January 2023 - Notebook Dump

 

Well it’s been what, five months or so? I suppose I could blame this lapse of a newsletter on the arrival of my
second child, but truthfully I owe it more to my own lack of discipline and poor sleep habits. Which, to be fair,
have ramped up considerably since August, but all things considered it's been a relatively easy go of it. I’ve
changed the name of the google doc that held my attempts at crafting this newsletter from ‘September 2022?’
to ‘October 2022?’ to ‘November 2022?’ and didn’t even manage to ever name it ‘December 2022?’ I can honestly
claim to have been distracted in the past month or so by my annual year-end music list, so I guess that's something.
In the spirit of starting fresh (albeit 3 weeks into 2023), I’ve decided to empty my draft document of pods to review and
deliver this to you in one epic edition of The Pod Piper. This is the sort of thing that would be ***exclusive bonus
content*** if I followed any kind of paid subscription model. But that would require me to a) write more regularly
and b) believe in myself, both of which seem out of reach even as I bask in the potential of a new year. Anyway,
I’m calling this a ‘Notebook Dump’ after a phrase coined by The Press Box. I think the term was conceived as a
way to talk about journalists publicly spouting off with various related tidbits after a story was published by
another journalist, and since I assume most of these shows have been covered by someone already it seemed
fitting. I present these in two tiers, ‘Definitely!’ and ‘Sure!,’ sorted alphabetically. Hopefully it won’t be another
several months before we meet again, but if so this should be more than enough to tide you over.

 

🏀Definitely!🏀

According to Need (99% Invisible miniseries)
Homelessness in the Bay Area as an analog for a broader problem.

Bellwether
Finally, after a tantalizing first episode that got me anticipating the full show launch, Sam Greenspan has delivered Bellwether. It’s speculative journalism - part fiction, part realistic reporting, 100% novel for the podcasting space. The show is beautiful and provocative. Also, autobiographical elements (episode 4) in the nonfictional world make you wonder how much of the nonfiction bits are real. I think it’s authentic and I don’t know if it actually matters what percent of Sam’s gender identity journey is true to reality. The narrative device in the future is striking for an audio project; there are two characters but you only ever hear the voice of one...and that’s the being that’s non-human.

Book Exploder
The Song Exploder treatment, but for books! This is a bit more interview-y in nature, where the original is an interview that is crafted to be heard almost entirely as a monologue, but it still feels very different than a typical author spot on a more traditional pod. It’s craft oriented, which often yields behind-the-scenes details about a narrative.

Crypto Island
After his abrupt exit from Reply All (and its subsequent, possibly related, demise soon thereafter) PJ Vogt returns with a series that feels like it could have been a spin-off of the cult favorite internet inflected pod. This is very fun and approachable, at least from my perspective as 1) a fan of the Vogtinator (patent pending) and 2) a person who feels fairly technologically inclined without really having an understanding of crypto currency. The show feels unique in that it is set up as a limited run, deeply-reported investigative-type pod, but on a topic that feels wide open enough for the show to continue on endlessly. Also, I was a big fan of the first episode; it’s definitely more than a trailer, but serves as a really nice setup to the show’s angle on crypto.

Factually! with Adam Conover
Social issues through the lens of a comedian interviewing people with important work.

For Your Reference
I was a big fan of the now-defunct Hottest Takedown podcast from 538, which ran on the model of current sports events intermixed with statistical whimsy. And this new pod from Sports Reference is decidedly not that. It has a very informal feel to it, and rather than keeping pace with the news of the day the show unearths hidden gems. Like "Unexpected College Athletes" or the little known (at least to me) story of the "25th Infantry Wreckers." It’s nice and short and not overly statistic-y.

Icons Club (in the Bill Simmons Book of Basketball feed)
Icons of the NBA, interviewed by Jackie MacMullin.

Outside In with Jon Lukomnik
If you’re like me, you have cool relatives who get interviewed on fascinating podcasts. And if you’re not like me, you can listen to the September 20th episode  of Outside In and pretend like you have family ties to Rosanna Landis Weaver. But if you’re growing mildly annoyed and wondering “Is this just a weird nepotistic flex?”, fear not - for the show works even if you don’t have a personal connection. Jon Lukomnik features a fascinating mix of guests from the world of finance, corporate governance, data, and other vaguely financial or business adjacent corners. While the show’s premise (and cover art) nods to a sort of countercultural take on these things, Lukomnik is professional in his presentation. The short episodes are a testament to this - no meandering multiple hour long chat cast here.

The 11th
Now defunct, this show featured a new podcast episode or series from a different producer every month. Sort of like the short lived/unrealized pod ‘Pilot’ from former This American Life producer Stephanie Foo. Or maybe more reminiscent of Showcase from Radiotopia. Series 1: The Inbox (unexpected story, marvelously told. Really get the pain that this has caused in so many lives. Part 4 with Ken and Mark was particularly moving.) Series 3: The Beige Room (Landmark Forum, extremely bingeable, fascinating and toxic). Series 4: (1 episode?) Exhausting a Place - field recordings and people watching…very good. Series ???: McSweeney’s audio issue. Walking tours for your home - recognizable McSweeney’s humor in audio form. Novel, funny, and a little deep. (This show has concluded it’s run)

The Evening Rocket
Jill Lepore’s history of one of the most future-bent people currently alive - Elon Musk. I love the title, and the show has a warm quality that lives up to it. The show is critical, for sure, but also maybe a bit disarming. Unintentionally, I think, and maybe it speaks to Musk’s polarization - since Lepore is neither tearing him a new one or putting him on a pedestal, it reads as an implicit endorsement. Yet I think that’s probably where I fall. He’s not going to save us and he is annoying, but there are contributions that he has made which seem helpful.

We Were Three
An extremely well done three-parter, the latest from Serial Productions is essentially a docudrama about difficult family relationships. While it isn’t really a covid story, the pandemic and our collective response to it hangs over the show. More than that it’s about what we keep suppressed in order to move forward and what happens in the moments when things just can be buried for the sake of a relationship. Self-preservation is central, but it’s not just a tale of selfish people looking out for number one. There is something really complicated and endearing about Rachel,  the main character of the story, being thrown into this production in the wake of processing the deaths of close (yet distant) family members. It almost creates a true-crime-esque dilemma, where you feel like it might be unethical to derive entertainment from some terrible thing that happened. But in the hands of host Nancy Updike (who sprinkles in basically the perfect amount of self-deprecating asides) it feels like telling this story may have genuinely helped the subject and the audience grapple with some essential struggles.

 

🏸Sure!🏸

60 Songs That Explain the ‘90s
Very relatable. Good subject matter for specific song episodes, great larger arc of how music exploration and discovery functions in an increasingly post-radio world.

Cautionary Tales
Voice over reenactments are odd… (but something Pushkin does). Some episodes are fantastic (really liked the La La Land one) but sorry to say that the host’s voice really makes it hard to concentrate on the (pretty good) writing.

Parenting Is A Joke
Ophira Eisenberg (of Ask Me Another) has a parenting related quasi-interview, quasi-gameshow pod and this is it.

Slow Burn Season 4: David Duke
Just about as racist as you’d assume, with a lot of detail you probably didn’t know about.

This Machine Kills
A counter-cultural tech podcast. I like the random voice effects (aka reverb) at the end of select sentences. Leftist, anarchist, a little out there, but some salient points about the dangers of openly embracing any new technology.

Tech Won’t Save Us
In the same wheelhouse as This Machine Kills, but a bit more polished. Similar politics, but less angry maybe?
 

Theory of Change
A year-old six-part series about politics, still pretty relevant but wow it also already feels dated. And also, it’s fascinating to hear some of the salient points with the knowledge of the future.
But wait, it’s back! Ex-conservatives riffing on democratic values in a non-schadenfreude-inducing way. Whiffs of Mormonism (is the host an ex-Mormon?)
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Well there you have it! Thanks for sticking with it if you've made it this far. I hope to grace your inbox again soon, but hey, the 2 year old recently transitioned out of a crib into a big girl bed, so the world is the opposite of my oyster.

P.S. I've made my list and checked it twice so that I could find out if my listening habits were pod-y and/or nice. Here's the visual, I'll leave it up to you to draw your own conclusions.