December 11 - 17, 2016
1. This American Life - "20 Years Later (#604)"
Touted by Ira as one of the best radio pieces produced in 2016, "20 Years Later" is an incredible piece of documentary podcasting. Samantha Broun revisits a truly terrifying day in her mother's life, when a stranger held her hostage and assaulted her in various ways over the course of five hours. The retelling of the story on it's own would make for required listening, as Broun interviews her mother and opens some incredibly deep wounds to the world. But the reporting goes on to investigate the long-lasting ramifications of legislation that was spurred by the case. It is certainly not a comfortable experience and could be overwhelming depressing, but the sincerity redeems us from the depths of sorrow and turns the story into a larger probe into how our personal trials affect the complexities inherent in pursuing the greater good. On top of all the stunning narrative qualities, it is quite evident that this story took an immense amount of time and energy to produce and it's the kind of thing that deserves to be heard by as many people as possible.
2. This American Life - "Once More, With Feeling (#603)"
There's a reason why This American Life consistently appears on this list. Somehow, someway, the stories get at the heart of what it means to be an American, and they generally manage to be representative of the human experience in a complex world. "Once More, With Feeling" tackles cat-calling, PTSD, and technological violence in a single episode. What do those topics all have in common? Feelings. Everyone has them, and yet their importance is often discarded in search of more broadly appealing facts. Don't get me wrong, we're in dire need of media outlets that pursue and report the objective facets of a story, but TAL has the freedom to flex between pathos and logos and do so with aplomb. Absolutely listen to this entire episode if you've got the time, but the 'You Had One Job' segment is not to be missed. The convergence of politics, race, and technology results in a highly charged and troubling situation that may seem more like a futuristic thought experiment than a problem we're likely to face as inequality continues to intersect with artificial intelligence.
3. The Room Where It's Happening - "Hasan Minhaj: Hamilton's Tupac Factor (#13)"
If you like Hamilton, odds are you will derive some kind of pleasure from each and every episode of The Room Where It's Happening. Who doesn't love to hear other people squeal over a mutual interest? But there are guests, and then there is Hasan Minhaj. I'd not previously heard of the comedian, who writes for the Daily Show, but he brought some serious depth to the oft-tread world of Hamilton fandom. As he states at the beginning of the episode, Minhaj was indeed "sitting on some serious Hamilton heat in Evernote" as he proceeded to make some Burr/Hamilton comparisons to Tupac/Jay-Z. I don't know that any guest to date has dropped so many references as deeply entrenched in rap history, and Minhaj also eloquently discusses the various race-related issues of a typical Broadway audience with so many POCs involved in the show.
Touted by Ira as one of the best radio pieces produced in 2016, "20 Years Later" is an incredible piece of documentary podcasting. Samantha Broun revisits a truly terrifying day in her mother's life, when a stranger held her hostage and assaulted her in various ways over the course of five hours. The retelling of the story on it's own would make for required listening, as Broun interviews her mother and opens some incredibly deep wounds to the world. But the reporting goes on to investigate the long-lasting ramifications of legislation that was spurred by the case. It is certainly not a comfortable experience and could be overwhelming depressing, but the sincerity redeems us from the depths of sorrow and turns the story into a larger probe into how our personal trials affect the complexities inherent in pursuing the greater good. On top of all the stunning narrative qualities, it is quite evident that this story took an immense amount of time and energy to produce and it's the kind of thing that deserves to be heard by as many people as possible.
2. This American Life - "Once More, With Feeling (#603)"
There's a reason why This American Life consistently appears on this list. Somehow, someway, the stories get at the heart of what it means to be an American, and they generally manage to be representative of the human experience in a complex world. "Once More, With Feeling" tackles cat-calling, PTSD, and technological violence in a single episode. What do those topics all have in common? Feelings. Everyone has them, and yet their importance is often discarded in search of more broadly appealing facts. Don't get me wrong, we're in dire need of media outlets that pursue and report the objective facets of a story, but TAL has the freedom to flex between pathos and logos and do so with aplomb. Absolutely listen to this entire episode if you've got the time, but the 'You Had One Job' segment is not to be missed. The convergence of politics, race, and technology results in a highly charged and troubling situation that may seem more like a futuristic thought experiment than a problem we're likely to face as inequality continues to intersect with artificial intelligence.
3. The Room Where It's Happening - "Hasan Minhaj: Hamilton's Tupac Factor (#13)"
If you like Hamilton, odds are you will derive some kind of pleasure from each and every episode of The Room Where It's Happening. Who doesn't love to hear other people squeal over a mutual interest? But there are guests, and then there is Hasan Minhaj. I'd not previously heard of the comedian, who writes for the Daily Show, but he brought some serious depth to the oft-tread world of Hamilton fandom. As he states at the beginning of the episode, Minhaj was indeed "sitting on some serious Hamilton heat in Evernote" as he proceeded to make some Burr/Hamilton comparisons to Tupac/Jay-Z. I don't know that any guest to date has dropped so many references as deeply entrenched in rap history, and Minhaj also eloquently discusses the various race-related issues of a typical Broadway audience with so many POCs involved in the show.
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