Podcasts of the Week Ending April 18

All Songs Considered :: John Prine’s Life In 10 Songs

Folk singer-songwriter John Prine recently died of COVID-19.  I wasn’t ignorant of his music so this was a good introduction to his magnificent talent.

Code Switch :: Why The Coronavirus Is Hitting Black Communities Hardest

American inequality and racism don’t go away during a pandemic.

Twenty Thousand Hertz -:: What’s Up, Doc?

The story of Mel Blanc, the man of a thousand voices.

What Next :: What America’s Biggest Nursing Union Wants

Fighting on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses are also fighting for better conditions for themselves and their patients.

Running Tally of Podcast of the Week Appearances in 2020

• Anthropocene Reviewed – 2
• Afropop Worldwide – 1
• All Songs Considered – 1
• BackStory – 3
• Best of the Left – 2
• Code Switch – 1
• Decoder Ring – 2
• Fresh Air – 3
• Futility Closet – 2
• Have You Heard – 1
• Hidden Brain – 2
• Hit Parade – 2
• Hub History – 1
• LeVar Burton Reads – 1
• Memory Palace – 2
• More Than Enough – 4
• 99% Invisible – 2
• 60-Second Science – 2
• Radio Boston – 1
• Radiolab – 1
• Risk! – 1
• Science Talk – 2
• Smithsonian Sidedoor – 2
• This American Life – 1
• Throughline – 6
• The Tomorrow Society – 1
• Twenty Thousand Hertz – 3
• Wedway Radio – 1
• What Next – 2

Podcasts of the Week Ending September 28

Code Switch :: The Original Blexit

Black Americans have never been fully supported by any political party, but after the Civil War, Black voters typically supported the Party of Lincoln.  Starting in the 1930s, many Black voters began switching their allegiance from Republicans to Democrats, a shift that was thoroughly completed by the 1970s.  Code Switch explains why and how that happened.

1619 Project  

This podcast debuted in August to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in what would become the United States.  The 1619 Project, created by the New York Times and hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones, explores how the legacy of slavery, segregation, and inequality have shaped American history.  There are 4 episodes so far and they are all excellent.

• • • 1. The Fight for a True Democracy
    • 2. The Economy That Slavery Built
    • 3. The Birth of American Music
    • 4. How the Bad Blood Started

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Running tally of 2019 Podcast of the Week appearances:

• • Afropop Worldwide – 1
  • AirSpace – 1
  • The Anthropocene Reviewed – 1
  • BackStory – 5
  • Best of the Left– 3
  • Code Switch – 5
  • Decoder Ring  – 3
  • Fresh Air – 8
  • Futility Closet – 1
  • Have You Heard? – 1
  • Hidden Brain – 2
  • Hit Parade – 4
  • Household Name – 1
  • Hub History – 6
  • Lost Notes – 1
  • Memory Palace – 5
  • More or Less – 3
  • More Perfect – 2
  • The Moth – 1
  • 99% Invisible – 10
  • The New Yorker Radio Hour – 1
  • Next Left – 1
  • On the Media – 4
  • Planet Money – 3
  • Planet Money: The Indicator – 1
  • Re:Sound – 1
  • Radiolab  – 2
  • Radio Boston – 2
  • Science Talk – 1
  • 1619 Project – 4
  • 60 Second Science – 1
  • Smithsonian Sidedoor – 3
  • Sound Opinions – 3
  • StoryCorps – 2
  • 30 for 30 Podcasts – 2
  • This American Life – 2
  • Tiny Desk Concert – 1
  • Throughline – 7
  • To the Best of Our Knowledge – 1
  • Tomorrow Society – 1
  • Travel with Rick Steves – 1
  • The Truth – 3
  • Twenty Thousand Hertz  – 3
  • The War on Cars – 3
  • WBUR News – 5
  • We Need Some Milk – 1
  • What Next – 1

Podcasts of the Week Ending March 9th

BackStory :: Oh, Bloody Hell

You ever wonder about the history of profanity in America? This podcast’s got that shit covered.

Code Switch :: When Disaster Strikes

Inequality rears its ugly head in America in many ways.  Code Switch explores how disaster aid is biased in favor of white, prosperous homeowners and against poorer, people of color who rent.

WBUR CommonHealth :: New Gene Therapy Shows Promise For Patients With Sickle Cell Disease

Gene therapy at Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Hospital is working to cure sickle cell disease.

Fresh Air :: The White House And Its ‘Shadow Cabinet’ Of Fox News TV Hosts

How Fox News has becom the state media of the fascist administration in the White House.

99% Invisible :: The Known Unknown

The Tomb of the Unknown at Arlington Cemetery is meant to represent the remains of military lost in war that cannot be identified, but in the case of the Vietnam War, the remains buried there were in fact known and only slowly revealed to the family.

60 Second Science :: Warm-Blooded Animals Lost Ability to Heal the Heart

Warm-blooded animals are able to regulate body temperature thanks to Thyroid hormone, but it also prevents warm-blooded animals from being able to regenerate heart tissue.

Throughline :: American Shadows

A history of conspiracy theories in the United States going back to the Founding Fathers and the American Revolution.

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Running tally of Podcast of the Week appearances:

• Afropop Worldwide – 1
• The Anthropocene Reviewed – 1
• BackStory – 1
• Code Switch – 2
• Decoder Ring  – 1
• Fresh Air – 2
• Hidden Brain – 1
• Household Name – 1
• Hub History – 1
• Memory Palace – 1
• More Perfect – 1
• 99% Invisible – 5
• The New Yorker Radio Hour – 1
• On the Media – 2
• Planet Money – 1
• Planet Money: The Indicator – 1
• Radio Boston – 2
• 60 Second Science – 1
• Smithsonian Sidedoor –
• This American Life – 1
• Throughline – 3
• Tomorrow Society – 1
• The Truth – 2
• The War on Cars – 1
• WBUR News – 1
• We Need Some Milk – 1
• What Next – 1

Podcasts of the Week Ending December 8

On the Media :: Whose Streets?

An expose on news media coverage that biases the priority of the automobile and questions the “heartwarming” stories of people walking long ways to work and transit inequality.

BackStory :: Forgotten Flu

100 years ago, a deadly influenza tore through the United States killing people in their peak of health.

Code Switch :: The Story of Mine Mill

The history of a radical leftist union that organized miners and millworkers in Birminham, Alabama, bringing together Black and white workers at the height of Jim Crow in the 1930s-1960s.

The Memory Palace :: Revolutions

A tribute to the humble – and noisy – washing machine.

99% Invisible :: Oñate’s Foot

The controversy over how Albuquerque would commemorate the conquistador who some see as New Mexico’s founding father and others see as a mass murderer

Nobody’s Home :: “Brown in a Different Way:” The Gentrification Dilemma

Nobody’s Home is a miniseries focusing on the problem of vacant housing in the United States.  It’s strange to listen to in Boston where the shortage of housing is the big problem.  But this episode on gentrification and the long history of inequality in housing ties both issues together well.

Podcasts of the Week Ending October 7th

What I’m listening to and what you should be listening to.

Have You Heard? :: Divided by Design: Race, Neighborhoods, Wealth and Schools

A history of racial segregation in neighborhoods and schools that is still feeding inequality to this very day.

To the Best of Our Knowledge :: What is School For?

I was worried that this would be peppered with corporate reform ideology and myths, but actually has some interesting stories on teacher burnout, multicultural studies, and the importance of the humanities.

The Truth :: Brain Chemistry

A funny/poignant audio drama about the life of a brain in a jar in the future, starring Scott Adsit of 30 Rock.

Hit Parade :: The Great War Against the Single Edition

It’s a good thing that Hit Parade is published infrequently, because I think I’m going to post every episode here.  This is the story of how record companies from the 1960s to the 2000s tried to make people by the more expensive full albums in order to get a copy of a popular song.  Deeply fascinating, with lots of Casey Kassem cameos.

99% Invisible :: The Athletic Brassiere

The hidden story of the sports bra (nee, the “Jock Bra”) and how it helped transform women in sports.

Snap Judgment Presents: Spooked :: A Friend in the Forest 

The Snap Judgment spinoff podcasts tells creepy stories for the month of October, and this contemporary ghost story from Ireland is particularly eerie.