Podcasts are along for the ride
abandoned places, poop talk, remember more, attention spans, phone addictions, Twitter takeover, emotional baggage
Sometimes my queue is like that chair in your bedroom that you toss clothes on. There’s a method to the madness, but the chaos becomes overwhelming. When the clothes start piling up, eventually I need to organize them. The same goes for my queue. Too many episodes not sorted into playlists or removed after listening starts to make it harder to decide what to listen to next. This intro is shorter because I needed to take care of that.
Self-care is organizing your queue. I feel better now.
This week’s podstack
American Hysteria - Unabandoned with Podcaster Blake Pfeil of 'All-American Ruins'
Chelsey and Blake are an interview match made in podcast heaven. They both share a personal and unique relationship with abandoned places and you feel their bond over this shared interest blossom even more over the span of the episode. As they reflect on their thoughts about these places, it’s like they’re analyzing themselves together. By the end, you have such a stronger appreciation for these spaces, the ways that people can feel connected to and impacted by them, and you may even feel inspired to do some exploring. They discuss some memorable exploring they’ve done and the emotional responses they’ve had to them. This sort of analysis is Chelsey’s specialty and it made me appreciate Blake’s work on abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast even more. His first episode of that show still stands as one of the best first episodes I’ve ever heard. These two are such a joy together!
Taboo Science - Poop (with Bryn Nelson, Ph.D.)
Get ready for all the poop nicknames you can imagine! If you don’t think poop has fascinating things for us to learn about ourselves and each other, you’re about to be proven wrong. If you like the punny and playful tone of Science Vs, you’ll love Taboo Science. Ashley Hamer doesn’t shy away from exploring taboo topics in science and making it equal parts entertaining and educational. That style especially shines through in this episode. Honestly, her witty writing kept me chuckling and tuned in all the way through! There are studies, specialists, and stories that prove just how powerful and useful our crap is. As Dani Rojas says, the body is a miracle. (transcript)
Hidden Brain - Remember More, Forget Less
Confession: sometimes I write about podcasts just so I can remember them better. Some episodes I remember very vividly, and others I take notes throughout listening just in case. Turns out there might be some rhyme and reason behind this. As host Shankar Vedantam and cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham explain in this episode, we have a lot of misconceptions about the way memory works and can underestimate the intentional effort needed. The parts that really stood out to me were how much our memory loves meaning, what makes stories more memorable, and how the presence of people or characters contributes to that as well. It made me think about what makes some podcasts more memorable than others. Hidden Brain episodes are always so jam-packed with information, they’re definitely the kind I save for when my attention is available enough to process everything that’s covered. And even then, I may have to listen to this episode again. (transcript)
Speaking of attention, this episode of Preconceived got me thinking even more about the way our minds work. I really liked the metaphor that Dr. Gloria Mark shared for our attention span: think of it like a tank of resources that gradually empties throughout the day. But to also keep in mind that there are individual differences in our capacities for attention. I definitely notice patterns in the way my attention span varies throughout the day and it turns out I’m not the only one. Some studies have found that people have two peak times of focus - mid to late morning and mid to late afternoon. There are also factors that impact it like taking sufficient breaks, your general interest in the task, and how much attention you’ve already used up. As is the nature of Preconceived, they also had to address a common preconception about our attention spans these days – the impact of screens and what we’re consuming on them. Has our attention span always been bad and we’re just more aware of it now or have things like screens impacted it? What happens when we task switch a lot or multi-task? And maybe most importantly, how do we improve our attention?
Offline with Jon Favreau - Jon and Max Surrender Their iPhones
Continuing the clever segues and speaking of screens…Do you consider your relationship with your phone healthy? It’s a difficult question to answer, so I’m glad I can just listen to Jon and Max analyze their own. As part of understanding phone addictions and maybe improving their own, they’re undergoing a little experiment in living without their smart phones. This is the first episode to begin the experiment and they discuss their phone habits, go through the usage times, the number of times they pick up their phones per day, and the typical ways they interact with their phones throughout the day. You might find yourself comparing your habits to theirs like I did. I don’t listen to this show much, but it was a fun, relatable conversation and I’m very curious to hear how this experiment goes. Judging by the this episode, I think it opens up a lot of interesting discussions about how smart phones impact individuals and our society in so many ways.
Flipping the Bird - Maximum Amazing
When I saw this new series about Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover, I was a little surprised how fast it was released. Time flies when your favourite social media platform is up in flames. Since there was quite a bit of information, including text messages, released about the deals that lead to Elon Musk taking control of Twitter, you hear so many behind the scenes conversations. They’re speaking with people who were in the Slack channels and on the Zoom calls. It feels like the kind of show that would be released after the damage has been done and it’s over, but this feels so current that I found myself much more drawn in than I expected. If you’ve listened to any other Business Wars series, you’ll recognize the investigative and documentary style of recounting big moments in business history. They make that retelling captivating by including interviews and using dramatic recreations of real conversations. Plus, the episodes are around 30 minutes long, so I easily listened to all four that were out so far.
Baggage Drop - Step 1 | The Why: Finding Your North Star
The first episode of Baggage Drop got me hooked in an unexpected way. The production is more playful and interactive than I expected from a show about supporting mental health. It includes a lot of voices from people talking about how they want to improve their life, what emotional baggage they have, and what goals they have. The music played throughout, Dr. Jessica Stern’s welcoming narration, and the easy flow of the episode made it such an enjoyable listen. And Baggage Drop is taking an interesting approach to their release schedule! They’re releasing episodes throughout May in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month. It’s designed to help give people the tools and support to take care of their mental health when it can be difficult to access resources. Episodes are ten minutes or less and they are all meant to build upon each other! (transcript)
More sweet treats
It’s always a good time for a podcast-themed thread like this.
A new podcast magazine? Consider it pre-ordered!
A new source for all things audio, from a true audio lover.
We can say irregardless now?
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!