Podcasts

Catching up on podcasts at the gym. Very weird listening to various shows in reverse. Remote recordings from home one day - talking about the seriousness of it the previous show - joking about it the show before that.

 

Discovered Larry Wilmore's podcast. It's phenomenal. Funny, insightful. Great guests ranging from entertainment, politics, etc. I wish his Comedy Central show was more like this.

 

Unprecedented - First Amendment cases really are interesting
The Shrink Next Door - just weird and sad and unbelievable that otherwise intelligent people could be so manipulated
Where Should We Begin - talk about eavesdropping on people’s pain

 

I cannot believe I did not listen to the Poscast until last week.

 

New podcasts I've discovered:

-Revolutions and The History of Rome - both great dives into history by Mike Duncan. VERY well researched.
-Criminal and Phoebe Reads a Mystery - Criminal delves into different crimes. They aren't all gory murders, they are crimes all across the board, and thoroughly interesting. Phoebe has one of my favorite voices in podcasting, and she has another podcast where she reads classic murder mystery novels (think Agatha Christie, Sherlock Holmes, etc.)
-Let's Go to Court - a comedy podcast about true crime and legal wrangling
-You're Wrong About - a podcast dispelling myths about well known stories. The five-parter on Princess Diana got me hooked but they've also covered Tonya Harding, Y2K and Chandra Levy
-The Thread - which traces commonalities between two seemingly unrelated subjects. The first season was Lenin to Lennon.

 

Texas Monthly has a series called “One By Willie” in which an artist discusses their favourite Willie Nelson song, what they live about it, interactions with Willie. Episodes are only 25 minutes or so and fun.

TM also has a crime one called “Tom Brown’s Body” which was very good. Skip Hollandsworth is the writer/narrator.

 

Gaylords of Darkness -- looking at horror cinema through a queer lens, with lots of decapitation
The Undiplomatic Podcast -- offbeat takes on IR, foreign policy, etc. from outside the think tank-contractor industrial complex

 

I actually go the other way and usually only listen to things longer than 30 minutes. The area where I go hiking every week or two is about 90 minutes from my house and I love being able to put on one episode of one podcast for the trip up and put on another for the trip back.

I don't listen to podcasts when I hike or exercise, though. I'm amazed by those that want to hear Terry Gross while they run.

 

I think podcasts are actually an evolution of radio.

Now we have the power to pause and listen later. No more hoping they get through the topic before you get to work.

 

I generally like the 90 minute ones, but there is a role for the shorter format as well.

I listened to a lot of podcasts in the first months of the pandemic, and many are just too many episodes. A couple of crime ones could have been half the episodes, easily.

Listening at 1.2 speed works well for me. I don’t like having to leave an episode unfinished.