April 16, 2018

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THE LIST

Occasionally a podcast introduces a significant chunk of history to folks beyond a certain age. Sometimes this is a clandestine character or event that understandably missed the cut off for a civics curriculum (hey there, the entire back catalog of Futility Closet!). Other times it entails breathing new life into a story whose impact couldn't be fully felt until we bathed in the afterglow of perspective-birthing hindsight (R.I.P. Undone, long live Backstory). Since the issue of secure borders in this country is long running and (seemingly) far from settled, it can be hard to discern a watershed moment from flash in the pan coverage - especially in this crazy Tweet-fueled-possible-missile-strike climate in which we find ourselves. Be that as it may, Radiolab lands a revelatory blow with the story of the El Paso blockade in the second installment of their "Border Trilogy" series. The unseen fallout that has transpired since the U.S. Border patrol implemented a bold new tactic in the 1990s had me contemplating that old Newtonian saw all week. This, along with Invisibilia's season-capping "The Callout," had me grimly shrugging about the deprived gray area born out of the restorative tactics we humans pursue.

2. 99% Invisible  - "Making It Rain"
The pithy double entendre of the title and the brief Kurt Vonnegut tie-in would have been enough to get me on board with this excellent episode. But even if you aren't a fan of dystopian science fiction or possibly drawing on rap lyrics for podcast titles, the story is a thoughtful meditation on the limits of human sovereignty. 99% Invisible has previously highlighted the ways in which the military drives innovation with food, with ripple effects that continue to be seen to this day. Despite the altogether less successful outcomes of harnessing the sky as a weapon of war, this tale of human experimentation with purposeful climate change engages from start to finish.

3. Planet Money - "Who Started The Wildfire"
Leave it to Planet Money to merge the tragedy of wildly destructive fires with the untold amount of investigatory and litigious activity that emerges after the flames die down. The team reveals all the work that goes into determining the age old question of where human error ends and natural chaos begins. Thematically similar to "Making It Rain," this may be one of the strangest and most insightful true-crime podcast episodes I've ever heard. The content is ripped from the headlines, but in a way that doesn't merely underline how sinister people can be to one another.

HONORABLE MENTION
The Allusionist - "Across The Pond"
Invisibilia - "The Callout"

SOMETHING NEW

Lights rise on a young adult male scrolling endlessly through his Facebook feed. Friends post articles that catch his eye, many from reputable mainstream media outlets, but he does not take the bait. Later that day on a trip to the town library, the same fellow strolls by the stacks of newspapers and magazines from some of the same sources he passed by hours earlier. Despite his affinity for paper and the tactile connection it creates to the information jumping off the page, the call is not strong enough to engage him. Climbing into the car as he heads to the store, an impulse flits across his mind: switch on the radio. His fingers instinctively power on the console, which is already set to stream the local NPR affiliate. But it's a strange entry point into some midday call-in show, jarring to a mind predisposed to on-demand media. Forlorn and with an apathy equal to that which motivated the move in the first place, the young driver's hand glumly presses the button as he resigns himself to a drab life of uninformed silence.

What is a hapless potential news consumer to do? Find a podcast, of course! The medium catalyzed by rambly comedians and carried on by public radio mainstays is branching out to find a home in earbuds near you. There are several quality options already in the field, so I figured this might be a good time to run through what's out there so far.

  • NPR leads the charge with Up First, a 10-ish-minute morning dispatch that listens like an abridged Morning Edition. The hosts are the same personalities you'd expect to hear in the morning or evening drive time slots, but with just a touch more levity than might be found in the routine reportage. This is as close to a "just the facts" approach as I've found in the world of daily podcasts, and the most succinct way of getting a rundown of the main ideas behind the biggest topics on a given day.
  • The New York Times set sail on an experiment-turned-smash-hit with reporter Michael Barbaro captaining The Daily. NYT managing editor Sam Dolnick even went so far as to dub it "the new front page." While there is a brief recap of other things going on in the day's news, each episode features a single story told in collaboration with sources and field reporters all over the world. Barbaro's voice carries a solemn gravity appropriate for many of the stories he covers, recognizably unique while also firmly entrenched within the vocal school of a public radio standby.
  • The Daily Zeitgeist from How Stuff Works is a strange confluence: affable comedy-types riffing and dissecting the day's headlines. Jack O'Brien (founder of Cracked.com) and Miles Gray bring these irreverent yet deeply sage takes to the earwaves, and hit both major and under-discussed topics. It has by far the longest average runtime of anything on this list with most episodes eclipsing the hour mark, but it could find a place in the regular listening lineup of a person with less than, say, 45 shows looming in the queue.
  • Slate's play in the daily game manifests in the excellent Mike Pesca show The Gist (one of my never-miss shows, which I've previously heralded here), which tends to be a bit more of a variety show with a heavy emphasis on current events. The monologues that bookend the show are incredibly well-written, and the guests featured in the mid-show interview are always thought-provoking and range wildly in scope. The Gist isn't a go-to for breaking-news or investigative journalism, but the impassioned commentary integrates the can't-miss items you'd find dotting the headlines.
  • Vox now has their own brand of daily newsy goodness, Today, Explained, which apparently aims to be the "streetwise uncle" of the daily news genre. The delightful Sean Rameswaram (a former Radiolab producer) hosts in an observational fashion, conversing with Vox staffers well-versed in the story dujour and interjecting with unassuming questions that serve to further the reportage. This is almost a news-in-variety-show-clothing, as the team intersperses thematically appropriate songs created for a given topic.
The above is by no means an exhaustive list, and I'm sure these shows are far from the only existing daily podcasts with a news angle. This is likely just a glimpse of what may be coming, as podcasting grows and news giants ponder just how well audiences received The Daily. Extensively well-crafted daily shows with trusted voices and identifiable signposts reduce the friction of routine news consumption. Disciplined individuals might have the wherewithal to crack open a daily e-mail digest, scan the pages of a paper, or sit down to a television broadcast of some kind. The eyes-free on-demand nature of a podcast enables the press of a button to launch a familiar voice telling a story from the top as you pull on your shoes, burn your bagel, and rush out the door.

Does this multi-tasking style of information consumption lead to some gaps of retention with the listener? Probably. I'm certainly less-aware of anything at 6 AM than I am at, well, most other parts of my waking day. But the ease of access means that I am listening every morning regardless of my other engagements. Some days I don't have the time to sit down and read even a single article, and other days when I'm not otherwise occupied I'm just too plain lazy to open up Pocket and peruse my ever-expanding list of stories waiting to be read.

For those like myself who are already primed for near-constant podcast listening, daily podcasts do serve as an integral valuable purpose. And while there is a chance average listener or even the podcast agnostic may take to the form, it is far too early to proclaim that the podcast is the new front page.  If The New York Times figures out a way to fund their operation via podcasting, more power to them. I'm just happy to be along for the ride, gleefully benefitting from the offerings at hand with a FOMO-driven curiosity as to who and what will throw their hat into the ring next.


Today, Explained (Vox)
Recommended for: Slackers who yearn to be informed, podwonks, soon-to-be everyone?.
Drop Schedule: Monday - Friday, Ongoing
Average episode length: 10 - 60 minutes
Rating: Gotta Have It

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