#94: The Best Podcasts of the Week
Bello Collective newsletter: October 16, 2019
Dear Bellos,
When StartUp, a podcast chronicling the creation of Gimlet Media, debuted in 2014, I knew something special was happening. Alex Blumberg, the voice of much beloved segments on This American Life and Planet Money, was striking out on his own.
In StartUp, he turned the mic on himself, showcasing his own vulnerabilities and letting us into his home for late night conversations with his wife, where the exhaustion we hear in their voices is near palpable. We were also privy to a different kind of union as he formed a partnership with co-founder Matt Lieber. Those first two seasons felt as a breathless and anticipatory as any podcast I’ve ever heard.
In later seasons, Gimlet took a backseat as a “character” in the show, but StartUp continued to tell equally ambitious stories of entrepreneurial success and failure. Anyone remember the contentious season where they gave Dov Charney a multi-episode platform? How about Eric Mennel’s thoughtful series on church planting?
Yes, StartUp contained multitudes.
In this ninth and final season, we return to Gimlet as they grapple with the realities of their new place in the industry, and ultimately their decision to sell the business to Spotify. It’s heartbreaking to hear Alex Blumberg realize the kind of audio stories he wants to tell (and we want to hear) might be too costly for Gimlet to make on their own.
What I’ve come to realize is that Gimlet is the coming-of-age story of this moment in podcasting. Through StartUp, we were there as Alex Blumberg — and all the rest of us longtime listeners — decided that we wanted more. That podcasting could have a value, and apparently, a valuation. Their sale to Spotify stunned us all for weeks as we tried to figure out what it meant. My guess is we’re still not sure.
Among all the podcasts about bright young things extolling creative genius in Instagrammable tones, I’m going to miss the messy and complex realities found in StartUp.
Don’t sleep on this last season. From here, we turn a corner.
Ashley
1.James Kim’s Moonface dropped this past weekend, and it’s some of the most intimate, moving audio released this year. In it, a young Korean-American man tries to come out to his mother, even though they speak different languages, and struggles with the long-lasting, painful effects of assimilation to the dominant culture as the child of an immigrant. (Elena)
2.BBC 4’s Thought of the Day is one of my quick morning listens that get me ready for my day. A rotating cast of religious experts and leaders give their thoughts on the current news, and I am challenged by their words to think about the world differently.(Calen)
3.Gotham Variety is a podcast that dramatizes short stories. I started with “The Bridge,” a short story by Ambrose Bierce, and the acting troupe brought the story to life in a very dramatic way. (Calen)
4.Alie Ward is celebrating October with special “Spooktober” Ologies episodes, and so far we’ve got skeletons and pumpkins under our belts. The pumpkin episode (cucurbitology) is particularly delightful and cozy, with a pumpkin-obsessed senior citizen as a guest who offers fun pumpkin facts and some encouraging life advice. (Lauren)
5.The first episode of Oddball is here, a true-crime podcast where nobody dies and you don’t have to feel gross listening to it. It’s the story of a woman and son who found a metal sphere in their yard in the 70s, and the mystery that unraveled as the ball seemed to take on a life of its own, garnering interest from the Navy and nationally-renowned UFO scientists. (Lauren)
6.If you haven’t yet, check out Ariel’s article above on South Side Stories — one of the most unique content partnerships (Comedy Central + WBEZ) I’ve seen in podcasting. I haven’t had cable in more than a decade, so I’m glad I could still encounter hosts Diallo Riddle and Bashir Salahuddin here. There is something so genuine about this show — the hosts feel relatively new to the audio medium, and yet we are happy for their endearing sound fumbles; they know their neighborhood well and seem to delight in helping us discover it perhaps for the first time. Cancel all of those “flyover state” stories; this is how I want to meet my neighbors in middle America. (Ashley)
7.I swear, New Hampshire Public Radio can get me interested in anything. Most recently, they’ve got me hooked on New Hampshire politics, thanks to their new show, Stranglehold. The show focuses on the presidential primary election, how the state came to vote first, and what that means for politics in NH (and across the US).(Galen)
8.I’ve long been wishing for a documentary series about public schools in the US, so I was so excited when I heard about School Colors. This 8-part series tells the story of race and schooling in Central Brooklyn, starting with the 1968 fight fight for control between the community and the teachers union. Like the best historical works, it reminds us that history is not so distant, or so different — and I hope it will show how the future can be better. (Galen)
The Bello Collective is a publication + newsletter about podcasts and the audio industry. Our goal is to bring together writers, journalists, and other voices who share a passion for the world of audio storytelling.
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