I’ll be at Sound Education in Boston next week. If you see me there, say hello or drop me a note. I’d love to connect.
7 Pod Takes
1) “I believe the scholarly term is ‘hot mess.’”
Listen: Code Switch: The Cost to Cast a Ballot (21:11)
- That’s Carol Anderson, historian and a professor of African-American studies at Emory University, describing the 2000 election fiasco in Florida.
- This great ep takes a deep dive into the history of voter suppression and explores one of the most pressing topics in the U.S.: “Why people don’t vote and why more and more people can’t vote.”
- My take: It’s been awful. We must fight to do better.
2) “By the time you’re out of college your body is just done. Man, you are Brett Favre doing infomercials.”
Listen: Believed: The Good Guy (9:23)
- That’s host Kate Wells, outlining the crazy toll gymnastics takes on one’s body and highlighting the significance of doctors at the sport’s elite level.
- Wells and the Believed pod are focused on Larry Nassar, the once-beloved doctor now known as “one of the worst serial pedophiles in U.S. sports history.”
- The first episode of the series details how Nassar gained the trust of the gymnasts and their families.
- My take: Horrible story, masterful storytelling.
3) “President Trump is, more or less, a wedge issue generating machine.”
Listen: The Daily: How 1994 Gave Us Today’s Politics (3:21)
- That’s NYT opinion columnist Jennifer Senior, touting Trump’s unfortunate superpower, but also putting it in context.
- Senior tracks the genesis and evolution of the Republicans using wedge issues to gain political leverage against Democrats back to 1994. The costs are enormous.
4) “When you’re doing stuff that sucks you have a lot of time to think your way out of your present situation.”
Listen: The Gender Knot: Slow Burn’s Leon Neyfakh on gender in US politics(6:07)
- So says co-host Daniel Carroll, introducing himself in this insightful pod about the intersection of politics and gender.
- Neyfakh brings a POV influenced by his exploration of the Bill Clinton impeachment scandal on the excellent latest season of Slow Burn.
5) “I’ve had so many interviews about death…I think that’s probably improved my life in some ways.”
Listen: Outside Podcast: Dispatches: Alex Honnold on “Free Solo” (10:13)
- That’s climbing legend Honnold, in an interview about how his life has changed in the wake of his no-ropes ascent of Yosemite’s El Capitan and the movie about his achievement.
- Outside calls “Free Solo” the best climbing movie ever made.
- Honnold also goes 1 hour, 51 minutes with Joe Rogan on The Joe Rogan Experience.
6) “What really matters is the microphone technique.”
Listen: Pop Culture Happy Hour: Halloween (20:35)
- That’s host Linda Holmes, with a playful shot at herself and the PCHH crew for their digression about the awful practices used by the podcasters who play a key role in the latest “Halloween” movie.
- Spoiler: While they were in agreement about podcast horrors, they split on the quality of the actual movie.
- My take: Gotta love the passion of podcasters defending their craft.
7) “It’s still an armpit in a lot of ways, but it’s a loveable armpit.”
Listen: The Bill Simmons Podcast: World Series Thoughts Plus Hasan Minhaj(12:43)
- That’s Simmons, with a not-so-hot take on the oldest MLB ballpark. Simmons broke down his experience at Fenway Park during Game One of the World Series pitting his beloved Boston Red Sox vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers.
- My take: I’ll be happy if the series returns to that armpit.
- Go Dodgers!
Go Deep
1) Standup Comedy
Listen: The History of Standup
- Six-part series concludes with a look at the current (booming) state of standup.
- Binge time: 3 hours, 39 minutes
2) “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”
Listen: Binge Mode
- Book six is in the books. Mallory Rubin and Jason Concepcion continue their Harry Potter immersion with a 10-part deep dive into the penultimate book in J.K. Rowling’s series, including the movie.
- Binge time: 17 hours, 9 minutes
3) The Politics of Population
Listen: Outside/In
- The pod “about the natural world and how we use it” goes two parts on population and the politics and impact surrounding it.
- Binge time: 1 hour, 18 minutes.
4) Consent in the #MeToo Era
Listen: Radiolab
- The celebrated pod takes a three-part deep dive into sexual consent.
- In “In the No,” they “wander into rooms full of college students, hear from academics and activists, and sit in on classes about BDSM.”
- Binge time: 2 hours, 1 minute.
5) “Halloween” the Movie Series
Listen: Halloween Unmasked
- The Ringer’s eight-part series on the horror flicks winds up with a look at the latest sequel.
- Binge time: 5 hours, 23 minutes.
Guest Appearances By…
Acevedo, Stacey Skimm’d From the Couch
- Convo with Girls Scouts’ CEO.
Abrams, Stacey It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders
Bareilles, Sara The Dan Wootton Interview
Barinholtz, Ike The Treatment
Bateman, Justine The Adam Carolla Show
Bee, Samantha Stay Tuned with Preet
Brown, Karamo Keep It
Bryant, Aidy Origins SNL
Carden, D’Arcy You Made it Weird with Pete Holmes
- Janet!
Carlson, Tucker The Adam Carolla Show
Condon, Zach All Songs Considered
Cowell, Simon Oprah’s Master Class
Dano, Paul The Big Picture, Fresh Air
Duplass, Mark Anna Faris is Unqualified
Esmail, Sam Remote Controlled
Gethard, Chris Good One, The Adam Carolla Show
Gillum, Andrew Pod Save America
Goldberg, Danny Sounds & Vision
Goodwin, Doris Kearns The Ezra Klein Show, Larry Wilmore: Black on the Air
Hayes, Sean Recode Decode
Idle, Eric Bullseye, WTF with Marc Maron
Jacinto, Manny The Good Place: The Podcast
- Jason!
King, Elle Bobbycast
Kolbert, Elizabeth Longform Podcast
Lear, Norman Maltin on Movies
Lee, Spike Playback
Lin, Jeremy Freakonomics Radio
McCarthy, Melissa Fresh Air
McElhenney, Rob Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Merchant, Stephen Inside of You
Middleditch, Thomas Comedy Bang! Bang!
Minhaj, Hasan The Bill Simmons Podcast
Orlean, Susan Here’s the Thing with Alec Baldwin, Bookworm
Oz, Dr. The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast
Philipps, Busy Katie Couric
Plaza, Aubrey Talkhouse
- In conversation with Craig Robinson
Quavo The Bill Simmons Podcast
Redzepi, René House of Carbs
Roberts, Julia Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations, Remote Controlled
- The Hollywood legend goes two parts with Oprah, one part with Remote Controlled about the TV adaptation of “Homecoming.”
Robinson, Craig Talkhouse
- In conversation with Aubrey Plaza
Rogen, Seth How Did This Get Made?
Schiff, Richard The West Wing Weekly
Serrano, Shea The Bill Simmons Podcast
Silver, Nate The Ezra Klein Show
Singh, Lilly Pretty Big Deal
Slater, Kelly The Joe Rogan Experience
Thompson, Ben Conversations With Tyler
Ullman,Tracey Creative Conversation
Wain, David Comedy Bang! Bang!
Wojcicki, Anne Recode Decode
Yates, Sally The New Yorker Radio Hour
Notable New Podcasts
1) Believed
- NPR and Michigan Radio team for an investigative pod series that explores the question: “How did Larry Nassar, an Olympic gymnastics doctor, get away with abusing hundreds of women and girls for two decades?”
- SB Nation debuts a seven-episode series about “the amusing, diabolical, and entertaining world of sports trickery and mayhem.” Spencer Hall hosts.
- Quartz’s new pod covers “bold professionals who have challenged the status quo to recreate their careers.” Khe Hy hosts.
4) Dreamboy
- Night Vale Presents’ latest “is a story of creatures, human and otherwise, caught in the eternal pornography of the cosmos, told in the blockbuster cinematic style of Spielberg classics.” Listen for the murderous zebra.
- The pod from Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine features different break-up stories each week. Guests describe how their break-ups transformed their lives. Maeve Higgins hosts.
- Wall Street Journal technology columnists David Pierce, Joanna Stern and Christopher Mims “talk about the most important tech trends.”
7) Tai Asks Why
- 11-year-old Tai Poole “is trying to find answers to life’s biggest questions.”
8) Blackwood
- The audio drama focuses on “the local legend of a monster called The Blackwood Bugman.” Turns out the local legends are true.