Podcasts about race still dominate the Apple Podcasts chart, with Code Switch (No. 4) and 1619 (No. 1) leading the way. And, as with 1619, another podcast from last year has re-entered the charts. Details in the deep dives.
This week’s counts: 44 notable guests, 14 new podcasts, four deep dives and one strange spinning object.
Pod Take of the Week
“The simplest way to turn this into a long-lasting depression is to not do enough.”
Listen: Freakonomics Radio: How to Prevent Another Great Depression (9:06)
- That’s entrepreneur and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, sounding an alarm on what he thinks it’s going to take to get us through this critical economic and cultural moment.
- He’s one of several experts Freakonomics consults about “what kind of policies are being considered, or should be?” Stephen J. Dubner also asks: “What kind of lessons — especially terrible lessons — can we learn from the past?”
Go Deep
1) Police in America
Listen: Pod Save the People, Scriptnotes, Headlong: Running from COPS, It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders, The Indicator from Planet Money
- Policing remains a central concern, and podcasters are analyzing it from several angles:
- Pod Save the People looks at what science says about policing, with law professor and research scholar John Rappaport “examining criminal procedures in the justice system.”
- Scriptnotes examines the cultural presence of police, specifically at “how police and policing are portrayed on screen, and writers’ responsibilities to thoughtfully reflect society.”
- Running from COPS, which debuted in April 2019 and chronicled “the longest running reality show in TV history — and its cultural impact on policing in America,” returned to the top 100 on the Apple charts. The TV show was cancelled this week as it proved untenable.
- It’s Been a Minute discusses the cancellation of “Cops.”
- The Indicator takes a look at the business of police surveillance, including technology from Microsoft and Amazon.
2) David Duke
Listen: Slow Burn
- Slate’s acclaimed deep-dive series returns for season four with a look at the “year that David Duke, America’s most famous white supremacist, went mainstream.”
- It’s No. 35 on Apple Podcasts.
3) UFOs
Listen: The Ezra Klein Show, Science Weekly
- Science Weekly goes deep on Oumuamua, the “strange spinning cigar-shaped object was spotted travelling through our solar system in 2017.”
- Klein goes 1 hour, 29 minutes on a “serious conversation” about unidentified flying objects, inspired by recent New York Times reporting on the topic.
4) Uber vs. Lyft
Listen: Business Wars
- Wondery’s in the midst of a six-part series on the rideshare giants.
Guest Appearances By…
($L) = On Luminary, behind a paywall. (S) = A Spotify exclusive. Abrams, Stacey WTF with Marc Maron, Pod Save America
Apatow, Judd Good One, Comedy Bang! Bang!, Pardon My Take, The Bill Simmons Podcast, Fresh Air, The Rewatchables
- Apatow approaches The Full Norton promoting his latest directorial effort, “The King of Staten Island.”
Avett, Scott Talkhouse
Blake, James Life is Short with Justin Long
Brion, Jon The Zane Lowe Interview Series
- The NYT profiled Lowe recently. Headline: How Zane Lowe Became Pop’s Unofficial Therapist.
Brown, Austin Channing Unlocking Us with Brené Brown
Burr, Bill The Bill Simmons Podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience
Cooper, Alice The Rhino Podcast
Cooper, Sarah Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me!
- The hilarious Trump lip-syncher plays Not My Job.
Cuban, Mark The Jordan Harbinger Show
Dever, Kaitlyn The Big Ticket
Gad, Josh You Made it Weird with Pete Holmes
Gellman, Barton Recode Decode
Gyllenhaal, Maggie UnStyled
Hart, Kevin How I Built This with Guy Raz
Hill, Jemele The Press Box
Ice Cube Rolling Stone Music Now
Kendi, Ibram X. Armchair Expert
Leno, Jay The Adam Carolla Show
Lopez, Hernan Recode Media
Love, Loni Skimm’d From the Couch
Mitchell, Radha I’m So Obsessed
Morissette, Alanis Armchair Expert
Nwodim, Ego Comedy Bang! Bang!
Oliver, John Men in Blazers
Oyelowo, David Good for You
Robinson, Phoebe The 500 with Josh Adam Meyers (S)
- Robinson helps Meyers break down the U2 album “Boy.”
RZA Broken Record
Sandberg, Sheryl Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations
Schulz, Andrew The Joe Rogan Experience
Schumer, Amy Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend
Scott, Jill Questlove Supreme
Sellers, Bakari The Bill Simmons Podcast
Seinfeld, Jerry WTF with Marc Maron
Serrano, Shea Make My Day with Josh Gondelman
Sotomayor, Sonia Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations
Taylor, Holland The Treatment
Villanch, Bruce The Originals
Wallace, Chris Kickass News
Watkins, MIchaela The Last Laugh
Whitford, Bradley Armchair Expert
Winkler, Henry Inside of You
Yang, Jimmy O. The Joe Rogan Experience
Youseff, Ramy The Big Ticket
Notable New Podcasts
1) Republicans Defeating Trump
- The highest-ranking debut of the week comes from the Lincoln Project, Republicans who “defy their party and reveal how Trump will be defeated, discuss what’s at stake in the 2020 election, and share the stories of voters all across America who are putting country over party.”
- It’s No. 7 on Apple Podcasts.
- Dope Knife and Linqua Franqa “explore the history of public policy and its impacts on Hip Hop life; what Hip Hop culture tells us about our political reality; and the role of Hip Hop in shaping our political future.”
- It’s No. 71 on Apple Podcasts.
3) The Official The Last of Us Podcast
- The official podcast of the popular video game “offers an immersive experience that blends dynamic conversations and the cinematic storytelling that changed gaming forever.”
4) RomComPods
- Rachael King and Becca Freeman produce “a hilarious and heartfelt new fiction podcast bringing you a new romantic storyline each season.”
- Phillip Picardi hosts a “look at everything from sex to climate change, and how religion informs those discussions.” It’s from Crooked Media.
6) Citizen Chef with Tom Colicchio
- The celebrity chef’s pod “is about what we eat, where and who it comes from, and the politics, decisions, policies and people that shape our food system.”
7) Hello Ranger
- Brad and Matt Kirouac deliver “a show about national parks and the communities that make these places so special.”
- Kellee Edwards hosts the Travel + Leisure pod that “features diverse voices sharing their unique travel experiences and inspiring others to explore the world.”
- Tony Perrottet “unearths sexual stories from throughout the ages.”
10) Past, Present, Future, Live!
- The Osiris Media pod features musical artists talking about their first music lesson to their first paid gig, closing “with a live, original performance of the songs that made the artist who they are today.”
- Ayda Williams, “an American in Britain, tries to make some sense of [the] endlessly baffling and frequently absurd cultural divide” between America and Britain.
12) CrossBread
- The narrative comedy podcast traces the fictional path of “the hugely successful Christian Rap duo” CrossBread.
13) Real Dictators
- The pod from Noiser “explores the hidden lives of history’s tyrants.”
- David Chen and Joanna Robinson host “a critical look at the real story behind popular films that are Based on a True Story.”
And One to Look Forward to: Guest of Honor (June 29)
- In 1901, Booker T. Washington was invited by Theodore Roosevelt to the White House for a meal. He was the first African-American to dine at the White House with a U.S. President.
- It “sent shockwaves through the nation. This historic first ignited a storm of controversy and the scandal escalated to the point that it divided the country in a new civil war.”
- The pod asks, “What happened at that dinner and why was it such an outrage?”
- Deborah Davis hosts.