October 26, 2017 Podcast Recommendations

Time for more podcast episode recommendations. I know many of you are like me and listen to an increasing number of podcasts, so here are a few episode recommendations I think you might like.

Episode 7 of Queery with Cameron Esposito in an interview with Stephanie Beatriz, and it is one of those episodes that’s so good I listened to it twice, and asked my husband to listen to it, too. They talk about eating disorders, Beatriz’s acting life, and a range of topics including bi erasure and bisexuality.

But the part that rocked my brain is toward the end when they discuss being hard on yourself. Specifically, they talk about believing that if you succeed because, as Beatriz puts it, “you’re shitty to yourself,” you have to keep on being shitty to yourself in order to succeed. Mind: BLOWN. When you hear Cameron Esposito talk about Jeffrey Tambor, that’s when you should start listening closely. (I listened to that part of this interview at least three times to make sure my brain got the message!)

You can find Queery on their website, on Stitcher, on iTunes, or wherever you pod your casts (or cast your pods?).

…

Hurry Slowly is a brand new podcast that’s, in their words, “about how you can be more productive, creative, and resilient through the simple act of slowing down.”

The first episode is with Basecamp CEO Jason Fried, and it’s fascinating listening. They talk a lot about reframing what work is, and how effective work happens sometimes in complete opposition of what we’ve been told is efficient workplace behavior. I love a discussion that rests on the foundation of looking at how people do things and asking, “Ok, but what if we didn’t do it that way?”

This podcast episode made for very interesting listening as I was finishing up Deep Work by Cal Newport ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) before my library borrow expired. I like that both Newport and Fried defend vigorously the idea of firm boundaries for “work time” and “not work time.”

I also found a LOT to think about in Fried’s discussion of the “expectation of immediate response” that has become our normal. Every form of communication speeds us up in expected response time, from mail via horseback and ship to telegram to telephone to beeping to texting to instant messaging to Facebook to Twitter to Snapchat and on and on. If the message travels faster, the expectation is that the response will be just as fast. (I also recognized my own dislike of talking on the phone as not merely based in anxiety but also in the fact that talking is so much slower than reading words. I may like the idea of slowing down – and I really, really do – but I don’t know if I’ll ever like talking on the phone.)

You can find Hurry Slowly on their website, on Stitcher, on iTunes, and wherever you access your podcasts.

…

I’ve already recommended Still Processing from the NY Times, hosted by Wesley Morris and Jenna Wortham several times, but yet again there is an episode I found so stunningly thought-provoking I stood still in the kitchen, knife in hand and mouth hanging open, until one of my kids was like, “Mom? You ok?”

Their episode We Take a Knee explores the protest among NFL players that started with Colin Kaepernick, and their conversation is varied and ridiculously edifying. Morris reframes the NFL draft in a way that seems so obvious once it’s pointed out but that I’d never consider. That was when I stood in the kitchen with my mouth hanging open, and this is despite my having broken up with football several years ago.

This is a podcast wherein I watch closely for new episodes and listen to them as soon as they arrive. You can find Still Processing on the NY Times website, on Stitcher, on iTunes, or wherever you get your fine podcasts.

…

If you’d like to be creeped out, Spooked from WNYC and Snap Judgment is releasing a banquet of scary stories to give you the jibblies. Ghosts and spirits, hauntings and malevolent entities – there are a lot of stories to choose from in the weeks leading to Halloween.

You can find Spooked at their website, on Stitcher, on iTunes, or wherever your podcasts reside.

…

And one last recommendation, one that several of you have mentioned in the comments. This show was also a sponsor of my own podcast a few weeks back.

Since then, I’ve become totally addicted to Jules & James, a fictional storytelling podcast about an American in Paris (James) and a British filmmaker in London (that would be Jules) who connect over a misdialed number and end up chatting once a week at a specific time for exactly 30 minutes.

In the early episodes, James’ performance bugged me and he sounded too much like “a really nice guy” for me to want to listen to him, but he grew on me as his more of his character was revealed. It’s a really fun concept, and their slowly development relationship within a specific time and space where they are two strangers who are totally honest with one another makes for very fun listening while I cross stitch The Never Ending Project.

You can find Jules & James on their website, on Stitcher, on iTunes, and where you get your podcasts.

What podcast episodes have you really liked lately? Any you’d recommend to us? The dogs always need walking, so I’m always looking for more to listen to!