September 17 - 23, 2017
THE LIST
1. Radiolab - "Oliver Sipple"
Oliver Sipple sounds like a fictional character, and some of the things that transpired in his life are more than Hollywood-ready. Through themes of identity, privacy, and the overwhelming reach of journalism, we find a man whose good will would eventually lead to his demise. Radiolab pieces together a story of what happens when a split-second heroic decision sizzles into a slow burn, consuming an individual from the inside out. In addition to the intrigue and tragedy in this bizarre tale, the show posits some big and largely unanswerable questions about ethical media practices. Amazingly, Radiolab interviews a would-be presidential assassin at the top of the show and manages to craft an episode where this audio is barely a footnote. But at the same time, the intentions of this shooter (long-suffering and seemingly remorseful as she may be for the unintended consequences her actions wrought upon Sipple) go largely unexamined - an omission that might mar a lesser story. It's a cacophonous narrative that entrances with novelty, leaving the listener perplexed and a little bit afraid, and could have benefited from a second part with a bit of an inverted angle. For all it's complications, however, this was still the best thing I listened to all week.
2. Reply All - "At World's End"
In the analog world you might reunite with a childhood toy by stumbling on it at a garage sale or tucked away in an antique shop. There are dusty corners lurking in the digital world as well, and so when software suddenly disappears all hope is not lost. In the same week that Longform released an excellent two-parter featuring Alex and PJ, the Reply All team put out this gaming-centered episode about finding a long-lost friend. In this case, that friend came in the form of an old flash game. We meet the forlorn former gamer that connected memories of a now distant companion to Bunni: How We First Met, the game designer and the zany builder that put together a love-inspired vision through the haze of insobriety, and finally, the tech engineer that helped to string everything back together. It's kind of insane, a little creepy, but ultimately a winning tale of connection and community. Oh, and Gimlet is now hosting this odd game on their site. Click here to see what it's all about.
3. Planet Money - "Is Record Breaking Broken?"
Consuming even a modest amount of internet culture inevitably leads to the discovery of some grating argument about how ______ is dead. Hip-hop. Politics. The LP. Whatever the focus, these fatalistic refrains almost invariably come off as pretentious bluster. Yet when the claim is altered, daring instead to state that something is broken? That amount of balanced posturing is at least slightly more thoughtful. In the case of this episode of Planet Money, the stance is supported by windowing into the story of an intern at the show and detailing how the art of record breaking evolved from whimsical to capitalistic. In the days since listening to this, I've noticed how often I and others around me talk about something being a "world record." It's a phrase that evokes greatness and amazement at a feat, yet there seems to be legitimate cause for concern with how Guinness, the authority on such matters, is bearing the standard. "Is Record Breaking Broken?" shook the implicit confidence in the purity of cataloging world-class excellence, but at least it afforded a few laughs and amusing anecdotes along the way.
HONORABLE MENTION
Hang Up and Listen - "The Ninja Doppelgänger Edition"
99% Invisible - "The Finnish Experiment"
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SOMETHING NEW
We need to address something up top: this is by far the oldest new thing I've ever discovered for The Pod Piper. So apologies if what you're about to read seems as insightful as recommended Facebook as a nifty tool to stay in touch with friends.
BBC Radio's Desert Island Discs has been around in some form since 1942. And yes, adept readers would surely note that BBC Radio is, in fact, radio, and not exclusive to the medium of podcasts. But this is a show I've seen referenced a couple times in the past week and felt embarrassed that I hadn't discovered it before. Perhaps this will save someone out there the niche shame of an audio junkie caught out of water. All that said, the premise of the show is equal turns simple and enduringly compelling: each episode features a guest who has been given the strange liberty of taking 8 audio tracks, a book, and a luxury item to a desert island. This task could be carried out in a simple written listicle, and that would be revealing on some level. I would probably seek out the choices of known celebrities and pass on anyone with whom I wasn't already pretty familiar. But that's where the podcast form comes in and becomes the star.
Naturally, for a task so centered on a sound, the host (Kirsty Young, since 2006) plays a clip of each track and then has the guest contextualize its importance. This effectively creates a musical autobiography, and gets beyond the standard banter and rote responses that might be found in other interview shows. The structure also functions as a disarming tactic, placing the guest in a position of informality while shaping a consistent product regardless of the person in the hot seat. I sampled episodes from Cheryl Sandberg, Paul Greengrass, and Christiane Amanpour. These luminaries in the realms of business, film and journalism all provided entertaining and intimate tales of their lives and work. The guests do come from a variety of backgrounds, though in my perusing of past episodes they seem to be comprised more of British people than anything else. Which is fine, because of the inherent interest the show generates, but it may make the barrier to entry appear forbidding. That potential hesitance is easily overcome by seeking out a familiar name the first time around, which will no doubt lead to buying-in to the concept. It's not hard to see why Desert Island Discs has run for so long, and I certainly would love to hear it for decades to come.
1. Radiolab - "Oliver Sipple"
Oliver Sipple sounds like a fictional character, and some of the things that transpired in his life are more than Hollywood-ready. Through themes of identity, privacy, and the overwhelming reach of journalism, we find a man whose good will would eventually lead to his demise. Radiolab pieces together a story of what happens when a split-second heroic decision sizzles into a slow burn, consuming an individual from the inside out. In addition to the intrigue and tragedy in this bizarre tale, the show posits some big and largely unanswerable questions about ethical media practices. Amazingly, Radiolab interviews a would-be presidential assassin at the top of the show and manages to craft an episode where this audio is barely a footnote. But at the same time, the intentions of this shooter (long-suffering and seemingly remorseful as she may be for the unintended consequences her actions wrought upon Sipple) go largely unexamined - an omission that might mar a lesser story. It's a cacophonous narrative that entrances with novelty, leaving the listener perplexed and a little bit afraid, and could have benefited from a second part with a bit of an inverted angle. For all it's complications, however, this was still the best thing I listened to all week.
2. Reply All - "At World's End"
In the analog world you might reunite with a childhood toy by stumbling on it at a garage sale or tucked away in an antique shop. There are dusty corners lurking in the digital world as well, and so when software suddenly disappears all hope is not lost. In the same week that Longform released an excellent two-parter featuring Alex and PJ, the Reply All team put out this gaming-centered episode about finding a long-lost friend. In this case, that friend came in the form of an old flash game. We meet the forlorn former gamer that connected memories of a now distant companion to Bunni: How We First Met, the game designer and the zany builder that put together a love-inspired vision through the haze of insobriety, and finally, the tech engineer that helped to string everything back together. It's kind of insane, a little creepy, but ultimately a winning tale of connection and community. Oh, and Gimlet is now hosting this odd game on their site. Click here to see what it's all about.
3. Planet Money - "Is Record Breaking Broken?"
Consuming even a modest amount of internet culture inevitably leads to the discovery of some grating argument about how ______ is dead. Hip-hop. Politics. The LP. Whatever the focus, these fatalistic refrains almost invariably come off as pretentious bluster. Yet when the claim is altered, daring instead to state that something is broken? That amount of balanced posturing is at least slightly more thoughtful. In the case of this episode of Planet Money, the stance is supported by windowing into the story of an intern at the show and detailing how the art of record breaking evolved from whimsical to capitalistic. In the days since listening to this, I've noticed how often I and others around me talk about something being a "world record." It's a phrase that evokes greatness and amazement at a feat, yet there seems to be legitimate cause for concern with how Guinness, the authority on such matters, is bearing the standard. "Is Record Breaking Broken?" shook the implicit confidence in the purity of cataloging world-class excellence, but at least it afforded a few laughs and amusing anecdotes along the way.
HONORABLE MENTION
Hang Up and Listen - "The Ninja Doppelgänger Edition"
99% Invisible - "The Finnish Experiment"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Many observers believed that a boy was hidden inside"--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Greg Ross, Futility Closet: The Mechanical Turk
SOMETHING NEW
We need to address something up top: this is by far the oldest new thing I've ever discovered for The Pod Piper. So apologies if what you're about to read seems as insightful as recommended Facebook as a nifty tool to stay in touch with friends.
BBC Radio's Desert Island Discs has been around in some form since 1942. And yes, adept readers would surely note that BBC Radio is, in fact, radio, and not exclusive to the medium of podcasts. But this is a show I've seen referenced a couple times in the past week and felt embarrassed that I hadn't discovered it before. Perhaps this will save someone out there the niche shame of an audio junkie caught out of water. All that said, the premise of the show is equal turns simple and enduringly compelling: each episode features a guest who has been given the strange liberty of taking 8 audio tracks, a book, and a luxury item to a desert island. This task could be carried out in a simple written listicle, and that would be revealing on some level. I would probably seek out the choices of known celebrities and pass on anyone with whom I wasn't already pretty familiar. But that's where the podcast form comes in and becomes the star.
Naturally, for a task so centered on a sound, the host (Kirsty Young, since 2006) plays a clip of each track and then has the guest contextualize its importance. This effectively creates a musical autobiography, and gets beyond the standard banter and rote responses that might be found in other interview shows. The structure also functions as a disarming tactic, placing the guest in a position of informality while shaping a consistent product regardless of the person in the hot seat. I sampled episodes from Cheryl Sandberg, Paul Greengrass, and Christiane Amanpour. These luminaries in the realms of business, film and journalism all provided entertaining and intimate tales of their lives and work. The guests do come from a variety of backgrounds, though in my perusing of past episodes they seem to be comprised more of British people than anything else. Which is fine, because of the inherent interest the show generates, but it may make the barrier to entry appear forbidding. That potential hesitance is easily overcome by seeking out a familiar name the first time around, which will no doubt lead to buying-in to the concept. It's not hard to see why Desert Island Discs has run for so long, and I certainly would love to hear it for decades to come.
Desert Island Discs
Recommended for: Hypothetical questioners who enjoy structure, and anglophiles.
Rating: Gotta Have It
Recommended for: Hypothetical questioners who enjoy structure, and anglophiles.
Rating: Gotta Have It
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