Continuing the Olympics in my queue
Olympic history, sex testing, lost media, challenging hikes, Elon on trial, hearing loss.
I don’t know about you, but the Olympics completely took over my attention! When I wasn’t watching them live or the highlights, I was checking out podcasts related to them or sports in general. Some of those podcasts are mentioned below, but I wanted to also give a shout out to Blind Landing. The first season of this show was a fascinating exploration of a controversial time in gymnastics history at the Sydney Olympics. Then there’s State of Play, which goes into the impact of and reactions to the Olympics taking over Paris. Overall, the Olympics definitely made me spend more time in front of the TV and less time doing my podcast-listening activities. At one point, I even imagined what the podcast-themed Olympic events could be.
What about…
Fastest listening speed while still being able to explain what the episode was about.
Most chores completed within one episode.
I will probably think of more as soon as I hit send on this newsletter. Got more ideas? Please share in the comments!
This week’s podstack
Sportly - The Game-Changing Evolution of Olympic Sports
Have you ever wondered why certain sports come and go from the Olympic Games? Baseball has had a lot of back and forth and unfortunately once tug-of-war was out, it never made it back in. Like Sportly does best, they’re giving a full overview of the history of the Olympics and how it got where it is today. I love Kavitha’s storytelling and she brings so much knowledge to every episode. That’s because Sportly isn’t about the stats or the scores, it’s about the personal, cultural, and even political stories that surround sports. You don’t need to be a sports fan to enjoy this show, because it’s really about learning about cultural trends, history, and what moments in sports say about society. Their cricket episode will teach you so much about its evolution and how it became so popular!
Tested - Episode 1: The Choice
When Rose Eveleth returns with a new show about the 100 year history of sex testing in sports, you listen. You listen for the deep historical research, the blend of interviews and archival tape, and the gripping narrative structure. The struggles of women’s sports comes as no surprise. We all know that female athletes have been under appreciated and underpaid basically forever. But what I didn’t realize was that they’ve also had to put up with testing processes that determine who qualifies to compete in the women’s category. Without having any knowledge of their body being different from their fellow female athletes, a woman can be told that her body contains too much testosterone to continue competing with other women. Their options? Harmful and lifelong changes to their bodies. To understand this issue and the biology, Tested is looking at the world of female runners. I’m absolutely gripped by this story, frustrated by what these athletes have had to put up with, and curious to see if there’s a chance that things change for the better.
Everyone Knows That: The Search For Ulterior Motives - Track 1: Nobody Knows It
If you love stories about lost media, you’ll love this series. When the search for a song becomes so big it earns its own subreddit and countless hoaxes, the desire to figure out where the heck this song came from grows even deeper. They’ve got a 17 second snippet, they’ve got some imagery attached to it, and they’ve got so many people on the internet searching for it. Josh, the host, takes us through every step of this mystery, talking to music experts about what time period it might be from and even to the people moderating the theories and hoaxes. It reminds me of when Reply All had their big episode about a missing song, but this series has the time and space to go even deeper on the investigation. The way the internet bands together and the way we treat the preservation of media will get you thinking. Plus, this is an investigation that has a satisfying and sweet ending!
Out There - The Gift of Silence
You know how everyone likes to say audio is special because it’s so intimate? This is an example of what that really means. Because it’s the stories that are so intimate and this format gives people the space and safety to get that deep. As Ilana Nevins takes us through a complicated journey of long, challenging, and beautiful hikes with her dad, she shares the struggle that was happening alongside it. A desire to push herself and her body to be a version of herself that she saw in her dad’s eyes. A version of herself that wasn’t sustainable or healthy and incredibly difficult to untangle from. Ilana’s honesty with herself, her dad, and throughout this episode will have you captivated. The writing is so strong, the story is so personal and probably relatable to many, and it’s all packaged together with music and raw audio that completely hooks you. (transcript)
The Deposition - Baby Smoke 9000
After the many, many podcast episodes and series that have been done about Elon Musk over the past couple years, I stopped listening. They weren’t interesting anymore and I didn’t want to give him anymore of my attention. But The Deposition is a show that I am absolutely making an exception for! It’s a dramatic reading of the full transcript from when Elon was deposed in a defamation lawsuit filed by Ben Brody, who Musk tweeted about speculating Brody was a disguised federal agent in a “false flag” situation (he was not, obviously). The cast gets so delightfully and seriously into their characters, especially those of Elon and his lawyer…. until it all gets too ridiculous that they break. The things said throughout the deposition are so continuously absurd and this is the perfect way to enjoy it. Right from the start you’ll hear how frustratingly bonkers Elon and his lawyer were/are.
Humans in Public Health - Short-Haul Truckers, Long-Term Noise Exposure
Getting so obsessed with podcasts has also made me a little obsessed with sound and paying closer attention to it all around me. I think that’s why I’ve also been listening to lots of episodes about noise, silence, and sound. This episode about the impact of noise experienced by short haul truckers fit right into my listening trends. It’s a personal story told by Rosemelly, whose father works has a trucker and basically became her research assistant as she studied the impact this job has on people’s hearing. Her investment in the research, paired with her father’s enthusiasm to help her survey as many of his coworkers as possible, made for a surprisingly sweet story. She comes out of it with some solid insights, and for listeners to the episode, it’s a great example of how storytelling like this can teach us about something like public health matters. (transcript)
More sweet treats
I’ve been waiting for this episode of If Books Could Kill and it DID NOT disappoint!
Search Engine’s episode with Ezra Klein about staying sane while following the election was a helpful perspective.
The concern over how much time we spend sitting got the Decoder Ring treatment and it’s just as in-depth as you’d expect!
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!