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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? (10:36)

  • That’s Doug Sohn of Hot Doug’s, who was fed up with people who just wanted to eat his food. The problem, as he saw it: People waited up to four hours during his Chicago eatery’s waning days just to say they went there.

  • Dr. Queue, aka MIT professor Dick Larson, calls such lines celebratory lines.

  • Is waiting for hours for a slice of pizza or a sausage worth it? Sohn says he told his customers, “If you think it is.”

  • Host Dan Pashman thought it was worth an hour wait for pizza at Di Fara Pizza in Brooklyn.

  • Spoiler: He wouldn’t do it again.

  • My take: A great, thorough look at an unfortunate cultural phenomenon.

 

2) “The marshmallow test is the human condition.”

Listen: The Indicator from Planet Money: Let Them Eat Marshmallows (9:29)

  • Stacey Vanek Smith sums up the marshmallow test, the famous experiment that asks little kids to eat the one marshmallow in front of them now — or wait five minutes and get two.

  • Kids who can delay gratification allegedly grow up to be more successful.

  • Spoiler: Scientists may have been thinking about the experiment wrong.

  • Says Tyler Watts of the NYU developmental psych department: “[Delay of gratification] isn’t something we need to be overly concerned with teaching four year olds.”

 

3) “I think they would have thought it was the most asinine assertion possible.”

Listen: Lovett or Leave It: Autoerotic Obstruction of Justice (40:25)

  • That’s the strong opinion of Kimberly West-Faulcon, weighing in on what the founders might have thought of President Trump’s suggestThe gision that he could pardon himself.

  • She adds: “It’s taking a little bit of text of the constitution, and ignoring the rest of the entire document and its structure and its purpose.”

 

4) “Do I really have to advise you, ‘Try not to cast a vote based on a word you didn’t like six months ago from a person who has no power to affect your life?’”

Listen: The Gist with Mike Pesca: When Border Policy Crosses the Line (28:11)

  • Mike Pesca wants nothing to do with stories about how Samantha Bee’s words or Robert De Niro’s words might sway voters.

  • My take: Right on, Pesca.

 

5) “This is just a person who is living to an extreme that women are rarely granted.”

Listen: Still Processing: We Need Bad Women (21:07)

  • So says Jenna Wortham, of the bruschetta-eating, ice cream-ruining murderous Villanelle in “Killing Eve.”

  • Wortham and co-host Wesley Morris spend 48 minutes analyzing and celebrating that show and the movie “Ocean’s 8” for breaking ground in presenting “bad” women.

 

6) “Somehow Gedde Watanabe’s performance is one of the great comic performances of the last 30 years.”

Listen: Deviate with Rolf Potts: Why 1980s coming-of-age movies matter (30:34)

  • That’s guest Kevin Smokler talking about Watanabe’s portrayal of Long Duk Dong in “Sixteen Candles.”

  • Yes, Smokler knows Watanabe’s playing an offensive racial stereotype. He says Watanabe’s “an absolute force of nature, is like a weather system coming through that movie.”

  • Smokler wrote “Brat Pack America: A Love Letter to ‘80s Teen Movies.”

  • My take: A great, nuanced conversation about ‘80s teen movies overall as well as the most problematic character in the genre.

 

7) “The funny people are depressed, and the horror people making depressing, assaultive movies are super happy.”

Listen: Scriptnotes: Upgrade (12:02)

  • So says Leigh Whannell, writer of “Saw” and other horror movies, about the people he sees in Hollywood.

Go Deep

1) Remembering Anthony Bourdain

Listen: The Press Box, House of Carbs, Pop Culture Happy Hour, Sound Opinions, I Have to Ask, StarTalk Radio, Anderson Cooper 360, The Watch, Fresh Air

  • One way to judge Anthony Bourdain’s massive impact and his loss: His appeal was so broad that podcasts across topics from pop culture to writing to music to food to politics to astronomy offered their heartfelt remembrances. Here are just a few:

  • Bryan Curtis on The Press Box: “What I was most struck by was, here’s a guy who had something like a hundred percent acclaim in American life.”

  • Andy Greenwald on The Watch: He played a major role “not just in our lives, but in making us have better lives.”

  • Glen Weldon on Pop Culture Happy Hour highlights Bourdain’s writing: “That prose was filled with such tightly controlled energy.”

  • Sound Opinions revisits a conversation from 2008 about the similarities between the lifestyles of rockers and chefs.

  • Neil DeGrasse Tyson revisits his two-part interview from 2013.

  • Fresh Air revisits its 2016 interview.

  • I Have to Ask runs a previously unaired 20-minute conversation from 2017.

 

2) “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”

Listen: Binge Mode

  • Mallory Rubin and Jason Concepcion kick off a summer of Harry Potter immersion with a five-part deep dive into the first book in J.K. Rowling’s series, plus the movie adaptation.

  • Binge time: 6 hours, 22 minutes.

 

3) Women in “The Royal Tenenbaums”

Listen: The Bechdel Cast

  • Jenny Yang joins the hosts for a 54-minute deep dive into the representation of women in the Wes Anderson classic.

 

4) “What a Fool Believes”

Listen: Punch Up the Jam

  • A 1-hour, 15-minute deep dive into The Doobie Brothers song, what they call “the most Dad song of all time.”

  • My take: Wrong. The most dad song of all time is this.

Guest Appearances By…

Adlon, Pamela Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

Balaban, Bob WTF with Marc Maron

Bird, Brad The Big Picture

  • Convo with the director of “Incredibles 2.”

Bryant, Howard Fresh Air

  • Convo about “the history of social protest among African-American athletes.”

Chua, Amy Why Is This Happening? With Chris Hayes

  • Author of “Political Tribes” talks political tribalism.

Coe, Tyler Mahan Celebration Rock

  • “Cocaine and Rhinestones” host talks Townes Van Zandt.

Cross, David How to Be Amazing with Michael Ian Black

Dubner, Stephen American Fiasco

  • “Freakonomics” host talks World Cup soccer, USMNT failure.

Dunham, Lena RuPaul: What’s The Tee with Michelle Visage

Durkan, Jenny Off Message

  • Mayor of Seattle on today’s political reality: “‘Resist’ is too passive.”

Frank, Adam The Joe Rogan Experience

Gibbard, Ben All Songs Considered

  • Death Cab for Cutie singer on new music, how neighborhoods change.

Hanks, Colin Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum

Hinojosa, Maria Remade in America with Bassem Youssef

  • Convo with the host of “Latino USA.”

Hinton, Anthony Ray Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations

  • Two-part convo with man who spent 30 years in prison for crimes he didn’t commit.

Hunter, Holly WTF with Marc Maron

Irby, Samantha Talkhouse

  • In conversation with Abbi Jacobson.

Jacobson, Abbi Talkhouse

  • In conversation with Samantha Irby.

Jamil, Jameela The Good Place: The Podcast

Johnson, Jake Hannibal Buress: Handsome Rambler

Kerr, Steve The Lowe Post

  • Post-NBA Championship convo with the Warriors’ coach.

King, Larry You Made it Weird with Pete Holmes

Klepper, Jordan The Treatment

Kroll, Nick The Bill Simmons Podcast

Kwan, Kevin But That’s Another Story

  • Convo with “Crazy Rich Asians” writer.

Kweli, Talib Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

Lambert, Liz The Tim Ferriss Show

  • Convo with founder of Hotel San Jose about urban renewal.

Lampanelli, Lisa Curious with Josh Peck

  • Comic talks food, roasting Chevy Chase.

Lawson, Jenny Dear Hank & John

Linnell, John This Must Be the Gig

  • Convo with a giant of They Might Be Giants.

Macchio, Ralph ID10T

Mantzoukas, Jason Comedy Bang! Bang!

Manziel, Johnny Pardon My Take

  • Talking CFL, Drake with the QB.

Moore, Mandy Modern Love

  • “This Is Us” star reads an essay about “disability, ability, and the misconceptions surrounding both.”

Meyers, Seth The J.J. Redick Podcast

Neville, Morgan The Big Picture

  • Convo with the director of “Won’t You Be My Neighbor.”

Ondaatje, Michael Bookworm

Perel, Esther The Gender Knot

Remnick, David Bon Appetit Foodcast

  • The New Yorker editor shares his Sunday morning smoked fish ritual.

Tamblyn, Amber WTF with Marc Maron

Tyler, Aisha I Think You’re Interesting

Warner, Mark Recode Decode

  • Convo with the U.S. Senator from Virginia.

Winokur, Marissa Jaret Whine Down

Wright, Edgar R U Talkin’ R.E.M. RE: ME?

  • “Baby Driver” director talks R.E.M., music in movies.

Yang, Jimmy O. Not Too Deep with Grace Helbig

Zabka, Billy ID10T

  • Johnny!

Notable New Podcasts

1) Bubble

  • Maximum Fun’s first scripted comedy series follows a “band of monster killers” struggling “to make ends meet and find love in a nightmarish version of the gig economy.”
  • Alison Becker and Keith Powell star, with podcast faves John Hodgman, Paul F. Tompkins and others as guests.

2) Gossip

  • The “comedic soap opera” follows “three unlikely female friends” who “meet each week to drink coffee and share the latest gossip floating around their not-so-traditional suburban town.” Allison Raskin stars.

3) ZigZag

  • Manoush Zomorodi and Jen Poyant document “the process of starting a media company without becoming bad mothers, bankrupting themselves, or destroying their wonderful creative partnership.”

4) Middle:Below

  • The audio drama focuses on “ghosts, cats and the odd people who look after them.”

5) Comeback Szn

  • Johnny Manziel is one of the hosts of a new Barstool Sports pod about football and Manziel’s journey with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the CFL.

6) Rough Translation

  • NPR’s beloved pod that asks “How are the things we’re talking about being talked about somewhere else in the world?” returns for its third season.

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