Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani popped up a podcast to see people through quarantine. Samin Nosrat and Hrishikesh Hirwayannounced one where they’ll answer your quarantine cooking questions. Pineapple Media’s asking kids missing school to help crowdsource a podcast.
I like this trend. Hope to see more of it as we continue our social distancing.
The first two shows, by the way, are in the top 70 on iTunes. A couple more notes about the chart:
- Five podcasts in the top 100 are dedicated to the coronavirus
- Six in the top 100 are dedicated kids podcasts
Here’s to all the parents listening with their kids this week. Our 11-year-old’s pick to listen with me this week: The Samy Worm episode of Darknet Diaries. Keep hanging tough everyone.
This week’s counts: 50 notable guests, 15 new podcasts, three deep dives and one delicious Mike Tyson interview.
Pod Take of the Week
“The French horn does not get enough credit.”
Listen: Strong Songs: “God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys (1:24)
- That’s Kirk Hamilton, singing the praises of the unsung instrument that plays a central role in one of the greatest songs ever written.
- Says Hamilton of French horns in film: “They’re the ones who bring you home. They’re the ones who summon the heroes to save the day… I wish that more people gave it credit.”
Go Deep
1) Music in a Quarantine
Listen: Popcast, Pop Culture Happy Hour, Punch Up the Jam, Switched on Pop, Rockin’ the Suburbs
- Beyond Hamilton’s 56-minute Beach Boys breakdown, lots of podcasts took solace in music this week and explored its role in this time of crisis:
- Popcast asks pop critics for their pick-me-up picks and, in another pod, wonders about the response of pop musicians to the coronavirus.
- PCHH highlights musicians and their songs that would have been featured at the cancelled South by Southwest music festival.
- Punch Up the Jam tried to punch up Beck’s “Loser.”
- Switched on Pop does a Bad Bunny deep dive.
- Rockin’ the Suburbs counts down the top-15 Who songs over five episodes.
2) Conspiracy Theories
Listen: The Anthill
- The show that unearths “new stories from the world of academia, bringing new and cutting edge research on the big issues of the day” kicks off a five-part series on the phenomenon that’s no longer on the fringe.
3) “The Godfather” Trilogy
Listen: The Rewatchables (Part I, Part II, Part III)
- The Ringer dives deep into “The Godfather Part III,” completing a rewatch of all three films in Francis Ford Coppola’s epic.
- Binge time: 6 hours, 9 minutes.
Guest Appearances By…
($L) = On Luminary, behind a paywall. (S) = A Spotify exclusive. Adlon, Pamela Bon Appetit Foodcast
Aiko, Jhene The goop Podcast
Ali, Laila Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations
Ambudkar, Utkarsh WTF with Marc Maron
Arnett, Wll Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend
Atwood, Margaret More with Anna Maria Tremonti
Azaria, Hank Kickass News
Bacon, Kevin The Adam Carolla Show
Barnett, Courtney Birds Eye View
Bittman, Mark The Upgrade
Booker, Cory What a Day
Brown, Sherrod The Ticket
Byer, Nicole Doughboys
Choi, Susan Bookable
Chomsky, Noam Useful Idiots
Cox, Courteney Celeste & Her Best ($L)
Eminem Hotboxin with Mike Tyson
- Haven’t listened to this, but am very curious where this conversation could go! It’s in my queue.
Fauci, Anthony Pardon My Take
- How did the director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases end up on the popular Barstool Sports podcast? Co-host PFT Commenter “was being asked to provide young people an understanding of how they can help contain the coronavirus pandemic,” says the New York Post.
Godin, Seth The Moment with Brian Koppelman
Goldberg, Whoopi RuPaul: What’s the Tee
Haberman, Maggie Recode Decode
Hong, Helen Green Eggs and Dan
Isbell, Jason Rolling Stone Music Now
Johnson, Kevin Leadership Next
- CEO of Starbucks talks business, sustainability.
Kahn, Chaka RuPaul: What’s the Tee
Kreischer, Bert Good for You
Luenell expediTIously
Muhammad, Ibtihaj Pretty Big Deal
Newton, Thandie WTF with Marc Maron
Nichols. Rachel The Lowe Post, Pardon My Take
- The ESPNer talks about the NBA shutdown.
Nye, Bill Life is Short with Justin Long
Oates, Joyce Carol Touré Show
Parham, Lennon Armchair Expert
Peres, Dan The Rich Roll Podcast
Perry, Tyler expediTIously
Sandberg, Sheryl Boss Files with Poppy Harlow
Segel, Jason Bullseye
Silver, Tom Armchair Expert
Simon, David Bullseye
Simon, Scott The Children’s Book Podcast
Sinclair, Ben Death, Sex & Money
Thile, Chris 10 Things That Scare Me
Trussell, Duncan The Joe Rogan Experience
Valentine, Kathy This Song
- The Go-Go’s bassist talks about the song that inspired her 9-year-old self.
Walsh, Matt The Three Questions with Andy Richter
Ward, Dr. Antoinette The Women
- Convo with the doc leading COVID-19 testing at a hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.
Weir, Bob Broken Record
Yang, Andrew Recode Decode
Zimmern, Andrew The Al Franken Podcast
Notable New Podcasts
1) Unlocking Us with Brené Brown
- 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 No. 9 on iTunes.
2) Staying In with Emily & Kumail
- The pop-up pod I mentioned up top: Emily and Kumail are “uniquely qualified to lead you through this forced quarantine situation. They are both writers who work from home. Emily was a therapist and currently is a chronically sick person (see: The Big Sick) who often has to quarantine herself, and Kumail is her main caretaker.”
- All proceeds go to coronavirus charities.
- It’s No. 47 on iTunes.
- Wondery dives into the “totally true and totally shocking stories about the greatest family dynasties the world has ever seen.”
- Brooke Siffrinn and Aricia Skidmore-Williams host.
- It’s No. 58 on iTunes.
4) Marvels
- Marvel’s scripted podcast based on a 1994 comic by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross emerges from the Stitcher Premium platform.
5) Girl Taken
- In the BBC Radio 4 production, “journalist Sue Mitchell and ex-soldier-turned-good-Samaritan Rob Lawrie thought they were involved in the heart-breaking, but straightforward story of an Afghan father and his motherless daughter as they struggled to get to Britain.”
- The 10-part series chronicles what turns out to be “a web of lies and life changing, mind changing events.”
6) Cat People
- Longreads explores “the strange relationships people have with big cats and the legal loopholes that have made America home to more captive tigers than there are left in the wild.”
- The Somethin’ Else podcast focuses on fertility doctor Jan Karbaat, who used his own sperm to impregnate women.
- DeVito/Verdi ad agency head Ellis Verdi “explores the role of advertising and its impact in this year’s presidential election.”
- Author, professor and entrepreneur Scott Galloway “answers questions from you (his listeners) on who’s winning and losing, and how you can get ahead” in this Westwood One pod.
- Pinch of Nom hosts celebrities “for a good old chat while we cook up a recipe featuring their chosen, magic ingredient.”
11) Asian Enough
- Jen Yamato and Frank Shyong host a Los Angeles Times podcast “about being Asian American — the joys, the complications and everything else in between.”
12) The Black List Podcast ($L)
- The Black List founder Franklin Leonard “talks movies with people who love them and people who make them.”
13) Fear Itself with Cressida Bonas
- Host Bonas has “conversations with people about their personal stories around fear.”
14) Leadership Next
- Fortune CEO Alan Murray probes business leaders “for insight into what they’re doing, why they are doing it, and what impact it is having.”
- Sports Illustrated’s Luis Miguel Echegaray covers how the “COVID-19 global pandemic is impacting the world of professional sports.”
And One to Look Forward to: The Left Right Game (March 23)
- Tessa Thompson stars in and produces this fiction pod about “an idealistic young journalist [who] tries to make a name for herself by following a group of paranormal explorers.”
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