The Pod Piper

Summer, we hardly knew ye. You gave our family vacation (a road trip to New York and Illinois, a weekend with friends in northern Michigan, a wedding weekend in Ohio) multiple rendezvouses [rendezvise? rendezesvous?!] with far flung family members, a wild march to the NBA Finals with the Phoenix Suns, multiple hospital visits for our daughter who remains resilient if a bit more particular about everything than she used to be, a very expensive but so far effective fortnight of obedience training for the dog, a seemingly never ending chain of free coffee offers from a certain fast-casual bakery cafe chain restaurant, and a wealth of PTO days coming due after holding back on travel for most of the last year. Oh, and still, as ever, so much podcast listening. My ears are slowly weaning themselves from a firehose of NBA content, but even in that stream I managed to land on a slew of (mostly) non-basketball content to promote. THE LIST 1. 99% Invisible  - "Mine!" This pod tac...

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...

We’re on the verge of playoff basketball season, and for the first time in a long time I have a rooting interest. My team, the Phoenix Suns, has clinched a playoff spot for the first time since 2010, and I couldn’t be more anxious about it. Thankfully there are TONS of podcasts that allow me to stew in my existential fan angst, several of which are noted here. I neglected to touch on staples such as HORSE , The Bill Simmons Podcast (particularly the weekly Sunday night playoff pop-up pods he started with Ryen Rusillo last week), and the entire Ringer NBA Show family, all of which are required listening around these parts. But I’m guessing you are not really here to read about my long-dormant-but-always-present basketball fandom. You are here to read about my always-present-but-never-dormant-even-when-it-maybe-should-be podcast fandom. It’s just a matter of time before my daughter does irreparable ear damage when trying to imitate my near constant state of earbudness. Until then... TH...

THE LIST 1. Still Processing  - "The N-Word" I’d love to hear a Still Processing episode on the cultural significance of any word, but after starting with this word I’m not sure anything could top it. Jenna and Wesley are so thoughtful, always, but this one gets pretty personal in a way I am sure I don’t fully understand. I’d also love to hear Wesley in conversation with Mike Pesca about the reasons behind Pesca’s (seemingly open-ended?) dismissal , though with each passing day of silence it feel like some sort of NDA may prevent such a thing from ever happening.  2. Time Sensitive  - "Peter Sarsgaard" For years I confused Peter Sarsgaard for Alan Tudyk. I’m not sure exactly why, but I remember it having something to do with Tudyk’s iconic turn as Steve the Pirate in Dodgeball. None of that has anything to do with this episode, though, which paints Sarsgaard as a contemplative polymath who vacillates seamlessly between acting in movies and experiencin...

THE LIST 1. Richard's Famous Food Podcast  - "The Last Mojo" RFFP has skewered conventions in podcasting (and food journalism, and just general culture) since episode one, but this episode takes it to the next level. Not only is it a fantastic sendup of both true crime and the inconsequential quest * narrative type that is popping up on a lot of pods, but also manages to be an effective iteration of both. Like, the story is really compelling even if the stakes are laughably low.  2. Factually with Adam Conover  - "Four Lost Cities with Annalee Newitz" I tend to equate urban with modern, but it turns out that cities have been around for a long time. This episode features author Annalee Newitz on her new book about “lost” cities - really just metropolises that are no longer populated. I loved the idea of a city being an organism, one of humanity’s greatest achievements in collective action to build something at times wonderful and fairly illogical. It g...

I’ve had this drafted for a month or more now, but between a surprisingly busy holiday season (despite virtually no travel) and getting settled in with my parents and sister visiting as long-term childcare providers for our daughter as my wife heads back to work, it just didn’t happen. I want to get these recs to you, and to clear my listening slate for the new year. Wait, it’s almost February? SMH, 2021. SMH. The Last Archive Jill Lepore, historian, takes a crack at a grandiose question: who killed truth? It's a heady task, and - spoiler alert - it's a question that won’t ultimately be fully answered. Episodes are all well made, though some have more of a lasting impact than others. And while I generally kind of hate the voiceovers that Pushkin shows seem to be embracing with semi-reckless abandon (it’s like the podcast version of those ‘omg is the real life’ reenactments from the History Channel), the schtick actually works pretty well on a couple episodes here - most notabl...

Alright,  a couple weeks into 2021 and I've finally got my 2020 retrospective ready. It's nothing too special, just an accounting of my year of listening and a glimpse into my encounters with a tiny slice of the larger podcast universe. I allocate most episodes a score for Novelty, Grip Factor, Import and Fun before adding those up to a composite score. (I say most because I exclude daily pods or weekly discussion-based shows that I've deemed to be of generally consistent quality and thus unnecessary to rank) The headers below are broken down by the shows which received the best ratings in each category. Top episodes by Category Composite: This American Life - "Twenty Five" Novelty: Planet Money - "Sell Me Your Climate Bombs" Grip Factor:  99% Invisible - "Valley of the Fallen" Import: Flash Forward - "POWER: Mothers Against Digital Danger" Fun:  Book of Basketball 2.0 - "The Genius of Bill Russell Highest Ranked Show by Category...