listening lately

With my awesome new wireless earbuds (thanks, Peter, for making my Christmas wishes come true, and in my favorite coraly red color too!), my podcast listening has only increased because it's just so convenient to be listening to something all the time when there's no cord to get tangled up with when I'm putting laundry in the washing machine, and so on. So along with that, a new lineup of what I've been listening to lately.

In the Dark: if you like true crime series, this is a good one. I binge listened, and it was so engrossing and intense. Though a trigger warning is in order - given that it contains information from a direct confession, as well as first-hand accounts of other kidnappings, it definitely feels more graphic at times than something like Serial (season 1) or Accused. This series investigates a 27-year-old cold case child abduction, of Jacob Wetterling in rural Minnesota. The story itself is engrossing, and I also appreciated the way they also investigated how this abduction led to definite societal changes in the areas of stranger danger and sex-offender registries. The case is actually solved now after a confession, which happened as the podcast was just about to come out, but that makes it even more interesting listening, I think.

The New Yorker Radio Hour: Peter gets The New Yorker and is a diligent reader, but I find the topics very interesting I'm just rarely am willing to commit to a 10,000-word article (says the person who doesn't bat an eye at a 400-page book). Enter The New Yorker Radio Hour. Hosted by the magazine's editor, David Remnick, you get the types of in-depth interviews and cultural/political examinations, profiles, and humor columns that they publish, but in a really well-done, easy to listen to package. I think he's a great host.

Tell Me Something I Don't Know: hosted by Stephen J. Dubner of Freakonomics fame, this one takes more of a live audience game show format in which he has 3 famous guests of various types of smarts (ranging from Gretchen Rubin to Dr. Oz to comedian Hannibal Buress) who serve as a judging panel for contestants who come on stage to try to tell them something they don't know that's on the topic of the night's theme. I've learned a whole range of interesting things about the world, and the repartee of the host and panelists makes for entertaining listening. This would be a fun one to be at a live performance of, along the lines of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me.

Judge John Hodgman: spoofing the daytime TV judge shows, the always amusing John Hodgman serves as judge for pressing issues like spouses who are arguing over whether to get an artificial or real Christmas tree, or a son who is bringing suit against his mother because he thinks he should be allowed to get a motorcycle. The back-and-forth of his questioning the "plaintiffs" is quite amusing, but his wrap-up of the cases are surprisingly insightful and compassionate about relationships. I also really love it for the clever titles of each case. I've only listened to a few so far but am excited there's a good backlog of this one to go through.

Leave a Message after the Tone: here's a good one if you have only a little bit of time to devote to podcasts, as the episodes are only 5-6 minutes long (and there are only 4 of them). It's inspired by the everyday of the voicemail; listeners call in to leave voicemails on the episode's theme, which are then edited together to make a collective story. I like the snippets of humanity on themes like friendship breakups, but there are also funny ones like leave a message about what you think Donald Trump eats.


So that's what's in my ears lately, and I've got a bunch more that I want to try thanks to this best podcast episodes roundup post from NPR, so look for another update next month!