Podcast Roundup April 2019 Edition

I laugh at a lot of podcasts and occasionally I'll dance along with a song, but I'm not really a person who cries along with podcasts. Until Eric Klinenberg, a guy who wrote a book about social infrastructure, started talking about public libraries on an episode of 99% Invisible called "Palaces for the People." 

Do you guys remember when Panos Mourdoukoutas wrote an op-ed in Forbes about how Amazon should open bookstores in all the spaces where public libraries are?  It was quickly taken down as librarians attacked him (deservedly, in my opinion) and started listing all of the things that libraries do. Let's discuss.

1) Provides media (books, magazines, CDs, audio books, videogames) for free or low cost.

2) Provides public spaces where people can hang out without having to spend money.  Now, for those of with disposable income, it's fine to just meet at a coffee shop and shell out $5 for a delicious hot beverage. But what if you don't have that money, but you want to meet your friend after class for a chat?  The library is a good place to go. These public spaces are important places where people don't have to worry about the police getting called. 

3) Provides free internet service to people who can't afford it at home. People can set up email addresses and voicemail inboxes online and create resumes and cover letters while hunting for jobs, they can do their taxes, they can create professional portfolios and web pages, and they can just dick around on reddit like the rest of us.

4) Provides a variety of free to low-cost programming.  Our library offers public lectures, storytime for kids, cooking classes, and English as a Second Language courses.  Many libraries offer books clubs, STEM clubs for kids, and video game tournaments. 

5) Libraries are the great equalizer. I talked about this in the January roundup, but This American Life had an excellent episode about a girl who spent a great deal of time in a library when she was homeless.  Libraries in many places are de facto homeless shelters. They deal with people with dementia. They deal with people with mental illness. They deal with (at our library) kids who hang out in the library afterschool for hours and hours. They help immigrants deal with paperwork and bureaucracy. Libraries and librarians are MODERN DAY HEROES.  

(Imagine loud music swelling here.)

I'm not ashamed to admit that there were tears streaming down my face when I heard Klinenberg's defense of public libraries. They are our last defense against the tyranny.

 I want to like the podcast Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, but I mostly don't. It's hard to take seriously a bunch of famous people sitting around talking about how hard their lives are. It's actually a reason I don't much like late night shows, either.  But there's an episode with Nicole Byer (episode #21) that is hysterically funny. Byer is sometimes a bit much for me, but her openness combined with O'Brien's up-tightness was an irresistible combination for me. I was giggling and giggling and couldn't stop.  And then there's a bit at the end when O'Brien is talking with his assistant, Sona Movsesian, about a texting incident that involved her dog and my stomach hurt by the time I was done laughing. I recommend this episode.

The brothers from The Adventure Zone (a brilliant role-playing podcast I've written about a bunch) and My Brother, My Brother, and Me (a comedy advice show with a huge back catalog that intimidates me so I've never listened to) and the two dudes from The Worst Idea of All Time (a show in which they watch the same movie every week for a year as their mental health slowly declines) come together once  year to watch Paul Blart Mall Cop 2, a movie for which none of them have seen the original. They then record a podcast about their experiences and it's called 'Til Death Do Us Blart.  There's only four episodes and they only release one a year, so you can catch up quickly.  They're funny people with great chemistry and I recommend you give it a listen.  You don't need to watch the movie to listen.