Podcasts Away!!!

One of the really nice things about working at home during the pandemic, and then retirement, has been that it really let me be consistent in doing something physical every day. I have gone through spurts in my life where I have been getting regular exercise, but I finally feel like it is part of my everyday existence. That includes a good bit of walking, both around the neighborhood and in local parks. Since walking can be very boring, this has led me to podcasts. 

I know how silly it is to say that I have entered the podcast world years after it became hip, but it just didn’t fit until now. When I could have listened to podcasts, I read, like on the train, and reading always came first (and still does). But it’s very difficult to read a book and walk at the same time, or at least do so without walking into something (and don’t think that I haven’t done that). So I started listening to podcasts. 

Part of the reason I was resistant to podcasts was that I hadn’t been drawn to what I had heard. My family have been podcasters (is that a word?) for years, and so I would hear what they followed when we were travelling. While there were many enjoyable parts to these podcasts (like, My Brother, My Brother and Me, Comedy Bang Bang, Hollywood Handbook) too often it struck me as people laughing at their own jokes, and laughing much louder than was warranted. I didn’t hear anything that made me want to listen on a regular basis. 

Julie had, however, told me about an episode of the podcast Mobituaries by Mo Rocca, who I knew from the Daily Show, that talked about the sudden end of the career of comedian Vaughn Meader. I remembered hearing Meader’s album parodying the Kennedy family, though I was too young to appreciate it when it first came out, and knew it had been a huge hit (Won Grammy for Album of the Year in 1963. Really, it did). What I didn’t know, though I could have guessed it, was how his career came to a full stop on November 22, 1963. The story of his ultimately unsuccessful struggles to reshape his career, which I listened to while on a long delay in the Boston airport, was interesting and entertaining.  

Years later when I decided that I needed to do something when walking, I came back to Mobituaries. Rocca’s in depth look at people or events that had been significant at the time, but then faded into memory were always engrossing. My walks went quickly as I was drawn into the fates of Chang and Eng, the cojoined Siamese twins (between them they had 21 kids, 11 of them Chang’s, 10 of them Eng’s. Try to get you head, or heads as the case may be, around that) or learning about the tortured life of Thomas Paine, or television’s Rural Purge of the late 1960’s, or the disappearance of the first Darrin on Bewitched (the only real Darrin in my book!!!).  

• 

• 

• 

I had found my niche. I realized that I liked history, cultural or otherwise, that goes into some depth, makes me laugh every now and then and puts things into the context of what else is going on in the world at the time. That’s not too much to ask, is it?     

All of that led me to Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History. I want to be Malcolm Gladwell (except for the goofy hair, though looking at mine right now you might say that I am one to talk – You choose). As far as I can tell, Gladwell dives into whatever strikes his fancy, which is a lot, has the pull to talk to anyone he wants on the subject and people to help research and find obscure news reel or oral histories to bring the topic to life.

• 

• 

It’s taken him (and me) from Wilt Chamberlin’s free throw shooting (underhand is fine, Wilt), to the way universities misevaluate potential students (don’t get me on a rant about college essays), to the tragic impact of Brown vs. Board of Education on black teachers and beyond.  

• 

• 

But I’m hitting the wall on Malcolm. Plus, his season 5 has been his weakest (Four episodes on “Bombs Away” Curtis LeMay? Please!!!). I need to expand my horizons. Find new exciting podcasts. Boldly go where no other podcaster has gone before (Sorry, I got carried away).

Any other podcasters out there? You have my criteria. Any thoughts on what I should listen to now? I welcome your suggestions.