List #98: Fourteen Things I Liked in 2021

Reading

1. Thus Was Adonis Murdered, The Shortest Way to Hades, The Sirens Sang of Murder, The Sibyl in Her Grave - by Sarah Caudwell

2. Gourmet Hound (Rec. #894)

3. The Thursday Murder Club (Rec. #898), The Man Who Died Twice - by Richard Osman

4. Moira Donegan on Twitter (@MoiraDonegan)

Watching

5. Kajillionaire (Rec. #891)

6. The Party

7. Good Timing with Jo Firestone

8. Feel Good (Rec. #890)

9. Dog House UK (Rec. #897)

10. Taskmaster NZ (Rec. #900)

11. Pretend It's a City (Rec. #885)

12. Vinny Thomas on Twitter (@vinn_ayy)

Listening

13. Victoriocity

14. Off Menu (Rec. #878)

Also I watched Knives Out for the 5th (?) time.

Rec. #883: David Tennant Does a Podcast with Stacey Abrams

 

What: David Tennant interviewed Stacey Abrams on his podcast earlier this year and it was excellent. Perhaps relevant to our collective interests right now??

How to get it: Grab David Tennant Does a Podcast With ... wherever you get your podcasts. It's had two very good seasons so far. (The Olivia Colman episode is still the best.)

Connections to previous Wreckage: In Rec. #785, I explained how this podcast overcomes two General Truths of Podcasting. In Rec. #847, I graced it with a "Best of 2019" title.

Rec. #878: Off Menu

What: This podcast has a simple premise -- two British comedians (Ed Gamble, James Acaster) interview people (some also British, some also comedians) about their dream meal.

Very well-executed and addictive listening.

Representative guests: Paul F. Tompkins, Kumail Nanjiani, Aisling Bea

How to get it: Wherever you usually get your podcasts, or direct from the source.

List #95: Pop Culture Wish List, part 4

While we're in the zone of fulfilling my pop culture requests, I would like to put forward some additional items for consideration.

See Part 1 here.

See Part 2 here.

See Part 3 here.

Item 7: A TV series from EGG Comedy

Comedy duo EGG (Anna Leong Brophy and Emily Lloyd-Saini) are extremely talented sketch writers and performers. (I saw them in Edinburgh in 2018! See Rec. #749.)

They've had scripts in development, and I'd love to see them and their work on my TV screen.

Item 8: A Katie Presley podcast

Writer Katie Presley is sometimes a panelist on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour (see also List #92), and she has a lot of Very Good Opinions (see Rec. #673), and I would like her also to have her own podcast so I can hear her thoughts on more things.

That is all.

Rec. #875: Song Exploder

What: The podcast Song Exploder asks musicians to unpack one of their songs. 

Sometimes you learn what the lyrics are actually about, sometimes you get to hear each of the individual production layers, and sometimes the episode is all about a bunch of exes staying together in Florida and somehow writing Rumours. 

Plus look at the cool art for each ep!

How to get it: As of this writing, there have been 176 episodes so far, and no musicians have repeated. So, there's a lot. Find it all on the podcast website. 

Rec. #872: 99% Invisible

What: The podcast 99% Invisible is all about "the unnoticed design and architecture that shape our world." We're talking mannequins, we're talking "document loading" icons, we're talking insane asylums, we're talking snow plowing patterns.

Recent episode titles: "Shade," "The ELIZA Effect," "The Infantorium," "Mannequin Pixie Dream Girl"

How to get it: The show's website is, appropriately, very well designed. 

Connections to previous Wreckage: 99% Invisible was part of List #92.

Rec. #868: Ologies

What: Ologies is an interview-based science podcast with a light touch. Host Alie Ward, science enthusiast, gets experts to explain what they do (and why and how they do it) for the curious general public.

The expertise on display is wide and varied --- recent guests have included a chronobiologist (circadian rhythms!), a lupinologist (wolves!), and a graphologist (forgery!).

Tag line: "Ask smart people stupid questions."

How to get it: Find all Ologies episodes on Alie Ward's website, or whatever you usually get your podcasts.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Alie Ward gave us Rec. #859: Best Campaign Promise.

List #94: Best of 2019

The Allusionist: Best Language About Language, Rec. #855

The Art of Process: Best Art About Art, Rec. #863

Be Prepared: Best Reason to Stay Indoors, Rec. #851

Come From Away: Best Reminder That Not All of Humanity Is Terrible, Rec. #852

 
David Tennant Does a Podcast With ...: Best Listener, Rec. #847

The Guardian Blind Date: Best Vicarious Dating, Rec. #865

Knives Out: Best Time at the Movie Theater, Rec. #856

Nothing Like a Dame / Tea with the Dames: Best Overheard Conversations, Rec. #860

Alexandra Petri: Best Way to Reflect on the Year, Rec. #866

"Quite Good, Considering [Rosalind's a Nightmare]": Best Earworm, Rec. #858

Russian Doll: Best Worst Day, Rec. #846

Simone (The Good Place): Best Outfit for Any Situation, Rec. #854 

Superstore: Best Season-5-and-Going-Strong, Rec. #848

This Way Up: Best Depictions of Relatable Human Emotions, Rec. #862

Three Identical Strangers: Best Ripped-from-the-Headlines, Rec. #864

Alie Ward: Best Campaign Promise, Rec. #859

Wine Country: Best New Endless Rewatch Potential, Rec. #850

Rec. #863: Best Art about Art

Aimee Mann and Ted Leo are very talented musicians and, as it turns out, very thoughtful and insightful people. 

On The Art of Process podcast, they thoughtfully and insightfully interview other thoughtful and insightful people about their creative output. It's great.

(Rec. #779)

Rec. #859: Best Campaign Promise (or at least one of the top ten I've heard)

Alie Ward, host of the podcast Ologies, tweeted this plan:
"I'm excited to announce my candidacy for president here is my speech: all the golf courses become dog parks"

I mean, I'm in.



(I somehow haven't recommended the Ologies podcast yet, but it's very good!)

Rec. #855: Best Language About Language

The podcast The Allusionist is such a good mix! It's accessible and erudite; interesting and intelligent; snarky and serious.

Host Helen Zalzman is very good at this.

(Rec. #773)

(List #92)

Rec. #847: Best Listener

 For me, David Tennant Does a Podcast With ... is one of the very best new podcasts of 2019. Tennant is genuinely very good at interviewing people, which is a surprise, because a) he is a dude, and b) he is an actor.

Guests in the first season were: Olivia Colman, Whoopi Goldberg, Jodie Whittaker, Sir Ian McKellen, Jon Hamm, Gordon Brown, Jennifer Garner, Catherine Tate, Krysten Ritter, James Corden, Samantha Bee, Tina Fey, and Michael Sheen.

(For those of you counting, that's a 60/40 female/male guest split, which is a pretty close match for my usual content interest ratio.)

(Rec. #785)

Bonus! Guest appearance from Alfred, Lord Waggison -- Olivia Colman's dog.

Rec. #838: Megan Amram on The PosCast

What: Megan Amram, genius writer of The Good Place, visits the podcast co-hosted by her boss, Mike Schur. The named focus of this episode is Houdini-related puns, but mainly it's Amram, Schur, and Joe Posnanski chatting about baseball, musicals, and wordplay.

Representative quote: "I don't know a lot about baseball, but I am very passionate about it ... I mean, I know what a baseball is. From the emojis."

How to get it: If you search for "poscast," Google will autocorrect to "podcast." You can find a direct link to the episode here.

Connections to previous Wreckage: The PosCast was part of List #92. See more Megan Amram content in Rec. #427, Rec. #445, Rec. #594, and Rec. #751.

List #92: A Bunch of Podcasts

This list was across several parts, so a wrap-up might be useful!

A reminder of the parameters of this list: Podcasts! No interview-style shows (not your jam). No true crime shows (not my jam). Still so much good stuff.



Part 1: Produced Nonfiction Segments (3)

Part 2: Narrative (5)

Part 3: High-Concept Chat (6)

Part 4: Stuff Going on in the World (4)