The Pod Piper

It's April and I missed March and I'm mixing it up - just three episodes and one show this time around. Because, you know, variety is spicy Life. If you're really jonesin' you can always check out the archives , ye olde archives , ye olde spreadsheet or ye olde spreadsheet archives if you're really feeling it. But if brevity be the food of love, skip the links and just read on. THE LIST 1. Slate's Working  - "How Does the Director of Operations at a Soup Kitchen Do His Job?" If you are wondering how this seemingly random 2018 episode landed in your inbox this week, I’ll let you in on a little secret: I do not commit my listening capital exclusively to the production whims of modern podcast producers. There are a handful of shows - including Slate’s Working - that I’m dedicated to listening through from the beginning. (More to come on that front, someday, maybe) And let me tell you, this episode is a gem! Feeding people at scale sounds like it ...

I'd like to believe I'd eventually find the space in my life to sit down and write a proper review of Station Eleven , but since it's been nearly two months between podcast newsletters let's put that idea to rest and just satisfy my urge to say thank you right here (because truly, that's more my style as a reviewer anyway - to express gratitude publically). No spoilers - it's just an excellently produced story with a lot of dark spots which still allows for hope and humanity. It's a pandemic story and a post-apocalyptic story, but it's really a story's story and the experience of watching feels like reading a well-written novel (which makes sense, because it was adapted from one!). I felt respected as a viewer and both fulfilled by the ending while simultaneously wanting to experience more of these characters and the often very messed up world they were forced to navigate. I could talk about it at length but can't find more words to write at the ...

I'm bringing you a very similar format for this year-in-review - because who couldn't use a little stability right now? Also, let's be honest, after laboring over ye olde spreadsheet (my annual list of my favorite new music), I have very little left in the tank for creative formatting and layout work. Here is but a small sample of some of my favorite things I heard in 2021. THE LIST 1. Nice Try!  -  "The Keeper" Avery Trufelman is at her best in this finale to season two of Nice Try , and that's saying something! I was completely charmed by the way this episode melded journalistic exploration and editorializing. It's flooded with nostalgia and reckons with object permanence in the digital age, and it has a sincerity to it that I couldn't shake. It's whimsical and impactful all at once.  2. Richard's Famous Food Podcast  -  "The Last Mojo" RFFP has skewered conventions in podcasting (and food journalism, and just general ...

I've been listening to Sondheim all week; some of my favorite scores - the 2007 Company revival, the 2004 Assassins revival, the original Sunday In The Park With George - along with Sondheim Sings Volume I. And of course, as I'm wont to do with anything, I sought out Sondheim pods. None of them made The List, but this one and this one stood out. Sometimes you don't know what you've got until it's gone, and while that can hardly be said of Sondheim, widely recognized during his life as quite possibly the the musical theater GOAT, I'm not sure I fully appreciated his influence on my life until he passed. All that said, and with the impending END OF YEAR MUSIC LIST EXTRAVAGANZA I guess I've been in more of music listening mood lately. But don't worry, there are pods a plenty for which to give thanks (dang, that would have worked a bit better a week ago). THE LIST 1. How I Built This with Guy Raz  - "Audible: Don Katz" Don Katz has led the ...

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 1. 9/12  - "A Failure of Imagination" 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. 2. Long Shadow  - "How do we move on from 9/11?" 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. 3. Invisibilia  - "Nun of Us Are Friends" Invisibilia dropped a se...

This is the 9/11 20 year retrospective you've been waiting for. From someone who was in 7th grade when it happened and had/has no extra-meaningful connection to the day. This is The Pod Piper. THE LIST 1. Revisionist History  - "Little Mermaid Part 1: The Golden Contract" Malcolm Gladwell deconstructs the Little Mermaid and rebuilds it in a mold that makes a lot more sense to children and adults looking for moral consistency in their animated movies. Need I say more?  2. This Is Love  - "My Penny" Amazing, unbelievably sad story. I was at turns incredulous and on the brink of tears throughout this story of disorienting loss and exuberant love. 3. Long Shadow  - "Why weren't more people rescued from the Twin Towers?" The inaugural episode from the featured show this week is a good entry point episode for folks who haven't thought about 9/11 in a while (and, I imagine, for someone who didn't live through it). After listening t...

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...