February 12 - 18, 2017
1. Love + Radio - "How to Argue"
The Love + Radio episode "Silver Dollar" was one of the first pieces from the show that really grabbed my attention. The episode is enigmatic, appropriately representative of L+R, but it also painted a picture of a person I would love to meet. Perhaps the greatest gift a podcast can give is the illusion of an intimate conversation with an intriguing stranger, so in a way I felt like Daryl Davis and I had sat down for a chat. Davis, musician and properly subtle anti-racist mercernary, is back on "How to Argue" to discuss discourse in Trump's America. And true to form, Davis highlights his even-tempered message of assuming the best while observing the worst in people. It's a crucial attitude for survival in a climate so rife with hostility and doubling down. To paraphrase Stephen Colbert's executive producer, interviewed this week on The Gist, we must give our adversaries a chance while not allowing them an inch.
2. The Memory Palace - "A Portrait (The Met Residency Episode 4)" If every hallowed hall of antiquated art and/or ephemera had a Nate DiMeo, I may fast become an avid museum-head. As it stands, I can appreciate many such institutions but more often than not find myself craving the rarely present narrative piece of the cultural experience. Unbeknownst to me until "A Portrait" surfaced in my feed, DiMeo was commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art to craft 10 companion audio pieces complementing work in the museum's collection. Thanks to the internet, the art at the center of this episode is available here, which makes the episode all the more fulfilling. If I lived in New York, I honestly think the promise of a podcast from a respected producer would lure me to MOMA. This is an exciting project for it's potential to extend to other such collaborations, but the piece is totally fascinating and enjoyable without considering any additional implications.
3. The Cracked Podcast - "Jafar is Disney Moses: Secretly Heroic Villains" Villains are the people who know the most and care the least, or so posits a host on this installment of The Cracked Podcast. This sort of pop culture critique is the bread and butter of Cracked, and for good reason. The hosts manage to make some clever observations while simultaneously avoiding the kind of bloviating self-importance I certainly would be tempted to inhabit in light of such thoughts. As the title would indicate, the episode's best moments come when dissecting Aladdin and the insufferable complaints of the aristocracy that Disney just happens to gloss over.
4. Criminal - "Vanish"
At the risk of sounding like a busted 45, Criminal is not your old man's true crime podcast. "Vanish" takes listeners on a thorough walk-through of one woman's quest to investigate faking your own death. Oh, and as an added bonus, that very woman technically died a couple years ago. Intrigued? How could you not be?! As if that weren't enough, we finally learn Phoebe Judge's real age - a question I hadn't ever consciously pondered but was nonetheless quite delighted to know.
HONORABLE MENTION
Planet Money - "The Phone At The End Of The World"
Flash Forward - "Greetings from Paradice"
The Allusionist - "Under the Covers - part 1"
Strangers - "Pabba's 32nd Year"
The Love + Radio episode "Silver Dollar" was one of the first pieces from the show that really grabbed my attention. The episode is enigmatic, appropriately representative of L+R, but it also painted a picture of a person I would love to meet. Perhaps the greatest gift a podcast can give is the illusion of an intimate conversation with an intriguing stranger, so in a way I felt like Daryl Davis and I had sat down for a chat. Davis, musician and properly subtle anti-racist mercernary, is back on "How to Argue" to discuss discourse in Trump's America. And true to form, Davis highlights his even-tempered message of assuming the best while observing the worst in people. It's a crucial attitude for survival in a climate so rife with hostility and doubling down. To paraphrase Stephen Colbert's executive producer, interviewed this week on The Gist, we must give our adversaries a chance while not allowing them an inch.
2. The Memory Palace - "A Portrait (The Met Residency Episode 4)" If every hallowed hall of antiquated art and/or ephemera had a Nate DiMeo, I may fast become an avid museum-head. As it stands, I can appreciate many such institutions but more often than not find myself craving the rarely present narrative piece of the cultural experience. Unbeknownst to me until "A Portrait" surfaced in my feed, DiMeo was commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art to craft 10 companion audio pieces complementing work in the museum's collection. Thanks to the internet, the art at the center of this episode is available here, which makes the episode all the more fulfilling. If I lived in New York, I honestly think the promise of a podcast from a respected producer would lure me to MOMA. This is an exciting project for it's potential to extend to other such collaborations, but the piece is totally fascinating and enjoyable without considering any additional implications.
3. The Cracked Podcast - "Jafar is Disney Moses: Secretly Heroic Villains" Villains are the people who know the most and care the least, or so posits a host on this installment of The Cracked Podcast. This sort of pop culture critique is the bread and butter of Cracked, and for good reason. The hosts manage to make some clever observations while simultaneously avoiding the kind of bloviating self-importance I certainly would be tempted to inhabit in light of such thoughts. As the title would indicate, the episode's best moments come when dissecting Aladdin and the insufferable complaints of the aristocracy that Disney just happens to gloss over.
4. Criminal - "Vanish"
At the risk of sounding like a busted 45, Criminal is not your old man's true crime podcast. "Vanish" takes listeners on a thorough walk-through of one woman's quest to investigate faking your own death. Oh, and as an added bonus, that very woman technically died a couple years ago. Intrigued? How could you not be?! As if that weren't enough, we finally learn Phoebe Judge's real age - a question I hadn't ever consciously pondered but was nonetheless quite delighted to know.
HONORABLE MENTION
Planet Money - "The Phone At The End Of The World"
Flash Forward - "Greetings from Paradice"
The Allusionist - "Under the Covers - part 1"
Strangers - "Pabba's 32nd Year"
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