The Pod Piper

THE LIST 1. Slow Burn  - "Cred" Paula Jones is a name I've heard many times in relation to Bill Clinton. But I'll be honest, I never really knew how they were connected. This episode tells the story from a couple perspectives, and highlights anti-Clinton players who had complex and evolving ties to the former president. 2. Futility Closet  - "Grover Cleveland's Secret Surgery" Presidents do things in secret. Like have surgery. On a boat. This sort of secret goings-on maybe happens all the time, but the tale of the coverup and the tarnished reputations of those involved were what made this bit of history compelling. 3. Criminal  - "Palace of Justice" The immense scale of World War II has the potential to congeal into one large bygone conflict in the minds of today's youth (including my own flirtations with the past). The Nuremberg Trials, like Paula Jones, were a thing I'd heard a lot about - and for the record I knew...

THE LIST 1. On The Media  -  "Twitch and Shout" When media outlets step outside their wheelhouse to cover content that is beloved and obsessed over by a community, even uninitiated spectators tend to collectively sigh and indulge in knowing, eye-rolling judgment about the failed attempt to decipher a hidden world. It's like the Facebook trial all over again, where learned professionals make fools of themselves as they betray their utter lack of knowledge of a given subject. While comparing On the Media to some provincial CBS affiliate's nightly news team would teeter on the brink of blasphemy, I certainly did not expect Bob and Brooke to cover the world of e-Sports. It's possible that my admittedly outsidery perspective is missing some glaring oversight here (and Bob does unfortunately utilize the label 'newbies' during the episode, squandering maybe the best opportunity WNYC has ever had to use 'n00bs' in a journalistic context). But gen...

THE LIST 1. Slow Burn  -  "Deal or No Deal" The critically acclaimed Slate podcast is back with it’s second season! This time around Leon Neyfakh will be taking us down the rabbit hole of the Bill Clinton impeachment hearings, and this first episode about Linda Tripp setting up Monica Lewinsky and the fallout thereafter was completely mesmerizing.  2. Radiolab  -  "Sex Ed" Kids say the darndest things, and Mississippi educators model condom application using a sock! The concluding (live) chapter in the Gonads miniseries from Molly Webster is equal parts mind boggling, hilarious and insightful. In other words, Radiolab at it’s best. 3. Criminal  -  "On the Run" White collar crime stories don’t inherently have the same dramatic appeal as crimes of passion populated with lurid details and unspeakable acts. But what if a white collar dude is actually a seriously subversive international criminal mastermind? You’ve got a plot for a criti...

THE LIST 1. This American Life  -  "ICE Capades" This episodes casts a broad and surprising picture of the infamous agency that continues to dominate headlines. There is definitely an emotional hook, natural for a story ostensibly about separating families, but the amount of nuance sets “ICE Capades” apart from the well-meaning cries to abolish the agency. Politics, human interest, and a longform journey into a multi-year scam preying on people backed into a corner..  2. The Anthropocene Reviewed  -  "Googling Strangers and Kentucky Bluegrass" Perhaps the most impactful chapter of the John Green-hosted podcast, this matchup of disparate forces in the human driven world lays bare an incredibly personal story from the author’s past. Each episode seamlessly imparts tidbits of universal human connection, but these two subjects are especially rife with commentary on what it means to be alive in our modern world. 3. Planet Money  -  "The Po...

THE LIST 1. Decoder Ring  -  "The Johnlock Conspiracy" I don't know that I've had a more entrancing television experience in my adult life than watching BBC's Sherlock . It is not surprising for this show to be the centerpiece of a podcast, but it was definitely surprising to hear the enormous impact it had via a long-fought battle over the relationship between the central characters. 2. Hang Up And Listen  -  "The Fighting Cancer Beats Godspeed Edition" Will flag football one day rule America? Maybe not in my lifetime. But there is a professional league for the much-less-violent version of the house, and it seems to be gaining at least a little respect from the NFL. The HUALers also tear the velcro flag off of the strange normalization of patriotism in professional sports and the weird will-she-won't-she struggle between Jaelene Hinkle and US women's national soccer team. 3. Planet Money  -  "Peak Sand" Sand is an i...

As summer rolls on, here is a lengthier list of individual episodes in lieu of a longform review. It's not that I've run out of shows to dive into, and I hope to be back to splaying more thoughts out in greater depths in the coming weeks. Until then, we'll always have THE LIST 1. Embedded  -  "The Red Line" With our increase in access to news from a variety of outlets, it can be hard to appreciate the nuance reporters put into relaying the inner workings of a conflict as it unfolds. Combining some vulnerable moments from Kelly McEvers and a former Obama staffer, "The Red Line" dives into some behind-the-scenes events that drove the US's response to Syria. Examining the world as it is rather than as we might will it to be stands in stark contrast to everything that unfolded last week with our current leader's grasp on international affairs.    2. Criminal  -  "The Chase" In one of Criminal 's lighter offerings, ...

THE LIST 1. Still Processing  -  "Asian-Americans Talk About Racism, and We Listen - Part 1" Hosts Jenna Wortham and Wesley Morris are seasoned journalists plenty adept at mulling over the sticky racial issues wrapped up in our collective experience as a culture. In this two-part series their savvy manifests in knowing when to listen, as they allow listener input to guide a discussion on racism Asian-Americans have faced. Good things happen when you open up your spot and give others a platform!  2. Revisionist History  -  "The Imaginary Crimes of Margit Hamosh" This story from Malcolm Gladwell reminds us of the relevance words have to dictate our truths, and how mass panic can overshadow what's really going on in a practical sense. Calling someone out for overreacting is rarely a good look in the moment, but with the benefit of hindsight this can lead to some fruitful places in understanding our history. 3. Reply All  -  "An Ad for t...