Friday, July 17, 2015

Just one more recommendation

I want to second David Hepworth’s recommendation of Phoebe Judge and Lauren Spohrer’s podcast Criminal. What makes is this podcast exceptional, to my mind, is its unpredictability and variety. It’s also refreshingly low-key, and free of the mannerisms that can make podcasts annoying: no ironic background music here. I’ve listened to five episodes so far, about an ex-addict, a book thief, a killer contemplating revenge, a victim of a romance scam, and a man shot by police in his driveway.

Like The Allusionist (of which I’m also fond), Criminal is a member of Radiotopia.

Any good podcasts anyone wants to recommend?

comments: 7

Chris said...

The Bowery Boys. Great New York City history. A little cornball at times but still fun.

Zhoen said...

I assume you already listen to the QI podcast, No Such Thing as a Fish, but just in case.

http://qi.com/podcast/

Michael Leddy said...

I don’t know either one, but I’m trying them both. Why not? Thanks, Chris and Zhoen.

brownstudy said...

I like BBC4's "Great Lives" podcast. I also like the New Yorker Out Loud podcast; it's usually about 20 minutes and has a decent variety of topics.

Michael Leddy said...

Thanks for the recommendations, Mike. I’ll try them.

I’m still following No Such Thing I admire the preparation that goes into The Bowery Boys, but I found the density of information too much to take in while walking or driving. I do almost all my podcast listening while doing the one or the other.

brownstudy said...

I've tried to like "Lore" by Aaron Mahnke as the subject matter of weird topics (ghosts, shipwrecks) appeals to my inner 10-year-old, but the intros are so overwritten and delivered in a gooey Ira Glass/NPR tone that I will have to stop.

A recent find you might like is "You Must Remember This" by Karina Longworth. She tells nicely shaped stories of "The secret and/or forgotten histories of Hollywood's first century". Her stories are just long enough, have the right amount of detail, she sounds like a normal person, and it sounds like she's done her homework (she lists her sources in the shownotes on the web site). I don't much care about current celebrity gossip but I'm a sucker for gossip about the old Hollywood days.

Michael Leddy said...

Thanks for the recommendations, Mike. I just tried listening to the most recent Lore , and the combination of the voice and the antiques-mall piano background made me give up. (The local antiques mall has ambient piano music non-stop.) The other one though looks and sounds interesting.

One I’ve been liking a lot is 99% Invisible . Too many minutes are commercials, and the “Hello, beautiful nerds” patter and unctuous/ironic pitches are hard to take, but the content is good to very good to terrific.