June 25, 2021
We’re getting deep into the NBA playoffs, and with my Suns still alive I’ve been overwhelmed with the amount of national pod content that has necessarily followed the action. (I mean can you blame them with insanity like the Valley Oop?!) But I’ve also fallen deep down the rabbit hole of searching out pods discussing the new film adaptation of perhaps my very favorite musical of all time, In the Heights. There’s such a range of discussions: the films colorism issues, differences between the stage version and the film, takes from a huge theater fan who hasn’t seen a live production, interviews with an actor, the director, video production pro, a local public radio theater critic and people who absolutely hated it...and I’m loving every minute! It’s sort of like my own personal movie club in podcast form - I’d recommend it for ITH or really any widely released movie. Even with all of that, I managed to cram a (borderline) healthy amount of pods not related to sports or musical-to-film adaptations...
THE LIST
Max Linsky, most notable for his work with the excellent Longform podcast (and website, I suppose, which I’ve long spurned for the pod), has embarked on a journey to interview 70 people over the age of 70 in an attempt to glean wisdom for those who have made their fair share of rotations around the sun. This is the first episode and it is excellent. Sister Helen drops truth bombs like it’s her job, which it kind of is. If only we all could have her courage, conviction, and yet, lack of off-putting zeal that so often accompanies those bolder traits.
Dude, books are cool! There’s the obvious - that they contain earth-shaking knowledge and narrative wonder to transform the lives of anyone who reads them. But then there’s the more subtle angle - books being a vessel for an author’s message to travel the globe. Sure, the internet also contains this (often abused) power, but it’s so much more fleeting than sitting with something that at minimum takes several hours of undivided attention (or, if you’re like me, several months). John Green riffs on those themes as he reflects on signing hundreds of thousands of copies of the recently released book version of this excellent podcast. And the hot dog stand review isn’t too shabby either.
How do you debrief a tragedy that launched a thousand protests and signaled a tectonic shift in a public yearning for change? Even in the context of a trial which delivers a verdict, George Floyd’s death remains a shock to the system. This episode doesn’t bring closure - it’s more of an acknowledgement that so many things continue after the trial concluded. That’s not something we like to dwell on. To quote a lyric from Dawes that regularly bounces around in my head: “If our lives were a movie, if our lives were a book, It'd be longer than I'd recommend. 'Cause if you're telling a story, at some point you stop. But stories don't end.” This story isn’t over, but as with so many other things Still Processing helps to actively annotate reality as the world keeps spinning.
This is the third installment of Adam McKay’s series on ill-fated basketball careers and lives as they intersected with Reganism and the 1980s. I’m not sure there is likely to be a better chapter in the 8 episode run than this one about Len Bias. It’s tragic to see anyone’s life cut short - especially when that person seems to have had a legitimate shot at giving Michael Jordan a run for his money. Worse still is to see how such a tragedy catalyzed a national panic that wreaked havoc in communities with people who look just like the young man at the heart of the story.
Is it possible to make something compelling by virtue of it’s utter boringness? Invisibilia takes on that question in their season finale, and it took me back to childhood when being bored was the precursor to some newfound solipsistic adventure. What a thrilling thought that this feeling might be engendered on a massive scale amongst an audience with a wide-range of ages! Check this out first, and then be sure to hit up the bonus episode to experience American Slow Radio in all its glory.
You may not need to journey through the history of Berlin club music and its eventual link to the Detroit scene, but it proved to be a balm on a quiet Sunday morning dog walk a few weeks back. It transported me from my quiet neighborhood and generally kind of sleepy dad-life existence into a world where every day was a new horizon in a burgeoning expression of freedom and movement.
HONORABLE MENTION
The Last Archive - "Children of Zorin"
70 Over 70- " 'The Foolishness of the Human Condition' with Norman Lear"
SOMETHINGS NEW
The Press Box
I’m obviously more than a little taken with podcasts, and it’s rare to find a show that I don’t at least appreciate in some way. I’ve probably encountered close to 1000 shows dating back to high school. All that said, I’m not sure I’ve ever found a pod that so fully exudes my sense of humor, wit, and values as does the Ringer podcast The Press Box. You could call it a talking heads current event show with a slot for regular interviews with writers or other media figures, and technically that would be pretty accurate. Co-hosts Bryan Curtis and David Shoemaker put out two episodes a week, with regular segments like the “overworked Twitter joke of the week” and “strained pun headline” which poke fun at media tropes while providing a novel lens through which to view news consumption. It’s got a convivial tone with a winningly light veil of cynicism, not at all self-serious but very polished in it’s easy-going aesthetic. The content is both familiar and unique. It’s literary, sort of, political, sort of, comedic, sort of… I’m totally smitten with this show that feels insidery while also being devoid of precocity. I won’t go as far to say this podcast perfectly personifies me (probably not enough indie music or theater references for that), but with the mix of sports and media and culture and wordplay I think it’s at least pretty darn close to how I’d present on my best days.
Just Plain Wrong
Three Mennonite librarians examining media starring Amish culture and saying “you missed a spot” is an odd concept for a show. But this is not an odd show. Is it a history podcast? Is it a culture podcast? Is it pop ethnography through the lens of literature? Do I know what ethnography is? Regardless, it goes down pretty easily. The episodes are blessedly short, which is a welcome change for a talking head show about a specific piece of culture. This is credit to the hosts' chemistry and shared sense of culture, which allows for humor without the meandering riffing chaff so many shows rely upon. I’m not sure I have been convinced to actually read any of the books detailed here, but it’s a great vehicle to take in some commentary from well-read people on a subject I know little about.
Smartless
These dudes are the best - insofar as “the best” describes comedic actors from my youth. High school me would place them in the upper pantheon of the modern entertainers. And heck, they still hold up just fine in the realm of semi-rudderless rambling podcast comedy scene. If the episodes were two hours long I may be more inclined to dismiss the show altogether, but some merciful brevity and a murderers row of interviewees help this add up to more than dead-end celebrity rambling. I’m not sure the shtick of having two of the three hosts be in the dark about the guest really adds much to the experience, but it is novel for an interview show. The guest really does make a huge contribution, and I’ve not yet heard an episode with a dud. Melissa McCarthy was excellent. Will Ferrell was perfect. Neil deGrasse Tyson was stellar. Maya Rudolph was probably a little more explicit than I might have imagined, but no less memorable for it. Totally worth browsing the catalog and picking a couple episodes based on the featured celebrity.
I’m obviously more than a little taken with podcasts, and it’s rare to find a show that I don’t at least appreciate in some way. I’ve probably encountered close to 1000 shows dating back to high school. All that said, I’m not sure I’ve ever found a pod that so fully exudes my sense of humor, wit, and values as does the Ringer podcast The Press Box. You could call it a talking heads current event show with a slot for regular interviews with writers or other media figures, and technically that would be pretty accurate. Co-hosts Bryan Curtis and David Shoemaker put out two episodes a week, with regular segments like the “overworked Twitter joke of the week” and “strained pun headline” which poke fun at media tropes while providing a novel lens through which to view news consumption. It’s got a convivial tone with a winningly light veil of cynicism, not at all self-serious but very polished in it’s easy-going aesthetic. The content is both familiar and unique. It’s literary, sort of, political, sort of, comedic, sort of… I’m totally smitten with this show that feels insidery while also being devoid of precocity. I won’t go as far to say this podcast perfectly personifies me (probably not enough indie music or theater references for that), but with the mix of sports and media and culture and wordplay I think it’s at least pretty darn close to how I’d present on my best days.
Just Plain Wrong
Three Mennonite librarians examining media starring Amish culture and saying “you missed a spot” is an odd concept for a show. But this is not an odd show. Is it a history podcast? Is it a culture podcast? Is it pop ethnography through the lens of literature? Do I know what ethnography is? Regardless, it goes down pretty easily. The episodes are blessedly short, which is a welcome change for a talking head show about a specific piece of culture. This is credit to the hosts' chemistry and shared sense of culture, which allows for humor without the meandering riffing chaff so many shows rely upon. I’m not sure I have been convinced to actually read any of the books detailed here, but it’s a great vehicle to take in some commentary from well-read people on a subject I know little about.
Smartless
These dudes are the best - insofar as “the best” describes comedic actors from my youth. High school me would place them in the upper pantheon of the modern entertainers. And heck, they still hold up just fine in the realm of semi-rudderless rambling podcast comedy scene. If the episodes were two hours long I may be more inclined to dismiss the show altogether, but some merciful brevity and a murderers row of interviewees help this add up to more than dead-end celebrity rambling. I’m not sure the shtick of having two of the three hosts be in the dark about the guest really adds much to the experience, but it is novel for an interview show. The guest really does make a huge contribution, and I’ve not yet heard an episode with a dud. Melissa McCarthy was excellent. Will Ferrell was perfect. Neil deGrasse Tyson was stellar. Maya Rudolph was probably a little more explicit than I might have imagined, but no less memorable for it. Totally worth browsing the catalog and picking a couple episodes based on the featured celebrity.
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