Podcasts I've pondered a while

Sonic suburbs, AI life coach, big decisions, wealth without women, money trauma, struggling men.

Spring has sprung and I’m emerging from hibernation with series and episodes that I have kept pondering long after I’ve finished listening. Perhaps this is also why I’m perpetually behind in my queue.

If you’re not behind in your queue and in need of even more podcasts, you need to check out the re-vamped Great Pods. It’s got reviews, recommendations, and showcases it all with a beautiful new layout.

This week’s podstack

The Heart - Welcome to Suburban Paradise

When Kaitlin Prest warns that the new season of The Heart isn’t going to be as intense of a production as previous seasons, I had my doubts. Sure it’s a different approach than other seasons, but Kaitlin taking it easy is still some of the most creative audio you’ll hear. Her style and love of sound will always make her work stand above. This season she’s exploring the sounds and feelings of suburban living as she documents the time she moved back in with her parents in their suburban neighbourhood. She sets up the series so perfectly with an intro episode and she’s dropping one episode a month. With segments designed to make us stop and listen, and her distinctly personal writing, I’m so ready to hear the suburbs through her mic. She might call these days mundane and meandering, but she turned it into an audio scrapbook to capture the moments.

Me + Viv - I’m Viv, an Artificial Intelligence

I have such conflicting feelings about this series that I debated writing about it for a long time. This narrative series follows Alexandra Samuel as she explores the dynamic and process of using Viv, an AI chatbot designed to act as a sort of life coach for her. I know I went into it skeptical because of the AI of it all but I couldn’t help being curious. Alex is being pretty vulnerable in letting us listen in as she works through her life and whether or not Viv is properly suited to help her in the ways she needs. This is where I got conflicted. I couldn’t stop listening and flew through the series really fast. The narrative structure and overall quality of the show’s storytelling is really strong. I liked what Alex had produced. But I did not like Viv. I think as Alex grapples with her relationship with Viv, we as listeners also grapple with Viv’s existence and interactions. I don’t know if I should like Viv or not, and I think that’s going to land differently for everyone, but it’s an interesting glimpse into what it sounds like to use AI this way.

Personally: Creation Myth - Nothing Complicated

The question of whether to become a parent is a big one and should not be taken lightly. And that’s what Helena de Groot is letting us listen in on. She’s pretty sure she doesn’t want kids, but she wavers more than she thought she ever would. Until she decides and everything changes. This is the kind of personal documentary that we don’t get as many of any more, but they’re so good when we do. We get to hear someone search for their own definition of purpose, make really hard decisions, and find others who help her feel less alone in all of it. It’s complicated but Helena really lets us in. She is being so thorough and talking to so many people, even after it appears she’s made her decision, she’s still being intentional about learning what this means for her life and learning from others around her. The series starts strong and grips you, but it maintains the intrigue throughout. Episode seven really stood out to me, so make sure you get there.

Made For Us - The women finance forgot

When people talk about the gender wage gap, they’re focusing on how much women earn compared to men. But what about what happens with the money women have? Turns out there’s also a pretty significant investing gap. The world of wealth building through investing has basically been made for men, by men and not as much focus is given to how women approach it differently. This episode with Sylvia Kwan talks about investing in ways I wish I had heard years ago. Women assess risk differently and they have different considerations when it comes to deciding how they want to use their money. I listened to it twice and haven’t stopped thinking about it. All I keep thinking is ‘wow, no wonder I’ve been feeling this way’ and I wish all financial advisors would listen to this. And anyone who feels like financial advice isn’t speaking to them.

Money Trauma - The Myth of Laziness

If thinking about money gets you too stressed out to listen to that episode of Made For Us, maybe start with Money Trauma first. A lot of us might be underestimating how much fear, shame, scarcity and other inherited beliefs are driving the ways we feel about money and how we act because of it. The first episode of this series dives into those invisible factors that influence us. Whether or not you listen to this first episode, I think listening to the second episode about the myth of laziness is even more helpful! From the origins of laziness to its harmful power in a capitalist society, this episode looks at laziness from a societal, psychological, and systemic perspective. “Laziness holds a mirror to what we find valuable as a society and precisely because of that, we can learn a lot about it by looking at how its been framed in history”. It’s a trope and this reveals why.

Feminism NOW - The Men are Not All Right

With all the conversations about male loneliness and the ways men are struggling, I think this episode could be the perfect 101 for understanding the ways toxic masculinity, ingrained misogyny, and patriarchal systems got us here. Cynthia Miller-Idriss explains what these things mean and how they’ve impacted our society, so it ends up being a really helpful resource for learning how to talk to others about it if you find yourself struggling to explain it. The work she’s done for her book is designed to help us understand how to change so that these harmful previous norms can start changing more.

More sweet treats

• This series on names makes you realize just how bad tech is at being inclusive of more names. The impact of that constant autocorrect goes so much deeper than we might realize. It leaves out so many people and why is that considered okay?

• The sociology of baby names is more fascinating than you might think!

• I need to never hear the phrase “looksmaxxing” ever again. Beware if you listen to this episode of Search Engine and this episode of ICYMI back to back like I did…you will need to go touch grass.

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!