Ssrah and I have been obsessing over Adnan Syed and whether or not Jay and Jen patsied him or if he’s a total psychopath… If you aren’t on board, get on this train yo. There are like 5 million other sleuths out there investigating the case already. What are you waiting for?
Oh, you are already into it? Okay, well then you want more, so here are my suggestions.
DIsclaimer… This is a list of PODCASTS that I recommend and enjoy… if you specifically need crime drama to get your rocks off, see Sarah. She’s a true crime afficionado and can point you in the direction of plenty a documentary film.
99% Invisible
If you are reading this blog, then there is a strong chance that you love design and have a penchant for the more cultural/intellectual nuance of our day to day dealings, aesthetically speaking. Well, guess what, Roman Mars gets you, and he’s got fantastic stories to tell you. He doesn’t discern, no topic is too broad or too microscopic to get into… it’s all about intelligent design and the thought that has gone into the world that we take for granted. From skateboards, to Cul-de-Sacs, the evolution of CD packaging to one of my favs, Title TK, about working titles and the careful naming of products.
Song Exploder
Holy crap this is the best! I don’t know if you know this or not, but I dabble in some music-making and I’m in a band currently, and it’s not the first. Listening to an episode of Song Exploder is the best experience I could imagine sharing with anyone who knows me and can’t quite gather how this works… the magic of song making is all laid out in this podcast, and the best part is that it’s told through the lens of the artists themselves. I love the way songs come together, and how sometimes it starts with a melody that you can’t shake, or a riff, or a complex sound design that you want to see come to life, or an idea, and how it’s a truly collaborative process that builds with multiple instruments and multiple ideas coming together to form a final product.
Strangers
I’m shilling for my friends here, cause I used to work at KCRW, a public radio station that pretty much invented podcasts right alongside Steve Jobs… and Lea is my friend. But I promise you that isn’t a factor here, this is just a damn good podcast, and easily it’s becoming one of the best out there. Lea is a lady of great intrigue, a talented storyteller who focuses her storyline on that place in humanity where strangers become phenomenally important through whatever adverse scenarios that life may toss you. I have my own intimate Strangers moment when the dude got sick with cancer, and in an incredibly vulnerable and terrifying moment of low immunity and threatening fever, I found myself on a facebook thread with Lea and her community of listeners – calming my very real fears while Heffe slept through his fever. Is this more than you want to know? I’m trying not to be too personal, but this one is fantastic. Having consumed every episode voraciously I can honestly say, this lady speaks with such an authentic and genuine place that I’m just in awe. I dig it.
Criminal
So, this is my best attempt at sharing with you another podcast along the lines of Serial. I discovered this podcast since Serial. Each episode is self contained and covers any number of topics from the folks that illegally farm venus fly traps in my homestate of NC, to a man charged for the murder of his wife but maybe instead she was attacked by an owl???
Love + Radio
I’m still finding my pace with this one. I really do enjoy it, particularly the Halloween episdoe that I listened to while in the holiday spirit. It’s a pretty good storytelling format, but something keeps me from feeling totally in love. That’s not a great sale for you, but give it a try and then tell me what I’m not seeing. I’m convinced I’m gonna love it eventually.
Oh, last one. The Organist.
This is one more from the crew at KCRW, but it’s a partnership with McSweeney’s which through some winding meandering path by way of Dave Eggars and I feel that Sarah’s favorite lit professor from UNCG would approve. So, this interview series with a comedic bent is produced monthly. I was just texting with Sarah about my love/hate relationship with Lena Dunham, and how I gobbled up her memoir in the first day that it arrive on my doorstep (Sarah, I pre-ordered it about three months in advance too) – Uh, anyway, check out the episode called Thundershirt, where she and Judy Blume have a conversation. Crap. I never really gave her the credit that she deserved, but hearing her chat it up with the narrator of my inner dialog as I sailed through puberty… things changed for me, and I began to wonder if my problem with Lena is merely that I’m just too old. I’m officially too old to be okay with this upcoming generation’s take on Reality Bites. Where are my eager doe eyed optimistic poets with their slacker pursuits.
If you are crazy, and you really want to get into the weeds, here just a few more that you should check out. DNA, This American Life, The Truth, RadioLab ,TED Radio Hour,
