Coming Soon + Five Podcasts For You
The next exclusive collage/assemblage (Month 2: Volume 1) for paid subscribers will drop next week, on Tuesday the 8th!!!
You don’t want to miss it!!
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This week I wanted to share with you five free podcasts I really enjoy, in the hopes that you might find something you too could enjoy.
Since I know not everyone shares my enthusiasm for the Los Angeles Lakers, I’ll spare you the four different podcasts dedicated to my team that I listen to every week. I’ll also omit the houseplant podcasts and the ancient earth conspiracy podcasts I listen to weekly. Instead, here are five of my favorites that focus on art, humor, fashion, science, and philosophy. Each episode gives my head a bubble bath. I hope you have a similar sensation!
If you listen to any of these, let me know in the comments. And if you have any recommendations for podcasts that you enjoy, please let me know in the comments. I’m always looking for more good stuff!
You can’t imitate a worldview. But you can form your own by listening and learning (and learning how to listen). On the Conversations with Tyler podcast, produced by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, celebrated polymath and academic economist Tyler Cowen explores the minds and methods of today’s top thinkers. Tyler’s intense research leads to stimulating and surprising questions that provoke guests into deep examinations of their work and how they see the world. Eager to exploit their insights? All you have to do is listen.
The bountiful mixture of different interviewees draws me back to this podcast over and over. Every once in a while I recognize the person Tyler’s interviewing, and I eagerly listen to those with a certain type of attention; but six out of ten times I have no idea who they are so I listen with a different type of attention and find myself learning about whole new aspects of our shared reality I might otherwise never have known existed. It’s fun. It’s like I’m constantly being introduced to new and interesting people and ideas.
Past noteworthy episodes include: (this one) with Neal Stephenson on Depictions of Reality, (this one) with Sarah Parcak on Archaeology from Space, (this one) with Mary Roach on Disgust, Death, and Danger, and (this one) with David Salle on the Experience of Art.
Professor Phil Ford and writer/filmmaker J. F. Martel host a series of conversations on art and philosophy, dwelling on ideas that are hard to think and art that opens up rifts in what we are pleased to call "reality."
This isn’t “weird” in the same way that something like Art Bell’s Coast to Coast was weird, but more weird in the academic/philosophical sense. Sure, they have episodes where they focus on paranormal activity, but it’s not really a conspiracy podcast or an X-files type thing. It’s more of a theoretical inquiry into unorthodox cultural phenomenon. Both hosts are smart and enthusiastic about their subject matter. You can tell that they care a lot about, and have thought a lot about, the subjects they center.
Past noteworthy episodes include: (this one) with philosophy professor Tamler Sommers discussing David Lynch’s film "Fire Walk with Me," (this one) focusing on Marshall McLuhan & David Carson’s The Book of Probes, (this one) focusing on Brian Eno’s ambient work, and (this one) called “On Ishmael Reed's 'Mumbo Jumbo,' or, Why We Need More Magical Thinking.”
With over 7 billion people in the world, we all have one thing in common. Every day we all get dressed. Join Dressed as we explore the social and cultural histories behind the who, what, when of why we wear.
Dressed: The History of Fashion
This show is co-hosted by April Calahan who’s a Special Collections Associate and Curator of Manuscript Collections at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and Cassidy Zachary who’s a fashion historian, writer, and founder of the popular fashion history blog and Instagram account The Art of Dress. They’re both wicked smart and they get really great guests to discuss a wide range of issues within the realm of fashion. With every episode I feel like my knowledge about clothing grows and moreover I feel like thinking critically and historically about fashion helps me to engage with the world in a more richly textured way.
Past noteworthy episodes include: (this one) with fashion historian and author Lydia Edwards talking about the newly released revised edition of her acclaimed book How to Read a Dress: A Guide to Changing Fashion from the 16th to the 21st Century, (this one) focused on horror fashion with costume designer Lisa Jensen, whose very first job in her thirty plus year film career was on 1984's A Nightmare on Elm Street, and (this one) on the golden age of haute couture.
Southern inspirational dada.
Miracle Nutrition with Hearty White
His self-description seen above says it all: this thing is bonkers, hilarious, and thought provoking all at once. It feels improvisational, but over the years I’ve wondered if maybe he scripts it? I first heard this show on the college radio station at Florida State back in 2009-2010, my first year of PhD school, and I instantly loved it. I felt like I had found a secret magical gift. I tuned in religiously. And still to this day, I listen to it as often as I can. Each episode feels like its being built as each word gets uttered. The way he goes on extended riffs, digressions, absurd tangents that all sort of feel like bizarre storytelling with recurring characters (Hearty voices all of them from Lou to Butch to Hearty the character himself), makes it seem like fairytales for grownup lovers of the avant-garde. If you’re a fan of the surreal, the absurd, the unhinged, then you’ll love this. It’s not mean and disturbing like The Eric Andre Show, but it’s just as unpredictable. It’s more sweet and sincere unpredictable like Adventure Time. And it’s just as pleasantly random and funny and discursive and silly as Katya and Trixie’s brilliant show UNHhhh.
In terms of suggested episodes: I suggest all of them. Each one a unique gem worthy of every moment you give to it.
Ever wanted to know how music affects your brain, what quantum mechanics really is, or how black holes work? Do you wonder why you get emotional each time you see a certain movie, or how on earth video games are designed? Then you’ve come to the right place. Each week, Sean Carroll [a theoretical physicist at Caltech], will host conversations with some of the most interesting thinkers in the world. From neuroscientists and engineers to authors and television producers, Sean and his guests talk about the biggest ideas in science, philosophy, culture and much more.
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
For those of us with wide ranging interests, from quantum physics to popular culture, this podcast delivers. Carroll always seems genuinely interested in hearing other people’s ideas about things, even though he’s not shy about making his own positions known. He’s obviously a smart guy with impressive credentials, but he’s also able to communicate his ideas and engage with other people at a level that invites a general audience.
Past noteworthy episodes include: (this one) featuring Charlie Jane Anders “On Stories and How to Write Them,” (this one) featuring Cornel West “On What Democracy Is and Should Be,” and (this one) featuring Lina Necib “On What and Where The Dark Matter Is.”