January 2021 Podcast Roundup

 Yes, I know I talk about Death, Sex, & Money more than most other podcasts. That's because it consistently releases interesting takes on what's going on in the world.  "I Killed Someone. Now I Study Police Violence" is an episode about a former cop who killed someone in the line of duty and now studies police violence. Powerful interview. Sale doesn't shy away from asking hard questions and I love her for it.

The episode "All that 2002 Has Taken From Us" is also powerful. There's a listener whose best friend of thirty years died of Covid and listening to her talk about how her day to day reality is so undone by this loss was powerful to me. Don't take your loved ones for granted, my friends.

Ear Hustle had a very challenging season.  Since the prison where they mostly record, San Quentin, was in lockdown for most of 2020 because of Covid, they had to do most of their reporting from outside the prison, with just occasional phone calls from the workers inside the walls.  Despite these challenges, the material put out by Ear Hustle this season was stellar.  Here are a couple of the most memorable episodes.

"The Trail" interviews a perpetrator of a horrific sex crime, as well as a relative of the victim.  I don't want to say too much because I don't want to give away the crux of the episode, but there's something incredibly powerful about listening to the interviews back to back.  There's a truth of what happened that day on a hiking trail on the California coast, but how you interpret that truth depends on your perspective and background.

"The Bells" is Ear Hustle's remembrance of the prisoners who have died during the pandemic.  While I didn't actually find the main story all that powerful (this guy was a two-time murderer and I guess I should feel terrible for him that he died in prison of a horrible disease, but I actually didn't), I did find the remembrances at the end of the episode to be quite moving.  

Code Switch's excellent coverage of racial issues constantly brings up topics I'd never considered before. The episode "Black and Up in Arms" is all about gun ownership in the black community and the emergence of the organization National African American Gun Association (NAAGA).  I tend to think of the Second Amendment types as rural white men, so this was an interesting look at a demographic I don't usually think of as gun owners, particularly black women. Fascinating.  

Unfinished: Short Creek is about a town on the Arizona/Utah border that was long ruled by a polygamous offshoot branch of the Latter Day Saints.  Its leader, Warren Jeffs, is currently in prison serving a life sentence for child sexual assault.  Meanwhile, what's going on in this town? It's made up of ten powerful episodes looking at what it was like to grow up in Short Creek, what it's like there now, and what its legacy is for all the people who have a connection to this place. I didn't want to listen to this because I feel like I've exhausted my tolerance for documentaries on cults, but this is an entrancing piece of reporting and I'm glad I eventually downloaded it and listened all the way through.

I'm not sure I would whole-heartedly endorse Where is George Gibney?, a BBC documentary about an Irish Olympic swimming coach who has been accused of child sexual abuse. It's not graphic at all, but the topic is troubling and it seems like there's no right answer to this case. Gibney never stood trial for his crimes and appears to be living in Florida today, without facing any consequences for his crimes.  You get to hear the voices of the victims, many of whom have lived for decades with the shame and sadness of this man's actions, many of them in silence.  You hear about lives destroyed (the sixth episode tells the story of a young woman who was bound for the Olympics until an ill-fated trip with Gibney left her in a mental ward), careers destroyed, and the struggle of just what should be done now to allow these victims some semblance of justice.

I wrote about the first season of Verified in August.  It covered how the app Couchsurfing was used in an ongoing scam to sexually assault women.  This second season, Dust Up, is all about how the personal care company Johnson and Johnson knew, for decades, that there was cancer-causing asbestos in their products that used talc, including baby powder. Many women would sprinkle this into their underwear to keep dry and Johnson and Johnson marketed to women, Latina and African Americans in particular.  This is all about a series of lawsuits against Johnson and Johnson. You hear voices of women talking about their cancer and talking about how they thought it was safe. You hear from the lawyers. You hear from the loved ones who lost their mothers and sisters too early.  You hear all about how capitalism leads to the exploitation of the poor and powerless.