Podcast Roundup July 2026

I'm in an audiobook rut, so it's been all podcasts all the time. 

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I know comedian Joanne McNally because she was a contestant on Taskmaster. When I heard she had a podcast called Joanne McNally Investigates, I was fully onboard. There are two seasons, "Who Replaced Avril Lavigne?" and "Did Furbys Spy on Us?" and they were both utterly charming. In the same way I enjoyed Did Titanic Sink? and Who Shat on the Floor at My Wedding?, I enjoyed this. Is there a sort of mystery involved? Sure, but it's really a comedy. 

In a radically different type of podcast, have you heard KCRW podcast called City of Tents: Veterans Row? In the middle of one of LA's fanciest neighborhoods, there's a pocket of land that has been donated to the care and housing of America's veterans. The Veterans Administration controls access to this campus and many veterans who are facing mental health, housing, and/or substance use challenges cannot live up to the rules. So what did they do? They set up a tent city right outside the gates of the campus. What happens next is relatively predictable - denial, removal, criminality, NIBMYism, and not a lot of answers. But when the people who are unhoused are veterans, it's not as easy as just rousting them off to Seattle.

Texas Monthly just finished up a seven-part series called Where the River Took Us. Texas Monthly editor Aaron Parsley and his family were enjoying a long holiday at his family's vacation home along the Guadalupe River when there was a terrible thunderstorm overnight and the river rose rapidly. The floods in Central Texas led to trauma, death, and hardship, but also community, growth, and new beginnings. This podcast varied in quality from episode to episode, but I found the first two and the fifth as some of the most powerful podcast episodes I have ever listened to. There are some tough topics here, though, including child death, so take care of yourself. 

None of you have asked for it, but I want to draw your attention to some excellent recent Planet Money episodes. If you're not listening to PM, GO DO THAT RIGHT NOW.

"The real horror of ‘Alien’ and how it explains why we’re not paid enough" - The hosts use the word monopsony, discuss labor economics in the brilliant sci-fi movie Alien, and make you start side eyeing FAANG companies.

"Why is there a supplement craze if they don’t even work?" - As a lady who takes a fistful of supplements daily on the advice of medical doctors, I was super interested in this episode. Turns out supplements are not regulated very well (which I actually did know) and we are possibly/probably/maybe/probably not really getting poisoned by our supplements. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNO WHAT TO DO?

"Can the Trump Administration Make College Cheaper?" - So under the Big Beautiful Bill (like...what the fuck world is this?), there were significant changes made to student loans. Because I work in higher ed, I am interested in what this will mean for my students. Answer: it's complicated. 

"Can World Cup Mania Grow MLS?" - Unpopular take: I think the World Cup goes on too long and is boring. But I did enjoy this episode about how Major League Soccer teams are trying to take advantage of the North American hosting gig to try to get more people to care about soccer. I, for one, will not be getting on this (boring) bandwagon. 

Hunting the Suicide Salesman from the CBC is gripping. Dude provides a poison to help people kill themselves and tells them how to do it. Has he committed a crime? I am all for assisted suicide and I thought this guy, while an absolute dick who is profiting from people at their lowest points, was getting unfairly maligned here. (I also take the unpopular opinion that Michelle Carter should not have been found guilty of manslaughter.)

But then I heard about Amazon selling the poison and how most people who survive suicide attempts regret it and...now I don't know. If the government wants this to be illegal, then it should be illegal, you know? Dr. BB and I had some interesting conversations about this one, but it does deal with tough issues, so be aware. 

The Last Twelve Weeks is the newest from Serial podcasting, co-produced with The Marshall Project. 

The good: Interesting topic. They follow around some lawyers as they try to get a stay of execution for a convicted serial murderer whose death date is in twelve weeks. The storytelling is interesting. I always wanted to keep playing the next episode. It's only five episodes, so it's not asking you to invest hours and hours of your life. The sound is great. (I'm currently trying to listen to a podcast where the sound quality is terrible uneven and listening to this was like a balm to my ears.)

The bad: There are multiple hosts, I think? But their voices are the same? It's a bit superficial because it was so short. I wanted more about the lawyers.

I recommend it, but it's not perfect. 

I sometimes listen to podcasts from other countries and am reminded of how weird the US is in so many ways. Hearing the folks from Today in Focus talk about the death penalty was a reminder that the US government kills its own citizens on a regular basis. And now "The return of the firing squad in Trump’s America" means that because pharmaceutical companies are refusing to allow their drugs to be used in lethal injections, some states are turning to the firing squad. 

Speaking of podcasts from other countries, I started listening to The Case Of from Australia when it was The Mushroom Case Daily and I've kept listening because the rules of reporting court cases in Australia sound batshit crazy to me in the United States. Instead of instructing jury members not to look stuff up or hear about the case they are involved with, Australia has crazy rules limiting what the press can actually report on. In the mushroom case, where a woman was accused of killing family members by feeding them death cap mushrooms, the press couldn't report on the fact that she'd already tried to kill her ex-husband before in case the jury couldn't hear it. So millions of people can't know what's going on to protect the handful of people on the jury? Instead of the other way? BATSHIT. 

Right now there's a case involving a "high-profile Queensland man" who is most certainly an Aussie politician and the way they have to report the case is so crazy that I don't even understand what's happening. There was extortion? Was the premier being extorted? Thank heavens for the redditor who posted "an unnamed prominent Queensland figure had an affair with a woman in 2017. Another man discovered evidence of this and attempted to extort the woman. The man who had the alleged affair (not the attempted extortionist) was identified as a big deal politician. The court will not name the man and the reason given is that this would potentially reveal the identity of the extortion victim."

But you know what? I keep listen to The Case Of because I'm enjoying them go around and around in circles because they can't name this guy. Or the woman. LOLOLOL. As an American, I cannot express how bonkers I think this whole thing is. He hasn't even been accused of a crime!

I'm not sure I really recommend this since the reporting on this case is hella confusing, but it's fun listening, that's for sure. 

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Okay, party people. What podcasts should I listen to next? My audiobook reading has slowed to a crawl and I'm finding all books terrible right now, so I need SOMETHING. 

Podcast Roundup June 2026

Do you remember when I used to do podcast roundups every month? That has clearly gone the way of the wooly mammoth because the last one I did was in January! I mentioned a few podcasts last week, but I still have more to talk about. 

Here's what's good in my feed.

"Costco" from Acquired - In April, Kyria mentioned that she liked this episode. Now, I was hesitant because the last thing I want to listen to is dude bros talk about capitalism as if it is the best thing on earth. I have a deep dislike for all things business school and my eyes glaze over when people start talking about "growth" in "spaces." All of that being said, we have a couple of dude bros talking business concepts. Did I have no idea what they were talking about about 7% of the time? Absolutely. Do I love how much they love Costco, though? Yes, absolutely. Acquired is not going to make it into my regular rotation, but I did enjoy this episode and I learned a lot about Costco that makes me appreciate it more than I ever did before. 

The Walkers: The Real Salt Path - The Salt Path by Raynor Winn was a huge bestseller. It told the story of an indigent couple who take to hiking when the husband becomes diagnosed with a terrible degenerative illness, but they overcome. It's a heartwarming tale of love, grit, and grief. It's also a complete lie. This podcast investigates the Winns and with every episode, you fall deeper and deeper into this literary controversy.

Adrift - Raise your hand if you know that I like a good tale at sea. Raise your hand if you're sick of hearing about Moby-Dick, In the Heart of the Sea, and The Wager. You've come to the wrong place if you don't want to hear about dangerous seafaring. Adrift is an eight-part pod about a family that gets shipwrecked in the Pacific after they sell everything they own (and give away their dogs) to sail around the world. WHY DIDN'T THEY BRING THEIR DOGS WITH THEM? I digress. 

This story is riveting. The storytelling isn't always my jam - the recreations, the sound effects are a bit cheesy - but the story is fascinating. I tell you what. I'm glad I wasn't with them. 

Liar, Liar: Melissa Caddick and the Missing Millions - This is the story of Australia's largest Ponzi scheme. It's also a bit of a mystery as to where the woman who was behind it all ended up. I think what was most affecting about this podcast was the interviews with people who lost all their money. They didn't get a lot of sympathy for losing their life savings because many people just saw them as rich people with money to burn, but some of the people are literally destitute now. Solid reporting.

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Have you listened to a standout episode or series recently?

Three Things Thursday

Stephany does an occasional Three Things Thursday series, so I thought I'd do something similar. I feel like hers is less whining than mine. 

Three Times I've Felt Invisible

1. I have complained about the limited number of self-checkout lanes for more than a handful of items at our local grocery store before and I'm here to do it AGAIN. If the store is going to limit self-checkout to only ONE lane for people with more than a few items and then that lane doesn't work, we're going to have to wait in line for a cashier. Fine. (It's not fine. I want to bag my own groceries.) The cashier did a fine job, although Amy's tendency to chuck items down to the bag means we had to toss a can of tomatoes because there was a brand new dent on it after she threw it. Fine. That's the cost of dealing with a human being who doesn't care about our groceries. 

But the bagger. Her name was Kylie. Was she drunk? High? I specifically said, "hey, those nectarines are very ripe - can you treat them like they're the most precious things on earth?" and then she threw them into the bag. Fine. But then. THEN. She literally threw baking potatoes on top of them. My husband and I both yelled don't, but it was too late. My nectarines were squashed. 

This happened more than a week ago and I'm STILL STEWING ABOUT THIS. Customer service is dead. If I have to checkout at a lane with a cashier and bagger, I'm not so politely telling the bagger to get out of my way and not touch a single item. 

2. It's registration season here at my job. In the afternoon, I do a presentation to all the students in our college to tell them what classes to register for and how do so. So I'm in the computer lab working with students and I say, "hey, can you open X program?" and they say "how?" and I say "how did I tell you to do it?" knowing I told them at least three times and they say "you didn't." AND THEN I SCREAM politely, but maybe not patiently, tell them how to do it AGAIN.

3. I was waiting patiently in line at a local business and when the person in front of me was finished, the people behind me just barreled in front of me and checked out. Like...I was standing right there? Maybe I AM invisible. 

Three Things Happening Right Now

1. As mentioned above, student registration is this month. June sucks at my job. So I'm basically doing the bare minimum in the rest of my life. But don't feel too badly for me because July is going to be a whole lot easier. 

2. Our book club is reading a book by a local author and we asked the author if she'd like to come to our next meeting. We'll see how it goes.

3. My new office chair came in. I'm enjoying it. 

Three Podcasts You Should Listen To

1. Sea of Lies - Some folks on a fishing boat find a dead body. How that dead body got to be there is batshit crazy. There's international fugitives, financial crimes, stolen identities, and incest. What more could you want? Everyone told me to listen to this last year and I didn't because I resist popular things, but I should not have resisted. 

2. Time Capsule: The Silver Chain - I was NOT expecting this. A reporter stumbles upon newsletters from a swingers club in 1970s suburban Minnesota. He starts researching the club and what happened to its members. It sounds salacious, but instead turned out to be heartbreaking.

3. Dirtbag Climber - A rock climber in Squamish, British Columbia is shot dead. Who would want to kill him? Well, it turns out that the suspect list is pretty large because the guy was really a dirtbag. Great investigative podcast. 

Three Photos of Zelda (she is perfection)

MY PRECIOUS KITTEN

Three Times My Husband Made Me Snort Laugh

1. Our car has this feature where it recognizes who's driving and adjusts the seat settings for that driver. My husband recently shaved and now the car doesn't recognize him. He made a new profile with "Summer Ted" as the name and now the car says "Hello Summer Ted" with a pink colored background whenever he's driving. This makes me laugh and laugh and laugh.

2. We were at the grocery store yesterday and parked next to an SUV as per usual. As we were getting out, the SUV guy was emptying stuff out of a cooler in his trunk and one thing was an egg carton and he just flung the water out of it. I looked at my husband and said "I'm surprised you didn't get wet" and he said "well, I wasn't expecting egg water on my foot today, but here we are." AND I LAUGHED SO HARD. EGG WATER.

3. The way he will watch endless videos of Belgian Malinois dogs snapping at air. 

Three Books I Have Requested from the Library

1. Kittentits by Holly Wilson - The aforementioned book club book. It sounds absolutely unhinged.

2. Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn - Kind of a cool premise. Letters keep getting banned, so the book follows suit and doesn't use those letters. I'm excited to see if it lives up to expectations.

3. The Unseen World by Liz Moore - The guest on this week's Sarah's Bookshelves podcast recommended this so highly that I couldn't stop myself from putting it on hold. 

Three Things I've Watched Recently

1. The Princess Bride - When I mentioned to my husband that I'd never seen this movie, but I felt like I had the gist through bits and pieces because it was always on TBS when I was a teenager (baby Fred Savage, rolling down the hill, a torture machine?), my husband was HORRIFIED. So I watched it. I think it's probably the first movie I have watched since before COVID. 

2. Taskmaster - The current season's final episode will be available tomorrow. I'm finding the current season pretty meh, but even a meh season of TM is better than most television. 

3. This guy talking about birds on YouTube.

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What's the last movie you watched? What was the last photo of a pet you've taken? 

Let's Catch Up

Normally I'd do a Five for Friday post tomorrow, but I'm going to finish up CBWC tomorrow, so let's go ahead and do my regular Friday post now.  I'm rebelling against my own non-existent editorial calendar.

In what is becoming a regular warning on these posts, this starts light and fluffy and then ends with tough stuff. If you don't want to be bummed out, skip number five. 

I took this last night, friends, on our after work walk. It's cold and rainy AGAIN. Fuck spring. But look how terrified of the camera Hannah is. LOLOLOL. 

1) The last time I got a piercing was roughly fifteen years ago. I had a navel piercing when I broke my leg in 2011 and I had to take it for BULLSHIT surgery reasons and then when my leg healed, I redid the piercing. The hygiene instructions back then were something like "use antibacterial soap and turn the piercing regularly and if something hurts, you can try soaking it in a warm salt water bath." I don't want to scare anyone, but the number of infections I had with this routine was greater than one.

This time around? My instructions were: squirt it with this salt water rinse after you wash your face in the morning and the evening. Don't touch it. Change your pillowcase frequently. AND THAT IS IT. The warnings about antibacterial soap usage are hysterical.  And damned if this isn't the most comfortable healing process I've ever had for a piercing. I'm only a couple weeks in, but it's going well.

2) Remember when I said I was helping my nephew with his ACT? We were focused on only one section (English) and his subscore went from a 22 to a 27. I mean. Who's awesome? I am awesome.  And he did such a great job. I'm proud of him. 

3) My husband has recently invested in an electric kettle at work which means I am regularly getting fresh tea at work! Woot woot!

Have I talked about this before? I don't ever make my own tea. It's exclusively the domain of my husband. I enjoy the tea, but I'm too lazy to do all the things. If he's out of town, I'm drinking water and getting coffee from Dunkin', you know? But he's making me tea at home AND work? I am living the life. 

4) Podcasts. I have two recommendations for shows for you. 

In Adults in the Room, a Seattle reporter goes back to a story about sexual harassment and abuse at her high school that she reported on back on the '90s as a student reporter, but still has lingering questions about. If you have ever wondered if there was more to the story about something that happened when you were in high school, this is the show for you. Also, it's super disturbing. 

My high school question: Was BB really sleeping with the high school librarian when we were in high school? I suspect she was because they lived together once she graduated. Why? He was gross and she was beautiful. Also, she was really nice to me and I hate that she was taken advantage of. 

The Atlanta-Journal Constitution has a great podcast history, but I was worried about it since Bill Rankin retired that it might not have as much support. I was relieved when I listened to Who Blew Up the Guidestones?, a podcast about a bombing at a controversial roadside attraction. 

(Kandiss Taylor is a Georgia politician who features in this story. I normally do not comment on people's voices. I do not understand what vocal fry is, nor do I care if people have it. I listen to The Chicks on a regular basis, can get behind whatever it is that Bob Dylan is doing, and have a mean Tom Waits impression. But I am SO ANNOYED by this woman's voice. Whenever they interviewed her, I mostly wanted them to do the thing where they summarize the interview instead of making me listen to her.) 

This podcast is sort of fun. I mean, it's fun if you sort of ignore the part about domestic terrorism. And, really, you should because the granite stones were terrible and deserved to be blown up. But maybe not under the cover of night. 

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Radical subject change

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5) I met Rob when my friend was first diagnosed with cancer. He and his wife would alternate flying back and forth from California to help my friend through chemo, through surgery, through radiation. I was chatting with Rob once while we watched my friend play with this dog in the backyard. I mentioned that it must be so hard to be away from his home, his wife, and his life while he was in Wisconsin. He said, "this is important and this isn't going to last forever."

Those words have really gotten me through a lot of hard days in the last year year and a half. 

Two days ago my friend was in a car accident and Rob was with him. Rob died in that accident. 

We are rallying around my friend. 

But life isn't fair. Life is hard. Life is harder for some people than it is for others. 

It is a cliche to say, but it's true. Things can change in an instant. So hug your loved ones. Don't sweat the small shit. Let your dog roll in the grass. Play another game of Uno instead of vacuuming the floors. 

Here's to Rob. Your work is done and you did good. 

Podcast Roundup January 2026

I don't want anyone to freak out, but it is 2026. Every time I type the year, it seems crazy. We're living in the future. 

So, podcasts. Here's what's been in my earballs.

Pluribus the Official Podcast - Have you watched Pluribus? It's so good. The podcast is great, too. I learned a lot of behind the scenes things. 

The Birth Keepers from The Guardian - Batshit crazy story of two women who went around talking about how awesome free birth was. What's free birth? You know, no medical experts, no medication, nothing but you and maybe your partner. Preferably in a tent. And it will not come as a shock to you that women and babies died, will it?

Curse of: America's Next Top Model - I remember watching America's Next Top Model when Tyra Banks lost her shit at a model named Tiffany and thinking that Tyra was very unbalanced. Turns out that Tyra is probably not unbalanced, but is probably all about the dolla dolla bills. This was an interesting take on ANTM and its place in the culture. There's nothing terribly surprising here, I don't think, but I liked hearing from the models who were on the show.

Camp Shame -  It would come as no surprise to you that the largest weight loss camp in the country created a culture of eating disorders and unhealthy body image, would it? This was interesting, but I found it frustrating at times, too, because we never really heard from the camp leaders.

The "Planet Money Does a Pop Culture Draft: 1999 Edition" episode of Planet Money - This was amusing and, more importantly, I legit saw two of those movies IN THE THEATER. Dudes, I didn't always boycott the movies. 

The "Zoo's Clues" episode of Sidedoor - Most of Sidedoor is pretty boring history shit about the Smithsonian. In general, I think this podcast should be more interesting. But the National Zoo is affiliated with the Smithsonian and did you know that if so much as a squirrel dies on the sidewalk at the National Zoo, they do a necropsy on it? And did you know that there's a person who does those? And you can hear her talk about it? FASCINATING. That's why I keep Sidedoor on my podcast list, even thought 90% of the episodes are lame. 

"Our 2026 Pop Culture Resolutions" from Pop Culture Happy Hour - I love that the four OG panelists make resolutions and every year go back and revisit them. I love this tradition and this episode is fun, even if I don't care about their actual resolutions.

Okay, I've talked about these episodes before, but the "Barbie Girl" and "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" episodes of Punch Up the Jam make me laugh more than anything on this planet. I have been having a rough January and these have brought me a lot of joy. 

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Do you have a stellar podcast or podcast episode to recommend? 

Five for Friday, Edition #35

Five Hard Things

1. I recruited a friend to be my co-worker. Did I ever tell this story? I had a friend in book club who was looking for a job and I told her to apply to my office and she did and now her office is across the hall from mine. She's sick. And things are not going well for her. On Wednesday she was admitted to the ICU and I feel like it was stuff with my mom all over again. Anyway, she's probably going to be fine, right?

2. I used to listen to a podcast called Let's Go To Court. It was two women who had been friends since they were in elementary school discussing true crime cases. But the podcast ended and so did the friendship. One of the hosts has a new podcast with her husband called An Old Timey Podcast and at the end of an episode they discussed how hard it was to lose that friendship. She said that in many ways ending that friendship was harder than if she had ended her marriage and I think that's right. When you get divorced, people around you rally around. When a friendship ends, no one really knows. Anyway, I've been thinking about this because I recently took someone off my holiday card list because I hadn't heard from them in a long time and it was clear they have broken up with me, but I don't know why. 

3. Yesterday when I walked Hannah in the morning, it was rainy and about 44 degrees (about 7 degrees Celsius). Not ideal, but it was fine. By the time I left work, it was 34 degrees and the temperatures were falling fast. By the time I walked her before bed, it was 19 degrees (about -7 Celsius). A winter weather advisory was issued for something called flash freeze, which is not a term I was familiar with, but some jackass on Reddit wrote "this is completely normal for living in the Midwest" and I'm over here going ???? in my brain. How have I ever never heard this term before?

4. Grades were posted Wednesday, so yesterday I spent the day following up with my students of concern to see how things were going. Most of the news was good and I was able to say congratulations and I'm proud of you. But the students who didn't do well. Ugh. I hate having those conversations. 

5. I'm reading a book that has a lot of buzz and has been well-reviewed and I just don't like it. How long do I have to keep reading it? 

Five Fun Things

1. Tonight we're going to the holiday light show at the local botanical garden with our friends. We do this every year and I'm excited about taking a little bit of fun time.

2. Sunday is the Winter Solstice! We have friends who have a Solstice Party every year where we go to their backyard and hang out around a campfire. It is a lovely time to see people we don't always see regularly and to remind myself that the days are going to get longer.

3. In January, I have blocked out days for me and Bestest Friend to hang out together. We haven't exactly planned what we're going to do yet, but it's on the calendar.

4.Speaking of Bestest Friend, I sent her a holiday card with some of my high school senior photos in it and she put those photos on the fridge. This made me laugh.

5. Did you all know Christmas is next week? And New Year's the week after? I'm super excited for time off and to get to hang out with my in-laws on Christmas Day.

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Are you familiar with flash freeze? Did you take anyone off the holiday card list this year? What holiday celebration are you most looking forward to in the next couple of weeks?

Podcast Roundup December 2025

FRIENDS!! I have not done a podcast roundup since May. And it had been since August before that. What is even happening? How will you know what I'm listening to?

The June 24 edition of Pop Culture Happy Hour "Best Pixar Movies, Ranked" in which PCHH listeners vote for the best Pixar movies and none of the Toy Story movies make the top five, so I want you to imagine my OUTRAGE at the entire episode. 

Not to be THAT person, but I am still over here shilling for Rob Harvilla and The 60 Songs That Explain the 90s: The 2000s. Rob's posting schedule is INSANE. The dude must only work for like six months out of the year, but I go back every time for his mix of teenage weirdness and strange sentimentality. He covered "The House That Built Me" by Miranda Lambert which is how I discovered the superior Tanya Tucker version of the song. Then he posted an ep on "Live Like You Were Dying" by Tim McGraw that was all about how his father-in-law just died and I thought maybe this was going to turn into a country music podcast and I was all down with that. But then he took off like four months and came back with an episode in which he declared the Jeff Buckley version of "Hallelujah" to be the best song ever written. Hot take, that one. 

Anyway. Look, you can catch up if you haven't listened to any 60 Songs episodes. He hardly ever posts new episodes, but they're always great. 

I'm also still shilling for Nate DiMeo, our national treasure and writer of The Memory Palace. Episode 234 "Looking for Parking, Late Winter, 1996" is not on TMP website, so I'm linking to it on Spotify. Where did it go, Nate? It's about Nate's very own driveway moment when he couldn't turn off the radio. Episode 237 "Vigil" is also missing from TMP website. Both of these episodes speak directly to our current American moment. Do yourself a favor and take ten minutes and listen to one of those episodes right now. 

The November 3 episode of The Indicator from Planet Money was super interesting to me. "When AI Is Your Job Interviewer" talked about the fact that when given a choice, 78% of candidates choose to be interviewed by an AI voice agent for a screening interview. SEVENTY EIGHT PERCENT. Who are these people and what is wrong with human beings? 

Usually I find stories about precocious kids to be too twee for me, but I truly enjoyed "Kids on the Case" from Criminal.  It's like a series of cozy mystery stories and no one dies. 

If you had asked me before I listened to the two-part Hit Parade on Sting, I would have said I had neutral feelings on Sting. But, no, no, I do not. I love Sting. I love all his songs and I had no idea. With Police, he has that catchy stalker song, he has the one about the fields of gold, he has that "All For One" song from The Three Musketeers, and don't forget "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic." Look, I will die for Sting after listening to these episodes. 

This is already never-ending and long, but Wisecrack. It's a limited run series of six episodes plus some skippable bonus eps. A producer listens to a stand-up routine by this British guy and she gets the idea to do a podcast about his story. If you listen to the first episode and don't want to listen to any more, you are a stronger person than I am. This pod is winning all sorts of year end Best Of awards and I can see why. It's addictive. 

Okay, I lied. One more. The Mushroom Case Daily. It's been rebranded as The Case Of, but if you want to a detailed play-by-play of the lady who poisoned her family with death cap mushrooms, this is your podcast. There is so much here. I want someone else to listen so we can debate whether or not you think Erin Patterson should have been convicted. Also, Australian accents...

Okay, I'm out. What's in your earbuds these days?

Five for Friday, Edition #29

I keep a list of blog topics on my phone so when ideas pop in my head, usually when I'm walking our dog, I write them down. And right now the list is sort of out of control because I keep writing about books instead of life things. Let's not talk about my coping mechanisms right now, okay? So here are the five I'm tackling today. 

1) Rosemary Kennedy - I always knew that Rosemary Kennedy was given a lobotomy and then shipped off somewhere so that the Kennedy family never had to acknowledge her. But I was scrolling reddit like normal and I saw a headline that said she had been a resident at St. Coletta's in Jefferson, Wisconsin. YOU GUYS. That is the next town over from me. Jefferson is the town with the boring German Days parade. North to south it's Jefferson, my town, and then the town where I work. (Please don't come at me with geography, locals.) And I checked Wikipedia and learned the further detail that Rosemary Kennedy died in the hospital in my town. 

I guess I'm just sort of surprised I'd never heard this fact before. Do you have any local lore from your town?

2) It's the best television time of the year! Taskmaster and the Great British Bake-Off have new seasons! I'm not going to sugarcoat it, though, I think both shows are having sort of lackluster seasons. Hopefully they turn around!

3) My SIL has a podcast - I don't brag about my sisters-in-law very much, but they are all really accomplished women. They're smart, they're hard-working, they're amazing mothers and wives, and they are all, to a one, hilarious. So when my sister-in-law Katie (this is my husband's youngest sister) that she was going to do a podcast, I was all in. She's an internist at the University of Iowa Hospitals and she's the one I go to with all my medical questions. She and her friend Katie, a fellow doctor, have a new podcast (video episodes are also available on YouTube) called Heroic Herstories: Women in  Medicine with the Katies. 

Katie and Katie interview women doctors in Iowa. In the first episode they interviewed a woman whose career was up and down and all over the place and since I teach our Careers class, I was interested in how she talked about the curveballs in her career. She discussed how her career progress wasn't linear and how she sometimes got unexpected opportunities and even though that's not how she had envisioned her career, every step taught her important lessons and skills. I thought it was such an important lesson!

In the second episode, they interviewed an epidemiologist who was a young doctor during the beginning of the AIDS epidemic and a well-established doctor during the COVID crisis. I thought it was super interesting to hear her compare the two. 

Even if you're not in the medical business, I think these are very interesting and important conversations! (I'm not just saying that because my SIL is there, I promise. I am obviously biased, but I also wouldn't even bring it up on my blog if I didn't think it was worth listening to.)

4) I think I have the sort of face that makes me people just start talking to me. Let's talk about three times in recent weeks I've found myself in conversations with people in public that I didn't start. 

A) I walk up to the almond flour because I need to make cookies. I have never purchased almond flour before, so I'm looking to see which brands are gluten free and then I'm comparing the unit prices. Another lady comes up and starts talking about how the almond flours have different numbers of carbs and how is this possible. I shrug, but then she starts talking about other nutritional factors (calories, types of almonds) and before I know it, this lady and I are DEEP in the weeds about almond flour. Dr. BB had been in a different aisle and he shows up and rolls his eyes. 

B) I was browsing some thrift shops with TJC when she was in town. I wander over to the rack of dresses (of course I do) minding my own business and the wedding dresses are the next rack over. Out of NOWHERE, this lady says to me, "do you think this is a wedding dress?" clearly pointing at a table runner. I shrug, but she keeps talking to me. "I'd thrift everything if I got married again. Ha ha! I just wouldn't get married. Ha ha! Just kidding! I love my husband!" Hey, lady, I'm just trying to see if any of these dresses would be appropriate for me to wear. 

C) TJC and I are eating lunch at a local hotspot. Some ladies sit down next to us. One of them makes eye contact with me. "Hey, what's good here?" We proceed to have a discussion about how it's the best place in town and everything except the Irish Bread Pudding, which is repulsive and dry. 

I don't know. I don't mind, really. I used to think I had resting bitch face, but I think I truly have friendly face. 

5) We took the plunge and test drove some cars last weekend. We are not wowed by any of them. But I guess I don't have strong preferences about cars unless we get one with the tail lights that look like penises. 

Here's something you probably don't know about me if you haven't been in a car with me at night. I have STRONG FEELINGS about tail lights. I hate the ones that go all the way across the car. HATE THEM. It's only a pseudo-rational reason. It makes it really hard to see if a turn signal is on. Also, they're ugly.  I have had this discussion with my husband eight thousand times and he's over hearing about it, so now I'm here telling you. There are lots of acceptable tail light arrangements, so why are there dicks and bars? I have questions!

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Okay, take it away. What's your local lore? Do strangers talk to you? Do you have feelings about oddly specific parts of car design? 

Podcast Roundup May 2025

If I'm searching my own blog correctly, I haven't done an official podcast roundup since LAST AUGUST. How is that even possible? Let's do this. Here are some of the best episodes I've listened to recently. 

1) Slate Culture Gabfest "Meghan Markle Sprinkles Potpourri on You" episode from March 12. 

The hosts have Dan Kois on as a guest to talk about the scourge of giant white houses in modern houses. I enjoyed greatly from the comfort of my giant white house. 

2) Sarah's Bookshelves Live, episode 193: Clare Leslie Hall (Author of Broken Country)

I think Sarah from Sarah's Bookshelves is sometimes too focused on what she's interested in during her interviews (I, for my part, am not interested in the finances/business aspect of the book world, but Sarah is and that's fine, but it's also why I don't usually listen to her author interviews). I was vaguely interested in reading Hall's book Broken Country, though, so I listened to this episode. It both convinced me that I don't need to read Broken Country AND that Hall is a wonderful person and I would both like to have coffee with her and let her watch my puppy. (Lonesome Dove is an amazing book and if you haven't read it, you should.)

AND I also learned that I need to cut Sarah some slack because she asked some really interesting questions. AND shoutout to the way the podcast episodes are organized on the website and that Sarah links to every book they so much as mention, good or bad, in the episode. 

3) The Indicator from Planet Money's episode "When Do Boycotts Work" from April 28. 

Many of you may know that I have a lot of personal boycotts going on. There are a number of small businesses in my town I boycott because of how they handled COVID. I have not watched a Superbowl game in about a decade now. I don't shop at Walmart. We have recently limited Amazon purchases and I haven't been to Target yet this calendar year. 

But do boycotts work? That's an interesting question and I found this episode fascinating personally. It's less than ten minutes long. Give it a try!

4) Pop Culture Happy Hour's episode "The TV show I'd Like to Live In" from May 1. 

No one said Gilmore Girls (which is MY answer), but Glen Wheldon's methodical voting of people off of Gilligan's Island was hysterical. This is old skool, but if you have not listened to Wheldon's defense of Rowlf on "Our Favorite Muppets," you have to listen. Glen Wheldon is a comic genius.

5) 60 Songs That Explain the '90s: The 2000s - The episodes on "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" and "Jenny from the Block"

I can already hear some of you rolling your eyes RIGHT NOW.  I know, I know. If you asked me, I am not sure I'd say 60 Songs That Explain the '90s is my favorite podcast (The Memory Palace or Let's Go to Court (RIP) or Petty Crimes or Pop Mom! or Books Unbound would probably win, but DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE), but I end up thinking about and talking about this podcast more than any other I listen to. And boy do I talk about it a lot on this blog.

I've already written about the "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" episode, but I feel like I need to expand a little bit here. I used to listen to country music. I had all the ladies ranked (LeAnn Rimes, Martina McBride, Shania Twain, Lorrie Morgan) and adored The Chicks. In the 1990s, we also had Jo Dee Messina, Lee Ann Womack, Terri Clark, Patty Loveless, and Pam Tillis. Add in Reba and Dolly and WHAT MORE COULD YOU ASK FOR? I mean Garth, of course. But what I'm saying is that these were the days before bro country. 

And I was a fan of Toby Keith. I remember saving my pennies in college to buy a CD because I wanted "How Do You Like Me Now?!" But "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" really changed things for me. It turned country music mean. So many male voices. So much sexism. So much anger. When country music blacklisted The Chicks and suddenly there was no more Shania and even Garth was being replaced by the likes of Jason Aldean and Morgan Wallen, I just stopped.

Toby Keith was such a good song writer and his early stuff was so good (and, frankly, so was some of his post-"Courtesy" work), but his legacy is SO COMPLICATED. This podcast episode grapples with this and it made me feel SEEN. I basically stopped listening to new music at that point - maybe I would have anyway because I was at an age when that happens - but this really was a turning point for me.

I mostly want you to listen to the episode about the Jennifer Lopez song because it's clear that Rob (Harvilla - the host of the podcast) really wants it to be about Paula Abdul and he kept singing Paula Abdul songs and I was jamming to MC Skat Kat and if none of these references mean anything to you, just move on.

6) Ear Hustle - The duology of "Slam That Door" and "No Other Word for It."  

San Quentin has dismantled its death row and those inmates are now integrated into the general population of the prison. In "Slam That Door," they take some of those inmates back to their cells on death row and it was a hard listen. In "No Other Word for It," they go to women's prisons in California to talk to women who have been imprisoned because of drunk driving. It was a very different tenor - the women seemed almost cheerful about their lives. Putting them back to back was super interesting. 

It was also a bit of an eye-opener for me because the host Nigel Poor, kept talking about how "everyone" has been behind the wheel while intoxicated and...look, I was upset by this. It's not true and it sort of made me respect her a little less, even though I guess I should have been grateful she was just being honest about. I don't know. I have complicated feelings about it all.

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What you might notice is missing is that I don't have a limited run podcast series. It's because I haven't really listened to a decent limited run podcast in ages. When I last asked for podcast recs, people recommended me some and I added some to my app, but they just didn't appeal to me (look, people adore Sweet Bobby, but I was twenty minutes in and nothing had happened, so...). I'm happy for any recs if you have them!

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Have you listened to any good podcasts episodes lately? 

Five for Friday, Edition #17

1) Happy making postcards in the mail! I received beautiful cards from Elisabeth and J! I love getting surprises in my mailbox and it's making me feel like I'm falling behind in my own correspondence. I shall send out those St. Patrick's Day cards sitting on the dining room table ASAP!

2) Does anyone wonder how the smallest creature in the house is the loudest and also the most physically in the way? It's our fault, really, since we trained the dog to GTFO of the kitchen when we are in it, but the cat thinks that if she puts herself in the middle of the damn room, she'll get food. She was right here THE ENTIRE TIME I WAS COOKING DINNER. Bless her little kitty heart. 

3) Anyone want to see the books I have checked out from the library?

*Here Be Dragons (Welsh Princes #1) by Shannon Kay Penman - Dudes, the font is SO SMALL. I am struggling to literally read it.

Pop City: Korean Popular Culture and the Selling of Place by Youjeong Oh - My little BGSU Falcon heart can hardly wait to read this. 

Take a Thief (Valdemar) by Mercedes Lackey

*The Women of Chateau Lafayette by Stephanie Dray - This is my next IRL book club read.

The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen 

*On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden

Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor

Samurai William: The Englishman Who Opened Japan by Giles Milton

Empire of Sand (The Books of Ambha #1) by Tasha Suri (ebook)

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman (ebook)

*Big books (over 500 pages)

4) My hairstylist sat me down in the chair and asked what I was looking to have done. "Oh, maybe a bob and bangs," I said, absolutely straight-faced.

"You want bangs?" she said.

"Yeah, and just chop it off. It's driving me crazy."
"You want me to chop it off?"

"Yeah. And some bangs."

She stared at me.

"You don't want bangs. You will hate them."
I laughed.

"You're right. Just take off an inch or so and add some long layers. No bangs."

She laughed. "I nearly had a heart attack."

5) Podcast episode recommendations from me to you:

a) Rob Harvilla's back with 60 Songs That Explain the 2000s. The episode on "Hurt" by Johnny Cash is quite good if you're interested in Rob's thing. 

b) Nate DiMeo's podcasting game is still the best thing in the world. Listen to "Two Postcards" from The Memory Palace. You won't regret that fifteen minutes. 

c) You know how I like a good shipwreck story, right? Well, what happens when someone finds a shipwreck? Who owns it? Should it be excavated? Should it be treated as a mass grave? Boy do I have a Planet Money episode for you! "The Fight for a Legendary Shipwreck's Treasure"

d) I randomly have the 12/13/24 episode of Food News down as something you should listen to. I think it's because at one point one of the hosts is laughing for real and not fake podcasting laughing and I found it super charming. If you're not listening to Food News, why not?

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How many books do you have checked out from the library? What book are you going to read next? (Bonus points if anyone can recommend me a good big book - over 500 pages - written by a woman.)

The Memory Palace: True Stories of the Past by Nate DiMeo

Well, the bad news is that I'm sick and I've been in bed for days. The good news is that I was able to read a lot and now I feel well enough to sit upright and type, so get ready for some book reviews!

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I've written so many times about the podcast The Memory Palace on this blog. I have called the host, Nate DiMeo, a national treasure, refreshing and energizing, a haunting writer, an unimpeachable writer, silver-tongued, brilliant, and a genius. I'm basically DiMeo's number one fangirl. His podcast is filled with ten- to fifteen-minute episodes about historical footnotes, but somehow he brings those footnotes to life. 

In August, I heard he was going to be releasing a book and I did something I've never done before. I emailed him asking for an advanced reading copy. 

Excerpt from that email:

I write a small bookish blog where I also write about podcasts, how much I hate working out, and the exploits of my dog and cat. I have also referred to you as a genius, a master of storytelling, a national treasure, and silver-tongued on this very same blog. I will buy and read your book and review it on my blog no matter what, but if you're doing any promotion for your book that involves bookish blogs with a small, but loyal contingent of readers, feel free to include me in that promotion. 

Friends, within two hours, Nate DiMeo had emailed me back personally with a link to an ARC. 

The Memory Palace: True Short Stories of the Past by Nate DiMeo was such a treat to read. I loved every second of this book. DiMeo is a brilliant writer - you can really hear his voice in every word, every comma, and every story. He takes footnotes from history and makes them take center stage. I have been listening to the podcast for years (obviously) and reading this was like a greatest hits collage with some new material about DiMeo that contextualizes his interest in long forgotten histories. I loved it and hope we keep hearing form DiMeo for many years to come.

The expected publication date of this book is November 19 and I hope you all buy it or request it from your library the second it is released.  I'll remind you closer to the date. 

5/5 stars

Words I looked up:

imposture (location 1982) - an instance of pretending to be someone else in order to deceive others:

Lines of note: 

I want to conjure that peculiar magic that comes in those rare moments when we understand that the past was real. That our ancestors were real people. (location 88)

I loved reading about DiMeo's thought and writing process. His writing is magical. 

Because it requires this odd act of empathetic imagination through which I try to catch a glimpse of an answer to that most fundamental of questions: What is it like to be someone else? (location 91)

What an interesting motivation. 

In their decades tromping through the low grasses of Wisconsin, they developed an approach to studying animals that is common sense now, but was revolutionary then. It was interdisciplinary. Zoology needed botany, which needed meteorology, which needed limnology, and on and on. They realized you couldn't understand what was happening with the chickens that ate the seeds without understanding the plant that dropped the seeds, or the creatures who burrowed beneath the seeds, or the stream the fed the seeds. They learned that the prairie chicken needed the prairie itself to survive. They discovered that all its creatures - its bugs and its grasses, its birds and its trees and its creeks that froze over - all the countless little things combined somehow to give the species life. They were all connected. (location 650)

This paragraph is such a wonderful example of the importance of interdisciplinary work. I feel like I should blow it up in a poster-size and put it on my office wall. 

Elisha Otis didn't invent the elevator: He invented the brake. the little metal piece that catches the car and stops it from plummeting if the cable stops holding it up. Elisha Otis didn't invent the elevator, but he kind of invented the modern world. (location 988)

I can get behind DiMeo's slight exaggeration of the importance of the elevator brake, but also, maybe he's right?

I found that engaging actively with history - with stories of the past, of lives with beginnings and middles and ends, with periods of strife that felt unending but weren't, or peace or joy that couldn't hold - kept present the most valuable thing I knew: the fact that we are all going to die. (location 3259)

This went to a dark place, didn't it?

True short stories isn't a thing. How do you market that? Plus, the show was never that big. A beloved cult object at best. It was going to be a tough sell, the editors and agents would tell me. (location 3309)

True short stories! That's what this is! And I want more of it. 

Use reliable sources, don't plagiarize, figure out the truth and tell it as best you can. (location 3360)

DiMeo acknowledges later in this paragraph that his process is different than that of historians. Sometimes the truth is unknowable, with varying recorded histories and historians will walk you through all the options, weighing the validity of each source. DiMeo picks a story and tells it. And he tells it beautifully. 

Hat mentions (why hats?):

There is a portrait that people think is of him, a Black man in a white chef's coat, his hair barely contained by his tight white chef's hat. (location 249)

And Anita Corsini sat in the audience in a purple dress and a light straw hat with a white plume. (location 246)

One day they were rebuilding the temple (scaffolding, hard hats, ancient dust catching the light through the windows) and work just stopped... (location 735)

She stands beside a crate, recently pried open by one of three customs officials in tall hats. (location 916)

The genocide and forced removal of Indigenous peoples in the West was in full swing, and the Thanksgiving story, in its reductive, construction-paper, Pilgrim-hat form, was offered up to soothe the discomfort of white Americans. (location 1318)

They arrived in top hats and tails, in pearls and peacock feathers. (location 1881)

Men in high hats and spats and lacquered canes. (location 2120)

At 3 A.M., Robert broke into the captain's quarters and stole his uniform, his pistols, and the broad straw hat he always wore to keep the sun from his eyes. (location 2591)

Smalls dressed in the captain's uniform, hat pulled down low despite the darkness...(location 2594)

But in the captain's hat, pulled low over his face, and with his collar up high...(location 2601)

Her hair pinned up under a hat. (location 2916)

Williams, in the peaked hat and coat familiar from elementary school Thanksgiving pageants...(location 3087)

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Have you ever emailed an author asking for an advanced reading copy? Have you ever had an ARC?