The Pod Piper

SOMETHING NEW Death in podcasting tends to be held at the deep remove of criminal anonymity. But the medium is built for a type of introspective finality, and that is mostly present with the new book-trailer-turned-podcast that is Julie: The Unwinding of the Miracle. Given that teaser, you might expect a treacly missive born to listeners on the wings of opportunism. Thankfully, this podcast is something much more mysterious and awe inspiring. It is not a hopeful tale of love, loss and redemption that pulls a perfectly minted ending out at the last second. It is the account of one person's life on the precipice of ending, told in three tidy chapters that paint a picture of beauty and survival and, of course, the imminent forfeiture of said masterpiece to the sands of time. There's also an epilogue which provides an inkling of hope - that while our own narratives all careen toward an ending, life goes on for those we love. It is almost like the well-crafted audio versi...

SOMETHING NEW Michael Lewis’s Against the Rules marks the initial offering from newly minted podcast studio Pushkin Industries. The studio is the brainchild of Malcolm Gladwell and Jacob Weisberg, and Against the Rules bears a certain resemblance to Gladwell’s excellent Revisionist History . Yes, both shows are the work of widely acclaimed authors, and both listen as enhanced audiobooks - excellent writing spruced up with interviews. Both shows also start from a series-defining premise, but I’d submit that Against the Rules builds across the season to flesh out a single idea. Namely, that the referees who keep a society accountable are slowly disappearing or losing credibility. With a combination of self-effacing wit, synthesizing personal anecdotes with larger cultural concepts, and generally avoiding a preachy disposition, Lewis opens up an intriguing line of questioning in an entertaining podcast. Lewis hooks listeners with a variety of inventive intro gambits, starti...