It’s podcast recommendation time! While it’s easy to recommend an entire podcast, sometimes recommending a specific episode is much easier to manage as a new listener. But, if you’re looking for more romance-focused podcasts to try, I have a page collecting them at RomancePodcasts.com, and I just updated it with new options.
Let’s get to it. Here are a few episodes that rocked my brain recently.
Amanda recommended this show to me and whooooa is it interesting and smart and fun and fascinating. From the description: “Michael Hobbes and Sarah Marshall are journalists obsessed with the past. Every week they reconsider an event, person or phenomenon that’s been miscast in the public imagination.”
So if I think I remember what a specific event was about, chances are I’m wrong (this is not a surprise). But you know how sometimes you back to re-read an older novel you loved, and with age and perspective and learning-of-things, you see it entirely differently? It’s like that, only with major news events and pop culture scandals, some of which happened when I was barely aware of the larger world. Sarah and Mike research a specific thing, then contrast the public perception of that event now with the full facts and sequence of what really happened. Sarah in one episode said that if a woman is being blamed for the downfall of some guy, take another look. So true.
Two episodes that I am still thinking about: You’re Wrong About Multiple Personality Disorder, and You’re Wrong About Tammy Faye Bakker and Jessica Hahn. Important: major trigger warnings for both, especially the second one, specifically for rape, human trafficking, gaslighting, manipulation, and assault.
You can find You’re Wrong About on their website, on Stitcher, and on Apple Podcasts.
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The Good Ancestor Podcast with Layla Saad
I learned about Layla F. Saad’s workbook Me and White Supremacy, from Emily Nagoski’s Instagram feed, and after subscribing, I found her podcast. It’s wonderful.
The description says everything you need to know: I’m Layla Saad, and my life is driven by One. Burning. Question. How can I become a Good Ancestor? How can I create a legacy of healing and liberation for those who are here in this lifetime, and those who will come after I am gone? In my pursuit to answer this question, I’m interviewing change-makers and culture-shifters who are also exploring that question for themselves, in the way that they live and lead their life. It’s my intention that these conversations will help You find your own answers to that question too. Welcome to Good Ancestor Podcast.
The episode I recommend starting with is, well, the first one, which is an interview with Rachel Cargle, but all of the episodes so far have been excellent.
You can find the Good Ancestor Podcast at Layla F. Saad’s website, on Stitcher, and on Apple Podcasts.
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The Hollywood Read with Kayleigh Donaldson and Sarah Marrs
The description: Film and pop culture writers Kayleigh Donaldson and Sarah Marrs discuss the latest goings-on of Hollywood and the cross-section of celebrity, culture, money, politics, and entertainment. So if you like intelligent, feminist examinations of all those things (hi!) you might like this. I have a few episodes in the queue on my phone, but the one I really enjoyed most recently was their unabashed celebration of Gerard Butler, “Episode 8: Gerard Butler is the Best!”
You can find The Hollywood Read on their website, on Stitcher, and on Apple Podcasts.
What about you? Any episodes you’d like to share or recommend?
I participated in Layla Saad’s first Instagram ME AND WHITE SUPREMACY workshop. It was the most profound, revelatory, unsettling and important process of my adult life. You (and I mean me, a white woman) can never again ignore what this experience showed so clearly. I haven’t listened to this podcast, but I am certain Layla Saad is her usual powerful, sincere and thought-provoking self. We need to be good ancestors.
I started listening to “You’re Wrong About” after you mentioned an episode in a recent podcast, and now I’m almost caught up on their back episodes. Last night was “You’re Wrong About Stranger Danger.” While I don’t always agree with everything that the hosts say (and they do have opinions, as well as their very well-researched facts), it is always a fascinating and engaging listen.
I just finished The Teacher’s Pet. True crime, investigating the disappearannce of Lynette Dawson and how despite being super shady, the police just give the husdand a pass. Its so good, but it will make you furious on multiple levels.
On a happier note, the conan Obrien needs a friend is hilarious, especially the Will ferrell and David Sedaris episodes.
If anyone hasn’t gotten into the series (start with Series 1) of “My Dad Wrote a Porno”, I highly recommend it – you’ll get outright fits of giggles and have tears of laughter streaming down your face (very hard to hide when listening on the bus to work! lol)
@Cathryn: INVERNESS. Belinda! We listen to that when we drive without the kids in the car and we’re barely able to breathe.
@SB Sarah – it’s hysterical isn’t it! Welcome to a fellow Belinker!
I would recommend the following:
From “The Daily” the episodes “What Hollywood Keeps Getting Wrong about Race” and “The American Women Who Joined Isis”
From RadioLab “In the No Part 1” “In the No Part 2” and “In the No Part 3” all about issues of consent in sexual situations. TW for sexual assualt.
@anoutlawlife and @anacoqui are doing a podcast where they discuss the Beyond books by Kit Rocha. https://beyondthesectors.com/