Podcast Roundup Week #36

This week I listened to 46 episodes.  I haven't got much to recommend beyond my old standbys (listen to The Adventure Zone and Harry Potter and the Sacred Text*!), but I'll do my best to give you something new to listen to.

Bundyville is a collaboration between Longreads and Oregon Public Broadcasting. It's a seven-part series about some crazy religious zealots who are part of the sovereign citizen movement who get way too much air time.  They somehow think the federal government can't own land and that they do own it and they'll hold armed standoffs to prove their points. If they were black, they'd be dead and we wouldn't have to listen to them natter on. I gave this a fair shake because Crime Writers On... were very enthusiastic in their review of the podcast. I thought it was interesting in terms of the history of this movement, but at the same time, I thought it was doing us all a disservice by allowing these guys time to air their non-existent grievances. It's well-produced and well-recorded, but the subject matter was quite distasteful to me.

The podcast formerly known as Mom on Pop has been rebranded to Pop Mom! since John Teti left the AV Club. Teti hosts this podcast with his mom, Bonnie, and they critique pop culture happenings.  They'd taken a bit of a hiatus because Teti left his job and his mom had some health issues and they're back to talking about post offices and what's new on television.   It's honestly a good time.  You don't need to listen to the backlog of episodes, but you're going to be super confused about why you're getting updates on some small town gossip if you dive right it.  I love this podcast and always worry that something terrible has come upon the family when it disappears for months at a time, but I think they're on track now to put out some consistent episodes. Dive in and have a good time.

*Harry Potter and the Sacred Text is doing a live show in Chicago at the end of October. I really want to go. It's only a couple of hours from my house and it would be tight timing for me to get there in time, but I could get there, I think. I just don't know if this is the kind of thing one can go to by themselves because 1) my husband is not a Potterhead nor does he listen to podcasts and 2) he will definitely not be able to get there in time due to his teaching schedule. Oh, the dilemmas.