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 learn why Malcolm Gladwell hates golf, what it’s like to create art in a country that once barred it, and why Sheryl Sandberg stopped interviewing new Facebook recruits. Stay tuned…
From Jaclyn Schiff, AudioTeller co-editor:
Why Sheryl Sandberg stopped interviewing new Facebook recruits [link]
Podcast: Masters of Scale — Episode: Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg in Lead, Lead Again
For my introduction to “Masters of Scale,” a new podcast from LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, I decided to test drive the episode with Sheryl Sandberg. She’s been very much out there over the last few years — most recently promoting her book about grief. But what intrigued me about this episode was the opportunity to hear from Sandberg on company culture and what she’s done at Facebook. After all, she has used the success of what she has achieved in business to launch the platforms for her interests, such as Lean In.
The tightly-edited episode delivers a lot of value, giving us a good flavor of how Sandberg’s business ethos was formed, where she thinks she went wrong, and what she learned from those mistakes. At one point, she describes sharing with employees her decision to stop interviewing new recruits because she felt it was holding up the hiring process. While she expected employees to protest a little, they actually applauded her announcement. “And I thought to myself, ‘I’ve become a bottleneck, and you didn’t tell me — and that’s on me,’” Sandberg muses.
Even if you’re not gunning for the c-suite at a tech company, any listener who wants insight on leadership and being an A-player is sure to find this an interesting half-hour.
From Sriram Gopal, a DC-based writer and musician:
Malcolm Gladwell tackles our own assumptions about the civil rights era [link] and [link]
Podcast: Revisionist History — Episodes: Miss Buchanan’s Period of Adjustment and The Foot Soldier of Birmingham
Malcolm Gladwell is devoting a few episodes in season 2 of his podcast to exploring race relations and civil rights in the United States. The “Miss Buchanan” episode takes a familiar topic, the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, but flips it on its head. Instead of looking at the issue from the point of view of African American students who were sent to desegregate all white schools, he examines the topic from the point of view of African American teachers that were prevented from integrating all white faculties. The result of both these facts, as he argues, is a decision that was lauded, but which may have actually exacerbated the problems that desegregation caused. Gladwell makes a persuasive argument that the forced integration of schools, decoupled from the forced integration of faculties, led to suffering on the part of African American students that has yet to be fully appreciated.
In the second episode, Gladwell researches the history of one of the most iconic photographs taken during the Civil Rights Movement and a statue erected in Birmingham, Alabama that was based on the photograph. Through his conversations with the sculptor, the photograph’s subjects, and other sources, Gladwell reveals that there is a total disconnect between the moment the image captured and its popular interpretation. In doing so, Gladwell goes on to reason that this disconnect is not important, for winners in history get to tell the story, and the accepted story led to fundamental and much needed change in American society.
From Joel Coxander, a Nashville immigration lawyer:
Free agency and player trades in the NBA will make so much more sense after listening to this podcast [link] and [link]
Podcast : Dunc’d On Basketball — Episodes: 2017 Mock Offseason, parts 1 and 2
NBA commentators Nate Duncan and Danny Leroux have grown as podcasters and this offseason has given them an opportunity to really show off their skills. They have been doing nightly free agent podcasts that get into the nitty gritty of roster building, cap space, contract structure, and player skills. The two Mock Offseason podcasts with guests Kevin Pelton and Dan Feldman were the pinnacle and worth listening to even though free agency has already started. Duncan roleplays an NBA agent and the other three each roleplay GMs, going through every player. Free agency and player trades make so much more sense after listening to these! If you ever liked making trades and building teams in Madden, NBA Live, or Football Manager, this podcast is perfect.
From Lakshmi Sridharan, a physician in New York City:
StartUp returns to its radically transparent roots [link]
Podcast: StartUp — Episode: Ask Alex
StartUp, the podcast that skyrocketed Gimlet Media to fame, began as an intimate, honest portrayal of its namesake — what it is like to begin a company. In Season 1, the podcast was all about Gimlet Media itself, the very startup that the host, Alex Blumberg, was just getting off the ground at the time. It was an unshielded look at the emotional commitment, the financial roller coaster, and the family impacts of such a venture. The seasons since have often veered off this path — no longer painting the bare truth, StartUp lost the master touch of the first season. Until this episode. In “Ask Alex,” Alex Blumberg revives his role as host. Between his skill as a narrator and and his willingness to turn on the microphone when baring his soul, “Ask Alex” reminded me of the original high quality that one could expect from early Gimlet Media podcasting. For those who have not followed StartUp from the beginning, this episode will hold no emotional pull. For the rest of us, it is a reminder that a good story is made great by the right storyteller.
From Rachael Zur, a shoe designer in Brooklyn:
What it’s like to create art in a country that once barred it [link]
Podcast: Seriously… —Episode: Yangon Renaissance: Punks, Poets, and Painters
Five years ago it was against the law to make art, poetry, or music in Myanmar. In Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, artists are now free to express themselves after decades of war and oppression. Those artists that remember life before 2012 know firsthand what it was like to risk imprisonment for their artistic expression. The young artists living in Yangon today feel more free to express themselves in this changing city without the same sense of repression. However, living under a police state is habit forming, and those living within this new system are still fearful. Self-censorship is pervasive. With good reason, even now there are laws in place, like the 66D defamation clause, that inhibit free speech. With Aung San Suu Kyi’s new leadership, there is great optimism even as futures are uncertain. From serious allegations of human rights abuses to the need for continuous electricity and better economic policies, Yangon’s citizens wait for more radical change and greater opportunities. Artists are opening the doors and pushing the boundaries to see where their new freedom can lead them. This is a rare look into a society in transition. From a young poet: “We are the flood and we will wash these streets clean.”
From Simon Owens, AudioTeller co-editor:
Malcolm Gladwell really hates golf [link]
Podcast: Revisionist History — Episode: A Good Walk Spoiled
I’ll be the second AudioTeller contributor this week to recommend an episode of Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History. Given our current president’s penchant for golfing every weekend despite his constant criticisms directed toward his predecessor for playing the same sport, it seems especially relevant to point out how truly horrible golf is for society. As Gladwell reports, the sport is played disproportionately by rich, white men, and that very demographic has leveraged its immense privilege to avoid property taxes for gigantic golf courses and bar the rest of us plebeians from accessing otherwise open spaces. When you find out how much you, as a taxpayer, are subsidizing these rich, which golfers, then you’ll find yourself hating the sport too.
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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