The Pod Piper: May 8, 2023
Like a tulip emerges from a long winter, The Pod Piper returns! Perhaps also like a tulip (if you’re me), you forgot that The Pod Piper existed and only noticed because a neighbor complimented you on the newsletter that beautifully frames your inbox. OK fine, it’s not a perfect comparison, but at any rate I hope you’ll find something here to love. Oh, and the survey is still open if you’ve not had the pleasure.
THE LIST
You might think this pick as my number one episode is a credit to me having a small child, but I’m pretty confident my daughter has never heard of Blues Clues. This is just a delightful look into the actors behind the children’s show rooted in my own youth, and I’m not afraid to admit it. I just missed the age at which I might’ve had an earnest appreciation for the program, and so the biggest association I have with Blue is my summer camp counselors singing the Mail Time jingle at lunch when the mail arrived. What I’m trying to say is that you needn’t have a personal connection to enjoy this episode, and it might make you believe in the power of dreams. Or it could just be a fun listen you forget about instantly after it passes, but that’s better than nothing!
The latest miniseries from Land of the Giants focuses on dating apps and their various destructive influence on and cannibalizing of modern matchmaking. The whole thing is worth checking out, but the series gets increasingly depressing as it unfolds. Surprisingly, this series-ending episode feels fairly hopeful even as it also has an eerie quality to it. Who's to say love can’t be found in a chatbot?
I remember the TAL episode from 9 months ago, and this just now feels like a thing so many people will have to grapple with. It’s a reminder why the show is still must-hear podcasting, 20+ years later.
Can you tell which episodes in this list came out around Valentine’s day? This serves as a perfect companion to the above-mentioned Dating Games series, and speaks to the various needs humanity has - contorting to make something logical or leaning fully into kismet and basking in the inexplicable goodness of the universe.
What is PBS anyway, save for a star vehicle that birthed the timeless musical experience that is Yanni?.
Avery Trufelman can do no wrong, and she picks right back up in the latest installment of Articles of Interest. This 99% Invisible spinoff is kind of a history lesson about fashion, but that sounds super highbrow and unrelatable. I’m barely even aware enough to cobble together an attempt at an outfit each day, let alone cognizant of what constitutes a broader fashion trend. But despite my ignorance, this dive into the origins of preppy clothing was just mesmerizing. Subsequent one-off episodes following the seven-part American Ivy saga are also really well done and have drawn me in despite my general lack of fashion sense.
HONORABLE MENTION
SOMETHINGS NEW
Death of an Artist
I’ve long been fascinated by the art world - something about the juxtaposition of creativity and high society. This show is a bit of that intertwined with a murder mystery - or rather a “was it actually a murder?” mystery. It chronicles the life and controversial demise of artist Ana Mendieta, and the role her husband (big time artist Carl Andre) played in her death. It feels a tad salacious at times, but I think it contains enough integrity to make it feel worthwhile as a piece of serious investigative storytelling. Helen Molesworth serves as host, drawing on her background in art curation and career upheaval; she was fired from her role as chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles in 2018. As far as pods featuring contentious criminal-y things go, Death of an Artist handles the subject matter respectfully. It avoids fading quietly into oblivion despite not unearthing new evidence that reverses a court’s ruling. Molesworth takes a different turn and pivots to wrapping up the series with a solid meditation about cancel culture and its unintended consequences on the life and legacy of victims.
The Assistant Professor of Football
I’ve long wanted to become more of a soccer fan. I enjoy watching the world cup, and I love the universality of the sport. Also, the fact that the US isn’t dominant makes it a lot more fun to cheer as the outcomes are nearly as predetermined as other sports on the international level. And many of my friends would list it among their favorite sports. Still, basketball already has the market share of the attention I feel I can dedicate to sports, so football/soccer simply hasn’t taken hold. But I’m a sucker for talking about the context that forms around sports and the people who support them, which makes The Assistant Professor a compelling entrypoint to the beautiful game. If you’re expecting to find high drama and multimillionaire athletes, this may not be the pod for you. Each episode features a guest who brings expertise on some kind of regional club well below the levels of the monied elite teams you might have heard of. The first episode is a little slow, but each subsequent release increasingly finds its footing. Host Phillip Gollner is an historian who also has a stake in a midlevel Austrian club team. He has roots in Europe but lives in the midwestern US, and this multiculturalism serves as foreshadowing to the variety of national contexts from which he draws his interviewee pool. All this, combined with an earnest respect for his guests and a clear depth of knowledge provides for smooth listening. Gollner uses his depth of experience as a tool rather than a bludgeon to bring the most out of his guests, almost to a fault. On a recent episode when a rather cheeky subject tries to turn the tables, Gollner remained appropriately frank (“I usually ask the questions, not answer them”) while still maintaining his cool. I'm still not ready to be a true fan of soccer, but I am pretty taken with this show and so perhaps that will come in time.
I’ve long been fascinated by the art world - something about the juxtaposition of creativity and high society. This show is a bit of that intertwined with a murder mystery - or rather a “was it actually a murder?” mystery. It chronicles the life and controversial demise of artist Ana Mendieta, and the role her husband (big time artist Carl Andre) played in her death. It feels a tad salacious at times, but I think it contains enough integrity to make it feel worthwhile as a piece of serious investigative storytelling. Helen Molesworth serves as host, drawing on her background in art curation and career upheaval; she was fired from her role as chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles in 2018. As far as pods featuring contentious criminal-y things go, Death of an Artist handles the subject matter respectfully. It avoids fading quietly into oblivion despite not unearthing new evidence that reverses a court’s ruling. Molesworth takes a different turn and pivots to wrapping up the series with a solid meditation about cancel culture and its unintended consequences on the life and legacy of victims.
The Assistant Professor of Football
I’ve long wanted to become more of a soccer fan. I enjoy watching the world cup, and I love the universality of the sport. Also, the fact that the US isn’t dominant makes it a lot more fun to cheer as the outcomes are nearly as predetermined as other sports on the international level. And many of my friends would list it among their favorite sports. Still, basketball already has the market share of the attention I feel I can dedicate to sports, so football/soccer simply hasn’t taken hold. But I’m a sucker for talking about the context that forms around sports and the people who support them, which makes The Assistant Professor a compelling entrypoint to the beautiful game. If you’re expecting to find high drama and multimillionaire athletes, this may not be the pod for you. Each episode features a guest who brings expertise on some kind of regional club well below the levels of the monied elite teams you might have heard of. The first episode is a little slow, but each subsequent release increasingly finds its footing. Host Phillip Gollner is an historian who also has a stake in a midlevel Austrian club team. He has roots in Europe but lives in the midwestern US, and this multiculturalism serves as foreshadowing to the variety of national contexts from which he draws his interviewee pool. All this, combined with an earnest respect for his guests and a clear depth of knowledge provides for smooth listening. Gollner uses his depth of experience as a tool rather than a bludgeon to bring the most out of his guests, almost to a fault. On a recent episode when a rather cheeky subject tries to turn the tables, Gollner remained appropriately frank (“I usually ask the questions, not answer them”) while still maintaining his cool. I'm still not ready to be a true fan of soccer, but I am pretty taken with this show and so perhaps that will come in time.
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