The day we have all dreaded finally arrived this week: The slippery layer of snow that will cover the ground until April is here. While I will miss seeing grass for the next three months, the innumerable podcasts in my library are sure to make walks to campus more bearable. Following last year’s guide, here are my updated podcast recommendations for your walk to campus that will make sure you get to your class more informed, or at least more entertained.
As a subscriber to its Patreon, I am biased in recommending this show and cannot say that I am upholding the highest standard of journalistic integrity, but my God is this one of the best podcasts I’ve ever stumbled upon! Hosts Eliza McLamb and Julia Hava describe their show as what would happen “if Plato and Aristotle had internet addictions and knew what ‘gaslighting’ was.” McLamb and Hava’s strength lies in unpacking current cultural topics through an academic lens while staying both highly informative and entertaining.
Some episode recommendations to get you started include “Napoleon’s Complex Situationship,” which unpacks the history of the love letter going from James Joyce’s fart fetish letter to his wife to the modern-day sext. Another personal favourite is “Honey I Monetized the Kids Again” which explores the phenomenon of mommy bloggers and child labour, going from Victorian-era chimney sweeps to the children of Ruby Franke.
Michael Hobbes Cinematic Universe Podcasts
The three podcasts in this sub-category all have the same common denominator: They are hosted by Huffington Post reporter Michael (Mike) Hobbes. Each podcast has a different co-host and a specific topic. They all help debunk commonly held beliefs.
The podcast is hosted by Mike Hobbes and his co-host Sarah Marshall, a writer for various publications such as The Believer and The New Republic. They focus on looking back at events that, as you might have guessed, you are wrong about. Some of my favourite episodes include “The Stonewall Uprising,” “The Stanford Prison Experiment,” “Gangs,” and the “Y2K Bug.”
Focusing more on wellness culture and the many scams that occupy the space, Maintenance Phase is co-hosted by Aubrey Gordon a—writer and author of the book You Just Need to Lose Weight and 19 Other Myths about Fat People. Together, Hobbes and Gordon go through topics ranging from pilates to poop transplants, debunking commonly held assumptions. The most interesting episodes so far have been the ones on “Snake Oil,” “The Body Mass Index,” and “The Keto Diet.”
The latest addition to the Mike Hobbes Cinematic Universe, my personal Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), is a podcast which takes aim at so-called airport books that “captured our hearts and ruined our minds.” Co-hosted by lawyer Peter Shamshiri, they take a second look at (and usually absolutely obliterate) books that have had a profound impact on our culture. Some of my favourite episodes to get you started include “The Nudge,” “Atomic Habits,” and “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck.”
Spellcaster: The Fall of Sam Bankman-Fried
Similar in style to The Dropout, which I recommended last time around, this limited series tells the story of the rise and fall of FTX crypto-entrepreneur and famed Bahamas resident, Sam Bankman-Fried. The main series has six episodes that retrace his story from the start. Some new episodes have been released as the trials related to FTX take place and the verdicts are delivered.
In this podcast, hosts Hannah Raine and Maia (Broey Deschanel) rehash the pop culture phenomenon that struck a nerve in our society but was quickly forgotten. With episodes on pop culture topics such as #FreeBritney, the trial of Depp vs. Heard, and Kim Kardashian Breaks the Internet, they take a deeper look at moments that influenced the recent cultural past and make you question what you think you knew about them. They also have some more lighthearted episodes on topics including Gymcels, Himbos, Karens, and Pick Mes.
