A gift guide for podcast lovers
Pickleball, body talk, pizza history, The Beachcombers, ghostly family history, loyal Malibu community, so much chicken.
With tomorrow being Black Friday and holiday shopping in full swing, I thought I’d put together a quick and ongoing list of gift ideas for the podcast lover in your life. I say ongoing because I feel like I’m going to forget some and end up adding more to future Podstacks. If you think of any, please share them in the comments to give us all more ideas!
A subscription to a favourite podcast’s bonus/premium content
Podcast merch
A copy of Good Tape
Wireless headphones (learn more about headphones here)
An activity that they could do while listening to podcasts (ie. puzzles, paint by number, lego)
A custom podcast recommendation
This week’s podstack
Uncuffed - Pickleball: Can A Game Change Prison Culture?
Pickleball is everywhere! And in May of this year, it also arrived at San Quentin State Prison. It’s all part of a plan to shift towards rehabilitating people and helping prepare them for life outside the facility. The creative storytelling of this episode hooked me immediately, in the simplest way: the four hosts went around noting new things that they’d noticed around the facility and their thoughts on them. From tight clothes to microwave popcorn, it’s the perfect way to capture their personalities and then effortlessly segue into the pickleball story. The hosts of the this segment, Ryan and Steve, recall the day the pickleball courts opened as they saw one of the biggest crowds gather and even faced off against some of the officers. With audio from that day mixed in and conversations about what the reactions were, you get to understand all the layers to this moment. Does it change the way the officers treat the incarcerated people? Is it that first step in changing those dynamics so that the facility really does shift towards supporting people in their rehabilitation? If you like Ear Hustle, you’ll love this. (transcript)
Unruly “unpacks the quiet ways women’s bodies are commodified, defined, and regulated by social media, the medical profession, the beauty industry, and more”. Each episode explores a different topic and the industry, history, and habits that impact it. From the ways bodies are represented and the difference between body positivity and body neutrality, to all the practices in the beauty industry that reflect the same problematic messages as the ones from diet culture. The body language episode might make you assume it’s about the ways we carry our bodies, but it’s much more literal than that. It’s the actual language used to talk about women’s body parts and how the words we use play into our comfort level with knowing and fighting for our bodies. Every episode I’ve listened to so far has left me with some nugget of knowledge or increased awareness about how my perception of myself might be skewed by the many influences around me. (transcript)
Michigan Radio Presents - Dough Dynasty: The Rise of American Pizza
I was immediately charmed by the fact that everyone who you hear from in this show is introduced by their name and their favourite pizza toppings. It plays so well into the curious and fun tone as this show explores how pizza became one of the staple meals in the U.S.. From its first introduction, to the creation of huge franchises like Domino’s and Little Caesars, so much history comes back to Michigan. The first episode is great for catching you up on the history and how the different varieties of pizza came to be. The second episode goes deeper on those household names and how their businesses grew. Learning about all the engineering behind every aspect of pizza is exactly my kind of podcast. This show has such a playful tone and style to it, as you’re carried through interviews and thoughts from the host, you won’t want to stop listening and you’ll absolutely want to order pizza.
Coasters - Episode 1: Salvaging The Beachcombers
This is one of those fun examples of when someone goes down a rabbit hole about something niche that they love or are endlessly fascinated by. In this case, it’s a lost show from the 70s that took place in a small town in British Columbia. The Beachcombers has a small but dedicated fan base, but is incredibly hard to watch since CBC took it off the air in 1990. Host Sophie Woodrooffe is trying to understand the mark it left on the town it took place in, why it resonated so strongly with people, and why it’s so difficult to watch the show now. I had never heard of the show or the small town, but that doesn’t matter. I wanted to find out why it’s so hidden from the public and how people feel about it so many years after it ended. It’s a story of community, Canadian television, and going down the rabbit hole. The second episode is about Little Free Libraries and what it means to be a ‘book bomber’. I love LFLs and this was so cool to learn more about them, but there is a surprisingly complex story to be told about the positive and negative responses to them! (h/t Lauren!)
Ghost Story - The House Next Door
Part ghost story, part true crime is not usually a podcast I’d be drawn to, but this one has such an intriguing twist of characters that I couldn’t resist. By some chance of fate or paranormal intervention, Tristan Redman discovered that his wife’s dead great-grandmother might’ve been the ghost that haunted his childhood bedroom… because he happened to grow up next door to the house where she was killed. The true crime twist? The debate over whether it was the brother or the husband who killed her. And if that isn’t all enough of an interesting pile of connections, the family he’s investigating – his in-laws – aren’t complete nobodys. His father-in-law is a famous philosopher and his brother-in-law is actor Hugh Dancy. I think even without the famous family, I’d still be drawn to this story. It’s just too strange that he could’ve been haunted by a relative of the woman he ended up marrying! The storytelling, family interviews, and analysis of police reports in this episode are pulled together so seamlessly that I immediately needed to go to the next episode. So far the ghost story and true crime of it all isn’t causing me any discomfort, so I think I can handle it and I’m all in for where this investigation goes.
Sandcastles - EP1: Castles Crumble
When a wildfire looms near a Malibu surf community, everyone seems to mostly be taking it in stride. Until they notice the patterns change and fire shift in a direction that sets it on the course to hit home. As host Adriana Cargill recalls the series of events that make up that day, she mixes in interviews with people who were there and the audio from the videos they were recording as they experienced it. It’s that raw audio that really captivated me. You can’t fake it and you can’t recreate those authentic reactions. It puts you into the moment as closely as you ever want to be. Listening to things play out throughout the day, you hear their panic increase but never as much as I thought it would. Until it reaches another burning point, one that they hadn’t experience before and the devastating possibility of homes being destroyed keeps increasing. As Adriana tells us more about this area’s history, we understand why so many of these people headed to the beach for safety and even back to their homes instead of evacuating the area. It’s a story of our homes and fighting to protect them and the priceless memories they hold. “Here, loyalty to community is fierce.” (h/t EarBuds!)
Fed with Chris van Tulleken - 1. The Invention Of Chicken
An animal we use an insult is also the most consumed protein in the world. But those two things didn’t happen in isolation. You could say that by shifting the language and perception around chickens from one of worship to one of weakling was part of the reason they started being consumed so much more. There are several factors that lead to this and that’s what Chris van Tulleken is studying in this series. He’s a doctor and academic who understands what food does for our body in a scientific/nutritional/medical sense, but he also recognizes all the other factors that make food such a pivotal thing in almost every aspect of our lives. This series takes you on a detailed journey to understand why chickens, how they’re farmed, and what cultural/historical shifts got us here. Chris even adopted some chickens of his own for the series and they have some pretty great names, even if their fates aren’t so great.
More sweet treats
A cute holiday short with some very cool animation.
I’m still so obsessed with the Body Electric series.
Easy cooking hack for converting ounces, tablespoons, and teaspoons.
Thank you for reading! If you listened to something this week that made your heart sing, your imagination wander, or your brain ponder, I’d love to hear about it!
Really look forward to enjoying these recommendations!