For the love of cliffhangers

National parks, supreme court audio drama, Jar Jar Binks, style 101, medical gaslighting, part song part pod, Barbie bio.

Who doesn’t love a good cliffhanger? A line or moment that leaves you desperately needing to know more. Sometimes they’re at the end of an episode, but other times they’re sprinkled throughout, keeping you captivated without a doubt. Maybe they’re more frequently found in fiction or investigative shows, but I think there’s lots of fun to be found in trying one or two in any show. A good intro can be made even stronger with a cliffhanger that alludes to what’s coming up in the episode and maybe that’s more likely considered a teaser, but it has the same effect. It makes you want more! Longer episodes can certainly use them in the middle to keep people locked in. It’s kinda like thinking of any show’s structure in scenes and how you can end each scene on a note that entices the audience to feel eager for the next scene. In case you can’t tell, I listened to some very compelling shows this week!

This week’s podstack

Field Trip - Yosemite National Park

Field Trip is a narrative and documentary style look at how the US National Parks are changing. Each episode covers a different park and looks at the challenges and necessary updates they need to survive. From protecting the sequoia trees in Yosemite, to recognizing and respecting the Indigenous ancestral land that the parks sit on, the show makes you think differently about how the parks exist and what they really need to keep going. This is such a good mix of history, current happenings, mixed with personal and sometimes emotional moments from both host Lillian Cunningham and the people she speaks with. Since so many of her interviews were done at the parks, you get to enjoy some raw soundscapes like the crunching of snow and the surprise when the heat from bonfires melt a mic protector. (transcript)

Supreme: The Battle for Roe - Swinging A Bat

Maybe it’s because I just watched Erin Brockovich. Or because the Supreme Court is currently making a mess of everything. But this show has me hooked. It follows two stories in parallel that I’m guessing are going to come to a head together as they intersect with each other over an abortion law court case. While William H. Macy plays a judge who is reluctant to join the Supreme Court, Maya Hawke plays a newly graduated lawyer and one of the few female lawyers at the time. Together with some other women, she’s putting together a case to fight for abortion rights in Texas. The characters are wildly likeable and I love the music and sound design. I swear it’s like every scene from the story of the women building a court case ends on such a strong note that it leaves me wanting more, more, more!

The Redemption of Jar Jar Binks - The Internet’s First Main Character?

Speaking of wanting more, this is one of those first episodes that makes me wish they released two at a time. I immediately wanted to know more about the story. Maybe you’ve heard of Jar Jar Binks and maybe you know how controversial the character was, but the focus of this show adds even more depth to both those things. You don’t need to be a Star Wars fan to enjoy this because it’s actually a story about what happens when the internet collectively teams up on hating someone or something. It’s like Jar Jar was the “main character” of the internet way before that was even a thing. If Jar Jar happened today, I can’t even imagine what the internet would do and this show makes you realize how complex it is. In the first episode, host Dylan Marron gives you all the backstory you need, including recollections from super fans about when the movie premiered, and by the end of it you learn that he’s speaking directly with the person most impacted by the character. (transcript)

Articles of Interest - How to Dress

What three adjectives describe your style? If you don’t know, there’s actually a quiz to help you figure it out! But that’s only one part of Amy Smilovic’s tips for how to dress. You know how chefs can look at a bunch of ingredients and figure out a recipe? This episode is teaching you the stylist’s version of that. Avery is so great at guiding us through her favourite tips from Amy’s book and together they make everything feel much more actionable and much less overwhelming, which is how clothing can feel when you don’t know what to wear. (transcript)

The Retrievals - The Patients

Get ready for medical gaslighting at its finest (aka worst). The Retrievals is the latest series from Serial Productions and it wastes no time launching you into a cruel story that reflects what can happen when we don’t take women’s pain seriously. You’re introduced to several women who attended the Yale Fertility Center and all experienced unusually intense levels of pain when undergoing egg retrievals. The way the first episode builds up the story is done so carefully that you are so focused on feeling empathy for the women, that the truth about what was happening creeps up on you like a sudden drop on a rollercoaster. It’s so hard listening to these women recount the pain, followed by the ways they basically gaslight themselves, but it quickly switches to anger as you and the women learn the truth. This is the first episode of the five part series and if you want an example of just how bad the treatment of women in medical settings can be, host Susan Burton is going to take you there. (transcript)

Never Told - Homeward Bound

I love the way this episode mixes a musical performance, with what feels like part personal monologue and part interview. As Thaddea Graham opens up about why she loves her Irish heritage, how she’s struggled with acceptance of her accent, and why home remains special, you get absorbed in her words and her music. Never Told is all about telling a story that hasn’t been heard before and the premise leaves space for the stories to be told in different ways. Producer and host Nicole Davis speaks with Thaddea about her experience, but we also hear her perform a song she wrote, Homeward Bound, that reflects her experiences as an Irish actor and performer. There’s a softness to the whole thing and it made me want to hear more podcasts that play around with format and performance.

LA Made - The Barbie Tapes: A Toy is Born

I didn’t think I’d get so into the Barbie hype, but here I am learning the history of this iconic doll from someone who wrote the book on Barbie… literally. Together host Antonia Cereijido and author M.G. Lord are revisiting the history of Barbie and remembering it all with the help of archival recordings from when M.G. was writing the biography of Barbie. Since M.G. was so close to the source and behind the scenes, you get to learn things about Babs (Barbie’s original name) that you might never have known before. Both men and women had lots of ideas about what Barbie was and wasn’t and how she should or shouldn’t be presented. The marketing studies and reports that were conducted are absolutely fascinating to me, because they were conducted by Ernest Dichter, a psychologist and marketing expert who worked on many notable new products. I really enjoy the way the format mixes between a conversation with Antonia and M.G., and the archival recordings. I’m a sucker for the rawness of that kind of audio and it has a cool way of transporting you back in time, especially when they play old Barbie commercials.

More sweet treats

• Conan O’Brien forgot something important about Harrison Ford.

• We’re doing Threads now?

• And in case you’re wondering what makes Threads different.

• Submit your show to the 2023 International Women’s Podcast Awards.

• This interview made me smile.

• Have I been watching too much Marvel or is this actually the coolest toolbox?

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!