Hello Friend — Podcast recommendations
Hello friends and welcome to Hello Friend. I’m Bethany Rutter, and ahead of the final episode of the first season of Hello Friend, I thought it might be nice to do a tiny, short episode about the podcasts I love, and maybe you’ll get some inspiration for stuff to listen to while I’m gone.
I’m going to tell you about my five favourite podcasts, and my favourite episode of each. You’ll probably have heard of them, they’re not particularly niche or low-key, but maybe you haven’t got round to listening to them and this is the reminder you need.
Anyway, on with the show…
The first podcast I’d like to advocate for is the podcast I find myself talking about and referring to the most, which is Switched On Pop. As anyone who knows me even a little bit knows, I love pop music. I love thinking about pop music, talking about pop music, trying to find ways of understanding pop music better. Switched On Pop is absolutely perfect for me. It’s presented by two handsome-voiced and handsome-faced American dudes called Nate Sloan and Charlie Harding, and you might assume that a pop music podcast presented by two dudes is kind of dry and condescending. Not so. I love this podcast because it enables me to appreciate the songs I love even more, and find ways to appreciate the songs that maybe I haven’t bonded with under my own steam. The episode I would like to highlight is called Seduced by the Sound, which is about the song I Feel It Coming by the Weeknd. I’d heard this song on the radio so many times but never felt any connection with it until Switched On Pop helped me get it. One of the best things about this podcast is that the presenters never compete or strive to be the Most Knowledgeable and Correct presenter, it’s just two nice dudes having an impassioned and informative conversation about current pop music. They also never condescend when talking about the music that largely appeals to teen girls, which is a very appealing characteristic.
Next up is my current favourite podcast, 1995 by Kathy Kenzora. In a nutshell, it covers all the many and varied major events that took place in Canada and the USA in 1995, from the Paul Bernardo trial to the Oklahoma City Bombing. I was 6 in 1995 so don’t remember anything she’s talking about, which makes it even more interesting for me. The key quality of this podcast beyond the great content is that her tone and delivery are so incredibly businesslike (she was a Canadian newsreader, which you can really tell), and it just makes the episodes much easier to listen to. This is largely because a lot of the events she’s talking about are distressing, and for a presenter not to linger on the more unpleasant details or pause for dramatic effect is actually really welcome. The fact speak for themselves. My favourite episode is one that sounds more low-key and less dramatic but is actually wild and wonderful and kind of close to my heart, which is the episode about the referendum on the independence of Quebec from Canada. I used to live there, and this episode filled out a lot of the fact and names that have left their mark on the province.
You know when there’s a thing that everyone tells you is really good and you think to yourself ‘sure, but how could can it be?’ and then you experience the thing and you’re like ‘wow now I understand’? That thing, for me, was the third podcast I want to advocate for, which is The Mystery Show. A brief and beautiful podcast presented by Starlee Kine, The Mystery Show is one of the purest delights I’ve ever heard. She investigates ‘mysteries’ that can’t be solved just by hitting the internet. Things from people’s pasts that they have never been able to figure out, a weird thing they saw once, whatever. My favourite episode, and many people’s favourite episode, is the one about the belt buckle. I saved it for the flight home from LA in March. I was tired, emotional after spending a week in the sunshine, doing whatever I felt like, meeting some amazing people, I was on an 11-hour flight and felt weirdly emotional anyway. I listened to this episode and basically couldn’t stop crying! I found it so moving and lovely and testament to those people that touch your life, the spirit of kindness and generosity. I just loved it.
From a high to a low: podcast 4 I would like to tell you about is In the Dark. A lot of my podcast-consuming habits revolve around a) specifically crime or b) horrible things happening to people in general. I’ve listened to a lot of true crime podcasts, and series about specific crimes, but none come close to In the Dark. It has a very distinct advantage over other true crime podcasts which is that the crime was actually solved while the podcast was being made, so you get the immense listening satisfaction of the story having a real ending, but even without that, it’s flawlessly made. It’s a horribly tragic story of a young boy called Jacob Wetterling who goes missing from near his home in rural Minnesota in 1989. Of course, it’s about him and the people around him and the impact of his abduction and murder, but as with so many true crime stories, it’s also the mind-boggling and galling tale of police incompetence and negligence. This is a podcast you have to listen to all of, so I’m not going to give you a specific episode to listen to, and instead advocate for the series in general.
And finally, my one true love: the podcast that, for me, sets the standard in variety, sensitivity, tone, subject and everything else, is Criminal. I heard about Criminal not that long after I started listening to podcasts, and downloaded every episode that was available at the time. Then, there were maybe 50 episodes available, and I thought ‘wow, yes, this is going to last me AGES’ but no. I burned through them all in about 3 weeks because they are all around 20 minutes to half an hour long and completely compelling. Phoebe Judge presents Criminal, and manages to dig out the most varied and fascinating stores of people, places, laws, things, basically anything to do with crime. She is an absolutely amazing presenter and I find her extremely likeable as well. I’ve listened to every single episode of Criminal, with the exception of one called Hastings, which was making me cry so much I had to stop listening. The episode I am most passionate about, though, is called The Money Tree. I don’t want to tell you too much about it, but it’s probably my favourite single episode of a podcast I’ve ever heard. I could only ever aspire to be as proficient a podcaster as Phoebe Judge.
Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed this little extra episode of Hello Friend! Tweet me at @hellofriend underscore pod to let me know if you share my love for these podcasts, or if you’ve listened to one or more of them on my recommendation and have thoughts! Thank you so much for joining me, see you soon.
