Podcasts of the Week: August 26-September 8

This (two) weeks in podcasts.

All Songs Considered: All Songs +1: The Weird World Of ‘Feature’ Credits

Ever wondered what has lead to the great increase in songs with a “feat.” artist in the title over the past couple of decades? Or why the featured artists appears in the song title rather than the performer? Or what the difference between “feat.” and “with” or even “x” and “vs” all means?  Apparently, it’s all about metadata.

HUB History: Perambulating the Bounds

Local law requires Boston City Councilors or their designees to walk the boundaries of the city every five years, a practice that was often a boozy ceremony in the past, but has been ignored since the 1980s.  If the city is looking for citizens to take up perambulating the bounds again, I put my foot forward.

99% Invisible: The Age of the Algorithm

How algorithms, purportedly designed to replace subjective judgments with objective measurements, have been used as a cover for discrimination and  marketed for purposes they’re not designed for.

Have You Heard: Education Can’t Fix Poverty. So Why Keep Insisting that It Can?

The history of the most misguided myth about education, that it will resolve poverty with no other interventions required, and how it has set up schools to fail.

Finally, there are two podcasts that actually replayed episodes made by another podcast this week:

Code Switch: An Advertising Revolution: “Black People Are Not Dark-Skinned White People”  originally from Planet Money

An interesting story of the first African-American advertisement executive who showed how supposed free market capitalists were losing out on money due to white supremacy.

99% Invisible: Notes on an Imagined Plaque originally from The Memory Place

Nate Dimeo’s thoughts on what should be placed on a plaque on a Memphis statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest to mark the reasons why the statue exists.

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Podcasts of the Week (s) (August 12-25)

Once again, I’ve gone two weeks without posting the must-hear podcasts.  But lucky for you, podcasts are asynchronous so you can listen to them any time!

First, I want to promote a couple of podcasts I recently started listening to that I think are worth subscribing to:

• Five Questions With Betsy Rosenblatt Rosso – This is the first podcast I’ve heard created by someone I know, an old friend from college.  As the title aptly applies, Betsy interviews everyday people, asking them not just five questions but also providing five facts and asking to list five items on topic.  The answers are always insightful and I seriously want to get to know and become friends with every single person interviewed in these podcasts.
• Slate’s Hit Parade – This podcast is actually part of a larger anthology podcast called the Slate Culture Gabfest and appears once per month in that feed.  Host Chris Molanphy dedicates about an hour each episode to investigating where art and commerce intersect on the popular music charts by delving into the background of how certain songs become #1 hits.  So far the podcast has told the story of UB40’s “Red Red Wine,” the circumstances behind The Beatles occupying all of the top five spots in 1964, the Elton John & George Michael’s “imperial periods” when they ruled the charts, and how “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” and “We Are the World” made big hits out of charity megasingles.  Every episode is detailed and absolutely fascinating.

And some other podcast episodes you should listen too:

• Politically Re-Active with W. Kamau Bell and Hari Kondabolu – this podcast remains a go to source for insights on our political climate, and the three most recent episodes deal with removing Confederate monuments, Charlottesville and the aftermath.
• The Gist – The Politics of Police Unions – I’m extremely supportive of labor organizations but equally troubled by how police unions have become vehicles for racism, right wing politics, and protecting the most violent and corrupt in their ranks.  The interview with former Boston cop Tom Nolan gives some background.
• Hub History – Canoes and Canoodling on the Charles – this Boston history podcast introduced to me the history of the late nineteenth century recreational canoe craze and how kids used it to perform scandalous behavior.

 

Podcasts of the Week Ending July 14

Late, but still worth listening to.  There’s a lot of terrific material this week, although to be fair several of my recommendations are repackaging previously released content, so think of this as a greatest hits package of greatest hits!

Best of the Left – The inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men

Several stories debunk the myths of poverty and ask why economists don’t ask the right questions about poverty.

Have You Heard – ‘I Quit’ – Teachers Are Leaving and They Want to Tell You Why

The stress and inequity of teaching in defunded and underesourced public schools is causing teachers to quit teaching, but some of them are prominently telling the world why they’re leaving in hopes of bringing positive change for future teachers, students, and schools.

StoryCorps – Between June and September

Stories of Coney Island from people who kept the fun in the sun destination alive during its lowest points in the early 1990s.

Politically Re-Active – Street Heat w/ Congresswoman Barbara Lee & Linda Sarsour

Interviews with two amazing progressive leaders, both women of color, and their work fighting for social, racial, and economic justice.  I seriously had no idea that Linda Sarsour was so very Brooklyn.

BackStory – Skin Deep: Whiteness in America

Slavery and segregation not only meant discriminating against black people, but also defining what it means to be white.  Three stories detail how the idea of whiteness played out in different periods of American history.

Re:Sound – The Smash the Binary Show

Three stories of the experiences of transgender persons, as well as an exploration of the “feminine” qualities of straight cis men.  I was particularly touched by the story of “The Accidental Gay Parents.”

 

 

 

Podcasts of the Week for the Week Ending October 16

To the Best of Our Knowledge – Time Travel

I’ve always been obsessed by time travel.  Here are some stories of other obsessives and the possibilities of making time travel a reality.

Planet Money – The Wells Fargo Hustle

An insiders’ view of the latest scam in the banking and finance industry

To the Best of Our Knowledge – The Problem With Men’s Locker Rooms and Women’s Restrooms

This short episode takes on topical issues, but is most fascinating when discussing the Dutch culture of teaching children about sexuality and the history of segregating spaces by gender.

Sound Opinion – Bob Mehr on The Replacements

The Replacements were a great band of the 1980s who were “five years too early, and ten years too late.”  This is their story from their biographer.  I need to listen to more of The Replacements.  Perhaps a Musical Discovery?

Podcasts of the Week for the Week Ending October 9

The Concert – “Sweetly Sung“

A Far Cry performs at the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum with pieces featuring a performance on the toy piano and an arrangement of “Amazing Grace” for clarinet.

Code Switch – “Who is a Good Immigrant, Anyway?“

Political narratives champion the “good” immigrant but still punish many people who make positive contributions to the country.

99% Invisible– “Project Cybersyn“

Fascinating story of a futuristic room designed to be the place where the economy of Chile would be controlled under the Salvador Allende government.  It would be destroyed by the Pinochet dicatorship with only one photograph surviving.

Politically Reactive – “Rosa Clemente“

Fascinating interview with a hip-hop activist, community organizer, and former Green Party VP candidate touching on a lot of important issues the major parties are ignoring in this election.

Podcasts of the Week for the Week Ending October 2

This is another Podcasts of Two Weeks since I failed to get up a post last week, but these podcasts are all still timely enough to be worth listening to:

The Memory Palace – “Haunting“

• The story of Washington Phillip’s mysterious gospel and blues music

The Gist – “How Do We Fix Down-Ballot Elections?”

• Reid Wilson and Mike Pesca discuss the importance of congressional, state, and local elections and how they can be overlooked due to the hype of the Presidential election, an issue I’ve focused on here before.

Grapple –  Mahanoy City, The End of Coal Country

• My grandparents lived their final years in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, a city that was already suffering economically and growing derelict when I visited in the 1980s.  This podcast shows that Mahanoy City has taken an even more turn to the worst.

To the Best of Our Knowledge – Locked Up

• Mass incarceration has caused the United States to lead the world in the number of citizens in prisons.  Here are some stories of people behind bars and some alternatives to locking people up.

Decode D.C. – “Politicians Really Suck at Immigration“

• The title says it all in this analysis of how immigration restrictions have hurts agriculture in the United States by depriving farms of seasonal migrant workers while at the same time making it more likely undocumented people will stay in the country permanently rather than returning home.

Have You Heard? – Peanut Butter and Persistence

• The latest episode of this public education podcast focuses on a San Francisco school carrying out the types of reforms necessary in education but rarely endorsed by the so-called reformers.

Podcasts of the Week

I’m going to do something a little bit different this week and list some of my favorite podcast episodes from the past week with a blurb on each.

BackStory – “The Pursuit: A History of Happiness”

This is a good episode overall, but the segment on the Okeh Laughing Records and the psychology behind their popularity was particularly engaging.

Decode DC – “Learning to Love The F Word: Federalism”

The changing nature of state rights can be used to actually oppose discriminatory laws instead of uphold them.

The Gist – “Reduce, Reuse, and Re-Evaluate”

Mike Pesca discusses with Maria Konnikova is recycling is really benefiting the planet. The answer is complicated and shrouded in myth and morality.

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Invisibilia – “Frame of Reference”

I was particularly fascinated with the second segment where children of immigrants internalize their parents’ disregard the daily indignities of children and teenagers in the United States because they pale in comparison to the problems of their home country.

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All right, your turn.  Let me know what you think in the comments.  Do you like this format for Podcast of the Week?  What podcasts did you listen to this week?