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This Week in Podcasts

This Week in Podcasts: Words, Whispers, and Outrage (#31)

I, too, was captivated by yesterday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearings. Prepare for a politics-heavy edition. Also, apologies to Dame Judi Dench for misspelling her name last week. 7 Pod Takes   1) “She had me at the word hippocampus.” Listen: Political Gabfest: The “One Hundred Percent Certain” Edition (3:41) That’s Emily Bazelon, crystallizing her reaction to Dr. […]

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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: Villains, Sandwiches, and Spam on Christmas Eve (#29)

I’m at the ride-a-stationary-bike-for-many-hours stage of my Achilles recovery, so I binged while pedaling this week. Dropped several inspirational sports and fitness pods into my media diet, too. I also listened to Slow Burn. I don’t think getting infuriated by Linda Tripp helped my recovery any. 7 Pod Takes   1) “It’s the most crushing […]

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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: There Is Crying in Podcasts (#27)

I go away for two weeks and come back to everyone talking about Serial again? Thanks, Kim. It’s been great catching up on the pods, though. So many excellent eps this week. 7 Pod Takes 1) “Just as a warning, if you’re listening with kids, today’s episode features Mel Gibson.” Listen: Today Explained: Don’t call it a […]

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This Week in Podcasts: “The Hope Diamond’s curse can smell fear.” (#26)

The new season of Slow Burn started this week and, yeah, it’s great. It’s now at the top of my pod queue for my upcoming vacation. Reminder: While I’m away, I’ll be taking a break from the newsletter. The next full edition comes out August 31. Thanks again for reading. Subscribe to This Week in […]

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This Week in Podcasts: “It’s always better to have company when you’re a captive.” (#25)

Shout out to fellow MCHS grad Michael Scott Moore for his appearance on this week’s No. 1 iTunes podcast. He survived more than two-and-a-half years as a hostage of Somali pirates. Glad you made it out, Michael. Schedule note: I’m taking a vacation soon, so I won’t be sending newsletters Aug. 17 and Aug. 24. […]

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This Week in Podcasts: “It’s hard to untangle luck from choice” (#24)

So how does podcast-land try to top the incredible week it had last week? With Bono. 7 Pod Takes 1) “It’s hard to untangle luck from choice.” Listen: Ministry of Ideas: Shifting Blame (23:53) That’s host Zachary Davis, on a lesson learned during this smart, insightful pod about how “luck shapes our judgment, and whether we should let it.” […]

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This Week in Podcasts: “Nanette,” Burnham, Zuckerberg and Denzel (#23)

We’ve come to the end of one hell of a week of podcasts. Podcasts broke news. Podcasts soothed (me, at least). Podcasts put things into perspective. Podcasts featured A-listers. Podcasts interviewed inanimate objects. And people are still listening to Serial! As of this afternoon, it’s No. 13 on the iTunes chart.Lastly, shouts to all who […]

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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: 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: 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: World Cup madness, Rihanna’s superpower and punchable faces (#17)

Two of the top pods on iTunes today are about the Kennedys. Guess in 50 years the charts will be dominated by pods about the Trumps. The rest of this week’s newsletter? Trump free. Thanks to everyone who sent feedback during the last few weeks. I tightened things a bit, and I’ll continue to calibrate. […]

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This Week in Podcasts: “The Americans,” being Ken Bone and the power of dinosaur erotica (#16)

More true crime debuts this week, and the pods were all over the finale of “The Americans.” I’m still reeling from Paige’s decision. 8 Pod Takes: Provocative Thoughts From This Week’s Podcasts 1) “Memes are people too.” Listen: Endless Thread: I, Ken Bone (23:50) Ben Brock Johnson advocates for humanity on the internet, specifically regarding those who’ve been […]

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The Moby Dick of tacos, The Canterbury Tales of sports bars and Michael Chabon (#15)

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. We’re all literary up in podland this week. We’re still obsessed with criminals, too. Four pods about […]

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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: 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: Trader Joe’s starts a podcast, In the Dark returns and eating broccolini during the apocalypse (#12)

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. Who knew we were all so eager for a podcast about Trader Joe’s? Go deep with that […]

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This Week in Podcasts: The Golden State Killer, “The Female Persuasion” and Rick Astley’s superpower (#11)

We go deep with true crime pods and the arrest of the alleged Golden State Killer. We also tweak the newsletter’s format again based on your feedback. Thanks so much for your thoughts and suggestions. Keep ’em coming. If you like The Week in Podcasts, please pass it along to someone else who might like […]