Listening Chronicles #4
Listening Chronicles #4
Hi !
Sorry I am late this week. I guess consistency isn't that easy to maintain.
The previous week was a bit hectic and I couldn't listen to too many episodes ! I'll make it up to you by introducing you to 2 podcasts that I made and help edit and a small dive into one of my favorite podcasts out there !
Podcasts This Week
Ten Things That Scare Me | Mitch Albom, John Green and Earlonne Woods
Have you been feeling scared these days? Or sometimes you wake up from sleep believing you fear something, but don't know what it is that you fear? This podcast by WYNC studios is about our biggest fears. It's in essence a listicle. Each episode is 5-10 minutes, not longer. There's a a diverse range of people who are asked to list out their 10 fears and sometimes they tell you the stories behind those fears.
I hadn't heard all their episodes. This week, I heard three of them before sleep. I don't want to talk about what their fears are, but I would urge you to give this a listen.
While these fears are of different people, it is a comforting thought knowing that there are others out there who are living under fear, who are somehow inhabiting this world despite those fears. My biggest fear these days is that when I go out to buy groceries or for a walk, I'll catch the corona virus and spread it to my family. What's yours?
The Cut | Optimism
Avery Trufleman has switched from 99% PI, to a podcast series called The Cut. It's a popular magazine in the US. This particular episode is about feeling (and not feeling) optimism in the current era. She had just joined a new organisation, and the pandemic hit soon after. This episode has a look at how and whether our definitions of optimism has changed.
The Memory Palace | Travelling Stones
I don't want to say much except that this is a story about Mark Twain, his friend and a prank they pulled a century ago. It's amazing. It's short and a lot of fun.
Time Capsule | Some Thoughts on Birthdays
So, 30th August was my birthday. I was incredibly touched by the gesture of my brother and sister in law. They got in people to write me letters. I didn't know how to quite respond except to make a podcast episode about it.
Legal Synthesis | Silent Gift of the Law: Information Utilities with Bhargavi Zaveri
This is another podcast episode I worked on in the last week. My friend Sandesh had a conversation with Bhargavi Zaveri, who was a part of the team that helped draft and set up the first Information Utility in our country. Now, it seems like a niche topic, but after editing this episode, I realised that the credit information architecture in our country needs a revamping in order to help insolvency cases.
Listen to the episode to understand why I am saying this.
Cast from The Past
Anthropocene Reviewed
So,
A few days back, John Green announced that he's taking a break from his podcast - The Anthropocene Reviewed. I didn't want it to end. I've been listening to that podcast for the last 3 years diligently. It would come out once a month, and as soon as it would, I would be ready to listen to it. It's a heartfelt podcast.
I think John Green himself has a difficulty explaining what this podcast is about.
It's hard to describe the podcast, I think John Green does a great job of trying to describe his own work - For the last two and a half years, I've been writing a podcast called The Anthropocene Reviewed, which is a little hard to describe. Like, the premise is that I review different facets of the human-centered planet on a five star scale, like I might review the bacterium staphylococcus aureus or the concept of love at first sight or the Taco Bell breakfast menu, but that's not actually what the podcast is about. It's about like, hope and whether it is justified and it's about how people can be so wonderful but also so horrible and how humans are at once forces of astonishing creation and gut-wrenching destruction and it's about the contemporary human paradox of being at once far too powerful and not nearly powerful enough.
Like, powerful enough to re-shape the entire climate of the planet, but not powerful enough to re-shape it in a way that's beneficial. I don't know, though, that makes it sound very serious and I want the essays to be funny and also sometimes sad. I'm very bad at talking about my own work.
I've learnt so much from the show. It's changed some of the ways in which I think about humanity, it's also been a place of comfort. I often revisit past episodes in order to feel a sense of belonging and sometimes hope in the world around us. I keep sharing this podcast with my friends, because I feel that some of the emotions and memories that John Green tried to capture are universal (despite being unique to his experience). The podcast is funny, poignant, hopeful and sad all at once. It's brilliant, and is definitely on my top 5 podcasts I have ever heard.
I would urge you to listen to all of the episodes here - Anthropocene Reviewed
P.S. the two most recent episodes from Time Capsule are essentially Anthropocene Reviewed inspired.
Well, that's it for this edition !
What podcasts have you been listening to this week?
I'll be back Sunday night (hopefully) with the 5th edition of the chronicles, until then, Happy Listening !