The gift of good podcasts
Silly lawns, relatable questions, time traveling dreams, sustainable cheese, a biscuit mascot, furby phobia, shaming women.
I might be biased but I think podcasts are the gift that keep on giving all year round! There are no slow seasons in my queue and there is never a shortage of things to listen to. Anyone who says otherwise isn’t looking hard enough! If you’re getting close to the end of your queue or need something new, I’ve got a couple extra treats to share before we get into the podstack.
At Tink we released our annual Audio Delicacies list and it is truly one of the most delightful collections of podcasts from 2024. It has a little bit of everything and I love reading the way people from all across the podcast industry talk about the audio that made them love audio even more this year.
My recommendation: We Are The Great Turning
If you’re looking for even more variety of podcasts and stories, subscribe to the latest podcast newsletter in town Eurowaves! In Eurowaves, Andreea Coscai is sharing stories, trends, and creators who are turning heads, across the wide and diverse continent of Europe.
This week’s podstack
Don’t Drink the Milk - Lawns: Is yours giving sun king or pink flamingo?
When I heard that Don’t Drink the Milk was going to have an episode about lawns this season, I was eagerly awaiting its release. The lawn culture that we know today was created as a way to display status and that definitely still holds true today. I had heard that history before but this episode taught me an additional perspective on it. The lawn and overall landscaping culture that developed centuries ago and still exists today is so much about controlling nature. It reflects a desire to morph spaces into a very specific idea of what “good” nature looks like. A front lawn, or a man-made space like Central Park, both have their own requirements for what we accept from nature. The lawn must be green and the park must look natural and outdoorsy but not too natural and wild. This description got me: “What’s interesting about the lawn is that it’s supposed to be this bastion of nature, but it requires an enormous amount of human labor. You have to create it first. You have to irrigate it. You have to blast it with pesticides. Environmentally, it’s a total disaster. It’s like one non-native species that supports essentially no wildlife and it requires a lot of water and it’s loaded with pesticides. It’s the most unnatural thing you could think of”. Not to mention how many lawns there are that only get walked on when they’re mowed. What’s the point?! Sorry to my dad because now I have even more points to bring up next year when he’s obsessing over the lawn. (transcript)
Hyperfixed - Kristin Has Doubts
Three months ago when Hyperfixed released its first two episodes, I thought I knew how to describe it. But now, five episodes in, I know exactly what I want you to know about it. There’s a lot of podcasts that set out to answer questions or examine problems. Sometimes big questions, sometimes small problems, sometimes serious, sometimes inconsequential. And Hyperfixed is answering all those kinds of inquiries, but what’s getting me hooked on the show is the people who are asking the questions and hearing them along the way as host Alex Goldman seeks out the answers. At first, he was helping Gwen with her problem about learning to drive. At least, that’s what you think it’s going to be about. What really unfolds is Gwen’s mission to feel more confident while driving. She knows how, but she doesn’t understand how everyone else feels so comfortable driving everywhere all the time. I think what this episode does best and what made it stick with me is how much time and space it gave Gwen to get into all those nitty gritty nerve-wracking thoughts that go through your head when you’re nervous about driving. It was a great first episode, with lots of heart. Then Alex goes on to teach us about why weighted measurements are superior, how supermarkets waste WILD amounts of energy, a hilarious button history, and if the world is really getting worse. They all delight in different ways and they just feel so relatable and human. I listened to three episodes in a row the other day and they just left me wanting more.
As an isolated woman starts recording her dreams, it becomes a story of time travel. Her dreams are vivid and the women appearing in them are distinct. She wakes up and records everything she can remember about them. Each time she brings new details. These women are from all over, across time and place. She dreams about one from as far back as the 1500s Germany, 1600s Ireland, 1700s England, 1800s Chicago, 1900s Russia. Whether she’s sharing her dreams or her reality, she and the women in her dreams seem to have one thing in common – they push back against the standard societal expectations that women face. Everything is told through a series of voice notes with sound design to support the story. The moments where you’re in her dreams with her have this softer, floating sound to them, as you might imagine a subconscious voice sounding. All of it is simple but effective. Eventually, you start to need to know where her dreams will take her and realize alongside her, that the cruel ways women were treated back then feel all too familiar to what’s happening now. (transcript)
Second Nature - Learning to Love Plant-Based Cheese
This might be one of my new favourite climate-themed podcasts. It has that production style that mixes research with interview and some audience voice notes to make things even more dynamic. Combining all these elements makes the information more entertaining to listen to and less like a lecture. I actually discovered it on Instagram because the podcast is part of a bigger company that helps educate people about making more sustainable choices. My biggest struggle has been trying to decide which episode to recommend but I think the plant-based cheese one might be intriguing enough. Most people I talk to and according to the episode, struggle with eating less cheese and non-dairy cheeses don’t have a great reputation. But this episode shared some surprising stats about the big impact that cheese has on the planet, tips for eating less of it, and a taste test of some common brands. (transcript)
Rebel Spirit - Episode 1: A Homecoming
Let’s just get this out of the way - I think a biscuit is a great idea for a school mascot! So of course I wanted to go along for the ride as Akilah Hughes attempts to get her high school’s confederate mascot changed to her suggestion of a biscuit. Akilah takes us through the history of her school and the racism that has existed in it and the surrounding area. Then we start to see how attached people are to this mascot. It’s only the first episode and you can already tell that people are going to get unreasonably worked up about the possibility of changing the mascot. With Akilah’s exceptional storytelling style and the documentary format she’s using for this, you can’t help needing to keep listening to hear how things go. Get ready to hear how ridiculously passionate people are about their problematic mascot.
Joanne McNally Investigates - Did Furbys Spy on Us? 1. Furby Phobia
If you like your investigative podcasts with an incredibly comedically charming host who doesn’t hold back, but will also get to the bottom of things - hit play on this one. I had the first season of Joanne’s show in my queue for so long that she’s already come out with the second! The first was about the conspiracy that Avril Lavigne died and was replaced by a look-a-like. The second season is inherently entertaining because it’s about an even more ridiculous theory - that furbys were created to secretly spy on us to collect information for governments. Not only is it hilarious to relive the wild popularity of furbys when they first came out, it gets even better as you learn about this dark theory. As they became the must-have toy of the late 90s, they also became subject to restrictions and research from medical boards in places like Germany and Canada. The technology was considered so advanced that it could be dangerous?? So, were these fuzzy little toys spying on us? Were they just ideal vessels for spyware to be added? And were they dangerous in any way?!
No Shame with Rebecca Woolf - "My Heart Won't Burn" with Chelsie Diane
Women are no strangers to shame. We experience it in so many different forms and once you realize it, you notice how deeply rooted it is. Rebecca Woolf is creating a space to call out that shame and take away its power. It was honestly the fun artwork for this podcast that caught my eye first. Then I listened to the first episode where Rebecca speaks with her good friend Chelsie Diane about their similar experiences of shame related to being single mothers who are breaking down the patriarchal norms that no longer serve them. Chelsie started writing poetry anonymously when she first began to unpack these feelings and she speaks about how it saved her and the moment that she revealed she was the anonymous writer. There’s one poem she reads about choosing a maternal last name instead of the typical paternal one and the words are still going through my head.
More sweet treats
If you want to fall in love with Margot Robbie and her contagious love for the art and process of making movies, listen to this.
Psychoanalyze notorious TV psychiatrist Frasier Crane and his entertaining dynamic with his brother Niles.
The way Sam Sanders talks about grief and moving past moments when you feel stuck is necessary listening.
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!