Expanded edition! After a week away, I’ve got some extra stuff to cover so let’s get to it. The counts: 52 notable guests, 21 new podcasts, six deep dives and one song you think you know but you really don’t.
Pod Take of the Week
“You have to make moves that will not just impact your today, but the lives of folks down the road.”
Listen: Deviate with Rolf Potts: The power of small choices across decades
- That’s Kaye Monk-Morgan, on the lessons learned from the life of her grandfather, John Monk.
- Monk-Morgan and Potts recount Monk’s story across decades and three wars — he served during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War — and talk about “long-horizon heroism” and the impact one person’s life can have on those who come after.
- Says Potts: “It’s the kind of story we don’t celebrate enough in America.”
Go Deep
1) “Closing Time”
Listen: Song Exploder
- Twitter loves this episode. I’ve seen tweets touting this breakdown of the massive Semisonic hit as an all-time best podcast episode.
- I can attest: It’s fantastic. Songwriter Dan Wilson shares heart-wrenching personal details, and you’ll never hear the song the same way again.
- Note: This one’s grandfathered in from last week.
2) Hollywood’s Intersection with the Beauty Industry”
Listen: You Must Remember This
- Karina Longworth turns over her beloved old-Hollywood pod to other storytellers for the eight-part series “Make Me Over.”
- Longworth promises to “explore a range of topics, including Hollywood’s first weight loss surgery, the story of the star whose unique skills led to the development of waterproof mascara, black beauty in the 1990s, and much more.”
- Vogue says the series interrogates “what it felt like to be the women at the center of these [Hollywood] machines, promoting false ideals.”
3) Evaluating the 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidates
Listen: The Choice
- The New York Times goes behind the scenes of its much-mocked decision to endorse two candidates for president, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar.
- The crux: “We interview potential nominees, and take you behind the scenes for our internal debates over who should get the endorsement.”
4) Can the 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate Beat President Trump?
Listen: The Wilderness
- The second season of the Crooked Media series “looks for the path to victory in 2020 by talking to voters, strategists, organizers, and candidates in the battleground states that will decide the election.”
5) The Coronavirus
Listen: Science Weekly, Today, Explained
- Two deep-dive explainer pods on the “never before seen in humans” virus that “has emerged from the city of Wuhan in China.”
- Binge time: 48 minutes.
6) Evel Knievel
Listen: Past Gas
- The Donut Media pod goes two parts on the legendary stuntman.
- Binge time: 1 hour, 39 minutes.
Guest Appearances By…
($L) = On Luminary, behind a paywall. (S) = A Spotify exclusive.
Achatz, Grant Beyond the Plate
Aciman, André But That’s Another Story
Badgley, Penn Life is Short with Justin Long
Bamford, Maria The Three Questions with Andy Richter
Bentley, Dierks Armchair Expert
Bong Joon Ho The Big Ticket
Bush, Sophia Pretty Big Deal
Carey, Drew Armchair Expert
Cho, John ID10T
Coates, Ta-Nahisi Talks at Google
Cox, Brian WTF with Marc Maron
Cuban, Mark Strictly Business
Downey Jr., Robert The Joe Rogan Experience
Duffy, Chris Note to Self ($L)
- On what it’s like to become a meme.
Eggers, Dave The Gist
Fey, Tina Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations
Gerwig, Greta Scriptnotes, Maltin on Movies
Hale, Tony Jordan, Jesse GO!
Hamilton, Laird The Gabby Reece Show
Hanks, Tom The Awardist
Heller, Marielle The Awardist
Iger, Bob The Tim Ferriss Show
Keen, Robert Earl Walking the Floor
Kelly, Kevin Longform Podcast
Klinghoffer, Josh WTF with Marc Maron
Koenig, Ezra Throwing Fits
Levy, Eugene Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend
Maher, Bill The Joe Rogan Experience
Micucci, Kate Wheels Off
O’Hara, Catherine Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend
Orlean, Susan Bullseye
Park, Randall WTF with Marc Maron
Phelps-Roper, Megan The Jordan Harbinger Show
Rannells, Andrew The C-Word with Lena Dunham and Alissa Bennett ($L)
- Hosts Lena Dunham and Alissa Bennett go deep with Rannells on Judy Garland.
Safdie Brothers, The Chapo Trap House
Schumer, Amy Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations
Schwarzenegger, Arnold Radio Atlantic
Shaloub, Tony Bullseye
Stanfield, Lakeith Keep It
Strong, Cecily Questlove Supreme
Tarantino, Quentin The Rewatchables
Trainor, Meghan Pretty Big Deal
Upton, Kate Skimm’d From the Couch
Van Zandt, Steven This Must Be the Gig
Waldman, Adelle Storybound
Was, Don Vocal Point with Martina McBride ($L)
Weiner, Jennifer It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders
Weiss, Bari The Joe Rogan Experience
Wentz, Pete The Bob Lefsetz Podcast
Wilson, Mary Sound Opinions
- The Motown legend talks Motown.
Winterson, Jeanette Recode Decode
Yang, Andrew The Next Big Idea
- The Democratic presidential candidate talks universal basic income.
Notable New Podcasts
- Investigative journalist Delia D’Ambra “revisits her small coastal hometown in North Carolina to dive deep into a 22-year-old cold case murder” of Denise Johnson.
- It’s No. 1 on iTunes
- A 10-part series on Dr. Fredric Brandt, who “went from a small dermatology practice in Miami to being Madonna‘s personal skincare consultant and the go-to for public figures desperate to stave off aging.”
- The current No. 22 pod on iTunes comes from the creators of Broken Harts.
3) The Joy of x
- Mathematician Steven Strogatz “interviews some of the world’s leading scientists about their lives and work.”
4) The Daily Show Podcast Universe
- The five-episode miniseries parodies five popular podcasts or podcast genres.
- My fave: #CRUSHING: A Success Podcast for Winners, with Ronny Chieng.
- It’s No. 15 on iTunes.
- Investigative reporter Nicki Weisensee Egan hosts “the definitive take of the rise and fall of Bill Cosby.”
- The true crime pod recounts a shooting in Griffin, Georgia.
- From the promo copy: “Officers rush to the scene to find Jessica Boynton inside a locked closet, with an apparent gunshot wound to her head. Underneath her body, officers find her husband’s service weapon. But this story of small-town romance gone wrong was far from over.”
7) Give them Lala… with Randall
- “Actress and reality star Lala Kent and her film producer fiance Randall Emmett…talk with each other and their guests about lifestyle, fashion and social issues.”
- It’s No. 18 on iTunes.
8) SVPod
- A weekly interview show with ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt.
9) Dictators
- Parcast delves “into the minds, and motives, behind some of the world’s most infamous leaders.”
10) The Sneak
- The Wondery/USA Today production tells “true crime stories from in and around the world of sports.”
- The first season looks at “a bizarre heist connected to the world of high school football in the Pacific Northwest.”
11) American Glutton
- Plus-sized-actor-turned-fit-podcaster Ethan Suplee “sets out to examine our current obesity crisis.”
- The scripted podcast follows 14-year-old Chelsea’s “struggles to feel cool enough to exist and finds a home in music.”
- Basketball Hall of Famer Chamique Holdsclaw “interviews some of the most fascinating stars in sports who, like Holdsclaw herself, have faced real mental health issues.”
- The Republican senator “breaks down the most important news stories of the day.”
15) Novel Gazing
- Book Riot’s biweekly pod covers “news, recommendations, and general goings-on from the world of literary fiction.”
16) My Dog’s Favourite Podcast (S)
- Nick Minter and Helena Webb have “set about creating the most dog-friendly podcast possible,” an “audio experience designed to calm and reassure your best friend.”
- Justin Kirkland plans to spend a year breaking down every Dolly Parton album.
- Steven Hyden and Rob Mitchum host an “overview of the Dead’s celebrated live show releases.”
- The pod features interviews with non-fiction authors about the ideas behind their work.
- Ed Miliband and Geoff Lloyd host.
- Host Kate Kelly dives into the Equal Rights Amendment, with “the untold stories of the revolutionaries, the activists, the dissenters, and so much more.”
- Another semi-well-known celeb, another interview show.
And One to Look Forward To: Unlocking Us with Brené Brown (TBD)
- The popular researcher plans “a podcast that’s real, unpolished, honest, and reflects both the magic and the messiness of what it means to be human.”
- She promises “conversations with the people who are teaching me, challenging me, confusing me, or maybe even ticking me off a little.”
- It’s already No. 14 on iTunes and it hasn’t dropped an episode.