The best podcasts you should listen to this week
By Jaclyn Schiff and Simon Owens
Do you love listening to podcasts but are overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices out there? Have you subscribed to way more podcasts than you could ever listen to and don’t want to miss the best episodes? AudioTeller is a weekly newsletter that tells you the can’t-miss episodes you absolutely need to download. To have this newsletter delivered to your inbox, sign up here.
Welcome! In this week’s issue you’ll hear Phil Collins talk about his past substance abuse problems, get angry about the reemergence of the predatory lending practices that caused the financial crisis, and get angrier still when you learn how truly terrible the Senate GOP’s healthcare bill is. Stay tuned…
From Renan Borelli, director of audience growth and engagement at MTV News:
Two TV critics discuss what it takes to succeed in their industry [link]
Podcast: I Think You’re Interesting — Episode: Alan Sepinwall, on why he doesn’t like the Netflix model of full-season stories
This week, I wanted to recommend a relatively new podcast from Vox.com and critic Todd VanDerWerff called I Think You’re Interesting. An interview show largely dealing with movies and television, VanDerWerff frequently has guests from the inside and outside of the entertainment industry. Highlights include his conversations with The Leftovers’ Damon Lindelof and the showrunners of FX’s The Americans, but I wanted to recommend his most recent episode with Uproxx TV critic Alan Sepinwall. VanDerWerff and Sepinwall are friends and colleagues in the world of television criticism, and Sepinwall pulls back the curtain about how he got started in the industry, the emergence of TV criticism, and what it’s like juggling reviews in the era of “peak TV.”
From Sriram Gopal, a DC-based writer and musician:
What makes Phil Collins tick [link]
Podcast: The Trap Set With Joe Wong — Episode: Phil Collins
Phil Collins is an artist that the intelligentsia loves to hate. His solo hits in the ‘80s are cultural tent poles for that decade, and to many, synonymous with the excesses of the time. Now, Collins’s reputation as an artist is undergoing a rehabilitation. The fact of the matter is that he is an excellent drummer (check out any of the Peter Gabriel-era Genesis recordings) and an earnest songwriter packaged in the body of a man who has no business being a pop star. Joe Wong’s approach on The Trap Set is to interview drummers in a way that goes beyond the instrument. Similar to Marc Maron, though not quite as experienced, he wants to understand what makes his subject tick. In this hour long interview, Collins and Wong use Collins’s recent autobiography to tackle the highs and lows of fame, including divorces, struggles with substance abuse, and health problems that have ended his career as a drummer. The conversation gives fascinating insight into a figure who was at one time ubiquitous in popular culture, but was still somewhat of a mystery.
Your guide to binge-watching Game of Thrones [link]
Podcast: Binge Mode — Game of Thrones
Along with millions of others, I’m awaiting season 7 of HBO’s Game of Thrones with baited breath. A friend recently told me about this relatively new podcast from The Ringer, in which hosts Mallory Rubin and Jason Concepcion are taking deep dives into each of the show’s 60 episodes in advance of the new season’s premiere. Each Binge Mode episode begins with a short summary of the GoT installment in question, then addresses its central theme. My favorite segment involves Concepcion’s explanation of a particular aspect ofthe GoT universe, where he draws a lot of background information from George R.R. Martin’s novels (which I have not read). The two hosts conclude each broadcast with their favorite seven moments and the crowning of a “champion,” which is the character that played the game most skillfully that episode. Rubin and Concepcion are entertaining hosts (although Concepcion’s impression of Maester Pycelle gets irritating after a while), but the consistent formula makes for fantastic podcast comfort food. [Editor’s note: Renan Borelli also recommended this podcast a few weeks ago, so you know it must be good.]
From Rachael Zur, a shoe designer in Brooklyn:
The people who caused the financial crisis are back and stronger than ever [link]
Podcast: Reveal — Episode: After the bubble burst
Remember the term “Mortgage backed securities?” After the fallout of the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis that brought this country to its knees, we learn in Reveal’s investigation that banks and mortgage loan companies are back playing the fast and loose games that led to the crash. Enter a major player named Thomas Barrack, real-estate mogul, founder of the mortgage company Colony Starwood Homes and one of Donald Trump’s closest friends. Barrack was instrumental in Trump acquiring the Plaza Hotel, planned and raised $100 million for Trump’s inauguration, and made his millions in the Savings & Loan Crisis in the 1980s and the recent housing bust. Under Barrack’s leadership, Colony Starwood Homes acquired thousands of foreclosed upon homes in the aftermath of the housing crash, bundled the mortgages of these rental homes and created six mega mortgage backed securities (one such bundle containing roughly 3,000 rental homes) and took out a loan against these properties worth $3.2 billion from JP Morgan Chase. If this seems like a lot of money, let us remind ourselves that the housing bust was created by over inflated valuations. That being said, learning that these mortgages today are valued through “drive-by appraisals” evaluated by real-estate brokers, not appraisers, should unsettle everyone. This story has a very human face because it is the renters of housing properties like these owned by Colony Starwood Homes that are paying the banks back for these loans, not the investors. In the last year alone, landlords made $26 million on late fees and “clawbacks” (keeping security deposits) from tenants. This podcast is worth a close listen not only for the close proximity of these perpetrators of this ongoing destabilization of our housing market to our current Executive branch, but also for revealing the human toll.
From Simon Owens, AudioTeller co-editor:
The best explainer you’ll find of the Senate healthcare bill [link]
Podcast: Vox’s The Weeds — Episode: Senate Republicans’ health care idea: Make the poor pay more for less
Probably the best healthcare reporter working today is Vox’s Sarah Kliff, and her appeal stems from her ability to distill abstruse policy for a general audience. The Weeds is a great podcast because it allows Kliff, Matthew Yglesias, and Ezra Klein to eschew the horserace politics discussion that plagues cable news and spend 100 percent of their time geeking out on public policy. There are a lot of explainers floating around on the recently-released Senate GOP healthcare bill that was just released, but this episode is probably the best resource for understanding how terrible this bill truly is.
Thanks for reading (and hopefully listening to our recommendations). Think we missed a great episode? Email us at audioteller@gmail.com. Want to have this list delivered to your inbox every week? Go here.
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