#84: Subways & Sports
Bello Collective newsletter — April 10, 2019
Dear Bello,
I live in New York City, so I spend a fair amount of my time trapped underground with a bunch of strangers staring at their phones waiting for a cell signal. I admit, it has turned me into a bit of a voyeur — I like to peek at the phones of my fellow passengers.
It’s not unusual to see people watching, ahem, sexy YouTube videos on their phones, and many, many others play colorful games where they stack bars, or dots, or fruit. Emails are a pretty common pastime, as is the intense scrutiny of an Instagram feed. Most of the time I don’t recognize the music I see on someone’s device, although sometimes the sound swelling from their earbuds is at least enough to give away the genre.
But once in awhile, I’ll notice that someone is listening to a podcast, and then I almost always recognize the title. Podcast commuters are the best to observe because they experience a range of emotions, often between just a few stops. They are the ones who catch themselves randomly laughing out loud, or who suddenly display a look of surprise, or who stare into the distance, entranced.
Recently, a passenger beside me pressed the play button on an episode of Nancy. I tapped him on the shoulder and held my phone up: I was listening to the same episode. We laughed and smiled, happy to find a fellow fan in our temporary purgatory.
xo,
Ashley
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1. The Mash-Up Americans launched a new series called “Mash-Ups to Know — Changing the Culture,” and it begins with an interview with Dr. Leana Wen, the new president of Planned Parenthood. Wen shares how her experiences as a patient influence her role as a doctor, why she’s working to depoliticize healthcare, and why it’s important that patients tell doctors their stories as well as their symptoms. (Galen)
2. Get ready for a deep cut. Common Law, the new podcast from the University of Virginia Law School, launched with one of my favorite podcast figures of all time: Deirdre Enright, the director of UVA’s Innocence Project Clinic, who appeared in season 1 of Serial. If you’re looking for criminal justice podcasts, don’t overlook this one — it’s not as wonky as it seems. (Galen)
3. Living Planet’s episode “Waste Not” looks at the problems with waste around the globe and some of the remedies for ridding the world of rubbish. Among the most interesting is the issue of waste — both inorganic and organic — on Mount Everest. (Galen)
4. I threw two sports pods into my rotation last week in honor of college basketball coming down to the final buzzer and baseball winding up: Against the Rules launched their first episode about referee rage, and Tipping Pitches kicked off their new baseball season, “All-GIF Draft.” (Ma’ayan)
5. Vega, by creator Ivuoma Okoro, is a science-fiction adventure told like no other. Vega is a government assassin who targets the world’s worst criminals. Okoro takes the position of an omnipresent narrator who has no fear in breaking the fourth wall, speaking directly to the audience as she puts on an incredible show made out of Vega’s life. The sheer level of confidence and casualness is part of what makes this a gripping story right off the bat. (Elena)
6. If you’re looking for sweltering L.A. noir vibes, Dreamland is where you should go. Lorien James, private detective, gets hired to track down a clever impersonator, inspired by a real Hollywood con artist who faked being Amy Pascal and Kathleen Kennedy. Meanwhile, stuntman Derrick Silver gets hired as a director by someone who doesn’t end up being who she say she is, jumping in with both feet. (Elena)
7. The History of the Netherlands is a fun narrative history of the Lowlands that doesn’t take itself too seriously, especially in the “Bet you didn’t know it was Dutch” segment. (Calen)
8. Sam Hume’s Pax Britannica is a fascinating look at the rise and fall of the Empire in which “the sun never sets.”
9. Undiscovered (not the WNYC one) looked at the viral Kony 2012 video seven years later and asks why warlord Joseph Kony is still operating. (Calen)
10. The new 30 Animals That Made Us Smarter joins A History of the World in 100 Objects and 50 Things That Made The Modern Economy (which just started season 2) as another must listen BBC mini-documentary series. 30 Animals focuses on how engineers and scientists are starting to tap into the astounding design perfection found in nature. Start with the first episode on how studying the kingfisher led to major practical improvements in Japan’s high speed trains. (Erik)
11. If museums are your jam, you owe it to yourself to check out the feed of Museum Archipelago. Host Ian Elsner explores the institutional problems facing a diverse assortment of museums and introduces you to the people working to fix them. I recommend and appreciated the recent episode about how creationists are co-opting museums to legitimize “creation science.” (Erik)
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