The Pod Piper

When my wife and I hosted our virtual trivia night, I came up with what I thought were 10 pretty easy questions related to general podcast knowledge. Turns out my group of not-podcast-obsessed peers found it to be pretty difficult. Then I shared the quiz on a podcast listening Facebook group...and found out that apparently this is really challenging. Out of 200+ responses, the average score is 3.75/10. If you're reading this you may have insight into my listening bias and thus may have a leg up.  Fancy testing your luck?   Click here to check it out. Now, on to the blog. Wheeeeeee! SOMETHING NEW Rarely do I come across a podcast that leaves me giddy after listening to the initial episode, but that is indeed the experience I had after “Bone Broth” from Richard's Famous Food Podcast . I laughed out loud more than once, both as a result of the comedic content and out of gleeful anticipation at what might be around the next corner. Branding itself as “gastro comedy,” t...

It's another week of lockdown. Time to take a look at a pod about another disaster, natch (but don't worry, if you read far enough you'll also find some latinx music history and the fascinating social dynamics of wolves - not in the same podcast).  SOMETHING NEW I lived through the time when Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath played out, but I certainly didn’t understand it. My sophomore year of high school had just started, and my main memory from the moment is that “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves may not have been the most sensitive piece of music our show choir could’ve performed. In the intervening years I’ve come to absorb the familiar beats: an overcrowded Superdome, the levees bursting, the botched FEMA response, Kanye calling out the president on live TV leaving Mike Myers to pick up the pieces. You know what I didn’t really grapple with? The human cost. Cue Floodlines , a retrospective podcast from The Atlantic that examines the disaster ...