Why Is Podcast Addict Using Data Again
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, many of us have been at abode a lot more than often, and that's meant finding ways to piece of work, connect and entertain ourselves, largely with the assistance of screens. In the wake of Zoom happy hours and Netflix marathon after marathon, you probably took a much-needed screen break — and, if you're annihilation like us, that meant you queued up some podcasts. From immersive audio dramas and popular culture-focused comedy pods to incisive cultural critiques, insightful interviews and meridian-notch investigative journalism, these podcasts not only stood out in a twelvemonth full of content, simply they also helped united states of america weather an incredibly challenging and isolating year.
Editor'south Note: nosotros've compiled a list of the 10 podcasts that got the states through 2021.
1. Lawmaking Switch
"The fearless conversations about race that you lot've been waiting for" is how NPR describes its popular podcast, Code Switch. Although the hosts of Code Switch have spent years interrogating race and how it impacts everything from pop civilization to history, the podcast reached a few meaning milestones just this year. That is, the prove hit No. 1 on Apple'due south charts, and, in June, there was a 270% surge in downloads.
For co-host Shereen Marisol Meraji, who leads the podcast alongside Cistron Demby, the success was conflicting considering it came in the wake of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. On the whole, however, Meraji, Demby and the evidence's rotating contributors are glad that the evidence has resonated — and reached such a wide audience. "We're talking to people who have been marginalized and underrepresented for so long," Meraji notes, "[people] who are so hungry to see themselves represented fully and with dash and complexity."
Without a uncertainty, Lawmaking Switch is always-relevant, funny and educational, only information technology besides provides access to stories the mainstream media might non normally cover — told by folks who take lived those experiences. Now, it's up to listeners to keep supporting Code Switch, to keep confronting oppression and racism — not but when it's trending on Apple'due south charts.
What do the 1839 assassination of a Cherokee leader and a 1999 murder instance have in common? For one, they're the "backbone" of a "2020 Supreme Court decision that determined the fate of five tribes and nearly half the land in Oklahoma." It's likely that you lot only heard near this monumental case and its ties to native land rights and tribal sovereignty one time SCOTUS reached its verdict before this yr, merely getting the full moving picture is essential to understanding just how landmark the ruling is for Ethnic folks.
"Our sovereignty is boxed in through the creation of reservations," This State host Rebecca Nagle, an Oklahoma journalist and denizen of the Cherokee Nation, told Outside. "Simply the U.S. doesn't even respect that box." If you've been paying attention, and then you'll think that the July 2020 SCOTUS ruling led to the largest restoration of tribal country in the history of the U.S. However, knowing the outcome of the case isn't enough: With This Land, listeners can delve deeper into specific events, and the ways they intersect, in guild to learn just how much continues to exist at stake when it comes to tribal sovereignty and the larger Land Dorsum movement.
3. Queery
Hosted by queer standup comic Cameron Esposito, Queery allows listeners to sit in on hour-long conversations between Esposito and her interviewees. What connects Esposito's guests is that (with a few exceptions) they are all part of the LGBTQ+ community, meaning that identity, queerness, gender and other topics are prioritized and explored with much more than nuance and intimacy than a straight host could manage. Upward acme, Esposito notes that the show is "about private experience and personal identity," which means one guest'due south detail experience of queerness — or the language they employ — might non always align with yours.
In that vein, Queery feels like media that was created for queer folx — every bit opposed to something similar the Queer Eye reboot, which feels like it was fabricated to be both palatable and accessible for straight/cis viewers. In that location's a fourth dimension and place for both approaches, and centering not only queer guests, just also queer listeners, is refreshing — and necessary. For Esposito, the podcast was a mode to "[reinvest] in the queer community," and while we love her humorous takes and tangents, we also honey the mode she'south leveraging her platform and resources as a white and cis queer person to amplify the stories and voices of queer and trans folx.
iv. Keep Information technology
If there'south one podcast that mixes incisive political and cultural commentary with pop culture references and ever-Tweet-able quotes, it'southward Continue It, a show started a few years ago by author Ira Madison III. Flood Magazine describes the origin of the podcast's title best, noting that it'southward "named later on a cheeky phrase Ira coined with his prodigious Twitter presence, e'er in reference to some film, volume, collab, political candidate, act of bogus wokeness, or anything, actually, that he simply doesn't have time for and would rather not exist." Honestly, same.
What really elevates Continue It is the conversational free energy its charismatic, witty — and consistently express mirth-out-loud funny — hosts bring to each episode. Joining Madison are pop culture-, Oscars- and Karen Carpenter-enthusiast Louis Virtel and Big Mouth writer Aida Osman, who only celebrated a twelvemonth on the podcast. The chemistry, the grouse, the stanning, the lovable tangents — this show has it all. In fact, Keep It is unequivocally our favorite weekly podcast from Crooked Media — and, yes, proceed that, Lovett or Leave It.
5. Prissy White Parents
"I don't retrieve I'll exist forgetting the kickoff episode of Overnice White Parents anytime soon," Nicholas Quah wrote in a review for Vulture. That'southward quite the introduction to the New York Times and Serial collaboration, but it'due south also not hyperbole. Hosted and reported by This American Life vet Chana Joffe-Walt, Nice White Parents shines a spotlight on the "60-year relationship between white parents and the public school downward the cake."
The thesis at hand? That even well-meaning white parents are preventing "school integration and a more equitable distribution of resources." Quah elaborates, writing that Joffe-Walt "substantiates your gut feeling with vivid documentation, giving mankind to what was previously skeletal suspicion." That is, if you think you know, dig deeper — learn more than about how this ultimately oppressive and unequal system operates. In the end, information technology's white people, particularly wealthy and straight and cis white people, who do good the almost from maintaing the system that's in place — and those are the same people who demand to listen to this podcast the most.
6. Back Effect
New York Times writer Sandra East. Garcia chosen the Back Issue hosts' "encyclopedic memory of popular culture moments…a balm in trying times." Each episode, hosts Tracy Clayton, best known for hosting Netflix'south Stiff Black Legends, and Josh Gwynn, a Pineapple Street Studios producer, have a look at some of the biggest badgering questions that crop up in pop civilisation history. For them, it's all about investigating why sure moments stick — or why certain words, trends and moments became so popular — because "nostalgia is more than just a feeling."
In addition to the hosts' clear chemistry and a slate of great guests, Back Issue stands out because, unlike other pop culture podcasts, it never centers a word on current entertainment offerings. Speaking to Garcia about the podcast'southward focus on nostalgic popular culture versus new releases, Gwynn noted that "In that location is a reason these moments stuck with the states and why they are and so key." In many ways, pop culture shapes usa, but it can also accept the aforementioned calming event every bit a hot cup of tea. And that kind of condolement was invaluable during a challenging year similar 2020.
vii. Beautiful Bearding
Hosted past Chris Gethard, Beautiful Anonymous takes everything you once loved — or, maybe, could've loved — nearly a belatedly-night talk radio show and updates it for podcast listeners. The concept is straightforward, just also genius. Guests call into the show, and Gethard is obligated to stay on the telephone with them for an 60 minutes and chat most whatever comes upwardly. The caller, on the other hand, can hang up at whatever time — though they mostly don't.
Since callers don't reveal their names or other identifying information, things stay anonymous, which ways callers often get quite vulnerable and share otherwise difficult or uncomfortable experiences, feelings, opinions and confessions with Gethard. While Gethard'south standup training equips him with some great on-the-spot comedy chops, he'south also such a compelling host when it comes to discussing the heavier stuff, too. In his own special, Career Suicide, Gethard discussed his experiences of low, decease by suicide attempts and alcoholism, and, perhaps considering of his own lived experiences, the e'er-caring Gethard really reaches callers (and listeners) in a poignant way onetime-school radio hosts just dreamed of.
8. The Left Correct Game
This yr, the QCode media collective has released several incredible sound dramas, but one of the all-time is The Left Right Game, which was written by Jack Anderson, produced by its star Tessa Thompson and based off of a story post on Reddit's r/nosleep. For those who don't know, every story posted on r/nosleep is considered true, fifty-fifty if it's fictional, so if you comment on said story, the subreddit's gimmick is that y'all play forth and stay in graphic symbol. All of this has led to the rise of a kind of internet-based urban-fable-meets-bivouac-horror-story genre. And permit'due south just say it works amazingly well in podcast grade.
The podcast centers on two different, only interrelated, stories. In one thread, a human being named Tom (Aml Ameen) is searching for a journalist named Alice Sharman (Thompson); no one seems to believe that she exists — and Tom is the merely one who seems to call back her. Meanwhile, seemingly a piddling while earlier the get-go of Tom's story, Alice heads to the U.S. to investigate a strange phenomenon called The Left Correct Game. The game, which simply involves going for a drive and taking a left plow then a right turn and then a left and then on, takes a paranormal turn. The audio drama is made all the more unsettling thanks to QCode's use of audio panning to create an incredibly immersive, surround sound experience.
9. Staying In With Emily and Kumail
Unsurprisingly, the pandemic caused some podcasters to accept a break from weekly uploads, but, for others, being stuck at home meant finding new artistic outlets and ways to connect. Married couple Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani definitely barbarous into the second category of creatives, and their short-lived Staying In podcast brought us so much joy. The first episode, fittingly titled "Fumbling for Normalcy," was released on the heels of early pandemic phenomena, like Tiger Male monarch, and saw the duo discussing how to keep from catching motel fever while sheltering in identify.
Lighthearted enough to take your heed off of all the stressful COVID-nineteen stuff just real and vulnerable enough to feel like a genuine boost (unlike, say, the infamous celeb "Imagine" video), listening to Emily and Kumail on a weekly ground felt similar connecting with pals. From discussing a thrilling Final Fantasy VII Remake playthrough to reminiscing near bursting into tears while blistering breadstuff, no rock was left untouched. The lesser line: This one was incredibly relatable, and information technology all helped us feel a fiddling less alone during that outset moment of irrevocable modify.
ten. The Bechdel Cast
Named after cartoonist Alison Bechdel, the Bechdel examination is a way to measure out the representation of women in fiction. Although Bechdel credits her friend Liz Wallace and the writings of Virginia Woolf with the idea for the test, it first appeared in the cartoonist's seminal work Dykes to Watch Out For (1985). The basic idea? In order to pass the test, 2 women must talk to each other about something other than a man. Ideally, the two women should likewise have names, considering the bar is absolutely on the floor.
If those sound similar easy requirements to striking, think once more. Of 8,076 movies surveyed only 57.vi% hit all the marks. And that's where something like the The Bechdel Cast comes in. Hosted by comedians Caitlin Durante and Jamie Loftus, the feminist comedy podcast takes a look at a different pic each week and delves into its delineation of women — among other things (and long-running in-jokes). "[It's] the symbiosis between Durante's scholastic, organized mind and Loftus's filthy, absurdist 1 that have kept afloat this silly-salty show…," Vulture's Sean Malin writes. "[…From] its inception [the show] has earnestly considered the representation of women in film while also talking sh-t about it."
11. Hysteria
Some other Crooked Media gem, Hysteria is a weekly podcast that sees political commentator and comedy writer Erin Ryan — and her "bicoastal squad of funny, opinionated women," including folks similar Ziwe Fumudoh and Alyssa Mastromonaco — taking on politics, electric current events and pop civilization happenings. Without a doubt, Hysteria shines in a ocean of political, news-centric podcasts. Why? Well, writing for Cosmopolitan nigh the show, Hannah Smothers notes, "The smartest thing Crooked Media's male founders have done: rent and then many women and let them do their matter."
Yes, that seems obvious, but, at the time when the testify showtime launched, Crooked didn't really have whatever women-helmed podcasts. And whether Hysteria is centering on trending news stories or rom-com tropes, the host and her colleagues are looking at topics that impact women and filtering them through their own lived experiences. "It'south not well-nigh impressing the people you're having a chat with if you're doing a podcast," Ryan explained in that Cosmo article. "I really wanted Hysteria to be a testify that made our listeners think that talking most politics was something they can and should be doing, even if they're non professional political-stance-havers."
12. Still Processing
All the same Processing is a New York Times civilization podcast that'southward hosted past Jenna Wortham, staff author for The New York Times Mag and co-editor of Black Futures, and Pulitzer Prize-winning Times critic-at-large Wesley Morris. Formatted equally a discussion between the co-hosts — and oft punctuated past interviews, guests' insight and soundbites from media — Withal Processing takes on everything from current events to works of art and pop civilization, and it does so with a tone The Atlantic chosen "sharp and intellectual, goofy and raw."
Whether the hosts are putting Toni Morrison's Honey and Hashemite kingdom of jordan Peele'due south United states (2019) into conversation or interrogating how works of dystopian and utopian fiction tin help the states imagine a ameliorate globe, Wortham and Morris have a comfortable, energizing chemical science. Equally they become excited about where their conversation leads, you feel that, too. "Perhaps now more than ever," Thomas Curry writes in AnOther magazine, "Still Processing'southward return, with Morris and Wortham's blend of familiar intimacy and incisive criticism, is a welcome comfort."
13. Borrasca
Relatively new to the scene, QCode's narrative dramas are often produced, in office, by a large-name star, and Borrasca is no exception. Here, Riverdale'south Cole Sprouse plays Sam Walker, a man who, after years of personal struggle and keeping things pent up, tells his parole officer, Leah Dixon (Lisa Edelstein), about a agonizing serial of events that occurred in his childhood afterward his family unit moved to the small town of Drisking, Missouri. Each episode begins and ends with a session between Sam and Leah, only sandwiched in between are flashbacks that highlight primal moments in Sam's past.
In the outset episode, a immature Sam befriends two other Drisking kids, Kyle (Daniel Webber) and Kimber (Sarah Yarkin). While on a wheel ride, a horrifying audio known equally the "Borrasca Scream" tears through the forest. Kyle and Kimber explain that no i knows the origins of the scream — information technology's just something that happens — and, in its aftermath, the older teens in town throw a Borrasca party at a creepy treehouse in the woods. Sam finds his world upended when his ain sister, Whitney (Peyton Kennedy), vanishes at one of these parties. Although his parents choose to believe that Whitney simply ran away, Sam is convinced that something more than nefarious is going on — and that information technology connects to Borrasca, this place of legend.
Written by Rebecca Klingel, this horror podcast started as a multi-part short story that Klingel (a.k.a. CK Walker) posted on Reddit'south r/nosleep community, where it won the subreddit's accolade for Scariest Story in 2015. Pro tip: As is the example with The Left Right Game, definitely mind to this night, disturbing and all-consuming audio drama with headphones — the sound design is unparalleled and only adds to the immersive atmosphere.
Source: https://www.ask.com/entertainment/podcasts-2020?utm_content=params%3Ao%3D740004%26ad%3DdirN%26qo%3DserpIndex
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