And one more thing: Sunday’s #ShareYourBudsSunday, a day to share your love of podcasts with family and friends. Learn more from #ShareYourBudsSunday co-founders and friends of the newsletter, Earbuds Podcast Collective and Podcast Gumbo.

Pod Take of the Week

“It’s like they’re trying to rescue and preserve the last remaining copy of ‘Hamlet’”

Listen: Culture Gabfest: Iconic Staircase (26:29)

• That’s Stephen Metcalf, joking about HGTV’s sugary, much-hyped renovation of the Brady Bunch house on “A Very Brady Renovation.”
• HGTV marshalls eight hosts to join with the six Brady “kids” for a reno project: turn the real-life house that represented the exterior of the Brady home into a replica of the house depicted on the show’s set.
• My take: I’m so here for it. I love the collision of Slate’s over-intellectualization of “The Brady Bunch” and my own deep childhood love for the show.

Go Deep

1) President Trump and the Impeachment Inquiry 

• Emergency pods spawned even emergencier pods all week. I didn’t keep up. I followed the revelations about the whistle-blower’s complaint against President Trump and his Ukraine-related actions in real time. 
• If you need to catch up, the six top-ranked Trumpy pods of the week, per iTunes, are: 
• The Daily: ‘I Would Like You to Do Us a Favor’
• The Daily: The Whistle-Blower’s Complaint
• The Daily: An Impeachment Inquiry Begins
• The Ben Shapiro Show: Whistleblower Comes Up Empty
• FiveThirtyEight Politics: The Whistleblower’s Complaint
• Pod Save America: ‘Rudy Likes Club Drugs’
• Bonus: The audio version of the whistleblower’s complaint against President Trump.

2) Living with Sharks

Listen: Outside Podcast

• A 44-minute deep dive into the “extreme reactions” humans have to “living alongside one of the world’s most terrifying predators.”

3) “The Shawshank Redemption”

Listen: The Rewatchables

• A 1-hour, 50-minute dive into the movie that’s been playing on a loop on cable for almost 25 years. 
• The Ringer crew breaks it down with special guest, Bill Simmons’s dad.

4) “Do the Right Thing”

Listen: Deviate with Rolf Potts

• A 56-minute dive into another iconic American movie. Wesley Morris guests. 
• Morris says: “The importance of ‘Do the Right Thing’ out-lives all of the arguments against it. It embarrasses its critics, in a lot of ways. Spike Lee really is having the last laugh on this one.”

5) Skylab

Listen: American Innovations

• The pod kicks off a series on America’s first space station, known to one of the engineers that worked on it as “the little redheaded bastard out behind the barn.”

Guest Appearances By…

($L) = On Luminary, behind a paywall. (S) = A Spotify exclusive.

Allen, Byron WTF with Marc Maron

Ansari, Aziz Last Day

Apatow, Judd Thick Skin with Jeff Ross

Aukerman, Scott The Three Questions with Andy Richter

Blunt, James The Dan Wootton Interview

Booker, Sen. Cory The New Yorker Radio Hour

Brown, Karamo Naked with Catt Sadler

Burns, Ken Longform Podcast

Calcanis, Jason Inside Podcasting

Cannon, Nick ExpediTIously 

Carden, D’Arcy The Good Place, Comedy Bang! Bang!

• Janet!

Cummings, Whitney Work in Progress with Sophia Bush

Donoghue, Emma Bookworm

Duca, Lauren The Gist

Flea The Bill Simmons Podcast

• RHCP bassist talks music, Lakers. 

Francis, Dillon The Ron Burgundy Podcast

Gaffigan, Jeannie WTF with Marc Maron

Gaffigan, Jim Armchair Expert

Galifianakis, Zach Off Camera

Garofolo, Janeane Filling the Void

Gladwell, Malcolm The goop Podcast, The Jordan Harbinger Show, Full Disclosure

• Gladwell continues the pod rounds to promote his new book. 

Gorsuch, Neil The Strategerist

• The George W. Bush Institute pod talks to the Supreme Court Justice. 

Hurd, Will TED Talks Daily

Hyland, Sarah Celeste & Her Best ($L)

Izzard, Eddie The Open Ears Project

• The comic and actor raves about “Clair de Lune.”

Kander, Jason The Al Franken Podcast 

Khanna, Parag The TED Interview

Klobuchar, Sen. Amy Radio Atlantic

Kurtis, Bill Go Fact Yourself

Leonard, Franklin Hear to Slay ($L)

• Convo with the founder of The Black List.

Levy, Dan Thirst Aid Kit

• Co-creator of “Schitt’s Creek” guests as the beloved former Buzzfeed pod re-launches at Slate. 

Ling, Lisa The Tim Ferriss Show, Work in Progress with Sophia Bush

Ma, Jeff The Dave Chang Show

MacKaye, Ian Sound Opinions

• Fugazi founder talks about the band’s debut album, “Repeater.”

Meltzer, Brad Kickass News

Morales, Natalie Yo, Is This Racist?

Olson, Elizabeth UnStyled

Penn, Sean ID10T

Phillips, Lou Diamond Latino USA

Pierson, Rich How I Built This with Guy Raz

• Convo with the co-creator of meditation app Headspace. 

Puddicome, Andy How I Built This with Guy Raz

• Same as above.

Schilling, Dave Culture Kings

Sedaris, Amy Life is Short with Justin Long

Silverman, Sarah Last Day

Soderbergh, Steven Inside the Hive with Nick Bilton

Starr, Martin Curious with Josh Peck

Thornton, Billy Bob The Bill Simmons Podcast

Van Ness, Jonathan It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders

Warner, Sen. Mark Recode Decode

Will, George The Axe Files ($L)

Wilson, Mara The Hilarious World of Depression

Wilson, Rainn You Made it Weird with Pete Holmes

Zellweger, Renee The Big Ticket

Notable New Podcasts

1) Edge of Sleep

• The No. 8 pod on iTunes is a fiction pod that focuses on a night watchman who’s “terrified to discover that everyone in the world who went to sleep the previous night has died. Now he and a band of survivors must stay awake and uncover the secret of this global epidemic, before they fall asleep.”

2) Points South 

• The tagline for the Oxford American podcast is simple and cryptic: “Southern Stories. Southern Songs.”

3) Lost at the Smithsonian with Aasif Mandvi

• The comedian is also a “pop culture fanatic,” and he “gets up close and personal with the most iconic artifacts at the National Museum of American History.” 

4) Past Gas

• The Donut Media pod focuses on the “craziest stories from all of automotive history.”

5) School Colors

• It’s a “narrative podcast from Brooklyn Deep about how race, class, and power shape American cities and schools.”

6) Last Day

• Host Stephanie Wittels Wachs — sister of the late comedian Harris Wittels — reflects on the opioid crisis and “zoom[s] in on a person’s last day of life, exploring how they got there and how we, as a society, have gotten here.” 

7) Business Casual 

• The pod from Morning Brew features interviews with “thought leaders, CEOs, and high-profile experts.”

8) You’re Dead to Me

• Greg Jenner hosts a “history podcast for people who don’t like history or who forgot to learn any at school.” It’s a BBC Radio 4 production. 

9) Next Question with Katie Couric

• The TV host returns to podland with a show about “the people, movements, and issues changing our lives and redefining our world.”

10) Frontier Tween ($L)

• The “coming-of-age scripted comedy series from Team Coco” follows the journey of “12-year-old poet Tilly Mulch’s life on the untamed prairie.”

11) Metaphysical Milkshake ($L) 

• Hosts Rainn Wilson and Reza Aslan “tackle life’s big questions – What is spirituality? How do we walk through the world? Is Gen Z facing an epidemic of loneliness? Does money make rich people evil?”  

12) Vocal Point ($L)

• Martina McBride interviews “country music legends and her musical contemporaries, sharing life and music stories with each other and listeners.” 

And One to Look Forward To: The Road Taken (Oct. 2)

• Vampire Weekend’s rhythm section kicks off a 10-episode series about the realities of touring musicians.  

5 Pod Takes

1) “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on Earth does that mean it’s not real?”

Listen: Binge Mode: The Farewell | Harry Potter(2:06:41)

• That’s Mallory Rubin, channeling Albus Dumbledore in an emotional finale to the epic 68-episode deep dive into the world of Harry Potter she undertook with co-host Jason Concepcion.
• Says Rubin: “[The words] embody why we love stories. They remind us that ink and paper can be stronger than concrete or metal or any other building block. They convey in a single sentence, the unsurpassed power of fantasy to unlock in each and every one of us a world of infinite possibility.”

2) “I am trying to create a stable community in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured, and ya gotta do that somewhere.”

Listen: Anthropocene Reviewed: Indianapolis and Love at First Sight (10:13)

• That’s John Green, channeling Kurt Vonnegut and explaining why he lives in Indianapolis.
• Green’s verdict on Naptown: 4 stars.

3) “We’re all going to leave here best friends holding hands and running off into the sunset together.”

“On a unicorn.”

Listen: Conversations With People Who Hate Me: I Hate Amanda Palmer (20:29)

• That’s Dylan Marron (setup) and musician Amanda Palmer (kicker), with their ideal outcome to Palmer’s conversation with a woman who tweeted, “I’m not sure I hate any celebrity the way I hate Amanda Palmer.”

4) “You can’t just delegate that responsibility to an algorithm.”

Listen: The Fatherly Podcast: Children Have Horrible Taste in Music: Can They Rise Above Baby Shark? (23:01)

• That’s John Schaefer, imploring parents to be active in shaping their kids’ musical tastes, lest they discover “Cat Flushing a Toilet.”

5) “Would you rather watch Maroon 5 yammer their way through whatever adult alternative songs they have?…Or a marching band that makes really cool shapes and a dancing bear?”

Listen: The Great Debates: Super Bowl Special 2019 (5:07)

• That’s Mina Kimes, with the winning proposal for the ideal Super Bowl halftime show.
• My take: Go Rams!

Go Deep

1) Super Bowl Prop Bets

Listen: The Bill Simmons Podcast, Against All Odds

• A 2-hour, 21-minute deep dive that may help you figure out if you should bet on how long it will take Gladys Knight to sing the national anthem during Sunday’s Super Bowl.

2) “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”

Listen: Finale

• The pod goes 29 minutes on Buffy’s last episode.

3) “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)”

Listen: Punch Up the Jam

• A 1-hour, 34-minute deep dive into the Green Day classic.

Guest Appearances By…

Burgess, Titus It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders

Carvey, Dana Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend

Cenac, Wyatt The Art of Process with Aimee Mann and Ted Leo

• Writer, actor and comedian is the debut guest on the new pod about creativity.

Chotiner, Isaac Pod Save America

• A guest spot for Twitter’s favorite interviewer.

Colman, Olivia David Tennant Does a Podcast With…

• Star of “The Favourite” is the debut guest on Tennant’s pod.

Cooper, Bradley The Treatment

Cuban, Mark Freakonomics Radio

Dion, Celine The Dan Wootton Interview

Eggers, Dave Peace Of Mind with Bhi Bhiman

Frum, David Stay Tuned with Preet

Fry, Stephen Making Sense with Sam Harris

Gaffigan, Jim ID10T

Hodgman, John Comedy Bang! Bang!

Jamil, Jameela Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness

• Tahani!

Janney, Allison WTF with Marc Maron

Kahneman, Daniel On Being

Kane, Carol Bullseye

Klosterman, Chuck The Bill Simmons Podcast

Mandel, Howie KFC Radio

Nowitzki, Dirk The Lowe Post

Peña, Michael Armchair Expert

Savage, Dan Queery

Sims, Cliff Kickass News, 1A

Soderbergh, Steven The Bill Simmons Podcast

Tomkins, Paul F. Comedy Bang! Bang!

Notable New Podcasts

1) The Art of Process with Aimee Mann and Ted Leo

• The musical collaborators team to chat up their “friends across the creative spectrum to find out how they work.”

2) Murder Book

• True crime alert: Novelist Michael Connellyinvestigates “a thirty-year-old Hollywood killing that tests the limits of the American criminal justice system.”

3) Case Closed

• More true crime: Based on the book “Secrets of a Marine’s Wife,” the podcast “investigates the murder of Erin Corwin, who was just 19 years old when she kissed her husband Jon goodbye at the Marine base in Twentynine Palms, California, and headed to Joshua Tree National Park to scout hiking trails. It was the last time he would ever see her alive.”

4) Le Batard & Friends – STUpodity

• Sports media personality Stugotz’s new pod is currently No. 1 on the iTunes chart.

5) Extraterrestrial

• New Parcast podcast promises to “examine reports of a different alien occurrence, and land on the most plausible explanation.” It’s currently No. 11 on iTunes.

6) Julie: The Unwinding of the Miracle

• The late Julie Yip-Williams, who died from colon cancer, chronicles the “process of preparing for her death and revisiting the events of her extraordinary life, through hours of intensely personal and revealing conversations.” It’s a companion to her posthumous memoir, “The Unwinding of the Miracle.”

7) We Called Your Mom

• Beth Stelling and her mom Diane “call up the mothers of artists & comedians you love to chat them up about their super talented children.”

8) The Intelligence

• The latest daily news podcast comes from The Economist.

9) David Tennant Does a Podcast With…

• Beloved Scottish actor and 16th Sexiest Man in the World (source: Cosmopolitan, 2008) “gets talking with the biggest names from TV, movies, comedy and elsewhere.”

10) Russia Rising

• A seven-part investigative series goes “inside Putin’s Russia to unravel its mysterious evolution from tenuous ally to potential global threat.”

11) Peace Of Mind with Bhi Bhiman

• The indie musician bills his podcast as an album and a podcast.

12) Let’s Get Civical

• It’s “part civics class and part comedy show,” hosted by Lizzie Stewart and Arden Walentowski.

13) The Strategerist

• The George W. Bush Institute’s contribution to podcasting channels “the 43rd President, late night sketch comedy, and interesting conversation.”

14) Once Upon a Timestamp

• Randi Zuckerberg and Natasha Lewin create “modernized, empowering recreations of outdated, crusty old fairy tales.”

Tweet of the Week

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