Please join us! Contact Duncan for a link to the Zoom meeting.
Week 24: January
Pia’s picks!
Week 23: Friday, December 3rd
Marika’s picks!
(sadly this podcast is Spotify exclusive now :( but the episode is worth it!)
Week 22: Friday, November 5th
Clare’s picks! Loose theme: “Friends….?”
- Invisibilia : Nun of Us Are Friends
https://www.npr.org/2021/09/16/1037902699/nun-of-us-are-friends [45 mins] - Radio Rental: Episode 01
https://radiorentalusa.com/listen/ [41 mins] - The Mortified Podcast: Ep 152, Friends For Life (feat. Ezra Miller)
https://getmortified.com/episode/152-friends-for-life-feat-ezra-miller/ [32 mins]
Week 21: Thursday, October 7th
Adrian’s picks!
- This American Life: 129 Cars [65 mins]
- Freakenomics: What Do Nancy Pelosi, Taylor Swift, and Serena Williams Have in Common? [35 mins]
- Science Vs: Human Lab Rats: Science’s Rotten Underbelly [32 mins]
Week 20: Thursday, August 19th
Duncan’s picks!
- Sway: Michael Pollan, ‘The Standard American Diet Kills Us Slowly in Normal Times and Quickly in Covid Times’ [41 mins]
- Crackdown: Ep 2 Change Intolerance [51 mins]
- Bonus pod? This episode of the NY Times’ The Daily from Monday was very affecting (it’s heavy) [25 mins]
Week 19: Thursday, July 8th
Adrian’s picks!
- Sudhir Venkatesh, Sudhir Breaks the Internet: The Garbage Can Model of Decision Making [39 mins]
- Science Vs: SNAKES!!! [30 mins]
- RadioLab: The Dirty Drug and the Ice Cream Tub [48 mins]
Week 18: Thursday, June 3rd
Karolina’s picks!
- This American Life 706: A Mess To Be Reckoned With [58mins]
- 99% Invisible: Matters of Time [54 mins]
Week 17: Thursday, May 20th
Marika’s picks for this week, the theme is roughly migration, integration, and diversity:
- This American Life 694: Get Back to Where You Belong Act Two, Nowhere Man [28 mins]
- Radiolab: For whom the cowbell tolls [58 mins]
- 99% Invisible 364: He’s Still Neutral [33 mins]
Week 16: Friday, April 30th
Clare’s picks
- Renegades: Born in the USA “Relationships with Our Fathers & Masculinity” [38 mins]
- Have You Heard George’s podcast? Chapter 1, Ep, 2 “Popcorn” (NOT PG-13) [21mins]
- The Window “The Joys and Challenges of Black Fatherhood” (June 17, 2020) [17mins]
- NYTimes, The Daily: “Agony of Parenting in the Pandemic” [3:40mins prologue, but listen to the whole episode if you have time]
Week 15: Friday, April 23rd
Adrian’s picks: A Dive into the Design Process
- Song Exploder: Bonobo [16mins]
- 99% Invisible: Froebel’s Gifts [25mins]
- How I Built This with Guy Raz, Live Episode! Reddit: Alexis Ohanian & Steve Huffman [53mins]
Week 14: Friday, April 16th
Duncan’s picks: spotlight on storytelling
- Mystery Show: Case #3 Belt Buckle [48 mins]
- Love & Radio: The Living Room [25 mins]
- This American Life: Fiasco! Act One and Two [31 mins]
- Also BYOP! Bring your favourite podcast that just doesn’t work for podcast club.
Week 13: Friday, April 9th
Mona’s picks: how about a mixed bag from CBC Radio?
- Under the Influence: S10E12 – Air Quotes: Creative Radio 2021 [28 mins]
- The Doc Project: Who We Are to Each Other [50 mins]
- Inappropriate Questions: ‘Can I speak to your manager?’ [35 mins]
Week 12: Friday, March 26th
Raelani’s picks this week
- Heavyweight: #14, Isabel [41 mins]
- This American Life: Trail of Tears (Act 1) [27 mins] The whole episode is great if you have time
- Revisionist History: The King of Tears [44 mins]
Week 11: Friday, March 19th
Patricia’s picks: food for thought!
- Burnt Toast: Where Did the Banana Peel Slipping Gag Come From? [15 mins]
- Freakonomics Radio 367: The Future of Meat [55 min]
- This American Life: Episode 668, The Long Fuse – Prologue, Act 1&2 [45 mins]
Week 10: Friday, March 12th
Marika’s podcast picks for this week: Is education the great equalizer?
- Reveal: The view from room 205 [53 mins]
- This American Life: What lies beneath Prologue [13 mins]
If you are pressed for time and can only listed to one episode, listen to Reveal. Both episodes explore the dynamics of elementary school education but in very different ways.
Bonus listening (this is my favorite story from the last week, but not very related to the theme above):
Death, Sex, and Money: I was your father, until I wasn’t [30 mins]
Week 9: Friday, March 5th
Karolina’s podcast picks for this week! The theme she mustered together is “stories that make you go 😲”
- 99% Invisible: The Worst Way to Start a City (33 minutes)
- 99% Invisible: Bone Music (15 minutes)
- This American Life: No Coincidence, No Story (1 hour)
Hope these make you go 😲!
Week 8: Friday, February 26th
Here are Clare’s picks. Theme is “1st Person Journey”
- The Moth Radio Hour: Chess, Romance and Kathmandu [53 mins]
- 99% Invisible, Episode 419: Take a Walk [33mins]
- Dolly Parton’s America, Episode 6: The Only One For Me, Jolene [36mins]
Week 7: Friday, February 19th
These are Adrian’s picks. Theme is Games, Games, Games!
- Radio Lab: The Rule Can Set You Free [20mins]
- Freakonomics: Stephen Dubner, Think Like a Winner [55mins]
- The Knowledge Project, Shane Parrish & Jane McGonigal: The Psychology of Gaming [58mins]
Week 6: Friday, February 5th
Selected by Duncan:
- Floodlines, Part III: Through the Looking Glass [28mins]
- You’re Wrong About: Disco Demolition Night [97mins]
- Laura Irving: Quiet Revolution [5mins]
The You’re Wrong About ep is pretty long, but I’m not sure how to excerpt it, so feel free to tap out if you can’t get through the whole thing. And note that Floodlines is about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but I like the focus of this part (although I recommend the whole series).
Week 5: Friday, January 29th
Selected by Marika:
- This American Life: No Fair! Prologue: the tattle phone [12mins]
- 20,000 Hertz: Ultrasonic Tracking [25mins]
- 99% Invisible: Play Mountain [38mins]
- Death, Sex, and Money: Who’s driving your Uber? [27mins]
- Bonus Listening Modern Love: At the Hospital: An interlude of Clarity [18mins]
Week 4: Friday, January 15th
Selected by Raelani
- “Man to Man,” The Daily: The Sunday Read (note: descriptions of violence) [1h 26mins]
- “Santaland Diaries,” This American Life [30 mins]
Week 3: Friday, January 8th
Selected by Clare
- Fiber Nation: The Donner Party and the Doll (Aug 26, 2019) [31 mins]
- BBC Short Cuts: Beasts, “Touching the Elephant” [10mins 11:50 – 21:20]
- Unlocking Us with Brené Brown: Joe Biden on Empathy, Unity and Courage (Oct 21, 2019) [50 mins]
Note: If you do not have time to listen the whole Brene Brown podcast, at least listen to the first section on leadership and power. (12mins 20 seconds)
Further listening: if you like the Brene Brown podcast, recommend her interview w Dolly Parton Nov 18 – a nice tie in with our Dec 18 podcast club discussion – and her interview with Elizabeth Lesser Oct 28 on “Power of Women’s Stories.”
Week 2: Friday, December 18th
Selected by Adrian. Centered around influences and what makes us do the things we do. From personal values to cultural, societal, and neural influences.
- RadioLab: “The Third. A TED Talk” by Jad Abumrad [18 mins]
- Hardcore Histroy: “Supernova in the East I” by Dan Carlin [the first 28 mins]
- The Story Collider: “The Liberation of RNA” by C. Brandon Ogbunu [17 mins]
- Radiolab: “9-Volt Nirvana” by Sally Adee [24 mins]
Week 1: Friday, December 11th
- Heavyweight, Episode 2: “Gregor” by Jonathan Goldstein [44 mins]
- This American Life: “Tattoos and Memories and Dead Skin on Trial” by Emily Hsiao [13mins]
- This American Life: “The Hills Have Eyes” by Alex Blumberg [13 mins]
- “Summer Rain” by Nanna Hauge Kristensen [3 mins]
Discussion
Gregor [narration]
- How would you describe Jonathan’s persona as narrator?
- What’s the effect of the narrator being so involved in the story?
Hills Have Eyes [story structure]
- What is this story about?
- What’s the climax of the story?
Tattoos and Memories [interviewing]
- What do you think of Emily’s interviewing approach/rapport with Bruce?
- What of her choice to start with the phone conversation?
Summer Rain [sound]
- This piece relies heavily on sounds. How does that affect the listener?
- What do we gain by having her mother and child present?