Podcast Roundup December 2021/January 2022

It's been a bit since I did a podcast episode roundup. I've become incredibly picky since the start of the pandemic and while I still listen to podcasts a lot, it takes a lot for a particular episode to stand out to me. But this month there have been a couple of standouts, so I thought I'd share. Note: These might have come out long before this month, but I just now got around to listening.

 Stuff the British Stole recently released its second season. I thought its first season was well done, but the second season has been even better.  In this podcast the host Marc Fennell picks one cultural artifact that the British currently possess thanks to their centuries of plundering, and examines its history and how it got where it is now.  (James Acaster, Taskmaster alum, has a fabulous bit in his stand-up about this very topic and he makes it funny, but Marc Fennel does not find it funny.)  The podcast premise is smart, Fennell's presentation is articulate and interesting, and it's an educational podcast that doesn't feel like homework.

"Not Your Venus" is the episode that stopped me in my tracks, though. In the early 1800s, Sarah "Saartjie" Baartman was taken from her home in South Africa to Europe by a doctor.  She spent years in a freak show, showcasing her voluptuous body and dark skin, before she died at the young age of 26 (causes of death range from pneumonia to syphilis to alcoholism, all of which would make sense). But once Baartman died, her skeleton continued to be displayed in Europe.  

In this episode on Baartman, Fennell interviews two experts.  One is white and one is black. Fennell raises an issue (e.g., did Baartman sign a contract?) and then cuts between the experts' answers as they tell contradictory stories.  I thought this episode was well-written, well-delivered, and absolutely heartbreaking.  

Earlier this year, Roman Mars sold 99% Invisible to SiriusXM.  I noticed a decline in the quality of episodes for a few months and sort of assumed that my love affair with 99PI was done.  But in the last couple of weeks, there have been two amazing episodes and I want to highlight them. I'll be keeping this podcast in my player for some time to come, it seems.

"Cute Little Monstrosities of Nature" is an episode all about designer dogs. The French bulldog is now the second most popular breed of dog in the country because they're small and don't require a lot of exercise, but they're also plagued with health issues because their flat snouts make breathing a problem for them.  The pod goes into detail about how breeds came to be (dog breeds weren't even a thing until the mid-1800s!), problems with breeding, and big issues with popular designer breeds like the labradoodle.  As someone who lives with an adorable mixed breed dog who comes with her own kaleidoscope of health issues, it was interesting to learn that we would still be facing giant vet bills if we'd gotten a purebred dog.  If you're interested in dogs, this is a good listen.

"Alphabetical Order" is an episode the delves into the mystery of the organizational system known as alphabetical order.  Some language, most notably Chinese, do not have an alphabet, and so they don't have alphabetical order as a structure. People who spoke English in the past didn't always use alphabetical order, either, especially since what letters were in the alphabet was in contention for much of the history of the language. So is alphabetical order a fly-by-night organizational system or will it last the test of time? Also, some awesome library shade thrown at historical archivists.  (I think pairing "Alphabetical Order" with the "Interrobang" episode and the "Andorsands &/or Irony Marks" article from 99PI would be an amazing historical look at the written language.)

(If you want to know what dinner is like at our house, I started a conversation about whether or not the English language needs the letter 'q.' I'm partial to the letter because it's in my name and we discussed if I'd replace the 'q' with 'kw' or 'cw' and then we started making up silly things like Kween Elizabeth and kumkwats and that is my life.  Also, do we need 'c' and 'k'?  English, what a language.)

Ear Hustle's latest episode was surprisingly touching. In episode 67, "Tray, Tumbler, Spork," some of the team embarked on a challenge to live under a specific set of constraints in the "outside" world that would be similar to those faced by those who are incarcerated. They changed the way they ate, dressed, exercised, and even the hours they were awake during the day.  I thought it would be a light-hearted romp through people breaking down as they were so hungry (and it was!), but at the end of the episode, things got serious. One of the team members who is incarcerated just said, "hey, I murdered someone and I have to be here and live with these constraints, but you (a person who was doing the challenge but isn't incarcerated) haven't done anything wrong and shouldn't have to live like this and I don't deserve your empathy" and suddenly the episode was serious and moving and sort of made me well up. Ear Hustle is a consistently solid show and it's this ability to switch from the ridiculous to the important that makes each episode a joy.

Pop Culture Happy Hour is an old, old friend of mine. I think it was the first dedicated podcast I ever listened to - I listened to radio shows that came out in podcast form like This American Life and Fresh Air and *sob* the defunct Bryant Park Project, but this one was recommended to me before podcasts were a daily thing in my life. PCHH has had some format changes and their fourth chair solution has never been solved since Trey Graham left, but I keep listening and occasionally it is like the PCHH of old. 

First up, I can't believe I didn't write about this in the spring, but their episode "Best Muppets: Ranked" is probably one of my podcasting highlights of all time. I have some disagreements about the rankings (Oscar and Cookie deserve better), but I love how unscripted and fun the episode seemed to be. And don't get me started on Glen's opening monologue about Rowlf in "Our Favorite Muppets." I laughed so hard I nearly fell over. I bring up these episodes from the spring because what they share with the more recent "It's a Wonderful Life" episode is a brilliant Glen Wheldon rant. I don't always agree with Glen's observations, but I love hearing him go wild.  He's obviously wrong about It's a Wonderful Life (it's a good movie!), but his disdain is an amazing thing to hear.  So good. 

On a much more serious note, Boys Like Me is a CBC podcast that I resisted listening to because the subject matter sounded so heavy when folks talked about it. And guess what? It is heavy, but it's also incredibly crucial to listen to.  In 2018, a man rammed a van through a pedestrian heavy area in Toronto, killing eleven people and injuring more than a dozen others.  This podcast follows Evan, a schoolmate of the killer, as he tries to grapple with their connection and similarities. Along the way, it delves into the world of incels and young people who are growing more and more disenchanted with the world. Very important journalism. (Also, if you're not familiar with the world of incels, there's a classic Reply All episode (#120 "INVCEL") that is a good primer. RIP Reply All.)