Rain is in the forecast for this weekend in New York, so the New York Times’ podcast “The Book Review” felt like the perfect pick from Dave Winer’s Podcatch.com. This week’s episode reviews Elif Batuman’s first novel The Idiot, about a Turkish-American college freshman at Harvard in 1995 who is determined to become a writer.
What Does It Take To Be A Financially Successful Podcaster?
With over 250,000 podcasts to choose from, it is extremely difficult to rise to the top. Keara Dowd interviews Lea Thau of “The Moth,” who details what steps she had to take to grow “The Moth,” as well as her subsequent podcast “Strangers,” into the successful shows they are today.
Read Dowd’s full interview here!
Dave Winer’s Bi-Weekly Favorite: Friday Night Comedy
Steven Punt and Hugh Dennis, hosts of The Now Show
The Now Show
Happy Friday! BBC 4’s Friday Night Comedy Podcast, The Now Show, felt like the perfect feature to lift from Podcatch.com and share on our blog. Hosts Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis combine standup, sketches, and songs to satirize this week’s news. The Now Show has been running since 1998 and became available as a podcast in 2006. You can listen to today’s episode, which features special guest Alan Carr providing relief after Donald Trump is recorded in a hotel (among other newsworthy events of the week), here!
Weenie Royale- The Kitchen Sisters’ Favorite Episode
Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, known together as “The Kitchen Sisters Present,” shared a recent piece entitled “Weenie Royale: The Impact of the Internment on Japanese American Cooking.” The episode focuses on the incarceration of Japanese families during the war and how it affected their lives, food, and family table.
Nikki and Davia will be speaking on Saturday at 3:30 on the topic of “Get close. Now Get Closer… Creating Audio Movies for the Mind.”
Dave Winer’s Bi-Weekly Favorites: The Daily by The New York Times
When we asked conference participants to send us their favorite episodes, Dave Winer sent us his master list from Podcatch, which compiles everything he’s listening to right now. First up on the list is the new podcast “The Daily” from The New York Times, hosted by veteran reporter Michael Barbaro. Releasing twenty minute episodes by 6am (daily), this podcast doesn’t quite conform to either typical podcasts or radio. It’s seeking a more intimate form of reporting, moving away from sensationalized headlines and towards transparency and conversation. Below is the most recent episode about a NYT reporter’s yearlong investigation into controversial police tactics.
You can listen to more episodes here.
“The Accidental Gay Parents” -Hillary Frank’s Favorite Episode
Hillary Frank of The Longest Shortest Time podcast sent us her favorite episode, “The Accidental Gay Parents.” It tells the love story of John and Trystan, two twenty somethings who inadvertently became the parents of John’s niece and nephew after receiving a call from a social worker saying they would be going into foster care otherwise. You can follow John and Trystan’s story of adoption with their followup episodes.
Hillary will be speaking on Saturday, April 15th from 10-11:45 about how “Podcasts Can Change the World (At Least A Little).”
Christopher Lydon’s Favorite Podcasts
We asked each of the participants in the conference to send us some of their favorite podcasts to share with you. We’ll begin with Christopher Lydon of Open Source, a podcast on “art, ideas, and politics.” Lydon created the first podcast in 2003 with fellow conference participant Dave Winer, and because nothing on the internet goes away, Lydon’s earliest podcasts can be found here.
When asked to choose his favorite, he told us that he couldn’t, sent three, and asked that we choose one. We couldn’t choose either, so instead we’re going to share all of them.
- On the Billie Holiday centennial
- On taking Donald Trump seriously, not literally
- On ‘citizens without papers,’ or illegal immigrants
Christopher Lydon and Dave Winer will be opening the conference on Friday, April 14th with a Keynote Discussion from 5-7pm.