October 8, 2018
THE LIST
HORSE may be the most delightful surprise I’ve ever encountered in a podcast. It is driven by the culture and history of the pro basketball, both off-court and on, in a way that seems accessible to a wide range of people. Having some background knowledge of the league doesn’t hurt, and indeed my late-90s-early-2000s obsession with all things basketball probably drives my enjoyment of the show. But I’m guessing anyone seeking to earnestly connect with the NBA in a way not readily available in sports media may find their lane here. There are fun recurring segments setup here in the pilot episode, and the host banter is really nice - deviating for personal anecdotes that form a nice middle ground between straight-up reportage and overlong banter..
In a week where I didn’t discover a nostalgia inducing show that I can connect to my reality (give it up for HORSE one more time!), this gem from 99 PI would have certainly sat alone atop my list. It is brilliant audio, spooling out the a zany details of an historical event and subtly using it to capture the underlying tone of a society at a specific moment in time. The zany event is a contest requiring people to live on a billboard for a chance to win a house, and the societal moment is the economic downturn of the 1980s in working class America. It’s captivating, unbelievable, and stranger than fiction.
A languishing unsolved art crime seems like a pretty ambitious thing for a public radio to chronicle, but WBUR seems to have a hit in the making with Last Seen. The show dissects the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist nearly 30 years later, synthesizing conspiracy theories, court testimony, witness interviews and a palpable sense of intrigue. I’d be pretty surprised if this podcast results in a denouement that reveals the definitive culprit behind the monumental theft, but four episodes in the production team has done an excellent job in stringing me along.
Amidst the week of Kavanaugh hearings, Scene On Radio dropped the seventh part of the increasingly timely miniseries MEN. Janey Williams takes the lead for the majority of this episode as she interviews friends and family about their response (or lack thereof) to her being sexually assaulted by an ex-boyfriend. There are so many stories being told around this theme, both in rigorous journalistic pieces and with devastating brevity on Twitter, but I think this is the first I’ve encountered that probes how victims can be abandoned by trusted loved ones in the aftermath of an assault. It’s a tough listen but a necessary one, and a reminder that being a passive bystander can reek of complicity.
“Jonathan Goldstein goes back to the moment when everything changed.” So reads the tagline for Heavyweight (or at least the description on the show’s Facebook page). Following a week when the focus of a nation centered on a insidious turning point in the lives of two people, reexamining another contentious bit of the past could seem altogether too exhausting to bear. But “Rob” offers perhaps the perfect middle ground, examining a much more playful disagreement that pits one man’s truth against the collective memory of his family. The stakes are relatively low and the trademark Goldstein humor is present throughout, but the saliency of disputed memories that shape our narratives could not have come at a better time..
HONORABLE MENTION
SOMETHING NEW
If you’ve encountered Flula Borg, odds are it is via his role as the leader of German a capella group Das Sound Machine in the Pitch Perfect movies. Or, you might be one of the millions of viewers who have come across the vlogging DJ parsing idioms and dropping beats in his car on his popular YouTube channel. His quirky personality and lovable accent (overlaid atop a typically awesome German command of English) make him a natural fit for the podcasting world. The biggest question I had diving into BOOM TIME with Flula Borg was: does the jack of all trades have the right bits of magic aligned to turn pod-tential into a pod-of-gold?
The first thing I realized about ten minutes into the first episode is that I’d never spent more than about 5 minutes straight with Flula in any medium. Is it really tenable to listen to this guy for (sometimes) over an hour? More than other interview-driven shows the guest is a good barometer for how much any given person is likely to enjoy the end product here. The guests come from familiar worlds - TV, music, comedy, all of which make sense given Flula’s intersection of music production, acting and a generally humorous disposition. The debut episode featured Reggie Watts, a musician and seemingly pretty chill dude ready to roll with whatever weirdness is on the agenda. This bred an almost too fluid report with Flula that made for a somewhat unhinged listening experience. Flula fans will likely enjoy this sort of thing, but the uninitiated may be better served by starting with a more traditional guest. Thankfully, other visitors to the show bring minimal eccentricity and sound art. Ed Helms seemed a little confused about some of the unprompted improv, but made for a great interview all the same. Fellow YouTuber jennxpenn brought the fun of a millenial totally missing the 80s and 90s references Flula kept offering up, but the two bonded over the travails of YouTube stardom. It’s a participatory interview show, with some welcome deviations from the standard “I’m interested in the world as also honestly think I’m pretty funny” format of a lot of non-public-radio-interview vehicles.
So what exactly about this breaks the mold, you ask? Apart from the distinct personal stylings of the ringleader, there are fake commercials, lightning rounds of ridiculous questions, translations of mumbled fake German phrases, end-of-show fact checking, and spontaneous beatboxing. More than all that schtick, however, is the presence of a handy co-host/producer to anchor the vibrant German lest he float too far astray. Alex Simmons, professional film director and Flula Borg sidecar captain, is BOOM TIMEs triumphant secret ingredient. Simmons riffs off of Flula in a way that is quick enough to keep up with the non sequiturs while maintaining a slow enough speed to accommodate listeners who may not have a background in improv comedy. The duos relationship goes back quite a ways, and it’s fun to get little tidbits of their past sprinkled throughout each installment.
Some episodes of BOOM TIME do not feature a guest, giving Flula a vehicle for autobiographical exposition. “Childhood Stories” is probably Flula at his most paired down and sincere. “Puberty Stories” is more on-brand goofy though still a bit more intimate than folksy. So far these are the only such forays into breaking the established 45-90 minute interviews (since the show launched in June), but I’d welcome more of these dishes to break up the routine and get a read on the context that shaped the enigmatic host. There is a definite playfulness throughout all of the episodes, as well as an earnest transparency that does cross some cultural boundaries. Don’t expect hard hitting journalism, but do look for a show that elevates the form and expands the boundaries for what a podcast can accomplish. Part humor, part humility, all heart, BOOM TIME is a time in which I’ll gladly revel.
The first thing I realized about ten minutes into the first episode is that I’d never spent more than about 5 minutes straight with Flula in any medium. Is it really tenable to listen to this guy for (sometimes) over an hour? More than other interview-driven shows the guest is a good barometer for how much any given person is likely to enjoy the end product here. The guests come from familiar worlds - TV, music, comedy, all of which make sense given Flula’s intersection of music production, acting and a generally humorous disposition. The debut episode featured Reggie Watts, a musician and seemingly pretty chill dude ready to roll with whatever weirdness is on the agenda. This bred an almost too fluid report with Flula that made for a somewhat unhinged listening experience. Flula fans will likely enjoy this sort of thing, but the uninitiated may be better served by starting with a more traditional guest. Thankfully, other visitors to the show bring minimal eccentricity and sound art. Ed Helms seemed a little confused about some of the unprompted improv, but made for a great interview all the same. Fellow YouTuber jennxpenn brought the fun of a millenial totally missing the 80s and 90s references Flula kept offering up, but the two bonded over the travails of YouTube stardom. It’s a participatory interview show, with some welcome deviations from the standard “I’m interested in the world as also honestly think I’m pretty funny” format of a lot of non-public-radio-interview vehicles.
So what exactly about this breaks the mold, you ask? Apart from the distinct personal stylings of the ringleader, there are fake commercials, lightning rounds of ridiculous questions, translations of mumbled fake German phrases, end-of-show fact checking, and spontaneous beatboxing. More than all that schtick, however, is the presence of a handy co-host/producer to anchor the vibrant German lest he float too far astray. Alex Simmons, professional film director and Flula Borg sidecar captain, is BOOM TIMEs triumphant secret ingredient. Simmons riffs off of Flula in a way that is quick enough to keep up with the non sequiturs while maintaining a slow enough speed to accommodate listeners who may not have a background in improv comedy. The duos relationship goes back quite a ways, and it’s fun to get little tidbits of their past sprinkled throughout each installment.
Some episodes of BOOM TIME do not feature a guest, giving Flula a vehicle for autobiographical exposition. “Childhood Stories” is probably Flula at his most paired down and sincere. “Puberty Stories” is more on-brand goofy though still a bit more intimate than folksy. So far these are the only such forays into breaking the established 45-90 minute interviews (since the show launched in June), but I’d welcome more of these dishes to break up the routine and get a read on the context that shaped the enigmatic host. There is a definite playfulness throughout all of the episodes, as well as an earnest transparency that does cross some cultural boundaries. Don’t expect hard hitting journalism, but do look for a show that elevates the form and expands the boundaries for what a podcast can accomplish. Part humor, part humility, all heart, BOOM TIME is a time in which I’ll gladly revel.
From: Ramble
Recommended for: Seekers of dope beats and fun accents.
Drop Schedule: Tuesdays, Weekly
Average episode length: 60 minutes
Rating: Gotta Have It
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