There's a Lot More to Podcasting Than "Serial"

(Links for all the podcasts mentioned below can be found in the sidebar at Forgotten Classics.)

Serial — we're told it is the "break through" podcast in the "sleepy world of podcasts."

Decoder Ring Theatre

Hmmm.

Podcasts are popular again. They went through a period of popularity when they began and then faded into obscurity as far as the media was concerned. But like bees or ants, podcasters just kept busily producing their audio shows, ignoring the "podcasts are dead" media talk, buoyed by their enthusiasm for their creations. Their audiences kept listening and sometimes growing large, as in the case of shows like 99% Invisible or The Tobolowsky Files or Welcome to Nightvale.

Not that you'll hear about those shows in the regular media. Every journalist is looking for the thing that podcasting's not: the mass audience, mass interest, "must hear" shows for everyone. "Serial," that phenomenally popular podcast, was just close enough to that criteria that the media woke up and "discovered" podcasts. Again.

Those of us who've been there all along would thank them, except for the fact that every time I've read a piece on podcasts it has clearly been written by someone who doesn't have a clue. Certainly they haven't taken the time to do more than interview a few sources who aren't really helpful to those of us who'd like to see some sort of breadth represented.

Stories compare podcasts to radio shows, they focus on the "pro-casts" (professional radio shows broadcast through podcast feeds), and they tell you how hard it is to find them. Then they introduce their definitive listening guide. Which is generally anything but definitive.

In so doing, they miss the delightful, quirky world of passionate amateurs who have taken this broadcast medium to heart and produced a wild variety of shows. These podcasts may serve a mind-boggingly specific or small audience. And yet, they are some of the best entertainment available today.

What surprises me is that I'm not the only one who finds this annoying. I can be excused for being opinionated. I have two podcasts and regularly am a guest on a third. I am a voracious podcast listener and know there's a big world out there. But when my mild-mannered husband tosses the paper aside in disgust after reading one of these pieces, then we know there's a huge problem. He listens to fewer podcasts than I do. But he's a passionately loyal listener. Because when you listen to a podcaster regularly, you become part of their community.

Reporters also miss the true beauty of the podcast. They rarely mention that they are completely mobile.  Download or stream one whenever and wherever you want. If you've got wireless, you've got access.

I myself am an old-school, download-through-iTunes gal. But if you want streaming and apps just Google (or Bing or DuckDuckGo) it.

You'll also hear that podcasts are hard to find. I'm not sure what world these journalists live in. Have they never browsed in a bookstore (granted, those are increasingly rare these days) or cruised TV channels? All you've got to do is push the iTunes "Podcast" tab which reveals a marvelous world of possibilities waiting for you. Organized just like their music, the front page features hot picks, collections, "favorites," and interesting oddballs.

Each category (just click the drop down "All Categories" menu) has its own front page and will lead you down fascinating rabbit holes of listening. I check iTunes every couple of weeks and always seem to find at least one undiscovered show to try. And I've been listening since ... forever.

My personal favorites tend to be what I call "true" podcasts — done for the love of the thing. CraftLit, SFFaudio, the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast, Spilled Milk, King Falls AM, and Music From 100 Years Ago are just a few of them. (Drop by my Forgotten Classics sidebar and you'll find the links for these and many more.)

Popularity can produce greater success and push podcasts into becoming "pro-casts." Freakonomics and The Dinner Party Download are just a couple that I listened to before they were discovered and put in the big show on regular broadcast radio.

My favorite success story is 99% Invisible which is about the design elements we see all around us but which ideally should be almost invisible if they work the way they should.

Roman Mars always sounds like the happiest guy on the planet and it might be because he can now make a living form his deservedly popular show, while forming a podcast network to provide support for other "hey, that's interesting" podcasts.

Podcast networks. Yes, they exist. They're also not that hard to find.

And plenty of other fascinating podcast "extension" stories exist. The Tobolowsky Files, featuring character actor Stephen Tobolowsky, tells hilarious or astounding stories of his life with a subtext that taps a deeper, sensitive side. His success almost led to being picked up by a broadcast network but when that didn't come to fruition they made a movie. A story telling movie. I love it.

Welcome to Nightvale began as a way to promote a book publisher. When the podcast took off, they began doing live shows. They now do international tours which quickly sell out.

This isn't to say that I have anything against "pro-casts" but let's be clear about what they are. They're often simply convenient ways to hear your favorite radio shows on your own schedule. (I'd languish without my daily dose of Bird Note.) They also open a world that you can't get to otherwise, such as with foreign radio broadcasts. I get to hear shows from the BBC, Australia, Canada, and beyond that I love.

Sometimes, though, they are time capsules. Such is the case with my husband's favorite, Desert Island Discs. This hugely popular BBC radio show has been on air since the 1940s and they've made all their past episodes available via iTunes.

Each is an interview with a celebrity who has chosen the eight songs they'd take with them if they were stranded on a desert island. These songs often tell the story of their lives and the interviews are fascinating. They'll interview just about anyone. Many are the sort you'd expect like actors, singers, and well-known British celebrities like various Beatles and the Monty Pythons. But you'll also find prime ministers, scientists, bankers, and more who are a lot more interesting than you'd have thought.

I know this is long and passionate. But I'm not the only one who's steamed about the way the media misunderstands podcasting. Heather Ordover at CraftLit (another favorite of mine) did a special episode on this topic. The episode and transcript are here.

She's not only got clarifications about podcasting but a lot of the history and context that I left out. (Because I knew Heather had my back.)

As for Serial, I've got nothing against it. I'm not a fan of true crime stories but I do really like Trial Lawyer Confidential which is excellent real world advice and The Black Tapes podcast which riffs on the Serial format in an otherworldly way.

Yes, there is a lot more out there waiting for you. All you have to do is take a look.

============

Speaking of Desert Island Discs, here are my top 8 desert island podcasts. I have tons of favorites, but these are the ones I'd have to have on a desert island to keep me sane. In no particular order:

1. The Tobolowsky Files
2. Bird Note
3. The H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast
4. Food News
5. The Classic Tales Podcast
6. Spilled Milk
7. 99% Invisible
8. A Good Story is Hard to Find (Yes, this is the one I do with Scott Danielson. What can I say? I like listening to old episodes. It's good to be proud of your work, right?)

Do you have a Desert Island podcast list? Let me know.

Well Said: The opposite of addiction is connection

Human beings have a natural and innate need to bond, and when we're happy and healthy, we'll bond and connect with each other, but if you can't do that, because you're traumatized or isolated or beaten down by life, you will bond with something that will give you some sense of relief. Now, that might be gambling, that might be pornography, that might be cocaine, that might be cannabis, but you will bond and connect with something because that's our nature. That's what we want as human beings.

[...]

And what I've tried to do now, and I can't tell you I do it consistently and I can't tell you it's easy, is to say to the addicts in my life that I want to deepen the connection with them, to say to them, I love you whether you're using or you're not. I love you, whatever state you're in, and if you need me, I'll come and sit with you because I love you and I don't want you to be alone or to feel alone.

And I think the core of that message -- you're not alone, we love you -- has to be at every level of how we respond to addicts... The opposite of addiction is connection.

Johann Hari, TED Talk,
Everything You Think You Know About Addiction is Wrong

Do go listen to this talk or read the transcript. This just reinforces the core message I learned from Brené Brown in The Power of Vulnerability talk. Which I also recommend.

Worth a Thousand Words: Horizons

Horizons
photographed by Will Duquette

I've enjoyed Will Duquette's writing for a long time but now he's gotten back into photography and is graciously allowing me to share some favorites. (His Flickr stream is here.)

This one somehow captures those huge, fluffy clouds that we all love to watch majestically soaring through the sky. It is somehow so rare to see a good photo of them that this one took my fancy at once.

Well Said: The Search of Reason and The Sense of the Ineffable

The search of reason ends at the shore of the known; on the immense expanse beyond it only the sense of the ineffable can glide. It alone knows the route to that which is remote from experience and understanding. Neither of them is amphibious: reason cannot go beyond the shore, and the sense of the ineffable is out of place where we measure, where we weigh.

We do not leave the shore of the known in search of adventure or suspense or because of the failure of reason to answer our questions. We sail because our mind is like a fantastic sea shell, and when applying our ears to its lips we hear a perpetual murmur from the waves beyond the shore.

Abraham Heschel, Man Is Not Alone

I was talking to my spiritual advisor about the first paragraph. He pointed out that we can't live purely on reason or the ineffable. We live at their intersection.

This raised a lovely image for me of walking in the damp sand by the sea, with occasional wavelets lapping around my ankles. We can walk more in the land of reason, struggling through the dry, hot sand. We can wade in the sea of the ineffable, with the waves pulling and pushing our legs, impeding progress. It is on that damp sand that the walk is the easiest, the most satisfying, and lets us sample both land and sea.

I like it.

Blogging Around

Tom Cruise is the Best

I'm going to call him Tom Cruise during the rest of this review of "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation" because even though his character has a name, Ethan Hunt, it is really Tom Cruise who makes his entrance clambering over a hill and exhorting his lovable tech guy Benji (Simon Pegg) to use his hacking skill to open the door of a cargo transport plane that's about to take off with a belly full of nukes stolen by Chechen separatists or something, I don't know who they are, it doesn't matter, Tom Cruise is running, arms and legs pumping, hair flying, and holy mother of moley he's climbing onto the top of the plane and hanging to its underbelly as it takes off, with his bare hands!

Matt Zoller Seitz's review of the new Mission Impossible movie is just about as fun as the movie (probably - I mean, I haven't seen it). It typifies the way Tom Cruise can make you feel when he's been properly cast. It's the way I felt watching him in Edge of Tomorrow, which I did not love. But I loved Cruise in it. Just go read the review.

Rhetorical Context

An excellent piece from The Curt Jester about the revelations from the Planned Parenthood videos. What I especially like is his reminder that we must not fall into the same error of dehumanizing those doing the evil. Read it all, but here's a bit to get you started.

I once wondered how the evil of Nazi Germany could have come about? Unfortunately I now understand this much better. The first step is historically always dehumanization. Using language that moves from a defined reality to a more abstract concept. Once that is done you can intellectualize your reaction. To develop a purposeful blindspot as a callus hardening against conscience.

The conversations in these videos shows the “banality of evil”. No maniacal laughs like movie villains. Calmly discussing the parsing of unborn children for parts as if it is the most mundane task. Like they were playing the battery-operated game “Operation” with a comic likeness of an unborn child.

Hunting Is Normal. Enjoy Your Tasty Animals.

Time for another cultural update from the backwards southerners, and to get us started let’s hear from the guy so southern and backward nobody can stand him:

129. In order to continue providing employment, it is imperative to promote an economy which favours productive diversity and business creativity. For example, there is a great variety of small-scale food production systems which feed the greater part of the world’s peoples, using a modest amount of land and producing less waste, be it in small agricultural parcels, in orchards and gardens, hunting and wild harvesting or local fishing.

Laudato Si’ 129.

Jennifer Fitz cracks me up. Oh, she's very serious on this topic and I urge you to go read it all. But she's got a way with a hook and a way with words ... and a way with logic. All of which I enjoy greatly.

Well Said: God never wrote that book with ink.

Some people, in order to discover God, read books. But there is a great book: the very appearance of created things. Look above you! Look below you! Read it. God, whom you want to discover, never wrote that book with ink. Instead, He set before your eyes the things that He had made. Can you ask for a louder voice than that?

Augustine of Hippo

In which the White Moll sinks deeper into underworld New York to save a man's life by pulling off a diamond heist.

Chapters 7-8 of The White Moll by Frank L. Packard are ready at Forgotten Classics podcast.

Well Said: The most thoroughly converted man I ever met

[C.S.] Lewis struck me as the most thoroughly converted man I ever met. Christianity was never for him a separate department of life. Not what he did with his solitude; not even, as he says in one essay, what God does with his solitude. His whole vision of life was such that the natural and the supernatural seemed inseparably combined.

Walter Hooper,
Introduction to God in the Dock
by C.S. Lewis

I get it.

Worth a Thousand Words: Setting Sun

Setting Sun
taken by Remo Savisaar

Once again, Remo has so many wonderful photos on display that I had a hard time choosing. You owe it to yourself to go look at all of them. This one speaks to me of summer and vacation and what could be better for the beginning of August?

If, like me, you can't get to the seashore, just enlarge this photo and let your imagination fill in the sound of seagulls, the sight of brown pelicans coasting just above the water, the continual splash of waves, the salty spray on your lips, the humid breeze waving your hair in your eyes, and the scrunch of sand beneath your bare feet.

Well Said: God's Fool

Ah, well, I am a great and sublime fool. But then I am God's fool, and all His work must be contemplated with respect.

Mark Twain, A Biography

Prayer Requests — For the Culture of Life

Beyond Cana Marriage Retreat

As many regular readers know, I've been involved with Beyond Cana for many years. It is our parish's marriage enrichment retreat. I've seen God use it to renew and strengthen marriages in wonderful ways, including my own.

This weekend we begin another retreat, joined by many last minute sign ups. I love that as a sign that God is working in couples' hearts always and everywhere.

Please pray for the couples attending and those presenting the retreat.

For Those Who Suffer from the Culture of Death — A Holy Hour Today

We must pray unceasingly for those who suffer from the unmerciful culture of death, laid bare in recent days and weeks with the Planned Parenthood videos we’ve seen and read about.

If you are in New York Friday (July 31) at 3 pm there will be a special holy hour for mercy, healing, and reparation. Please join us in prayer in person or wherever you are. Details here.

The rest of us can join them in prayer and fasting. That's the beauty of God's internet. (Via Kathryn Jean Lopez.)

Catholic Bytes - a great new Catholic podcast

Each episode features a different priest who is in Rome right now. They discuss a variety of topics such as the importance of the body, prayer, how Christ makes us free, saints, and much more.

No matter the topic, the explanation is simple and understandable. A host gently inserts questions for further information but the focus is on the presenter. There's also a quick summing up at the end which is a nice touch.

The episodes are short, between 8-10 minutes, which helps make them easy to fit into your schedule and to understand. Or you can do it like me. I'm addicted and have been listening to one after another.

They'd be good for anyone who is interested in learning more about the Catholic faith, from those who are simply curious to Catholics who'd like a quick refresher which might also just prove inspirational at the same time.

Catholic Bytes just began about a month ago but they've already got 13 episodes posted.

Not every episode shows up in the iTunes feed but if you go to Catholic Bytes' website, it's easy to go to the older page and download the older episodes.

Worth a Thousand Words: Life on the Provence Coast

Life on the Provence Coast
taken by French Sampler

None of the alleys near me ever look like this. Darn it.

Well Said: What's Your Hurry?

“What's your hurry?"

"Because now is the only time there ever is to do a thing in," said Miss Ophelia.”

Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin

I'm rereading this for the fourth time as I prepare for an upcoming episode of A Good Story is Hard to Find. Still loving it all the way.

Miss Ophelia and Topsy's relationship is one of my favorite parts of the book.

I listened to a number of audio versions before taking myself back to the one I did myself at Forgotten Classics. I was gratified to find that the reading wasn't half-bad; in fact, no worse than the best of what I could find on Audible. Plus the commentary was comparable to that of Heather Ordover at CraftLit.

It sounds as if I'm patting myself on the back, I know. The truth is that enough time has gone by (7 years) that I can listen to it objectively. I'm just pleased I did the job well. And can enjoy it myself from the "outside," as it were.

Worth a Thousand Words: Chagall

Chagall
painted by Karin Jurick

I love Karin Jurick's paintings of people looking at art but this one hits me harder than the others which are usually in well-lit museums. This one is in a museum also but it feels like a chapel because of the lighting and ambiance.

Well Said: A Good Prayer for Many Sad Hearts

When my friends are in sorrow and trouble, or even when they are just without spirit, I like to pray, "Jesus, they have no wine," or "Mary, they have no wine." It is a good prayer for many sad hearts today.

Dorothy Day, On Pilgrimage

I'm rereading this book which is Dorothy Day's daily diary from 1948. Into it she pours all the daily activities, which are quite varied considering she begins the year spending 2-1/2 months with her daughter in the country waiting for a new grandchild to be born and then returns to the city for her retreats and charity work.

Interspersed with all this are her spiritual reflections and often tart comments on the state of the country in general.

She's a fascinating person who I relate to in many ways. In others, not so much. But that's how it is with friends ... and saints ... is it not? The point is seeing where we intersect which, hopefully, is where Christ comes in.

This caught my eye because I recently began saying that prayer for my daughter and her fiancé who are searching for a good, inexpensive spot for their wedding reception. I thought what better prayer to say in this instance? After all, we know Jesus cared enough to provide enough wine to make that town very happy for a long time.

It was when reading this passage that I realized all the different ways "they have no wine" could be interpreted. What a good use of scripture in prayer.

What We've Been Watching

Summertime, with our regular television shows on hiatus, means we can catch up a little on our movie viewing. These are mostly big movies that I was curious about. They surprised me in ways I didn't expect, for the most part.

Birdman (or the unexpected virtue of ignorance) 2014

A fading actor best known for his portrayal of a popular superhero attempts to mount a comeback by appearing in a Broadway play. As opening night approaches, his attempts to become more altruistic, rebuild his career, and reconnect with friends and family prove more difficult than expected.

People either loved or hated this. Tom felt lukewarm approval. I can't say I hated it but it did seem like a big waste of time.

That one shot trick was amazing and the use of the drum score to highlight the character's internal tension was very interesting ... but in the end I felt as if I were watching a one trick pony.

I thought these quotes in Wikipedia said it all ...

[Director and cowriter] González Iñárritu's own experiences influenced many of Birdman's themes, and said "What this film talks about, I have been through. I have seen and experienced all of it; it's what I have been living through the last years of my life."

Duh.

Cowriter Dinelaris described this aspect as "a laughing look at oneself", but said it had to be done in a comedic way otherwise "it would have been the most unbelievably self-absorbed look at the subject".

I've got news for him. Humor didn't take that edge off.

I've seen All That Jazz. I've seen Adaptation.

Brilliant commentaries on art from people in those fields. Birdman was not those movies. Brilliant tricks and fantastic acting can't make up for an abundance of self-absorption and a lack of depth.

Magic in the Moonlight 2014

Set in the 1920s French Riviera, a master magician is commissioned to try and expose a psychic as a fraud.

A sweet little film that is not one of Allen's greatest but which does a good job in the first two acts of keeping us interested in the "is she or isn't she" clairvoyant question.

Colin Firth is good as the Houdini-esque character who debunks mediums. Emma Stone is good as the medium in question. Not something I'll want to watch again but it doesn't pretend to be more than it is. This was just what I expected it to be and that isn't a bad thing.

American Sniper 2014

U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) takes his sole mission—protect his comrades—to heart and becomes one of the most lethal snipers in American history. His pinpoint accuracy not only saves countless lives but also makes him a prime target of insurgents. Despite grave danger and his struggle to be a good husband and father to his family back in the States, Kyle serves four tours of duty in Iraq. However, when he finally returns home, he finds that he cannot leave the war behind.

This true-life tale is a surprisingly "traditional" sort of war movie in that it didn't worry about the politics of the war or about whether it was right or wrong to be in Iraq.

This is the story of a soldier doing the right thing as best he could, the toll it took, and his way back ... with no excuses and no finger pointing.

I found it refreshing.

Her (2013)

In the not so distant future, Theodore, a lonely writer purchases a newly developed operating system designed to meet the user's every needs. To Theordore's surprise, a romantic relationship develops between him and his operating system. This unconventional love story blends science fiction and romance in a sweet tale that explores the nature of love and the ways that technology isolates and connects us all.

This was a fairly astounding movie. It startled, shocked, endeared, and made us think. We're still talking about certain aspects, especially how it looked at men and women (the title is "Her" after all and there is more than one woman in it), while simultaneously thinking about how we interact with technology, AI, and aliens. The more I think about it, the more I admire it.

This is all without even going into the atypical-typical futuristic look, the color themes, and Joaquin Phoenix's brilliant acting.

There was a certain amount of predictability to at least half of it but the unpredictable parts more than made up for that element.

NOTE: There is a surprising amount of sex in this movie, though not a way that is easy to explain. It is there for a reason but still surprised us and sometimes made us uncomfortable (which in itself had a purpose in the movie).

Edge of Tomorrow 2014

Major Bill Cage is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously demoted and dropped into combat. Cage is killed within minutes, managing to take an alpha alien down with him. He awakens back at the beginning of the same day and is forced to fight and die again... and again - as physical contact with the alien has thrown him into a time loop.

This was recommended by two people or I probably wouldn't have bothered.

Not bad but not great. Tom Cruise is a pleasure to watch in action movies, which are what he does best. However, there was some sort of problem with the pacing so that both Tom and I at different times said, "How long is this anyway?" It fell short of 2 hours but felt more like 3. That could be because so much time was spent in the beginning making sure we understood the concept. Note to director/editor: we've seen Groundhog Day. Just get on with it.

The World’s Fastest Indian 2005

The life story of New Zealander Burt Munro, who spent years building a 1920 Indian motorcycle -- a bike which helped him set the land-speed world record at Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats in 1967.

The name and poster say it all. Anthony Hopkins gives a nice, underplayed performance as the old codger who no one takes seriously except the little boy next door. His goal is to get to Bonneville Flats with his 1920 Indian motorcycle in an attempt to beat the world land speed record. This sagged a bit in the middle on the road trip from L.A. to Utah, especially with so much of the story left to tell once he got to the trials. However, that's really neither here nor there in the big picture.

Not a big movie but it especially entertained my husband who loves cars and racing and engines and speed trials. Definitely recommended for Hopkins or car fans.

Worth a Thousand Words: Brousov Calendar

Brousov Calendar, Viktor Vasnetsov

Blogging Around

In Praise of Sadness: The Healing Insight of "Inside Out"

“Inside Out” stands in opposition to an entire culture that tells people that happiness is the highest, best and sometimes only permissible emotion, and that sadness is an obstacle to being happy, and that we should concentrate all of our emotional and cultural energy on trying to eradicate sadness so that everyone can be happy. 

A good piece for those who have seen Inside Out. It's by Matt Zoller Seitz, my favorite reviewer at RogerEbert.com.

When the Pope is Viewed Only Through a Political Lens

Standing on a stage beneath a yellow metal roof, Francis used the wedding feast of Cana – in which by the biblical account Jesus ultimately turned water from ablution jars into wine – as a metaphor in which the wine symbolizes happiness, love and abundance.

“This lack of ‘wine’ can also be due to unemployment, illness and difficult situations which our families may experience,” he said.

That's part of the New York Times' summary of Pope Francis's homily about the wedding at Cana and families in Ecuador. Reading the homily itself, one has a hard time seeing the summary above as accurate. Do take the time to read it. It made me remember what a treasure our families are and, of course, the marriages from which they spring.

GetReligion discusses the way journalists tend to report on Pope Francis versus what he's really doing, which is ... well ... poping.

Pope Francis is preaching. The faith elements are part of the content, not words that create an irrelevant frame for the real news, which by definition has to be about politics.

This conflicts, as I said the other day, with the"mainstream journalism Grand Unified Theory" stating that "no matter what the pope cites as his reasons for visiting a land or region, he is actually there for political reasons. He is there in an attempt to impact the lives of real people through political ideas or actions (as opposed to through sacraments, biblical truth, etc.)."

SIL missionaries, jungle Indians unexpectedly steer a Jewish reporter toward home

Ira Rifkin advises journalists who want to write about religion in a pluralistic society to get comfortable with people who believe very differently from them. His illustration is a personal story that is touching and inspirational. I'd quote some here but I don't want to ruin it. Just dart over to GetReligion and read it for yourself.

Well Said: Making Mistakes

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.

Albert Einstein