The Pod Piper

SOMETHING NEW Elizabeth Holmes captured the collective spirit of imagining a better world. She harnessed the charisma of a cult leader, a confusing aura of ambivalently benevolent self-assured-BS that tech giants seem to gravitate toward. But the idea that the medical industry could be exponentially streamlined with the novelty of an almost unnoticeable method for drawing blood? That was enough to get even the most rationale of folks tittering with excitement, and the commodification of promise lay waste to many hopeful investors angling to get in on the ground floor. ABC’s new podcast The Dropout takes listeners on a journey with the driven high schooler who would eventually morph into one of the modern world’s most arrogantly baseless thought-leader tyrants. Judging by the ABC’s podcast webpage , the well established TV/radio outlet has experimented modestly in the on-demand audio game. It’s not too surprising - a lot of easy television-to-podcast adaptations and some on...

I'm trying out a new idea in "Something New" and I'd love to hear what you think. Despite the intersection with a bit of my formative adolescence, I promise not to take anything personally. Post in the comments, send me a message to aaronpyost@gmail.com, or find me on Twitter @Yosterstrudel  and hop in my mentions. (Is that a thing anyone with any amount of followers can say?!) Thanks so much for taking the time to read this newsletter/blog, however often you get to it! SOMETHING NEW During a stretch of my childhood growing up in Northern Arizona, I revelled in my nightly routine of slowly easing myself into sleep. After snuggling into bed I’d read my CSI page-a-day calendar, flip through a couple pages of whatever magazine had been delivered to my mailbox most recently, maybe read a chapter or two of a book, and then, finally, after extinguishing my reading light, I would power on my cassette player/radio. Sometimes I would go to the old standby pop statio...

Note: The terms “Sasquatch” and “Bigfoot” can be used interchangeably to describe the creature that supposedly dwells in North America. I utilize both in this review. SOMETHING NEW For the general public, finding the perfect gateway podcast to get you hooked can be like searching for a mythical creature. A couple of your more eccentric friends probably swear by one show or another, and a community of avid followers serves as testament to the medium’s appeal. Most of society is familiar with a couple notable examples. Is Serial the Lochness monster of podcasts? Is Marc Maron Bigfoot? Do any of these things merit one’s investment of time and the questionable impact on one’s social standing? (Generally speaking, professing my love of podcasts to a new acquaintance garners much less interest than if I were to tell someone how I enjoy basketball). Laura Krantz’s Wild Thing bares witness to those who’ve aligned themselves with an embattled cause - be it hunting for a new species ...

New year, new layout, new release schedule! Welcome back to the Pod Piper. After taking a month off, I'm back to bring you all some quality podcast recs in a slightly different way. My goal is to transition from a weekly post to one that drops every two weeks, with an extended episode list and perhaps a greater devotion to publishing the Something New section every single time. We'll see how it all works out...let's go. SOMETHING NEW When listening to The Sound and the Story , one can’t help but feel the sincerity in what might otherwise be described as angsty music. Yeah, I’m talking about emo, but this podcast also features indie rock, rap, alt rock, and punk. And really, isn’t music of any kind a sort of inexorable plea of the soul, when mere written word or speech simply won’t do? That may be, and as the saying goes, “there’s no accounting for taste,” but don’t expect to find David Kallison tackling Rod Stewart or Lady Gaga. The host selects a record and deftly...

Well folks, the year that was came and went and I topped my 2017 episode count . In 2018, I listened to 2,166 podcast episodes. They said it couldn't be done. They said they "got a job" and "had a shorter commute" and "could no longer count on those 5 minute episodes of The Writer's Almanac to somewhat artificially boost the numbers." They stopped writing in this tortured pluralized third person because everyone was getting confused. Is it impressive or concerning or simply not that interesting? Your call. Regardless, here is a bit of a look back at my 2018 in podcasting. Dope episodes More or less in order from dopest to less dope, but without numbers because THEY'RE ALL DOPE! Show Episode Decoder Ring The Incunabula Papers Tomorrow's World Is This the Real Life? Love and Radio Such is the Way to the Stars Reply All The Crime Machine, Part 1 & 2 This American ...

This week I'm switching up the format a bit. There are still top episodes (without any explanatory text), but in Something New we've got a year-end blowout of shows I've caught but haven't had time to write about at any length. This is born out of both a desire to experiment and my lack of available time to devote to the cause. But let me know what you think, it may be the way to go in 2019... THE LIST 1. Reply All  - "Negative Mount Pleasant" 2. Showcase from Radiotopia  - "The Stoop #3 - I Got the Nod" 3. Villains  - "Amy Dunne from 'Gone Girl'" HONORABLE MENTION Showcase from Radiotopia  - "The Stoop #2 - Gullah Geechee" Futility Closet  - "The Children's Champion" SOMETHING NEW Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football, Inc. The story of Aaron Hernandez, football star and convicted murderer, just sucked me in. I knew what happened in the end, but I guess my lack of familiarity...

THE LIST 1. Heavyweight - "Marchel" Wandering through the lens of his history as a film criticism, Jonathan Goldstein riffs on an old Russian art flick and a nagging feeling he can't shake. Broadly speaking, what is the nature of regret? And what does it look like to encounter someone who should objectively long for a re-do...but just doesn't? While the movie is integral to the parsing out of these large existential quandaries, the episode's approach does not rely on any prior knowledge. It is classic Heavyweight : Goldstein's idiosyncrasies politely pound away at a perplexing question in a whimsical journey of investigative reporting.  2. Decoder Ring  - "Sad Jennifer Aniston" Of the many topics covered by the excellent Decoder Ring through eight episodes, none seems more blithely obvious than that of the tabloid news cycle. I mean, isn't it obvious that people are suckers for salacious details of lives that appear out of reach...