Interesting Podcast Episodes

For a while I sort of gave up on podcast round-ups because I wasn't listening to anything I could recommend wholeheartedly. But in the last few days, I've stumbled upon some super interesting episodes, so here goes.

The BBC World Service worked with the Louisville (KY) Courier Journal over the course of a year to create a three part series on the opioid epidemic in the greater Louisville area. I'm actually kind of burnt out on these stories, but the first two episodes of this series really resonated with me.  They really did cover the story from angles I had never heard before (people hurting their pets to get medication for their pets only to use the medication for themselves!) and they did it in a thoughtful way. I kind of like it when outsiders come into the United States and are so quick to pick up on policy imperfections and solutions.  It's a tough listen, but I think it's worthwhile.

Reveal did a two episode series called "Case Cleared" that looks at how many sexual assault cases are "cleared" by the police, which essentially means resolved, without an actual arrest being made. The Center for Investigative Reporting does some amazing data collection from large metro areas in the United States about what happens when victims report sexual assault.

It's an interesting, nuanced looked at policy analysis. What does a "successful" sexual assault case look like?  I thought this piece was particularly interesting because in the police officers make some really interesting points in their favor during the interviews.  This series also reinforces my belief that the criminal justice system is broken since victims are just re-victimized throughout the entire process.  If I were a victim of a sexual assault, I would never report it. I would feel terrible, especially if I thought the offender were going to reoffend against someone else, but the whole process is demeaning and requires you to really talk about your own sexual history as if it was relevant.

Death, Sex, and Money had a very frank conversation with a married couple who are dealing with the aftermath of an accident that left the husband paralyzed in "Married, Paralyzed, and Moving On." I think it really rare to hear inside a couple's sex life in a public forum, and this episode does that in a typical Anna Sale empathetic but insistent way.  The wife was crying at the end of the episode and, if I'm being honest, I was a little teary, too.