Podster July 2017 by Shelf Media Group

JULY 2017

KARINA LONGWORTH YOU MUST REMEBER THIS

SARAH JONES PLAYDATE WITH SARAH JONES

Behind the Theme Music with

THE ZOMBIES

KATHY TU & TOBIN LOW NANCY

O OU U R ORUS ST RTA A SF FF T F A FF MARGARET BROWN PUBLISHER/EDITOR CHRISTINA DAVIDSON CREATIVE DIRECTOR COLIN MILLER CONTRIBUTING EDITOR GEMMA KING CONTRIBUTING EDITOR BEN MINTON CIRCULATION MANAGER

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Do you want to

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YOUR FULL POTENTIAL? New York Times bestselling author and Inc 500 entrepreneur, Kevin Kruse, interviews the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s top leadership experts and career coaches to give you a challenge a day. Dan Pink says write this one thing down each morning to double your productivity. 2

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Dave Kerpen gives a specific question to ask to get instant trust with anyone.

Dorie Clark offers a 3-word exercise to reveal your unique brand.

FBI agent, Chris Voss, explains the Jedi mind trick to talk anyone into anything.

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WWW.UNDISCLOSED-PODCAST.COM

The Undisclosed Podcast is a listening experience that reframes, enhances, or otherwise shifts everything you’ve come to know about the State of Maryland’s case against Adnan Syed, especially as you’ve come to know it through listening to Serial.

Season 1

(available now) The State vs. Adnan Syed

Season 2

Coming in 2016

HOSTED BY

RABIA CHAUDRY, COLIN MILLER, AND SUSAN SIMPSON. 4

JANUARY 2016

INN IIN T TTRRR O OO W

hen I ask podcasters to name their favorite podcasts, one of the most frequently mentioned is Karina Longworth’s You Must Remember This, “the podcast about the secret and/or forgotten history of Hollywood’s first century.” I came late to the game (the podcast launched in 2014) but after listening to Episode 1 in November I binged all the way through the next 100+ episodes, from the “many loves of Howard Hughes” through the wartime stories of the Hollywood Canteen, the Charles Manson murders, MGM stories, the blacklist, “six degrees of Joan Crawford,” and the most recent season theme of Dead Blondes. Longworth is a consummate researcher and storyteller, spotlighting both the glamour and the tragedies large and small of Hollywood’s classic era. The most surprising thing I learned in interviewing her? She records each episode in her bathroom. That the podcast format allows a deep dive into the minutiae of subjects large and small is

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one of its great assets. After listening to an episode of Just One More Thing: A Podcast about Columbo, I’ve found myself flipping through channels in the late evening searching for reruns of the old detective show and, like the podcast hosts, savoring the excellence of Jack Cassidy as creepy bad guy, the lighting, the camera angles, the trench coat, the cigar, Peter Falk’s “just one more thing.” You’ll discover many other excellent podcasts in this issue, of particular note Nancy and Playdate with Sarah Jones. And just one more thing: Our Trending Topic reveals the fidget spinner is on its way out. Alas. MARGARET BROWN PUBLISHER/EDITOR 5

interview nterview interview

Karina Longworth: You Must Remember This youmustrememberthispodcast.com

Karina Longworth takes us back to Hollywood’s first century, uncovering the “secret and/or forgotten histories” of an era when stars were Stars.

LISTEN

ridiculous 1970s Trilogy album. I loved how you didn’t make fun of it but put it in context. What made you want to do an episode about Trilogy? KARINA LONGWORTH: When I started the podcast the whole idea was to have : I always end my interviews with an excuse to explore things that I found interesting. That was something that my podcasters by asking them what boyfriend’s friend had recommended to podcasts they listen to, and him and we had listened to it non-stop on You Must Remember This is the one vacation and then the next time we went on a vacation a year later for some most frequent one mentioned. reason it got stuck in our heads again. We I started out listening to the were singing it the whole vacation and it episode “Frank Sinatra in Outer became something we were obsessed with but we didn’t know anything about it. I Space,” where you talk about Sinatra’s bloated and somewhat felt like I needed to try to find out why it existed.

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Photo by Megan Lee

PODSTER: What interested you in exploring the classic Hollywood era? KARINA: I went to graduate school to study this stuff—it’s just something I’ve always been interested in. But I got away from it because there are not a lot of job opportunities in that area. I became a film critic writing about contemporary movies, but even then I would take the opportunity to write about retrospective screenings or DVD releases of old movies. I did some commissioned book projects that dealt with older films but that still didn’t feel like quite the right fit. I wanted to be able to do something that was in between doing a blog post and writing a book, and the podcast format seemed like the right thing. PODSTER: This morning you tweeted that you had just recorded the last Dead Blondes episode and that you were in tears writing it. Why were you in tears? KARINA: One of the themes of the episode is the way that the

romantic partner of the person who dies deals with their grief. While I was writing it—this is really personal—I realized that probably the unconscious reason I did this Dead Blondes series is that my dad died really suddenly last summer. I was not even a human being last fall; I was really having a hard time. It’s still really hard. My mom died when I was 11 and after that I got really into Stephen King and fiction exploring the tenuous line between life and death. I think I did that again this time, and it all came down for me when I was writing this last episode. PODSTER: You spotlight a lot of unknown or little known Hollywood stories. How do you do your research? KARINA: There are episodes where I’ve had to do a lot of digging into archives and stuff but for the most part these stories are just in commercially available books. It’s just that most people don’t read all three biographies on somebody and then compare and contrast the different stories. PODSTER: What is your process of putting together an episode? KARINA: Usually I’ve been reading books and watching films about a subject for weeks or even months before I write the

episode. The writing itself takes on average between two to five days. When I’m reading I take notes, and I’ll highlight passages on my Kindle or underline sections in a book. Then I go back and go through these notes and take out quotes and write up my thoughts and it all just comes together at some point. PODSTER: Do you have a favorite episode or subject that you’ve covered? KARINA: The way that I approach it is that whatever I’m working on at that moment is kind of my new obsession. But in general some of my favorite episodes are about women whose films are not seen very much today. I get passionate about telling people where to start with somebody like Kay Francis, for example. If you are a classic movie fan you’ve probably seen Trouble in Paradise but you may never have seen another of her movies. She was a huge star and put together in a short period of time a body of work that rivaled what Joan Crawford did over seven or eight years. Or Carol Landis—the first thing I ever read about her was her obituary in Time magazine—it made me want to know about her life and see her movies. At least two of the performances she gave were really, really good and it seems sort of sad she didn’t get to be a bigger star. 7

KARINA LISTEN TO

I was just a guest recently on North Mollywood, it’s probably my favorite podcast. It’s from the MTV podcast network. [And is now on permanent hiatus.] And I really love the Bon Appetit podcast—as soon as it drops I listen to it.

PODSTER: The show is so you—your personality, your humor, your intelligence. Do you record it in one day? KARINA: Yes, I record it as fast as I can. The only way I can get into the performance aspect of it is by recording it by myself in my bathroom.

PODSTER: You’ve done over a hundred episodes now—is it still exciting to you? KARINA: It’s just as exciting to me to do the research and find out these stories about people. But the process of making a podcast is not my favorite thing—I find it like very difficult to talk as much as I need to to perform an episode. PODSTER: What do you mean? Because your delivery is so great. KARINA: Thank you, but it’s very difficult for me. I don’t consider myself to be a 8

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natural performer—it’s very draining for me physically and emotionally. It would be better for me if I could hire somebody to do that part, but the whole thing of the show is that it’s me. I’ve thought of transitioning it into something like This American Life where I have a role like Ira Glass of introducing the stories but that wouldn’t be You Must Remember This, it would be a different show.

PODSTER: When you launched I can’t imagine you could have imagined the success you would have with this podcast. KARINA: No, not at all. I wasn’t sure what would happen—I wasn’t doing it for anybody else, I was just doing it for me. I figured people would think it was sort of self-indulgent and not very good but I put it out there and pretty immediately the response was very positive, so I was encouraged to keep doing it. PODSTER: Do you anticipate you’ll keep going through another hundred episodes? KARINA: I don’t know. It might take me longer than three years to do the next 200 hundred because I want to be doing other things. It would be great to do another book, and there are some other projects I’m trying to put together. But I would like to keep doing the podcast as long as it makes sense for me and as long as people want to listen to it.

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interview nterview interview

Kathy Tu and Tobin Low: Nancy wnyc.org

LGBT people share their stories with self-described “super queer and super fun” hosts Kathy Tu and Tobin Low.

LISTEN

How did you two meet and how did you decide to do this podcast?

KATHY TU: We met a few years ago at Transom story workshop, which is a radio bootcamp in Cape Cod. We were immediately attracted to each other’s material. TOBIN LOW: That’s not a euphemism for anything. 10

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KATHY: No, it totally isn’t. … And then we went home to our respective coasts and just never stopped talking about radio stuff. TOBIN: There was an immediate sense that we wanted to not only maintain our friendship but also collaborate on something, so we were trying to figure out where we intersected. We are radio producers and we’re both Asian and we’re both queer—what if all those things converged into a show? That’s how we ended up with Nancy. PODSTER: How do you find your stories and guests? KATHY: A lot of stuff comes out of things that have happened to us or things we are working out on our own. Also, people frequently come to us with conversations they want to have and stories they want to tell. It hasn’t been too difficult to find stories

that are a good fit for our show. TOBIN: What we like to pursue is people who come with a curiosity or a thing they have yet to figure out and we can follow them as they figure it out. PODSTER: Have you gotten feedback from young people who are finding the podcast to be a space where they can learn and have community? TOBIN: Absolutely. We hear a lot of people saying they’ve been waiting for a show like this, or that it feels like it was made for them. Especially with Kathy’s story about trying to relate to come out to and relate to her immigrant mom, we got a lot of feedback from young folks who said, “This is me and my parents exactly.” KATHY: I think it is validating and comforting for people who haven’t come out yet to their parents but know they will have to. They can hear other people going through it. PODSTER: Kathy, with your mom, I loved how honest you both were and how you were both trying to understand each other with compassion despite

challenges. It sounds like being an immigrant adds a whole other component to coming out. KATHY: The thing that is the most different between my mom and me is that she is a of a completely different culture and mindset than what I grew up with. When you are a firstgeneration kid in the U.S., you have to balance you’re growing up with what your parents grew up with. It’s a difficult thing to balance. For instance, my mom equates gayness with Western culture. That’s a Western thing. She frequently tells me that I need to remember that I am Chinese, I need to respect my elders and fit into the community. I feel like the theme of my life is trying to find balance no matter where I go. My mom thinks I’m doing an internship in New York and not this radio thing. TOBIN: And that you’re interning with a woman named Nancy. KATHY: There are so many layers of having to explain, and then once you’ve got the explanation across, it’s like trying to reach a level of acceptance that may never be there. There are so many layers to unpack, which is hard to do when another obstacle is that language isn’t the most comfortable thing either. PODSTER: Do you have a favorite of the shows that you’ve done so far? KATHY: I loved the Harry Potter

one. [#5: There Are No Gay Wizards: Albus Dumbledore isn’t gay, no matter what J.K. Rowling says. But that doesn’t mean the “Harry Potter” books aren’t incredibly queer.] PODSTER: I hadn’t given it a lot of thought but it made me want to go back and read all the books. … Have you gotten any negative feedback about Nancy from people who are anti-gay? TOBIN: There’s been a sprinkling of that, but of all the feedback we get that is the easiest to brush off because it comes from someone who is not going to engage in your content. KATHY: They are not listening critically to our show and then saying that it’s horrible and it sucks, they are just completely brushing it off at first glance. PODSTER: What are we going to see in the rest of your first season? TOBIN: We just finished an episode yesterday that is a really beautiful conversation between two men who are both HIV positive from different generations. One is in his 20s and another guy, actually a good friend of ours, who is 59 and lived through the AIDS crisis in the ‘80s. They talk about what they have in common and what’s different. We also have an episode checking in on Orlando and how the community is 11

KATHY AND TOBIN LISTEN TO

KATHY: Let me pull out my phone. TOBIN: Should we just pull out our phones? KATHY: I listen to podcasts every morning and every evening. My recent favorite is Outside In, from New Hampshire Public Radio. I love the way they talk about the natural world. TOBIN: So I have, my list is First Day Back, Making Gay History, Long Form, Code Switch, See Something Say Something, Another Round, Reply All, Death, Sex and Money, Radio Lab.

wasn’t going to be a lawyer anymore. TOBIN: And my first career was as a professional cellist. Then I switched to radio and my first job in radio was at Marketplace and then I came to WNYC and was a producer on the first season of More Perfect, a radio show about the Supreme Court.

rebuilding there; we spent a week there in January talking to folks. KATHY: I’m going to a weeklong queer women’s retreat in Wisconsin run by Autostraddle, the website. I’m wanting to see what that’s like and if it’s a transformative thing or not. PODSTER: What were you two doing before Nancy? KATHY: I was working freelance as a radio producer, and before that I was in law school and graduated and then decided I 12

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PODSTER: The title “Nancy” is fantastic. Who came up with that? KATHY: That was Tobin. TOBIN: It actually came out of a moment of frustration because we had been trying every LGBT pun we could think of and some were taken and a lot of them were very hokey. We had run through a list of dozens of names, and I said out loud, “What if we just gave it a human name?” And the next thought was that Nancy would be fun and kind of irreverent and would have the history of it being a term for gay men. But by using it we’re claiming it and having fun.

interview nterview interview

Sarah Jones: Playdate with Sarah Jones sarahjonesonline.com; pri.org

Tony-winner Sarah Jones, known for her one-woman performances of a multi-cultural cast of characters, invites talents such as Lily Tomlin, India.Arie, Baratunde Thurston, and Elizabeth Gilbert to her New York apartment to collaborate on a creative “playdate.”

LISTEN

I love how you cover interesting subject matter and have deep conversations with your guests while also being hilarious. It’s a great, unique formula. You are known for doing all your characters in your Broadway show and TED talks. What made you want to do a podcast? 14

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SARAH JONES: I was fortunate to have the Broadway series and a Tony award and all this cool stuff that I could never have dreamt of as a little kid. After I’d done three TED talks, I said, “Wait a second, how many more times am I going to do this? I started to think about cool ways that I could bring in some of the people who inspired me to come and play with me. That’s the thing about a one-person show: I once heard someone say the joke is that it’s the loneliest cast party. I realized I enjoy hanging out with my characters and their perspectives, and my friends have shared that they enjoy hanging out with my characters and their perspectives, and so I wanted to combine those two things. So for me it was a natural evolution of learning to play well with others.

PODSTER: How do you select your guests? SARAH: One criteria is, Would I want this person in my living room? It’s hard to lie to yourself about that. So maybe I want to invite so-and-so the famous physicist, but if I don’t want that dude hanging out where I live, then maybe I admire him but he’s not someone I think would be a fun playdate. I try to imagine if I have a comfort level with this person such that they can roll up to my walkup in West Village and we will both feel comfortable and safe playing no matter what is on their resume or how many prizes they’ve won or how accomplished they are. Can they also bring a spirit of play and real intimacy. There is a real intimacy to hanging out in my personal space with me and having a personal level of conversation. That’s the criteria. PODSTER: Your guests seem very comfortable interacting with your different characters. SARAH: It takes a particular sense of humor and bearing and security within oneself to be willing to play at that level. Anybody who is not taking themselves too seriously—that’s my first clue that not only do I love this person and their work but they might be willing to play along and see what happens and be open and

respond. These characters take me over and when it’s time for them to come out, I go away. So first of all, people have to think that’s not weird. They have to join me in this space where the characters are real people with real questions and real concerns. Most often the characters are already fans or they are excited to get to know the person I’m sitting down with. But at the same time the characters are people and they will challenge the guests. One guest is Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love and Big Magic. I love her personally but you’ll hear a couple of the characters say things like, “You’re saying everybody can be an artist—come on, lady.” It’s a fun opportunity for give and take and Liz is so comfortable in her own skin that no matter what skin I happened to be occupying, she was really open and willing to engage. PODSTER: I loved it when your character Hank was talking to India.Arie about racism and white nationalism and how brilliantly she handled that. She engaged with the character honestly and her perspective was interesting. How do you ad lib in character? SARAH: I don’t do it, I let them do it. If I really let go, if Sarah Jones lets go of trying to wrangle them and manage them and make sure they sound a certain way, if I just let them sound how they are going to sound, they take over. And they’re right there present in the moment. I’m often surprised at what comes out of their mouths through me in conversation with people so the podcast is fun for me, too. It’s a little nerve wrecking because it’s a tightrope walk. I’m like, please Lady, 15

please Hank, please Rashid, please whoever—please don’t say something crazy right now. But I kind of don’t get to decide that; I need to allow space for the characters to have their own interactions with the guest. PODSTER: When you do your stage show or TED talks, you wear a little bit of costume—a hat or scarf or something— for each character. With the podcast we’re not getting that. Does that feel any different to you? SARAH: It does feel a little bit different because there’s a kind of wide open space that audio content allows me. There’ve been times when Hank has actually fooled podcast listeners into thinking he is a real person and they’ve been worried that I had a racist on there. If you’re coming along on this ride with me, it can be easy to think the characters are real people. I’ve actually had it happen myself, just the other day. I was playing back a voice memo and I said, Who’s that? I didn’t recognize one of my own characters because it sounded so different. It freaked me out actually— that hasn’t happened to me very often. I think of it as a testament to them that these characters have taken up residence so fully in me. PODSTER: As a listener it feels like I’m hearing a small group of people chatting in your living room, when it is just you and your guest. I’m eager to listen to 16

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your playdate with Lily Tomlin. SARAH: It was incredible. If I had ancestors she would be one of them. If I have forbearers, people without whom I would not exist, she is the creative DNA from which I came. It’s impossible to overstate her importance in my deciding to do this work. I can count on one hand the people who first embodied for me this possibility of multiplicity and characters and the freedom that no matter how you look, you can be anyone. She’s one of the people who gave me that permission. So as you can imagine, I was like, okay, I cannot fawn all over this person for a half hour and I have to let my characters have some time with her, but I really just wanted to hog all the time. PODSTER: Did you know her work when you were growing up? SARAH: When I was little, she was on Sesame Street. Her character Edith Anne would sit in a giant rocking chair. I remember seeing her on public television and then she had that show Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, which her partner Jane wrote. I loved her in everything—her physicality, her presence. PODSTER: I’m a little bit older than you so when I was little I was watching her on Laugh In and loved Edith Anne and the telephone operator Ernestine. And now Grace and Frankie—she’s had

this long career and is still doing amazing work. SARAH: She’s still got it! I mean, I’m telling you, watch her in some of those scenes—Lily is in shape. She can still roll around and do pilates and do her thing, and I find her to be an extraordinary lantern up ahead on the path so that when I’m her age I hope to be continuing to play in the way that she does. The playfulness, the spirit of really being connected to the character and to the story, and how much it can bring people joy. The other thing I’ll say about Lily is the humility with which she approaches her work. She’s been everywhere and done everything and yet when you talk to her, there’s a groundedness and a gentle humility to her. PODSTER: What a great role model to have. So what do you want to achieve with the podcast? SARAH: In anything I create I try to make work that I would like to see myself and that I haven’t yet seen or experienced. All the work that I love in the world—whether it’s music, or great television, or great film, theater, visual art—is when someone with a vision is able to execute it in a way that only they can. They have some unique take on it, some particular vantage point that renders an idea that we all have, which is that beauty is important or communicating original ideas is important.

A number that staggered me was that when we launched we were ranked 100 and something out of the 320,000 podcasts out there. If I have that kind of great fortune to find myself at that place, I’d better use it. I’d better do something worthwhile. We are at a moment in this country when I think everybody has lost, not just the people who feel they’ve lost, but the people who I think in many ways lost even though they won (that’s my opinion, ask one of my characters and they might feel differently). Whatever we think of Donald Trump, I feel like our democracy has been shaken at its foundation by some of these crazy things that are happening. We’ve almost gone to this place where facts aren’t fact anymore, and I want to give people a place where reality is reflected back to them in a way that is sanity-inducing. I find that in insane times, a little laughter brings you back into your body, it reminds you to just put your feet on the floor, stay in the present moment. And if we can hold on and bridge these alleged divides between us and them, we will actually wake up to the reality that there is no us and them, there is only us and if we don’t take care of ourselves and our sanity, we will apparently fall for anything. So I’m sort of here to restore my own sanity and anybody else’s who would like to come along in a playful, fun way. That’s my goal. 17

behind the

S-TOWN’S “A ROSE FOR EMILY”

theme music theme music theme music

I’M STILL THINKING ABOUT S-Town. I tried to get an interview with host/executive producer Brian Reed but his people politely declined and said that “Brian has had to shift his focus to other projects.” Alas, I haven’t been able to shift my 18

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by The Zombies

focus. John, the maze, sundials, tattoos, life, death, love. In an early episode of S-Town, John gives Brian a few books including Faulkner’s short story A Rose for Emily, the tragic tale of an eccentric spinster growing old in a small town. Re-reading the

story, the parallels to John’s life in S-Town are beyond poignant. Each episode of S-Town ends with a song I had never heard, “A Rose for Emily.” I assumed the song was done by one of today’s singer/ songwriters but when I finally googled it I discovered it was by The Zombies from their 1968 album Odessey and Oracle. The album produced a hit “Time of the Season” but otherwise was lost in the shuffle and didn’t receive much acclaim; the band had broken up before it was even released. Over time, however, it gained fans and a cult following and in 2012 ended up being ranked number 100 on Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The band is reuniting for a tour next year celebrating the 50th anniversary of the album. Listen to the song on YouTube

RADIOTOPIA, FROM PRX, IS A CURATED NETWORK OF 13 EXTRAORDINARY, STORY-DRIVEN SHOWS.

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Gardeners’ Corner with Cherrie McIlwaine bbc.co.uk/radioulster “The horticultural show in which Cherrie McIlwaine and the greenfingered experts visit gardens, talk to gardeners and give topical advice on a range of horticultural problems.” Cultivate Simple chiotsrun.com “An honest and unrehearsed discussion about trying to live a more simple life. Susy and Mr. Chiots (Brian) discuss their lives, home and garden, and philosophy on living a more simple life and how complex that can really be. Each week a new topic is discussed along with updates and other features.” You Bet Your Garden whyy.org/cms/youbetyourgarden “An hour of ‘chemical-free horticultural hijinks,’ You Bet Your 20

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NEED FOR FEED Garden is a weekly, nationally syndicated Public Radio show airing out of WHYY-FM in Philadelphia that offers fiercely organic advice to gardeners far and wide. Host Mike McGrath offers tips on fending off garden and household pests without the use of toxic chemicals, caring for lawns and landscapes without losing your mind, and growing without groaning in tough conditions like extreme heat, unending rain and lousy soil.” A Way to Garden with Margaret Roach awaytogarden.com “Named a ‘top-5 garden podcast’ by The Guardian newspaper, A Way to Garden is hosted by Margaret Roach, one of America’s best-known garden writers. The show, produced by NPR affiliate Robin Hood Radio, covers organic gardening, gardento-table cooking and nature topics, featuring top experts in a lively interview format, from horticulturists, garden designers, plant breeders and nursery owners to top cookbook authors, plus bird and insect experts and more.”

5 LISTEN

THE PODSTER FIVE SUCCESSFUL DROPOUT WITH KYLON GIENGER successfuldropout.com

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ou don’t need school to make money. What? That’s crazy talk. Everyone knows that in order to lead a comfortable life, getting a college degree is practically a necessity. But nope! College is not required to make money, despite popular belief. The podcast Successful Dropout by Kylon Gienger explains the process of becoming a successful entrepreneur without being college educated. This podcast is perfect for anyone who is considering skipping college, or for any unhappy college students who feel like college just isn’t right for them. The podcast features interviews with Gienger and other successful entrepreneurs who did not finish their formal education. You can expect to learn things about business here that you aren’t taught in school. If you are considering dropping out, certainly check out the podcast. Gienger will give you the inspiration, resources, and guidance you need to be successful. As well as the podcast, there is also a website with blog posts about entrepreneurship and dropping out of college, resources to use as an entrepreneur, a Facebook group, mentorship opportunities, a recommended book list, and even opportunities to ask Gienger any question you want. There is a lot of value on this website, most of it being free. After listening to the podcast, you may have a change in your mindset about education. You can still be educated without having a college degree. You can still make money without a college degree. In fact, you can even make MORE money than those with a college degree. If you think you’d enjoy this podcast, you can check it out on iTunes or on their website. —AKR

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or anyone involved in the eSports community, this podcast will be your favorite. The podcast consists of various members of OpTic Gaming, a popular eSports organization that is involved in games such as Call of Duty, Halo, Gears of War, and Counter Strike: Global Offensive. They occasionally have guests who are typically other people involved in the gaming community. Some popular guests they have featured on the podcast include Nadeshot, TomSyndicate, and even Lil Durk, a famous rapper who is good friends with those in OpTic. In most cases, their conversations are about the current events of OpTic, the performances of their teams, upcoming gaming events, and discussing their opinions on video games. The podcast is always led by OpTic H3CZ, the owner of OpTic Gaming. An interesting aspect of the podcast is that there is a different cast each episode. Sometimes, listening to the same people episode after episode can get tiring. Here, it is a nice change to hear different people in every podcast. Another positive about the podcast is that it is free. They post all of their episodes on YouTube on their channel, OpTic Nation. Currently, they are in the middle of their second season of the podcast. The episodes are about an hour long on average. Overall, the OpTic Podcast is highly recommended. Hearing the members of the organization speak about different topics helps the audience get to know them better aside from watching them compete at events. If you are an avid eSports fan and have not heard of the OpTic Podcast, go give it a listen! â&#x20AC;&#x201D;AKR

THE PODSTER FIVE THIS OPTIC PODCAST optic.tv

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NO JUMPER WITH ADAM22 youtube.com/nojumper

re you a laid-back person? Do you follow pop-culture closely? If this is you, stay tuned – you will LOVE this podcast. No Jumper is a podcast hosted by a YouTuber by the name of Adam22. This podcast has to be one of the most interesting ones out there in regards to who he interviews, and what is discussed. He has gotten interviews with many popular stars, from rappers and YouTubers to even those involved in politics. Xxxtentacion. Lil Yachty. Tanner Fox. Even Milo Yiannopoulos made an appearance on the podcast! If you are a teenager, you are more likely to enjoy this podcast. The target audience seems to be geared toward the teenage group, considering the podcast interviews many rappers with audiences that consist mainly of teens. You’ll get to hear many big names talk about life with Adam, which is refreshing. Hearing them talk about various topics helps you get to know about their real personalities. Often, you will hear stories or viewpoints from the guest about their personal life that they haven’t spoken about elsewhere. For those interested in pop-culture, you will want to tune in. However, the podcast is extremely laid back and often times explicit. They don’t have too much of a filter, which can be a good thing because they have more material to discuss. No Jumper is free to listen to as every episode is posted on YouTube. If you want to listen on-the-go, it is also available for free on both SoundCloud and iTunes. —AKR

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f you strive for self-improvement and don’t want to listen to a lengthy podcast, this podcast is right up your alley. The episodes are very brief, usually less than ten minutes long. The short length of the episodes makes it easy to keep up with the series. Each episode has a different topic regarding self-improvement. Every segment will lead you closer to developing good mental health and rewiring your brain to become a positive person. The episodes are straight-forward and deal with a variety of ways to develop good habits. The choice of listening to this podcast should be a no-brainer. The short episodes are packed with value, making it easy to breeze through multiple talks in one sitting. It is also free to access on iTunes as well as Phil Larson’s website (http:// thestoryshop.tv/ymh5/). On the website, Larson also provides an opportunity for you to join a group called The Internal Motivators, a group of people with a desire to do more than just listen to the podcast. Definitely consider this if you are serious about making changes in your life. If you are looking to improve the overall quality of your life, don’t hesitate in checking out YMH5 and The Internal Motivators. Larson does a great job of helping people break their bad habits and replace them with good ones. As long as you listen to the podcast and internalize the concepts by taking notes or even re-listening to episodes, you will see improvements in your life. —AKR

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YOUR MOTIVATIONAL HIGH 5 WITH PHIL LARSON thestoryshop.tv

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THE PODSTER FIVE

VIEWS WITH DAVID DOBRIK AND JASON NASH art19.com

ave you ever wanted the inside scoop on what it’s like to be a YouTube star? Do you ever wonder what YouTubers do when they aren’t working on videos? If that’s the case, check out the podcast Views starring David Dobrik and Jason Nash, two popular vloggers on YouTube. Views is a relatively new podcast that currently has only nine episodes. Dobrik and Nash talk about everything; one unique aspect is that they reveal the amount of money they make from the podcast. Unlike most YouTubers, they are comfortable and willing to let their audience know what their income looks like. Dobrik has explained on the podcast that as a teen, he has always wondered how much money YouTubers make from their videos. Dobrik, a former star on the app “Vine,” even tells the audience how much money popular Vine users would make from advertisements. An interesting aspect of the podcast is simply hearing their perspectives on different topics that otherwise wouldn’t be talked about on their vlogs. While their videos are under the comedy genre, their podcast is a more serious vibe, which is definitely a change from what is shown on their YouTube channels. It’s also easy to see how their personalities are different in their videos compared to in person. Whether you are on the road, at the gym, or even relaxing at home, this podcast is unique and enjoyable to listen to. It is fascinating to hear about what goes on behind-the-scenes when they aren’t working on their vlogs. The podcast is on Spotify as well as iTunes. —AKR

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THE FEED

Hey, It’s a Poem Hosted by Margaret Brown

Foreground Podcast Hosted by Barbara Pflaumer

Hey, It’s a Poem is a bi-weekly podcast featuring interviews and poetry readings with well-known and emerging poets. Hosted by Shelf Unbound publisher Margaret Brown, this podcast examines how to access poetry and find its meanings.

Foreground editor in chief Barbara Pflaumer talks to fine artists about their work, lives, and careers.

Hey, It’s a Poem Podcast No.1 www.heyitsapoem.com

Foreground Podcast No.1 www.shelfmediagroup.com/pages/foreground

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YOUR PODCAST Shelf Media Podcast Hosted by Margaret Brown In the Shelf Media Podcast, publisher Margaret Brown interviews emerging and established authors about their books, careers, writing, and lives.

Shelf Media Podcast No.1 & 2 www.shelfmediagroup.com/pages/podcast

Promote your podcast in Podster’s The Feed. Our initial issues are being distributed to the 125,000 readers of Shelf Media’s Shelf Unbound book review magazine. Our introductory rate for this section is $100/quarter page as seen here. A limited number of full pages are also available. Contact publisher Margaret Brown to reserve your space.

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audiovisuals audiovisuals audiovisuals THE JEALOUS CURATOR HOSTED BY DANIELLE KRYSA

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Thejealouscurator.com

Episode 56: Art for Your Ear with Gunjan Aylawadi

“So, I’m sitting here trying to think of a way to explain what India born, Sydney based paper artist Gunjan Aylawadi does … but in all honesty I really have no idea how she does what she does. Let’s just say there is a lot of paper, woven to look like intricate/ patterned tapestries. Yes. She makes paper do this?! But don’t worry, she’s going to tell us how.” —DK 28

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the case the case the case TIME OF YOUR LIFE by Colin Miller Colin Miller is Associate Dean and Professor, University of South Carolina School of Law; co-host, Undisclosed Podcast; and blog editor, EvidenceProf Blog.

In Podster’s The Case, Colin picks up where Serial Podcast left off.

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t Adnan Syed’s murder trial, the prosecution told jurors during closing arguments that Adnan had killed Hae Min Lee in a Best Buy parking lot shortly before making a 2:36 P.M. “come and get me” call to Jay Wilds. During his testimony, however, Jay testified that he didn’t receive this “come and get me” call until after 3:45 P.M. Moreover, Jay did not seem to be guessing about the timing of this call; he testified that Adnan was supposed to call him at 3:45 P.M. and that he left his friend Jenn’s house when Adnan hadn’t called at the designated time. According to Jay, it wasn’t until after he had driven to another friend’s house that he got the “come and get me” call on Adnan’s cell phone.

The question that three judges from the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland must now answer is whether this inconsistency helps or hurts the defense’s argument for a new trial. One of Adnan’s grounds for appeal is that his trial counsel—Cristina Gutierrez— was ineffective based upon failing to contact prospective alibi witness Asia McClain. Asia, of course, testified at the recent post-conviction proceedings in Adnan’s case that she saw Adnan in the library next to Woodlawn High School until about 2:40 P.M. on the day of Hae’s disappearance. In order to get a new trial on this ground, Adnan must establish that Asia’s testimony undermines our confidence in the jury’s verdict. The defense claims that this is a slam dunk: The prosecution claimed in closing arguments that Adnan was already a mile away from Woodlawn High School and making a phone call in the wake of Hae’s death at the same time their new alibi witness claims she was talking to Adnan at the library next to the school. But, in denying Adnan a new trial on the alibi

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issue, Judge Welch concluded that the State presented the jury with a relatively weak theory as to the time of Hae’s murder because the State relied upon inconsistent facts. Given this weakness, Judge Welch concluded that Asia’s testimony rebutting the State’s timeline wouldn’t have moved the needle on jury deliberations. Judge Welch’s opinion, however, raises questions about what the jury could have concluded at Adnan’s trial. In another portion of his opinion, Judge Welch rejected the State’s claim that they could have used the 3:15 P.M. call on Adnan’s call log as the “come and get me” call if Asia had testified at trial. Specifically, Jay testified to a long sequence of events between this call and a call he made to Jenn at 3:21 P.M. that couldn’t be crammed into a six-minute time frame. So, if Asia’s testimony rebuts a 2:36 P.M. “come and get me” call, and if shifting this call to a 3:15 P.M. call wouldn’t have worked with the rest of the State’s case, where does that leave us? Adnan’s call log shows that there were no incoming

calls made to his cell phone between 3:15 P.M. and 4:27 P.M. A 4:27 P.M. “come and get me” call makes even less sense than one placed at 3:15 P.M., and there were no incoming calls between 2:36 P.M. and 3:15 P.M. Therefore, it’s tough to see how the jury could have believed that there was any “come and get me” call made to Adnan’s cell phone. This might have been a bitter pill for the jury to swallow. After all, the State’s claim was that Adnan murdered Hae during a kidnapping by fraud. This kidnapping by fraud allegedly involved Adnan loaning Jay his car and cell phone so that he would have a reason to ask Hae for a ride and a method to contact Jay after murdering her. Asia’s testimony seemingly makes it impossible for Adnan to have called Jay on his cell phone after the murder unless the rest of the State’s narrative is fundamentally flawed. Could the jury still have convicted Adnan? Sure. Are we confident that the jury still would have convicted Adnan? That’s a question that the three judges will soon answer. 31

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17 JUST ONE MORE THING: A PODCAST ABOUT COLUMBO thecitydesk.net LISTEN 32

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Hosts: Jon Morris and RJ White. Site: thecitydesk.net. About: “A podcast looking at every episode of Columbo.” Episode 17: “Murder by the Book.” Description: “We go back to Columbo‘s first episode (yes, yes—there was the TV movie and then the pilot, but this is the first episode), directed by a young go-getter named Steven Spielberg. It’s Jack Cassidy’s first turn as a murderous creep, killing his writing partner (Martin Milner), rather than letting him break up the team. Joining us is The AV Club‘s Gwen Ihnat, who wrote a wonderful column about Columbo‘s best episodes a little while ago.” That Moment When: The hosts wax poetic about Jack Cassidy (the murderer in episode one) being the perfect villain: “That constant smile and that very mean smirk and the fact that his face looks like a rubber ventriloquist’s dummy from hell.”

Soundbite: “All the input [Peter Falk] had into playing the character, all these things that have become iconic with it were just exactly right and exactly what they needed and what everybody remembers about it: the suit, the car, the way he plays it, putting his hand up randomly once in a while when he’s addressing someone, the cigar—all of it. Peter Falk just completely took over that character and did it perfectly.” Listen Because: The hosts’ enthusiasm for Columbo makes you want to go back and watch every episode. They do their homework and bring in interesting factoids along with pop culture nostalgia.

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investorfieldguide.com/podcast Patrick O’Shaughnessy is a well-read portfolio

analyst at a quantitative money management firm. If that sounds intimidating, well … that’s kind of the point. O’Shaughnessy’s podcast, Invest Like the Best, is ground zero for meeting the people who make up the different layers of the investing world. He jokingly mentions that he should have named the show, “This is who you’re up against,” as a warning to the average investor. Many people think they can beat the market, but listening to this podcast effectively dispels that notion. Episode after episode offers a parade of brilliant minds with narrow, focused areas of expertise. In addition to being enthralled by the intellect of O’Shaughnessy’s guests, I am consistently impressed by the excellent questions he has prepared and the apparent preparation that goes into each interview. Short of going to school for an MBA or studying for a Chartered Financial Analyst designation, Invest Like the Best is one of the best educations you can get on the world of finance and the world of investing. If you’re looking for somewhere to start, I would strongly recommend Episode No. 2 with Michael Mauboussin and Episode No. 10 with Brent Beshore. Aaron Watson is the host of the Going Deep with Aaron Watson podcast, a forum for meaningful, deep conversations about the passions, fears and problems of people from all walks of life. Guests talk about entrepreneurship, sports, finance, comedy, and lifestyle design. goingdeepwithaaron.com 34

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USA TODAY “Bottle-flipping is dead, or at least being steadily eclipsed by the new fad that kids can’t get enough of: fidget spinners.” usatoday.com

THE ATLANTIC “As with any trend worthy of the name, fidget spinners have also produced both delight and moral panic.” theatlantic.com

FIVETHIRTYEIGHT “The toy craze that has swept the nation— cheaply manufactured fidget spinners of dubious metallic constitution—is probably on the way out, with the high-water mark of fidget obsession appearing to be about a month behind us and the interest in the glorified ball bearings plateauing or declining.” fivethirtyeight.com

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#FIDGETSPINNER ALL THINGS CONSIDERED PODCAST

“Fidget Spinner Emerges as Must-Have Toy of the Year” 36

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“Is it any surprise that, given the topsyturvy world in which we now live, spinning one’s wheels—formerly the very definition of a fruitless, frustrating activity that is best avoided—has been recast as a diverting recreation, and embraced by a mass audience?” newyorker.com

OUTRO OUTRO OUTRO “I want to talk to you, Tell me would you like to chat.” | from “Conversation” by the Steve Miller Band |