Podcast Roundup Week #17

This week the weather has been glorious! I listened to 44 episodes this week on my walking around the neighborhood in loops and loops.

Here are some highlights.

Casefile had brief updates on both the Lauria Bible/Ashley Freeman case and the EAR/ONS case. It wasn't necessarily anything I didn't know from stalking Reddit, but it was definitely reassuring to hear it from the anonymous Casefile narrator.  I'm becoming more and more concerned about the use of publicly submitted DNA to the arrest in the EAR/ONS case (it sounds like the police did use 23andMe or something like that to get DNA), so sometimes these updates are a bit more like constant cognitive challenges in which I hold multiple reactions for the same things, but Casefile is amazing and the quality is unmatched in the true crime genre.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that most people will enjoy Pop Culture Happy Hour on NPR.  There are three regular panelists and a rotating fourth chair. It recently changed its format to go from once a week to twice a week (I'm not crazy about this change, but I find it hard to complain too much about free entertainment), so if you like to hear small doses of smart people talking about sometimes not very smart popular culture, this is the show for you. The recent episode with Jesse Thorn in the fourth chair talking about the PBS show Antiques Roadshow is simply divine. Thorn's knowledge and love for the show as he attempts to persuade a not at all enthusiastic Glen Wheldon to his side made me happy. It's so fun to hear people talk about things they are enthusiastic about in a non-defensive way. It was a great episode.

I don't think I've recommended any podcast more than You're the Expert (it's actually come up five times on this blog already). It's a combination of science and comedy that really resonates with me. But the episode with astrophysicist Jackie Faherty, "Brown Dwarves," is a perfect comedy podcast.  This show lives and dies by its guests and this combination of academic and comedians just really worked.  Give it a listen. You won't be disappointed.