Podcast Central

[Northwestcoug]

I just listened to episode 2, on Baker v. Carr, and really liked it. It further cemented my already stated opinion that the Radiolab guys are great at producing podcasts, and lousy at recommending others.

Only one episode in, but I think it had some of the same strengths and weaknesses as a Radiolab episode. I always enjoy their ability to take scientific, political, or other issues and make them accessible and entertaining. They do a great job of showing both sides of issues. I may have mentioned this earlier, in talking about one of their recommended podcasts that I didn't like, but one thing they and This American Life both do well at times is lead you down a path, to the point where you say "Yes, I agree with this. This is obviously the correct viewpoint", and then in the next 15 minutes they turn it completely around to where you see the other side of the argument (as a tangent, one of the areas that I think TAL has been getting worse on the last couple of years is exactly this. They seem to be more into "causes" now, and less into seeing all sides of a story). This episode definitely does well in showing both sides, relates Baker v. Carr to our current state of affairs, and tells an interesting story while doing so.

On the negative side, sometimes I think they play the "Help a dumb guy understand this" a little too much. I suspect that the lawyers on the board may not like this podcast as much as I do. For someone like me, who was not familiar with Baker v. Carr, it was very interesting, but even for me a couple of times I was like "Yes, I get it, move on". Examples of this were Jad "not being familiar with" the Miranda decision, and taking an inordinately long time to understand the impact of having a 23 to 1 ration in rural vs. urban legislative districts.

Overall, though, I liked it, and am interested to see where they go with it (though I also wonder if the story well will run dry relatively quickly).

Oh come on. You can't say season two of Invisibilia isn't awesome!

Concerning the 'dumb guy' part about Miranda, yeah I agree. Miranda was drilled into me in high school, but I wonder how emphasized it is now. I just asked my daughter; she knows about it. Oh well. Still a good episode. I would assume that More Perfect has a lot material to work with. I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes. If it makes constitutional law more accessible to people like me, it could become a pretty influential podcast.

I pretty much agree with you re: Radiolab and TAL. This year I had gotten behind TAL. Now that Caustic Soda is finished, I started listening to it more regularly. I have noticed a more 'activist' tone recently. Still, they have a knack for great storytelling. I've tried a few new podcasts, but Radiolab and TAL really do stand apart. They form the backbone of my podcast library. I think of it like this: TAL tells great stories, and Radiolab tells important ones.

[Art Vandelay]

I've enjoyed listening to Malcom Gladwell's, Revisionist History. I know he is considered to be an intellectual for dumb people, which is probably why I enjoy his books and lectures. I think he is an excellent storyteller. Plus at 30-40 minutes his podcasts are just the right length.

[Northwestcoug]

I've enjoyed listening to Malcom Gladwell's, Revisionist History. I know he is considered to be an intellectual for dumb people, which is probably why I enjoy his books and lectures. I think he is an excellent storyteller. Plus at 30-40 minutes his podcasts are just the right length.

Mrs. NWC started listening to this and gave it two thumbs up. I'm going to give it a try, now that the first season of More Perfect is done.

[falafel]

Mrs. NWC started listening to this and gave it two thumbs up. I'm going to give it a try, now that the first season of More Perfect is done.

I'll give Revisionist History a second recommendation. I really like it so far.

[Brian]

Rev History is pretty good.

'you are not so smart' is pretty good. the early episodes track chapters from the book, the later ones are kind of heavy on ads, and not quite as good.

'explain things to me' is pretty interesting. 30 minute interview with people from various jobs: professional guitarist, mortician, comic, film critic, stuntman, professional santa claus, taxidermist, etc. What they do day to day, what they like about it, hate about it, etc.

[Northwestcoug]

Radiolab's latest is one of the more thought-provoking and frustrating podcasts I've heard recently. It chronicles a couple of stories about how medicine was literally rationed, and how people lived and died as a result of decisions based on medical teams. It spawned a good hour of lively debate in the NWC vehicle. My oldest daughter, idealistic as ever, did not like it at all, though she came away realizing how complex end-of-life issues are.

http://www.radiolab.org/story/playing-god/

Then by chance the very next podcast we listened to was a Freakonomics episode about tackling medical insurance costs, with the suggestion that insurance companies could save healthcare spending by giving a lump sum of cash to people deemed terminally ill if they rejected intensive care. Quite interesting, but again, frustrating.

http://freakonomics.com/podcast/are-...t-rebroadcast/

A couple of depressing hours driving through Montana...

[Northwestcoug]

I've listened to a few of "How I Built This" podcasts by NPR. It's the same guy who does the TED talk hour, which by the way I'm not a huge fan of. However, I really like HIBT. I would recommend the AirBnB, Vice, and Sam Adams episodes. I have no entrepreneurial bones in my body, and I'm fascinated how people build businesses from scratch.

[falafel]

I've been listening to Heavyweight from Gimlet Media. The host is Jonathan Goldstein. I first heard him on a This American Life episode where he tried to get his 80 year old dad to reconcile with his 85 year old brother. This is the first season of Heavyweight, but I like it a lot. There is one interesting episode where Goldstein and a friend go to L.A. to confront Moby about some CDs Goldstein's friend loaned Moby years ago that later became the samples on Moby's breakout Play album. The guy just wanted his CDs back, but for years Moby refused to return them.

[Northwestcoug]

I've been listening to Heavyweight from Gimlet Media. The host is Jonathan Goldstein. I first heard him on a This American Life episode where he tried to get his 80 year old dad to reconcile with his 85 year old brother. This is the first season of Heavyweight, but I like it a lot. There is one interesting episode where Goldstein and a friend go to L.A. to confront Moby about some CDs Goldstein's friend loaned Moby years ago that later became the samples on Moby's breakout Play album. The guy just wanted his CDs back, but for years Moby refused to return them.

I like Jonathan Goldstein. I'll have to try this one out.

[falafel]

Podcast Central

Gimlet is launching a bunch of new podcasts lately. I've listened to a few that I would recommend.

Startup. This one may not be new. I can't tell. Anyway, the current season follows American Apparel's ex-CEO Dov Charney as he attempts to build a new t-shirt and apparel company based in the American Apparel formula. Dov is a fascinating guy. Recommended.

Homecoming. This is a totally new type of podcast. Or maybe it's a totally old one. It's a scripted fiction story that aims to fill the "high end" podcast market. It casts real movie stars in the roles, including Catherine Keener, Oscar Isaac, David Schwimmer, David Cross and Amy Sedaris. It tells the story of an experimental government program designed to help veterans assimilate back into civilian life. I'm only one episode in, but so far it's very well done. Recommended.

Here's a write up about it.
https://www.google.com/amp/www.vanit...mer-gimlet/amp

[PaloAltoCougar]

I've been enjoying The Tim Ferriss Show podcasts, especially a couple of recent interviews with Adam Robinson. One of the many significant points made was why Adam (who does a lot of strategic investing and money managing) loves it when people observe, "That doesn't make sense," such as when interest rates or the markets move in an unexpected direction or when Trump was winning primaries despite saying outlandish things that would have torpedoed other campaigns.

But the fact is, pretty much everything in life makes sense. The problem is that what happens doesn't always fit our personal model of social or economic behavior. The challenge is to figure out why something seeming outlandish does, in fact, make sense. Do that and you're going to hit it big. So when people say, "That doesn't make any sense," a big opportunity looms.

Perhaps not profound but I've been mulling this over all weekend.

[Surfah]

I've been enjoying The Tim Ferriss Show podcasts, especially a couple of recent interviews with Adam Robinson. One of the many significant points made was why Adam (who does a lot of strategic investing and money managing) loves it when people observe, "That doesn't make sense," such as when interest rates or the markets move in an unexpected direction or when Trump was winning primaries despite saying outlandish things that would have torpedoed other campaigns.

But the fact is, pretty much everything in life makes sense. The problem is that what happens doesn't always fit our personal model of social or economic behavior. The challenge is to figure out why something seeming outlandish does, in fact, make sense. Do that and you're going to hit it big. So when people say, "That doesn't make any sense," a big opportunity looms.

Perhaps not profound but I've been mulling this over all weekend.

I can't stand Tim Ferriss. Really I hate his fanboys more.

[PaloAltoCougar]

I can't stand Tim Ferriss. Really I hate his fanboys more.

Ha, I didn't know he was a thing, having not heard of him until a couple of weeks ago. Just so I know, what's the problem with him--I can already see a lot of self-promotion; what else?

[Surfah]

Ha, I didn't know he was a thing, having not heard of him until a couple of weeks ago. Just so I know, what's the problem with him--I can already see a lot of self-promotion; what else?

That's the biggest thing. He's the ultimate self promoter. It's how he launched his first book. And his followers can be obnoxious.

Granted I've never listened to his podcasts so I can't really comment to that.

One thing I do think is interesting is his willingness to self experiment.

[UVACoug]

Been listening to The Greatest Generation podcast for the last several months. They do episode by episode reviews of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Lots of irreverent humor, but not nearly as nerdy as you would expect (although it is a bit nerdy). If you are a fan of TNG at all, and can handle some vulgar language and irreverent humor, I would definitely recommend it. It's a lot of fun.

The Judge John Hodgman podcast is another one that I've been hooked on lately. It's John Hodgman (a former Daily Show correspondent) ruling on people's real life conflicts similar to the style of The People's Court or Judge Judy. It is also a lot of fun and he actually gives some pretty good advice a lot of the time. Some of the cases are absurd, but those are usually the best ones to listen to.

Just finished up Missing Richard Simmons. I would not recommend this one. It is basically a journalist type stalking Richard Simmons and his close family and confidants to find out why Richard Simmons disappeared from the public sphere a couple years ago. His conclusion? Simmons just wants people to stop bothering him. The podcast, which is about 6 episodes long, starts out similar to Serial. But it just ends up being this guy going around and harassing people and trying to guilt trip Simmons into speaking to him. Ultimately, a big waste of time.

I used to be a big political junky, but after spending some time in Washington in college and enduring Mitt's loss in 2012, I kind of gave up on it. Over the last year or so, though, I've tried to listen to a variety of politics podcasts from both the left and right to get a balanced perspective on the election. Lately, one of my go to political podcasts has been The Ben Shapiro Show. Shapiro is certainly more conservative than I am, but is a very sharp guy and, in my opinion, tries to address the left fairly (which you can't say about most conservative podcasters). From time to time he lets ideology trump logic, but he is usually pretty good. Would definitely recommend if you are interested in conservative politics at all. On the left, I listen to Pod Save America and the Slate Political Gabfest. I tend to lean right, so some of the stuff they say drives me nuts (especially anything that comes out of Emily Bazelon's mouth), but they provide an interesting perspective. Also really like Nate Silver and his crew on the FiveThirtyEight podcast. They try to put on an air of objectivity, but clearly lean left. But at least they back their stuff up with evidence and data.