Family is Family🚗
Spies and the Gatekeepers + plus a lot of links
Hey Poddy People,
Hi to all the new subs! I hope you enjoy your stay here. I went to a meetup last week and thought it was going to be a vent sesh, and while that was partially true, there were quite a bit of audio folks there as well it turned into a fanboy session over them because they’ve produced writing or hosted podcasts I’ve recommended here. I’ll be name-dropping them in The Round-Up.
Let’s GOOOO!!
The Round-Up
Meetup: Met Host David Weinberg who hosted Crooked Media’s Dreamtown: The Story of Adelanto and Novel/iHeart’s The Superhero Complex. He’s working on a new podcast right now, but nothing to mention here yet. However, a nice little reminder for listeners of the amount of work going into quality pods. He still has 9 months of work to go.
Producer Kristen from Pineapple Street Studios Classy with Jonathan Menjivar
Producer Sophie from Pineapple Street Studios & Wondery Persona: The French Deception
And Aaron who works on Paramount Audio’s Mobituaries with Mo Rocca
Scams are back! I was listening to the radio…classic, I know, and they were about this new article that the detailed New York Magazine’s personal finance columnist Writer getting scammed. Read her story. If only she listened to the below:
Immediately I thought of the wonderful Chameleon series, and specifically the season hosted by journalist Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, Scam Likely. He interviews DHS officers, details what runners do, and even went to India to confront some Scam-calling hubs. Start here.
On the same radio segment, they were talking about Google Gemini’s problem with creating unlikely images of certain prompts. Google has since paused the program to make “improvements". Anyway, this shouldn’t be a surprise to those who listen or read about AI and the problems it faces. Visible Women with Caroline Criado Perez. Specifically, the episode, “Computer Says No: is AI Making Healthcare Worse for Women?” chats about what is already happening in the health space. Episode here.
Lemonada added Threedom and Podcrushed to their lineup along with Archetypes. Quite the haul of pods they are acquiring. Read more.
Podcast to TV: One of last year’s recommendations, The Guardian’s stalker podcast, Can I tell you a secret? was adapted to Netflix and bumped up the podcast interest in return.
Amber Heard is the subject of the new Tortoise Investigation by Alexi Monstrous (Sweet Bobby), Who is Trolling Amber? is launching on Feb. 27th. Trailer here.
On Air Fest is this week in Brooklyn. They release the full lineup and should be a fun one to cover with my hot takes. See you there!
On to my picks this week…
Podcast: Family Trips with Seth Meyers
Genre: Interviews, Relationships
Publisher: Seth and Josh Meyers
About: Lifelong brothers, Seth Meyers and Josh Meyers ask guests to relive childhood memories, unforgettable family trips, and other disasters!
If you know Seth Meyers, he is a great talk show interviewer. I hardly see him going back to his note cards to ask a follow-up question. He riffs effortlessly off of the conversation with the guest. That’s what this podcast is like with his brother Josh. Even better is that there is barely any mention of the projects the celebrity is promoting at the time.
Zach Woods (Silicon Valley, In The Know) chats about how he was the Firestarter of arguments among his 2 siblings on road trips. However, making it full circle by treating his dad to a London shoot early in his acting career and as we know him today.
Tom Holland (Spider-Man) was refreshing talking about his Dad’s comedy career and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which I hope to go to one day. One joke quote from Tom was after Billy Elliot, Tom was fit from all the dancing, he went back to school and beat all the fitness tests. Teachers put him into Rugby and other sports which didn’t pan out and in response, he said, “I’m a dancer dahling.” Some pretty good chuckles along the way.
Stacey Leasca • TRAVEL + LEISURE Magazine
“...absolutely disastrous and utterly hilarious family vacation memories.”
This week at On Air Fest, Family Trips will be making an appearance in conversation with Dan Taberski (9/12)
Podcast: The Gatekeepers
Genre: Society, Tech
Publisher: BBC
About: Jamie Bartlett traces the story of how and why social media companies have become the new information gatekeepers, and what the decisions they make mean for all of us. It's 20 years since Facebook launched and the social media we know today - but it all started with a crazy idea to realise a hippie dream of building a "global consciousness". The plan was to build a connected world, where everyone could access everyone and everything all the time; to overthrow the old gatekeepers and set information free. Far from being over, Jamie discovers that the battle over who controls the world's information has only just begun.
In his new BBC podcast, Jamie Bartlett (Believe In Magic) tries to understand who the internet gatekeepers are and how it started. Including section 230, the political fine line that Twitter and Facebook, and “free speech”. It’s rather straightforward and you may know half the story if you are glued to this type of tech news like I am. In addition, Bartlett does have a conversation with a parent regarding the inaction of social media companies when it comes to children’s exposure or bullying. Her daughter died from suicide. It’s frustrating.
Daisy Dunn • The Spectator
“When one is in the thick of a phenomenon, as we are, it can be hard to discern its pathway, but I’m grateful to Bartlett for getting out his torch.”
Podcast: True Spies
Genre: True Crime
Publisher: Spyscape
About: True Spies takes you inside the world's greatest espionage and detective operations. Our hosts Hayley Atwell, Vanessa Kirby, Sophia Di Martino and Daisy Ridley talk to the real spies behind the missions. What do they know? What are their skills? And what would you do in their position? We explore and investigate real life thrillers, mysteries and crimes - stories that prove truth is stranger than fiction! These stories cover lies, murder, theft, sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll. You’ll meet experts from the top intelligence agencies including FBI, CIA, MI5, MI6 (SIS), KGB, GRU, Mossad and many others.
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning is now on Paramount+ streaming services and two podcast narrators, or you could say major stars of that movie were in the same scenes together, and I got all giddy.
Early seasons of True Spies featured Haley Atwell and Vanessa Kirby and it’s pretty great. Their voices are smooth and clear, and keep the story going. The latest season includes Daily Riddley as a narrator. Experts and those involved in the spy events are interviewed. You know the William Shatner hosted History Channel documentaries where he walks around in front of a screen moving the questions along? I see these stars doing it with Spy Docs.
Vanessa albeit scripted, mentions during the Reagan(barf) era, there was support for the Contra in Honduras. As an American, I also recognize meddling in other countries with the so-called ideal of democracy isn’t the case. The episode isn’t about why the politics of it sucks or the consequences that happened after, but just a story of events during the events themselves. Sound design, effects, and interviews immerse you like William Shatner.
Zach Johnston • Uproxx
“This is a fascinating listen with real star power at the helm. The show is very produced and unfolds like a narrative rather than Atwell or Kirby cutting up with a guest.”
Just Added:
What is Owed? - GBH
Brave New World - Evening Standard
Electoral Dysfunction - Sky News
Joe Lycett's Turdcast - Joe Lycett
History Extra podcast - Immediate media
Significant Others - Team Coco
The Spy Who - Wondery
Our Black Gay Diaspora Podcast - Erick Taylor Woodby
Leverage Your Podcast Show - Lyndsay Phillips
Weekly Charts: 'Top of the Pods'!
5. Who Killed JFK? - #iHeart
4. Scamfluencers - Wondery
3. Things Fell Apart - BBC
2. Academy - Wondery
1. Archetypes - Under new partnership with Lemonada (formerly with Spotify)
Stay safe, be kind, and go to your doctor's checkup!
Listening with you,
Captain Ron
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