Posts

Breathing Room: What Pods Are You Casting?

Two weeks ago it felt like things were on the verge of breaking loose. I still have that feeling, as if things are beginning to pick up speed and might run away with us.

Here’s another opportunity to slow things down a little and take a deep cleansing breath in and out before we’re swept away.

What are you listening to these days? I want to be very focused on podcasts, not music programming now that we’re in the golden age of time-shifted listening.

What podcasts do you find to be informative? helpful? restful?

What podcast platform works best for you?

I’m a bit eclectic when it comes to podcasts. I avoid the white-dudes-yacking-with-each-other because Jesus Christ, how much of that do we really need when white-dudes-yacking-with-each-other still constitutes huge swaths of news media?

I don’t have a regular podcast I consume regularly, either. I’m fond of the Android app Stitcher and I often browse on a hit-or-miss basis for an episode which hits my fancy.

Over the last several years, though, there were three podcast episodes which really stuck with me:

NPR’s Planet Money: We set up an offshore company in a tax haven (re-cast October 6, 2021)
An exploration of offshore companies and bank accounts in which the hosts set up their own company in a tax haven and found the easiest place to register a business anonymously. First released in July 2012, it still amazes me how easy it is to move assets offshore.

Hakai Magazine: Can We Really Be Friends with an Octopus? (Episode 67, January 11, 2022)

This Is Love: Something Large and Wild (Season 1, Episode 2)
A story about a teenage swimmer and an encounter with something wild.

These are rather diverse with nothing apparent in common though the Hakai Magazine and ‘This Is Love’ podcast episodes have a natural element.

But after thinking about these three favorites, I think I need podcasts to contain an element of wonder. Not necessarily a positive state of awe, but something which checks me up short and makes me think or elicits an emotion I hadn’t anticipated. My favorite three episodes each possessed that factor.

Take a break, take a breath, then share in comments what podcasts have attracted your attention.