Do you judge a pod by its cover?
Culinary producers, baking is home, what's crying, the logistics of death, living in a simulation, shampoo scams, 4000 weeks.
A few weeks ago Arielle asked me why I don’t include the cover art of the podcasts I’m writing about. To be honest, I had never really thought much about it. I was so focused on how the written reviews could inspire someone to listen that I didn’t think about how the cover art might impact that. But I love cover art. Just like with books, it can be so important to sparking someone’s curiosity. I know you’re not supposed to judge books by their covers, but we can’t help it. So for this week’s stack, I’m including cover art. I’m only doing show art this time, instead of episode art, which I also want to feature in a future list! I’d love to hear what you think about it, if you prefer it, and if you have any favourite podcast cover art.
I like having a physical representation of podcasts so much that I created a wall of CD cases with cover art in them. I get so attached to the shows I put on display that I really don’t change it very much, but in honour of this experiment I updated the wall!
This week’s podstack
Radio Cherry Bombe - “The Bear” Culinary Producer Courtney Storer On Season 2 And Keeping It Real
This is the combination of two things I love to learn about: behind the scenes of movies and food! Courtney Storer is the culinary producer for the TV show The Bear. First of all, what a cool job! She’s worked in restaurants before and trained to be a chef, so she knows her stuff. As the culinary producer, she’s on set every day, she’s consulting on the writing, and she’s helping the actors. She’s the reason things look so true to real life from a food and restaurant perspective. The attention to detail and the logistics that go into it really make you appreciate the amount of thought put into it all. I loved learning about her hesitations to pursue cooking, her favourite cookbooks, and the foods she always has in her fridge. Plus, I’m even more excited for the second season of The Bear now. It’s not in Canada yet, but I’m ready! (transcript)
Home. Made. - Love, Loss and Baking
Home. Made. is all about the meaning of home and what it teaches us about ourselves and each other. It is packed full of heart and beautiful stories. This episode is about what happens when you find someone who feels like home, after never really experiencing that kind of safety or acceptance. Be prepared for an emotional ride because it’s also about loss and how to find yourself a new home afterwards. For Jazzmyn Cramer, baking helped her build up a home again. It helped her find a place in a community she barely knew and to find comfort in her self. As Jazzmyn shares this journey to host Stephanie Foo it feels like so much more than just a retelling. The structure and production of the show sucks you in so you feel like you were there with Jazzmyn. This is a story about having hope through hard times as much as it is about the meaning of home. (transcript)
In case that last episode makes you cry, here’s a good follow up about why we cry. Tears and crying are technically different things, especially from a scientific perspective. The tears an onion causes you are different in purpose and structure from the ones when you’re feeling sad. Host Anita Rao is joined by Heather Christle, who wrote a book about and studied all facets of crying. It’ll give you a new appreciation for the physical, emotional, and societal influences on crying. I learned so much from their conversation and loved all the listener voice notes about the last time people cried. Whether you’re a frequent crier or rarely shed a tear, this will give you a better understanding of why. And the thing that surprised me the most is how different joyous crying can be from sad crying. I think I have a lot of happy tears but those can be less common for people. (transcript)
Balance is sandwiching the crying episode between two heavy, cry-worthy episodes. If you haven’t listened to Dying for Sex, the series Nikki Boyer made with her best friend Molly who was living out the end of her life to the fullest after finding out she was dying of cancer, you NEED to go listen now. Then come back and listen to the first episode of Nikki’s new show. It’s a conversation with Reverend Peggy, who was there helping Molly with her end of life peace and works as the lead chaplain at one of the world’s most renowned hospitals. Their reminiscing switches between learning about what it’s like to work in a hospital helping people with the spiritual or religious support they need in sickness, uncertainty, and death. And what Molly’s final moments were like. Stories of death and loss can be so hard to listen to and it might be cheesy to say, but they teach us so much about life. Nikki and Peggy have this beautiful warmth together and you’ll find yourself wanting to hug them or someone you love. It won’t be all tears, they’re also great at bringing the humour and lightness to the conversation. Also logistics! They’ll make you think about some logistics you might want to write down.
Future Tense Fiction - Live. Love. Die. Repeat?
If you’re loving the fact that Black Mirror is back, you might enjoy this fictional story. The show explores alternate possibilities through speculative science fiction. It begins with a reading of a short story by the author, then the host and author discuss what it would be like if it came true. This one is all about wondering what it would be like if we lived in a simulation and were then also given the option to know how it all ends. For some people, knowing the future takes away a lot of anxiety. For others, it takes away the joys and surprises. With a love story and reincarnation interwoven into the plot, the story makes you wonder which kind of life you’d prefer to live. It feels like part audiobook, part podcast. (transcript)
What’s the best thing since sliced bread? This show explores different things every episode to determine if they’re all just a marketing ploy or truly deliver on how great they are. This episode will help you learn about how shampoo works…or does it? With the number of shampoos you’ll find on the shelf, it’s a good question to be asking! Are the more expensive ones really doing something better? What contributes to healthy hair and is there any truth in the claims we hear about what helps your hair? Hear from scientists and enjoy the listener answers to shampoo thoughts and skepticism. Questions from listeners are sprinkled in as host Greg Foot consults different scientists to get to the truth. And if you like this concept, there’s a big catalogue of episodes that also caught my eye!
It’s Not Just In Your Head - #140: Four Thousand Weeks (ft. Oliver Burkeman)
“I’ve always been interested in that idea that capitalism itself is a symptom of a way of dealing with the fear of death and the fear of finite and limitation… This process that began with the invention of the first clocks and then continued through the Industrial Revolution and all the rest of it, lead to this idea that time is a resource. That time is not just what we are or the medium our lives unfold in. But a thing that we have and can use well or use badly.” I’m starting this one with a long quote, but it really is the thought-provoking ideas that made me want to include it. This conversation is a deep way to think about productivity. You might think that saying we only get 4,000 weeks in our lives is all about optimizing and improving everything we do with that time we have. But for Oliver Burkeman it’s more like a rejection of that mindset. He writes about and studies our habits around time and constantly trying to optimize ourselves and our lives. Is productivity just a way of avoiding thinking about our own mortality? Do we feel this urgency to accomplish because we’re chasing things that we need to do before we die? I do wish the production quality of this episode was a bit stronger. It made me look up other podcasts that Oliver has been on, but nothing stuck with me the same and dissected the ideas as well as this one.
More sweet treats
Some Canadian podcast playlists for you.
The correct answer to ‘when to send emails’ and painfully relatable.
An excellent list of impactful podcasts of 2023.
The devil works hard, but Barbie’s marketing team is making everything pink!
Shout out to awesome women in podcasting.
A podcast description that perfectly captures the chaotic comedy and gets attention.
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!
And let me know what you think about the inclusion of cover art!
Interestingly enough, cover art makes me less likely to read every entry. I scrolled a lot faster and skimmed more than with your previous posts
Thanks for including my “Best of” list!