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This Week in Podcasts

This Week in Podcasts: Renovation Edition (#79)

Sooo many Trump emergency pods this week. But I won’t let it bog down the newsletter. The counts: 53 notable guests, 12 new podcasts, five deep dives and one Shakespeare reference. And one more thing: Sunday’s #ShareYourBudsSunday, a day to share your love of podcasts with family and friends. Learn more from #ShareYourBudsSunday co-founders and friends of […]

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This Week in Podcasts

26 Essential Podcast Episodes of 2018

Since starting This Week in Podcasts in February (subscribe to the newsletter here) I’ve featured 511 different podcasts. From one perspective, it’s a sliver of the more than 600,000 different podcasts available via iTunes alone. From another perspective, over 42 weeks, I’ve covered a lot of podcasts. This list is comprised of knockout episodes from […]

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This Week in Podcasts: Push-ups with Bishop Tutu Edition (#38)

A lot of beginnings this week — welcome new pods about villains, Y2K, Stan Lee, hysteria and, yeah, true crime. And a couple notable endings — farewell Serial season three and 2 Dope Queens. Note: Next week’s newsletter will be an abbreviated edition. Taking some Thanksgiving time with family and a Baltimore Bomb pie. 5 Pod […]

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This Week in Podcasts

This Week in Podcasts: Blue Waves and Lazy Brains Edition (#37)

Big week for political podcasts. Let’s get right to what consumed podcastland this week — at least in the U.S. 5 Pod Takes   1) “How does Paul Bunyan’s ox say hello?” “How?” “It’s a blue wave.” Listen: Pod Save America: “We won.” (3:35) That’s Jon Lovett, with the corny but satisfyingly accurate take about the results […]

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This Week in Podcasts

This Week in Podcasts: Curiosity, Craziness, and Googling the Queen (#33)

Some happy personal news: I’m cleared to walk without a brace, so less listening on the stationary bike, more listening while walking. 7 Pod Takes 1) “I feel like there’s an America out there that isn’t as crazy as we are.” Listen: The Argument: Is The Supreme Court Broken? Should Democrats Run on #MeToo? (9:01) That’s Ross […]

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This Week in Podcasts

This Week in Podcasts: Serial! Serial! Serial! (#30)

Quite the week for bingers and lovers of serialized podcasts. Have you heard Serial’s back? Also, Last Seen is finally here and Dr. Death is almost finished. Five of the top six pods on the iTunes charts today are deep-dive narratives. The intruder: The Joe Rogan Experience (No. 5). Though his three-hour episodes qualify as […]

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This Week in Podcasts

This Week in Podcasts: “Punk is a free space.” (#28)

Elon Musk made waves smoking a blunt with Joe Rogan. But, damn, many more interesting big names graced the pods. It was a massive week. 7 Pod Takes 1) “There’s an argument to be made that we’re born with the raw elements of Beatles songs in our heads.” Listen: WTF with Marc Maron: Episode 948 – […]

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This Week in Podcasts

This Week in Podcasts: “I thought we weren’t going to get to the Nazis until at least 30 minutes in.” (#22)

I’m (lying on my) back. So far so good with my recovery from my Achilles rupture. My podcast listening has suffered though. I usually listen while hiking, exercising or driving, and I’ll be doing none of those things for a while. Your recommendations for hot pod takes, binges and new pod recommendations are welcome more […]

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This Week in Podcasts

This Week in Podcasts: Truth telling, the defining question of our time and the search for the next Ronaldo (#20)

News pods had a big, heavy week (as usual) with immigration, border separations, shootings, the Supreme Court and more. But there’s still room for a little levity in TWIP. Let’s go. 7 Pod Takes  1) “The exercise of curiosity requires a risk, a sacrifice, a commitment.” Listen: Revisionist History: Malcolm Gladwell’s 12 Rules for Life […]

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This Week in Podcasts: Amy Schumer’s new podcast, songs of summer and how rage rooms are like burritos (#19)

Summer’s officially here, and so is Amy Schumer’s million dollar podcast. A few words on that and takes on aliens, burritos, songs of summer, Trump’s inhumanity and more in this week’s pods. 7 Pod Takes 1) “I think you can be in love and not love the person.” Listen: Amy Schumer Presents: 3 Girls, 1 […]

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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? […]

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This Week in Podcasts

This Week in Podcasts: How to be a genius, binging the royal wedding and the awesome power of a semicolon (#14)

Podcasters prepped for the royal wedding, and they’re still excited about Donald Glover and the epic return of Malcolm Gladwell. He nailed it this week talking about punctuation. Subscribe to This Week in Podcasts! Enter your email below and every Friday I’ll email you a skimmable recap of the week’s podcasts, highlighting provocative takes, great […]

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This Week in Podcasts

This Week in Podcasts: Donald Glover’s moment, hot Malcolm Gladwell takes and a new way to look at cereal (#13)

Gladwell’s back and Glover’s artistic breakthroughs blew away podcasters. All that and more in this week’s deep dive into the podcast universe. 8 Pod Takes: Provocative Thoughts From This Week’s Podcasts 1) “Rooting for the underdog is a form of moral weakness.” Listen: Revisionist History: Malcolm Gladwell debates Adam Grant (33:58) Gladwell’s gonna Gladwell. The […]

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This Week in Podcasts: Beychella, Comey and whether all pet names should end in a vowel (#10)

Subscribe to This Week in Podcasts! Enter your email below and every Friday I’ll email you a skimmable recap of the week’s podcasts, highlighting provocative takes, great binges, new pods and a comprehensive list of notable podcast guests. Beycomé? Seems like every other podcast this week featured Beyoncé and/or James Comey. Lots from and about […]

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This Week in Podcasts

This Week in Podcasts: Finding Cleo, sandwiches from 1978 and how not to win The New Yorker’s caption contest (#8)

Happy Friday. I’m fighting a cold, and I passed some cold-medicine induced downtime with extra listening. So it’s a big newsletter this week. Thanks for reading! 8 Pod Takes: Provocative Thoughts From This Week’s Podcasts 1) “You don’t need antipathy and acrimony to create great art.” Listen: The West Wing Weekly: Hamilton Special (with Lin-Manuel Miranda […]

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This Week in Podcasts

This Week in Podcasts: Information warfare, food fights and romantic ideas of New Jersey (#4)

10 Pod Takes 1) “I, for one, am very excited to stay at the Trump Pyongyang.” Pod Save America: “Give Ruth a Break.” (LIVE from Houston, March 9 (6:05) Jon Lovett senses a motive in President Trump’s acceptance of Kim Jong Un’s invitation to talk. 2) “We all need to cultivate a more relaxed attitude about […]

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This Week in Podcasts

This Week in Podcasts: Dissecting the Netflix effect, Afrofuturism and mutant bears (#2)

Subscribe to This Week in Podcasts! Enter your email below and every Friday I’ll email you a skimmable recap of the week’s podcasts, highlighting provocative takes, great binges, new pods and a comprehensive list of notable podcast guests. 10 Pod Takes 1) “When you get crushed and you live to fight another day, you realize […]