October 2020 Podcast Roundup

While I constantly refresh the electoral map, I thought I'd do a quick podcast roundup, although to be honest it's a bit of a copout because there's not much to report since my last roundup.

The only episodes I flagged as of note were both 99PI episodes. This podcast is consistently solid at taking topics that I think will be super boring and bringing life into them.  

Episode #1: "The Address Book"

So, I thought this was going to be about actual address books, but it's really about the role addresses play in modern society. There are places where there aren't formal addresses and how did more industrialized places go from "the house behind the big elm tree" to 16834 Kendaville Road in Coral, Michigan?  What does it say about the modern United States that knowing someone's zip code gives you an automatic stereotype of them? What about how necessary an address is to obtaining a job?  Being homeless is already hard enough, but there's no way to get out from under it if you can't even fill out the "address" portion of an application.  

As a rootless young adult, going from college dorm to summer apartment to my parents' house for some breaks, answering "address" was a fraught decision.  But now that we're settled here in our own house, this seems like so far in my past. This episode was a reminder for me of how lucky I am. It's also just an interesting look at logistics, which is always my favorite thing.

Episode #2: "Goodnight Nobody"

When the New York Public Library released its list of the most checked out books in its history, most were children's books. But Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown was mysteriously left off the list.  As someone who has a billion issues with Goodnight Moon, I was unsurprised by this, but it turns out that it was because there was this All Powerful Librarian named Anne Carroll Moore who didn't like the book and the movement behind the book.  The whole saga was fascinating and who doesn't love a story about feuding librarians?  

My main gripes with Goodnight Moon (many based off Dana Stevens' gripes from a Culture Gabfest episode from 2014.

1. Who the hell paints their kids room that shade of green? And don't get me started on the blood red carpet?

2. Those fucking rabbits are huge. My antipathy towards rabbits is not small and this world seems quite scary to me. 

3. What's going on with scale here? That dollhouse is almost the same size as the bed? It's basiscally the same size as the creepy adult rabbit knitting.

4. The tiger skin rug?! Enough said.

5. Who has a telephone next to the kid's bed?

Moving on.

Most of my podcast listening last month was binging Let's Go To Court. Like I wrote last month, I find the banter between the two best friends of Brandi and Kristin to be quite comforting in a time when I can't be with my friends.  I'm listening to the back catalog, too, so it's like living in a time capsule, what with them going out to eat and to concerts and living like it's 2019.  

So we still don't have an official winner of the presidential election and now I'm going to load up some LGTC episodes and pretend that all is well.  Now you know more coping strategies.