Podcasts are one of my favorite new-media creations. I mean, the sheer variety of topics and arbitrary specificity you can sink into on a podcast is dizzying. I don’t consider my listening habits extremely eclectic, but in the past year I’ve learned more than I expected about eradicating smallpox, how to survive in a lifeboat at sea, what counts as improperly influencing jury selection, and the great joy in taking a road trip with your grandmother.
Here are four podcasts, all of which are talking about books that either I have read or plan on reading as soon as possible. All are written by women working on responding to big obstacles that keep us constrained physically, geographically, vocationally, psychologically.
We’ve written a lot about self-care in many modes: where we’ve looked for it, how we have found it (fleetingly, but still), critiquing the idea of it on equity and privilege grounds, what to do when you can’t engage in it, etc.
One of my favorite podcasts, NPR’s Code Switch, had an episode last week critical of the notion of self-care, with ideas about what to do instead. It featured Dr. Pooja Lakshmin talking about her new book on the topic. Her opening salvo, “you can’t meditate your way out of a 40-hour work week with no childcare.” Listen and see what you think.
Another favorite, On Being, played an interview with Sara Hendren, author of What Can a Body Do? How We Meet the Built World, Hendren is a design professor at Northeastern University questions, according to the show notes, “why we organize the physical world around vulnerability and needs for assistance are not commonplace– indeed salutary– forms of experience that reveal the genius of what being human is all about.” Yeah, what she said. Check it out if this sounds appealing.
Sometimes we all need a break from looking inward and just want to listen along to a good story and chuckle. If that’s where you are, I got you– listen to this interview of comic genius Leslie Jones on NPR’s Fresh Air podcast. Jones has her own particular way of being Leslie-Jones-positive that we can all learn from. She’s got a memoir out, and, although I don’t think I can write the title in this blog, here’s an adorable picture of her from the cover.
The Exra Klein Show takes on big and hard and complicated issues, so it’s a place I go when I’m looking for an extended conversation about something that merits deep thinking. One of the most interesting interviews he did this past year (IMHO) was with professor and author Kristen Ghodsee about the past and potential future of communal living. She wrote a book that I’ve really enjoyed called Everyday Utopia: What 2000 Years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life. I admit that I’ve always been drawn to sharing space and things with others– not just family. Some of us bloggers talk, only half-jokingly, about establishing a feminist tiny house commune one day, complete with bikes and sports equipment shed (a big one), library, big communal social and eating spaces, etc. Ghodsee and Klein work through some of the obstacles and solutions of making stronger communities. I recommend both the podcast and the book.
Readers, what are some of your favorite podcasts? Why are they favorites? I’d love to hear from you.