Episodes that are a little different to usual
Helen Zaltzman
Sometimes one of my favourite podcasts will throw in an episode that's a little different to usual, and makes me love the show even more. Helen Zaltzman hosts Answer Me This!, and The Allusionist, which is part of Radiotopia (www.radiotopia.fm) from PRX.
The greatest radio format of all time, featuring the most amiable movie star of our age
OK, this one is not a gamechanger at all: it’s the greatest radio format of all time, featuring the most amiable movie star of our age, so no surprise the episode was going to be a total treat. Listen to it because it will cheer you up.
The story of the oldest continuously-running gay bar in the USA
Me, crying in the street listening to this episode about the oldest continuously-running gay bar in the USA? No, that was you.
FINE, it was me. But also you.
A change of pace from Criminal’s more serious episodes
I’m not condoning the crime of stealing petrified wood from national parks, but as a change of pace from Criminal’s more serious episodes, this is irresistable.
A game-changer for my intellectual self-esteem – in a bad way.
This episode was a game-changer for my intellectual self-esteem. In a bad way. I’d covered the hashtag/pound sign/octothorpe/# on my podcast Answer Me This a while before, so didn’t think there was anything for me to learn. But of course, 99PI does its usual trick of showing you there’s so much more than you thought you knew about a subject. I could never achieve what they achieve. Ugh, how do they DO it? Every time!
A very jolly, humorous polemic
Benjamen Walker deploys the preternaturally cheerful Andrew Callaway to work for a month in the ‘sharing economy’. By the third episode, poor Andrew is significantly less chipper. This is a very jolly, humorous polemic, but a polemic nonetheless.
The episode that made me fall hard for Song Exploder
I hadn’t heard anyone as witty as Merrill Garbus on the show before (no offense to host Hrishikesh Hirway, who in real life is very witty, but keeps a low-profile presence on Song Exploder). Musician with bewitching personality + intriguing production methods + strong lyrics = the epitome of a Song Exploder episode.
Food as a prism through which to examine race, culture, stereotypes, and shame
In this miniseries, and the five Other People’s Food episodes earlier in the year, food is the prism through which to examine race, culture, stereotypes, shame, and the line between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation.
Heben and Tracy are super-smart and dauntless in politics as they are in everything
The first few years of podcasting were dominated by white men. This episode, for me, was the unequivocal announcement that other people exist and everyone should damn well pay attention to what they’re saying. Getting Hillary Clinton as a guest was a big deal for a relatively new show, but it proved that Heben and Tracy are super-smart and dauntless in politics as they are in everything.
The first podcast to make me blush
This is the first podcast to make me blush. I was listening on the bus, and was worried everyone could hear it through my skull or something.