December 18 - 24, 2016
1. Reply All - "Past, Present, Future 2 (#84)"
Reply All takes the seemingly bland but responsible step of following up on stories in their final episode of 2016. It's the journalistic equivalent of conducting research on a theory that has already been "proven" in the scientific field - necessary but hardly sexy. This episode, however, turns the exercise on its head and yields an incredibly compact review of the exhilarating stories produced by the Gimlet juggernaut this year. There is a lot of new content that undoubtedly took quite a while to pull together, and some of it is kind of deep. Yet the brisk pace of the show endowed it with mirth that tempers the gravitas for the winning combination so often found on Reply All.
2. Homecoming - "OPTIMISTS (#6)"
Homecoming may be the most captivating new show in the 2016 podcast landscape. It's serialized audio fiction at it's finest, and the last two episodes sunk particularly salient hooks into an audience that has to be eagerly awaiting the arrival of season two. There are purportedly talks of signing a deal to option a TV series, which would certainly be intriguing for the sheer unprecedented crossover from podcasts to the silver screen. Artistically speaking, however, I'm not sure I would care to watch this story on screen. The main theme of the narrative is memory, and I think the role of imagination in transposing the aural details onto a mental canvas augments the suspense in a way that even a wonderfully produced television series could not accomplish. At any rate, please check out the finale of Homecoming along with the rest of season one if you've not yet had the privilege.
3. Our National Conversation About Conversations About Race - "Sorry To Burst Your Bubble"
If you can wrap your head around the idea that EVERYONE has some kind of hidden bias, the world starts to open up. The sometimes erudite About Race nailed this topic on "Sorry To Burst Your Bubble" and has had me thinking about my own bubble a lot this week. In Madrid I'm part of a couple fairly obvious bubbles - ESL teachers and American expats - but as I ponder my future I wonder what kind of bubble I'll inevitably inhabit, and to what extent I can or should attempt to struggle against such boundaries. Part psychology, part sociology, part self-reflection, the discussion on this episode is worth hearing as we careen into the unknown of 2017.
Reply All takes the seemingly bland but responsible step of following up on stories in their final episode of 2016. It's the journalistic equivalent of conducting research on a theory that has already been "proven" in the scientific field - necessary but hardly sexy. This episode, however, turns the exercise on its head and yields an incredibly compact review of the exhilarating stories produced by the Gimlet juggernaut this year. There is a lot of new content that undoubtedly took quite a while to pull together, and some of it is kind of deep. Yet the brisk pace of the show endowed it with mirth that tempers the gravitas for the winning combination so often found on Reply All.
2. Homecoming - "OPTIMISTS (#6)"
Homecoming may be the most captivating new show in the 2016 podcast landscape. It's serialized audio fiction at it's finest, and the last two episodes sunk particularly salient hooks into an audience that has to be eagerly awaiting the arrival of season two. There are purportedly talks of signing a deal to option a TV series, which would certainly be intriguing for the sheer unprecedented crossover from podcasts to the silver screen. Artistically speaking, however, I'm not sure I would care to watch this story on screen. The main theme of the narrative is memory, and I think the role of imagination in transposing the aural details onto a mental canvas augments the suspense in a way that even a wonderfully produced television series could not accomplish. At any rate, please check out the finale of Homecoming along with the rest of season one if you've not yet had the privilege.
3. Our National Conversation About Conversations About Race - "Sorry To Burst Your Bubble"
If you can wrap your head around the idea that EVERYONE has some kind of hidden bias, the world starts to open up. The sometimes erudite About Race nailed this topic on "Sorry To Burst Your Bubble" and has had me thinking about my own bubble a lot this week. In Madrid I'm part of a couple fairly obvious bubbles - ESL teachers and American expats - but as I ponder my future I wonder what kind of bubble I'll inevitably inhabit, and to what extent I can or should attempt to struggle against such boundaries. Part psychology, part sociology, part self-reflection, the discussion on this episode is worth hearing as we careen into the unknown of 2017.
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