The people behind the podcasts

Hayley Wickenheiser, underestimated organisms, Bama Rushtok, capitalism complaints, courageous conversations, obnoxious bros, rest stops.

I haven’t been to that many podcasting events and I hadn’t been to a podcast launch party until I attended one for Natalie Ruskin’s A Success of Our Own. The show is all about redefining what success means to you and finding a sustainable kind of success. Attending the party to celebrate its launch brought me a refreshing appreciation and admiration for podcasting and independent podcasters especially. If you’re a podcaster, imagine you were in a room with the people who believe in your show and are so excited you created it. That’s what this was like. So often we are behind screens with headphones in just consuming podcasts as we do all other media. But we all know many podcasts are a huge labour of love and seeing someone’s show celebrated like that made me want to show up and support podcasts even more! For now, that means sharing more podcasts I enjoyed this week.

p.s. Canadian musician Caroline Marie Brooks, who is also a guest on the show, performed at the event and I highly recommend you enjoy some of her sweet, soulful music. Birdsong is so lovely.

Completely unrelated to the intro, but I saw this art from Jeremy Nguyen this week and it’s just way too real. He also has a weekly cartoon newsletter you should check out.

This week’s podstack

We Regret To Inform You - Rejecting Hayley Wickenheiser

These days Hayley Wickenheiser is known as a legend in women’s hockey. She’s won, she’s coached, and she even worked part-time at the hospital during the pandemic while also working for the Toronto Maple Leafs. But all of this is only possible because of her passion and dedication for a sport that continuously tried to reject her when she was young. The harassment she faced playing in boys hockey leagues when she was a kid was so bad she developed ulcers from the stress. There were no girls teams around where she lived and she felt the weight of an entire gender’s reputation every time she played. She didn’t even know other girls played hockey until the she saw the women’s world hockey championships in 1990. I could go on and on about how Hayley battled through this sport, but that’s actually what the episode is for. I’m always impressed by the way this show’s narration and scripting is so strong that its simple format never loses me. That’s a difficult balance to strike, but I always get so invested in the stories and inspired to the point of tears. Whether you’re a hockey fan or not, this is a badass story to remind you how much we need to keep raising up women’s sports.

Going Wild with Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant - The Invisible Organism That’s Saving the Planet

When you don’t study a place the same way you study other places, you just base everything on assumptions. Scientists had been making assumptions about the micro organisms of the Amazon for a long time. They were mostly disregarding it until Dr. Rosa Vásquez Espinoza realized she knew there were valuable things being overlooked. This is a great interview about Rosa’s journey from wanting to go to space to deciding to study microbiology and learn why her grandmother’s plant medicine was so effective. What she discovered could have a huge impact on our climate! My favourite part was when Rosa and Rae talk about people underestimating them on expeditions because they look too “girly”. They are proving people wrong and it’s awesome! (transcript)

The Waves - The Bama Rush to Trad Wife Pipeline

A few weeks ago in the sweet treats section of this newsletter I mentioned a piece by Anne Helen Petersen about Bama Rushtok and all the TikToks she had collected about it. That was my first introduction to it and if this is yours, then Tressie McMillan Cottom is an excellent guide. She and Kat Chow dive deep into the TikTok sensation that is Alabama University’s sorority rush. In some ways, this feels like it could be an inconsequential thing in our wide world of events, but as you listen to Tressie’s analysis of it, there’s a lot more depth and repercussions to it than what’s on the surface. “I think that the Bama Rush captures our fascination and our discomfort right now about womanhood and gender” – this quote from Tressie is maybe the fourth thing she says in the episode and right there she had me tuned in. From the expression of quiet luxury in their outfits and jewellery, to the pipeline of ambition that has to still remain unthreatening to men, to the lack of diversity - this conversation felt jam packed with the type of analysis I never would’ve thought of myself. (transcript)

Today, Explained - Blame Capitalism: Souring on the system

For some reason I assumed that capitalism was something that everyone eventually realized was a source of friction in our world. I thought it was one of those things that you realize when you become an adult. But it turns out the language and mindsets around blaming capitalism for things is actually kinda new, all things considered. This new series from Today, Explained is exploring how that happened, what it means, and what we can do about it (other than blaming). I feel like it was made for me. From culture critics to longtime economics reporters, they’re showing how deep the trend and the systems run. This first episode explains how much economists struggle to even define capitalism and it takes you through the history of capitalism to show how it got where it is today. Well, almost. The cliffhanger leaves you wondering who exactly made it the tiring system it is today. My brain wants to soak it all up and try to actually understand these systems better. And you gotta love the catchy theme song! (transcript)

The Liquid Courage Podcast - Ep. 37 - Rakhee Morzaria

Listening to Liquid Courage is like the perfect dose of warmth and empowering conversations for keeping you company throughout the day. Even though host Amanda Pereira comes to her interviews well researched and prepared, she uses it to have conversations that just feel like two friends chatting and catching up. Since she loves to learn about the lives and work of creative people, you’ll get a good mix of behind the scenes and inspiring stories. She’s asking the questions she never had the guts to ask before about their work, their challenges, and how they make it happen. I loved listening to Kristy LaPointe’s episode because she’s a friend I know from her food blog, but I had just as much fun listening to Rakhee’s episode. These episodes made me realize how many Canada-specific references I miss out on by listening to a lot of American shows!

Conference Call - Ready. Set. Toades!

I’m getting a bit tired of hearing about certain billionaires who like to destroy social media sites and this fictional parody is the perfect remedy. It takes that classic clueless, ego-driven persona we see with some extravagant billionaires and applies it to the Toade bros. And they’re not the only characters that will make you cringe! Julie Burke, the recently hired partner to help the Toades with their “thriving” business, is faced with so many questionable comments and bad bro energy. So why is she there? And what happened to her? That’s what this show is investigating through journalist and host Charlotte Dunn. I love a good investigative parody!

This American Life - 388: Rest Stop

I always love that podcasts are such a great way to learn about all different people and all the different kinds of lives they live. This episode of This American Life demonstrates that so well. Back in 2009, nine different TAL producers headed to a rest stop in New York to gather stories about the people who drop by and the people who work there. The result is a really fun collage of personalities, emotions, and adventures. From the Ukrainian teenagers who work at the Starbucks and party with the American teens they’ve met, to the rivalry between this rest stop’s manager and the one in Maine, there are so many stories to be found. This is also what TAL has always done best – take a situation or setting that might seem mundane and show us all the interesting pieces it’s made of. This is a show I love, but tend to only pop into when I hear someone recommending a specific episode. To that point, I saw so many people talking about the recent hotline episode that I had to listen. Although it’s a different vibe from the rest stop one, it is a powerful and unique story about a hotline you might not think existed and has some captivating characters. (transcript)

More sweet treats

• This collaborative episode between Articles of Interest and Weight For It about plus-sized clothing is the perfect mix of both shows and will teach you so much about the fashion industry.

• A great new place to see awesome podcast cover art.

• Hobby stacking > habit stacking.

• This is a show all about making mix tapes and Aakshi made a sweet one!

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!