High Strange and the Multiverse of Aliens🛸
Get Gravy and 20 years of Iraq, +Just Added and Top 5 of the week
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In this week’s newsletter:
Troy Labs Demo
East Coast Meetup
Podcast to TV
3 picks
George Costanza
Just Added
A personal fanboy achievement was unlocked this week when Jason Alexander liked and retweeted our post for his podcast Really? No, Really? podcast. I’m just going to sit with it for the rest of the year.
The Podcast Academy and Steve Lack are hosting a meetup in the DMV (Maryland) area on April 13th if you’re in the area. Check it out here.
Shoutout to Leslie J. in the Podcasting Community discord for the assistance in transferring my audio interviews off my iPhone 7 in bulk. It turns out, I just needed to update the operating system. Sigh.
Michelle Obama’s new podcast from Audible is now available on all platforms in case you don’t have an Audible account. Check it out here.
Great Pods is part of the USC (University of Southern California) startup incubator program since 2021. You never really leave. Troy Labs a student-run group on campus is hosting a demo day with Alum and current students on April 5th with support from the business school. We’ll be there all day.
Welp. If you follow other newsletters or social you already know this, but just in case, Adnan Syed’s conviction was reinstated by the Maryland court. The TLDR; (too long didn’t read) summary: The previous court hearing did not allow the family of Hae Min Lee enough notice to be there in person. If you recall they “zoom” called in, so it’s a redo. Read more here.
Award-winning podcaster, Dan Taberski (9/12, The Line) signed a new deal with Pineapple Street Studios for four new podcasts. Read more here.
Podcast to TV: The Spanglish Telenovela hit, Princess of South Beach, is being adapted for Netflix with Gina Rodriguez to produce. The podcast has been renewed for a second season. Read more here.
Celebrity podcast: Eric McCormack (Will & Grace, Travelers) and Steven Weber (Chicago Med, Wings) are launching their podcast, Eating Out with Eric & Steve on April 5th. Produced by Sean Hayes’ (Will & Grace) company, Hazy Mills Productions. Trailer here.
I’ll be speaking at Outlier Podcast Festival in May. More soon!
Just Added (13)
Who Killed Aldrich Kemp?
Katherine Ryan: Telling Everybody Everything
Savage Lovecast
High Strange
Sleeping with Celebrities
The Assignment with Audie Cornish
Drilled
From Gay to Ze
Terri White: Finding Britain’s Ghost Children
Wizard Seeking Wizard
Shock and War: Iraq 20 Years On
Synthetic Stories
The Girl In The Blue Mustang
On to my picks this week…
Podcast: High Strange
Genre: Society,
Publisher: Tenderfoot TV
About: In this new investigative series, [Payne] Lindsey shines light on real-life coverups, and infamous cases, all while leaving the tinfoil hat at the door. In the last few years, dozens of Navy pilots have come forward with compelling video evidence of objects in the sky that defy our current understanding of physics. The Pentagon has since confirmed the validity of these accounts and stated, “We don’t know what they are.” Can we finally have a healthy conversation about the possibility of intelligent life beyond our planet? With a refreshing approach to the topic, Lindsey aims to separate fact from fiction when it comes to the strange happenings way up high. Do you want to believe?
I wasn’t looking for a different subject to listen to, but I’m glad it showed up. Payne (Atlanta Monster) produces a bang-up job with episode one on getting the credible journalists from Politico and NY Times that reported the UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) sightings last year and why we haven’t heard about this in the past. No one seemed to really care, until recently. It was a great setup for my post-marathon walk as I looked up to the sky.
Stephen O. • Podcast Delivery
“...will abduct your attention and work to strip away any preconceptions you may have about aliens and what it takes to believe. You might not come away from High Strange a full-fledged believer, but you’ll definitely have something to think about.”
Podcast: Famous & Gravy
Genre: Entertainment
Publisher: 14th Street Studios (Indie)
About: A conversation about quality of life as we see it, one dead celebrity at a time. We rate the first line of their obituary, we look at their life stats, we speculate on their inner lives, and we ultimately answer the question "Would I want that life?"
I had a nice chat with these fellas at Podcast Evolutions in Vegas a few weeks back and got to listen to an episode prior to chatting. A casual listen, I picked the Bob Einstein (Super Dave Osborne) episode. Bob Einstein was a recurring character on Curb Your Enthusiasm, but I first knew him as the parody cartoon of Evil Knievel growing up.
Dave Murphy • Murphy's Law
“...the show is far more insightful than morbid, and might help you sort out your own life in the process…”
Podcast: Shock and War: Iraq 20 Years On
Genre: History, News
Publisher: BBC
About: "Essential listening..." Why the US and UK went to war in Iraq and its legacy. The BBC's Security correspondent Gordon Corera speaks to those at the heart of the decision-making.
A look back for sure. 10 Episodes, 20 minutes each, and I had to listen to one after the other. I learned a lot more than I thought I knew. I didn’t know that plans were in place before 9/11 to invade and overthrow Saddam. 9/11 was just a bump in the road. Freedom, corruption, dumb politicians, neo-conservatives, being misled, poor intelligence, poor planning, wishful democracy, and a lot more. Educational and just frustrating. I mean, they had someone from Britain who never ran a government city position all of a sudden run an Iraqi city. Even she was surprised.
Miranda Sawyer • The Guardian
"This is a great series, sober, truthful, brilliantly researched, packed with I-was-there interviews. Corera, as you would expect, asks the right questions. Essential listening."
Top 5 3/20-3/26
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Listening with you,
Captain Ron
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