January 21, 2018

-
THE LIST

1. This American Life - "Chip In My Brain"
Coming off a year of truly excellent but rather adrift politically tinged material, This American Life seemed to be moving away from their narrative center. I fell in love with this purveyor of quirky storytelling that managed to endow the humans at the heart of each story with a larger-than-life quality. This episode gets back to that sense of wonder, while also mixing in a darkness that seemed to pervade a lot of the reportage from 2017.

2. Planet Money - "The Gun Man"
Guns are dangerous, but so is free speech. That is a crude way of boiling down the mentality of Cody Wilson, the subject of this bold exploration into the collision of emerging technology and the distinctly American affinity for firearms.

 3. Criminal - "The Choir"
This story about abusing power and taking advantage of people who feel void of agency is incredibly timely for two reasons: 1) The deluge of sexual assault allegations that are slowly toppling titans of all industries with every passing day, and 2) To serve as a reminder that injustice does not stop when we stop paying attention.

HONORABLE MENTION
99% Invisible - "Thermal Delight"

SOMETHING NEW

It is tempting to treat work as a given of the human condition. In order to survive, surrendering some amount of time and freedom for a paycheck is almost a prerequisite. That is a fine and socially acceptable place to end a thought exercise about this thing that a majority of adults in the world. But if you've ever wondered if you could possibly extract deeper meaning from this practice of economic exchange, you are certainly not alone. In fact, the podcast Eat Sleep Work Repeat might be the essential aid for thoughtful explorers of the working world.
Started in 2017, the podcast has ascended to the top of the iTunes business podcast rankings and put forth a brief manifesto with ways to improve the human element tied into the cost of doing business. ESWR tackles the interplay between relaxation and productivity by speaking with professionals who are hustling to achieve a goal or maintain a hardwon spot atop the corporate ladder. This necessarily begets a lot of conversations with people from the tech/startup side of business, which makes sense as office culture can make or break a company. That said, even the seemingly niche interviews contain lessons that are easily translated to a variety of workplaces and industries. And that's because the show departs from a standard biographical interview format in favor of seeking the granular truths about what works and what doesn't in the world of work.

Host Bruce Daisley embodies a missional sense of curiosity, driving his inquiry with the purpose of cutting through the troves of existing literature and popular thought on the topic. By culling wisdom from self-reported narratives of people in the field, Daisley bolsters his credibility over those who would seek to promote a self-serving methodology geared toward book sales or personal brand aggrandizement.  Episodes with helpful titles such as "Finding happiness through breaks" and "Uber - When Cultures Go Bad" make it easy to cherry-pick based on a specific inkling, a helpful feature for anyone always adding shows to their podcast ledger without kicking anything out. That's not to say this couldn't be the golden ticket for the right person, and anyone with sway over how a subset of the workforce functions may well find use in each and every show from Eat Sleep Work Repeat.

Eat Sleep Work Repeat
From: Standalone
Recommended for: Curious workers looking to balance the impulse of grinding out a job and finding meaningful work.
Drop Schedule: Sundays, Weekly
Average episode length: 50 minutes
Rating: Make It Work

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

November 11, 2018

-
THE LIST 1. Decoder Ring  - "The Incunabula Papers" Yes, this was my number one pick last week. And yes, I did listen to it again this week, in part for  my review of Decoder Ring  for Podcast Review (a channel of the LA Review of Books ), but also because it is very good. It's an exceptional episode of an incredible show, and intrepid listening leads to the revelation of a secret episode. Try to solve the puzzle yourself, or appeal to the power of the Reddit hivemind for the link. 2. Reply All  - "The Snapchat Thief" No doubt you've heard that securing your digital identity is incredibly important. But you might still not be completely compelled to do anything to protect yourself. What's that? You need a vivid narrative to spur you to act? This is it. A podcast host puts a lot on the line to foster a meeting between a scared teen and the thief that preyed on her. 3. Planet Money  - "Hot Dog Hail Mary" Why are prices so hig
Read more

July 7, 2019

-
SOMETHING NEW Born from the hosting team that brought you the branded podcast Breach , So, Bob is a podcast that informs and entertains with episodes surrounding internet surveillance and privacy. Alia Tavakolian and Bob Sullivan head up this Spoke Media show, and together create a sense of wonder to accompany an equal sense of dread about the trappings of our increasingly technological world. The hosting combo provides the perspective of an eager and well-informed millennial who nonetheless admits she has a lot to learn, and a battleworn tech journalist who possesses a guarded but healthy optimism about the state of the change in the world. So, Bob takes a layman centered approach, placing the concerns of the average user in the forefront to guide case studies seeking to understand whether tech is good or evil. This is the right question, albeit one that trends towards the same answer in every case: it depends on how the tech is being implemented and dissected. Before jo
Read more

November 5, 2018

-
THE LIST 1. Decoder Ring  - "The Incunabula Papers" Through her years as a television critic for Slate, Willa Paskin has developed an impressive critical eye. Now she has her own unique take on cultural criticism in podcast form. As the host of Decoder Ring, Paskin and producer Benjamin Frisch examine integral aspects of cultural that escape the bounds of a traditional review. On "The Incunabula Papers," the most ambitious episode to date and one of the most intriguing podcast episodes of 2018, the duo diabolically writes and executes a mesmerizing crossover from straightforward audio reporting to performative auteurism. The episode is about the original alternate reality game (ARG), and it really drives home the idea that crafting such a thing is a new form of literary art.  2. Breach  - "Midterm Election Special" Our voting system is susceptible to hacking in ways you may and may not have considered, and the duo behind Breach highlights th
Read more