keeping me company
One of the benefits of making art is being able to listen to podcasts while I work. I can’t listen to them when I’m writing, but when I’m making things there is often a good synergy that occurs and helps me make new connections, or at least be inspired by the lives I hear about. It also fills my daily MPR/NPR requirements from across the seas.
Here are some of my favorites:
old stand-bys:
> Fresh Air Terry Gross is my hero
> Sound Opinions — music show out of Chicago
> New Yorker Fiction Podcast an author reads one of their favorite author’s short stories and sticks around to discuss
> This American Life you must know about TAL, right?
recent discoveries:
> Here’s the Thing Alec Baldwin’s new podcast–chats w varied famous people. I recommend the Kristin Wiig interview. (I may have listened to it more than once.)
> Harvard Press Podcast interviews with the latest people they’ve published. I enjoyed the one on 4/16.
> Writer’s Almanac a dose of Keillor for you–I used to hear this all the time when I lived in Fairbanks and was delighted to rediscover it–little bits of poems and writer biographies
> The Conversation — this is actually a new TV show, but I watch it online when the internet is feeling strong. I encourage you to take a look. It’s filled with honest conversations about women’s lives–guest so far have included Gwyneth Paltrow, Lady Gaga, Jane Fonda, and Sarah Silverman. It features famous women, but talking about struggles many women experience related to work, family, bodies, etc. I read about it on Welcome to Ladyville.
Let me know if you check any of these out. Enjoy!
P.S. What are your favorite podcasts?
- partial view from my desk
WTF with Marc Maron. Comedy interview podcast. It might take a while to jive with Marc’s own comedy (I don’t love it and i always skip the first 10 min or so of the episode which is his bits) but as an interviewer and a person, he’s really earnest and transparent and gets comedians to talk about things that other interviewers, even the great Terri Gross, don’t get to. It is often funny and smart and revealing. And there’s a lot of talk about the creative process of comedy and performance. I’d start with the Amy Pohler or Donald Glover interview.