October 15, 2021
The leaves are starting to change, the rain falls in droves, the temperatures are still regularly in the 80s in October in northern Indiana...ah, fall. What a perfect time for podcasts about the weirder aspects of post-9/11 culture, breaking up with friends, and speculative journalism!
THE LIST
Can Osama Bin Laden be a protagonist? This entry from the newest Dan Taberksi joint is beautifully provocative, and offers a compelling alternative take on the typically more somber and patriotic/conspiratorial remembrances of September 11th. As does the rest of the series - it’s all really great.
And on the other hand, there are a lot of truly incredible stories from that fateful day. This episode contains one such tale, which I found inspirational in a way that didn't feel cheesy or insincere.
Invisibilia dropped a series of 3 episodes about friendship, and let me just say that they crushed it. While I’ve never exactly pined for inside knowledge about the lives of nuns, this episode brings insight on the #conventlife and creates a space to ponder platonic interpersonal relationships.
This was a very powerful reminder that communication can sometimes fall on active ears with good intentions... and still not be acknowledged. It’s a great story arc with a very well executed twist, and has me retroactively second guessing any time I’ve tried to reach out to someone more than once despite receiving no reciprocal response.
I’ve been anticipating Bellwether for two years, and this episode is a reminder of the boundaries the show traversed - it still feels unlike any podcast I’ve encountered. This was my favorite podcast episode from 2019, and this time it surfaces as the first in a series that is speculative journalism mashed up with a futuristic audio drama. It sounds weird, and maybe it is, but if you’re looking for something truly original this will deliver.
The final and perhaps quirkiest episode of the 7-part series, this delivers a beautiful meditative theory on what people really mean when they say 'Never Forget.' It’s kind of a windy road to get there, using a high schooler’s fundraiser for a 9/11 memorial in his small Ohio town as a framing device, but it was a very satisfying way to wrap up the series.
HONORABLE MENTION
SOMETHING NEW
365 Stories I Want To Tell You Before We Both Die
After spending the better part of a year listening to his stories almost every day, I can say that Caveh Zahedi is not a likable person. Somehow, though, I keep listening. I love the medium of a very short daily podcast - the show’s schtick is that it releases an episode a day for every day of 2021 - so that’s part of the appeal. The intro music is all really good, somehow all recognizable as riffing on a theme yet almost entirely unique each time (or at least with enough variety that I don’t notice it recycling themes). Oh, and it’s really great that there are zero ads or plugs for another show or network - that goes a long way in establishing intimacy. The episodes are so short (typically close to 2 minutes in length) that it’s almost not worth it to skip once it starts playing. Still though, why listen to anyone who is painting a perpetually predictable picture of his poor life choices? I’ve gotten to the point where I can almost predict what terrible thing Zahedi is going to do (even if it’s something as relatively minor as borrowing money without paying it back). There is very little in ways of a redemptive narrative arc, but I guess I’ve long since stopped hoping for that.
Yet, despite that, Zahedi’s warm vocal quality makes him a magnetic and almost likable narrator. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, he still sounds like a funny and likable dude with a lot of crazy life experiences. It’s unassumingly voyeuristic, even as podcasts and the accompanying phenomenom of parasocial relationships go. I don’t envy him, but it is interesting to hear someone so objectively unlikable relay tales from the point of view as a protagonist. And then there are the details from his childhood that sporadically pop in, providing a brief window into issues that manifested in young adulthood through to the present (Zahedi, a professional filmmaker, is now in his early 60s). If you are an attentive listener, you’ll also hear glimpses of semi-heartfelt reckoning with regret. This comes in small doses, but the contrition feels genuine in contrast to the largely ambivalent strain of “I wonder why that person didn’t seem to like me after I acted selfishly” that accompanies so many stories.
At this point, would I recommend someone jump in? Not exactly. But if there was some way for a podcatcher to sync up a show’s back catalog and automatically download episodes on a set schedule, it is definitely worth a shot. I’ve long pined for such technology, since some shows really would be more satisfying with a slow build. Binging as the default mode of consumption may be here to stay, but wouldn’t it be nice to have the option to programmatically regress to weekly listening for episodic series? It would, if nothing else, make this type of mammoth marathon show more accessible to someone who didn’t hear about it on or close to launch.
After spending the better part of a year listening to his stories almost every day, I can say that Caveh Zahedi is not a likable person. Somehow, though, I keep listening. I love the medium of a very short daily podcast - the show’s schtick is that it releases an episode a day for every day of 2021 - so that’s part of the appeal. The intro music is all really good, somehow all recognizable as riffing on a theme yet almost entirely unique each time (or at least with enough variety that I don’t notice it recycling themes). Oh, and it’s really great that there are zero ads or plugs for another show or network - that goes a long way in establishing intimacy. The episodes are so short (typically close to 2 minutes in length) that it’s almost not worth it to skip once it starts playing. Still though, why listen to anyone who is painting a perpetually predictable picture of his poor life choices? I’ve gotten to the point where I can almost predict what terrible thing Zahedi is going to do (even if it’s something as relatively minor as borrowing money without paying it back). There is very little in ways of a redemptive narrative arc, but I guess I’ve long since stopped hoping for that.
Yet, despite that, Zahedi’s warm vocal quality makes him a magnetic and almost likable narrator. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, he still sounds like a funny and likable dude with a lot of crazy life experiences. It’s unassumingly voyeuristic, even as podcasts and the accompanying phenomenom of parasocial relationships go. I don’t envy him, but it is interesting to hear someone so objectively unlikable relay tales from the point of view as a protagonist. And then there are the details from his childhood that sporadically pop in, providing a brief window into issues that manifested in young adulthood through to the present (Zahedi, a professional filmmaker, is now in his early 60s). If you are an attentive listener, you’ll also hear glimpses of semi-heartfelt reckoning with regret. This comes in small doses, but the contrition feels genuine in contrast to the largely ambivalent strain of “I wonder why that person didn’t seem to like me after I acted selfishly” that accompanies so many stories.
At this point, would I recommend someone jump in? Not exactly. But if there was some way for a podcatcher to sync up a show’s back catalog and automatically download episodes on a set schedule, it is definitely worth a shot. I’ve long pined for such technology, since some shows really would be more satisfying with a slow build. Binging as the default mode of consumption may be here to stay, but wouldn’t it be nice to have the option to programmatically regress to weekly listening for episodic series? It would, if nothing else, make this type of mammoth marathon show more accessible to someone who didn’t hear about it on or close to launch.
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