds, […]

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This Week in Podcasts

This Week in Podcasts: Finding Cleo, sandwiches from 1978 and how not to win The New Yorker’s caption contest (#8)

Happy Friday. I’m fighting a cold, and I passed some cold-medicine induced downtime with extra listening. So it’s a big newsletter this week. Thanks for reading! 8 Pod Takes: Provocative Thoughts From This Week’s Podcasts 1) “You don’t need antipathy and acrimony to create great art.” Listen: The West Wing Weekly: Hamilton Special (with Lin-Manuel Miranda […]

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This Week in Podcasts

This Week in Podcasts: Atlanta Monster’s finale, beautiful trash and debating Jay-Z’s travel preference (#6)

Happy Friday. It’s a landmark newsletter today: We’ve used our first umlaut, along with the usual great takes and binge recommendations. Also, our new section debuts: Podcast reviews and recommendations. Thanks for reading! 10 Pod Takes: Provocative Thoughts From This Week’s Podcasts 1) “The real lesson … is just how beautiful something that’s seen as […]

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This Week in Podcasts

This Week in Podcasts: Seeing mom while in prison, dad on the Millennium Falcon, and the most compelling pod of 2018 (#5)

10 Pod Takes 1) “I don’t know how to hug my mom.” Ear Hustle: Firsts, March 14 (7:31) The heartbreaking words of Adnan Khan, before greeting his mother the first time she visits him in prison. He’d been locked up for 10 years. It’s the centerpiece story of an incredible first episode of Ear Hustle’s second season. 2) […]