12/9/2019 - Podcasts!!
Hello again! It’s snowing in Minneapolis - a hard Do Not Recommend, but what can you do. This week in the newsletter, the theme is podcasts. We’ve got one that I recommend, one that I do not, and one that has been recommended to me. Will there always be such coherent themes each week? Maybe! Probably not! This week I have eschewed the what is it/where can you find it format because I listen to all my podcasts on Spotify and you listen to yours wherever you do. Read on!!
Who? Weekly
I’ve been recommending this one in person a ton lately! Who? Weekly is hosted by Bobby Finger and Lindsey Weber, and the tagline is “all the news you need to know about the celebrities you don’t.” The premise of the podcast is that all celebrities are either “Whos” or “Thems.” A Them is someone that everyone including your mom knows (Taylor Swift, Julia Roberts) and a Who is someone that is always sort of around but you have no clue where they came from or what they do (the best examples are like, Bella Thorne and Rita Ora).
On Tuesdays they release a regular show where they discuss news about Whos that week. Sample topics include: the Veronicas got in a fight on a plane, Ty Pennington’s birth name is “Gary Tygert Burton,” Iggy Azalea got stung by a hornet, etc. Lindsey and Bobby have the perfect chemistry to turn this mundane nonsense into really silly and juicy gossip. On Fridays they release a second show of listener voicemails and play games like Who or Them (Natasha Beddingfield, Who. Flintstone Vitamins, Them.) A week or two ago they played MY voicemail letting them know that Mike Posner finished walking across America after recovering from a snakebite. They said they appreciated the closure.
You’ll like this podcast if you read InTouch religiously in high school, then quit cold turkey for your mental health, and are now ready to dip your toes back in the water in a slightly removed/ironic way. I’m not going to say that Who? Weekly rises above the dark vapidness of modern celebrity culture, and calling it a “commentary” on that culture makes it sound a lot more highbrow than it is. But look - it’s trashy, it’s a lot of fun, and I think it will make you laugh out loud at your desk. I recommend jumping in at the 12/2/19 episode; they break down this year’s Hallmark/Lifetime/Netflix holiday movies (all Whos.)
Office Ladies
I’m sorry to tell you that this podcast is Bad. I love The Office, everyone loves The Office, it’s very simple. But you know who loves The Office maybe too much? In a way that gets a little sad? Jenna Fischer (Pam) and Angela Kinsey (yes, Angela). They’re going through the series episode by episode and providing commentary, which is my preferred podcast style (Go Bayside! about Saved By the Bell is the gold standard here) and they do have a lot of legitimately interesting behind the scenes facts. However. There’s a real heavy “those were the best days of our lives” vibe that passes nostalgic and veers into bummer territory. It just feels like they’re clinging to it a little too hard, especially Jenna who is constantly reminding Angela that Pam was a Main Character. (On a side note, this story makes me full body cringe every time I think of it.) Sorry to these ladies. Listen to Go Bayside! instead.
Go Fact Yourself
This is a recommendation from my sister Dana! It’s a live game show style podcast, sort of like Ask Me Another. Each episode features two celebrity guests (mostly Whos in the comedy or writing scene) who have given the show a list of three trivia topics that they think they’re experts on. The show picks one of these topics and quizzes the celebrity with increasingly difficult questions, and the final question is asked by a special guest related to the theme (for a set of questions about Seinfeld, they brought the Soup Nazi!) It’s a fun, simple concept and the best part is deciding which three topics you would bring if you were a guest. Paul Scheer’s were: Disneyland, parenting, and Paw Patrol. Jessica McKenna’s were: US presidents, Hamilton, and Christmas movies. Mine are: Jurassic Park, American Girl Dolls, and reproductive healthcare. Please tell me yours.
Well, there’s three podcast recs/do not recs, as promised. Join me again in two weeks when I get into….the Best and Worst internet articles of the Decade. We’ll have the Toronto real estate nightmare story! We’ll have Kelly Conaboy’s bathtub investigation! I’m very very much looking forward to it.
Until then,
Ali