Podcast Roundup

It's been a couple of months since I've done a podcast roundup. I'm finding that my podcast listening is decreasing a bit because I have actually unsubscribed from some of my old standbys and haven't really found replacements.  But there have been some episodes and podcasts I want to talk about, so here goes. Honestly, as I got started writing about podcasts, I realized I had a lot more to say than I thought I did, so this got uncomfortably long.  Sorry about that!

Today in Focus is The Guardian's daily news pod. I am hit or miss about whether or not I listen to it, but I was interested in the "How pandemics end and what they leave behind" episode from March. I am a little bit confused about where we are in the pandemic right now.  Some people say we're at the end of it, some say it never was a thing, and some say we're in the middle. When does it stop being a pandemic and start being endemic?  Anyway. They interviewed a science writer about the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918 in this episode and even though it didn't really answer all my questions, it felt reassuring to me that humans have survived worse than this.

Today in Focus also had a great two-part series on The Wagatha Christie scandal that is rocking the UK right now. Basically, one professional soccer player's wife is accusing another professional soccer player's wife of leaking things from a personal social media account to the tabloids. A libel trial is the result. It's an interesting story because there's a tremendous amount of gossip, of course, but there's a lot here about privacy, the role of media in today's world, and how a celebrity gets to be a celebrity. 

I have talked about Hit Parade so many times before on this blog that it seems silly for me to tell you more about it, but I guess you might be new here and haven't heard me talk about the absolute nerdiness than is Chris Molanthy's deep dive into popular music charts.  Hit Parade just had its fifth anniversary and Molanthy put together a two-parter on his goals for the show and a top twenty of his episodes, "I Got Five on It," Part I and II. I thought his commentary was insightful and interesting and I was absolutely fascinated by what other people thought the podcast's top episodes were.  

I have pretty much been listening to Off Menu nonstop for the last month or so. Two British comedians, James Acaster and Ed Gamble (Taskmaster alums, natch) interview people, mostly comedians, but not exclusively, about what their favorite meals are. I think Acaster is hilarious, but I really love the interactions between the two men because it's obvious they are good friends off pod.  I think it does help to start by listening to a couple of early episodes, but then you can dip in and out depending on which guest you want to listen to. Funny podcast about food.

Once you've listened to a few early episodes, there is a trilogy of episodes that are really enjoyable to listen to back to back.  The Joe Thomas (episode 50) interview is so off the hook insane when he talks about watching some Christmas show where they cooked a lamb in a hole and then in the Andi Oliver (episode 70) interview, they found out that Oliver knew the producer of that Christmas show and then there's a brief Christmas special where the Off Menu hosts bring together Joe Thomas and the guy who cooked the lamb. If you listen to this three-part saga, you will never be the same. (I know Joe Thomas from Taskmaster, but apparently he is quite well known for his part in a show called The Inbetweeners. He's neurotic, uncomfortable with himself, and is so so so funny.)

Sometimes Ear Hustle, a podcast about prison life, is a bit too serious for me. I frequently put off listening to the episodes for weeks at a time. I honestly don't know why I do that because I love the podcast and almost always end up writing up how much I loved episodes here. It is a consistently smart, well-produced, well-written podcast. The most recent episode "What Is This?" is all about how prisoners sometimes don't have physical contact with people for years and years and how it all works out when they are finally released. There was a story of a couple who were only married for a couple of years before the husband went to prison for decades. When he was released, she had stayed loyal to him, but re-entry wasn't/isn't easy for either of them. It made me teary eyed.

From 2011 until 2014, there was a group in Seattle called the Rain City Superhero Movement, a citizen patrol group that went around the city dressed in full superhero costumes. The leader was a man who went by the pseudonym Phoenix Jones. This backstory is absolutely real and true. The Superhero Complex is a podcast that investigates the rise and fall of Phoenix Jones and the Rain City Superhero Movement. This is the story about a friend group, with all its camaraderie and infighting, and I devoured it. It's about a subculture and how that can go wrong. The superhero façade is just that - a veneer to cover people wanting to do good things and be part of something. I thought it was interesting and I'd never heard of this superhero movement before, so it was interesting.  (I also kept thinking about the book Hench that I recently read and how the superheroes were the villains in retelling.)

And that's the best of what I've been listening to. Got any good podcast recommendations for me?