Obama s Exit Interview and nine Other Must-Listen Podcasts, WIRED
Obama’s Exit Interview and nine Other Must-Listen Podcasts
Get The
6 months for $Five – plus a FREE Portable
WIRED’s thickest stories, delivered to your inbox.
- Ten hours
A year after he set the world record for holding his breath, he broke it again: twenty four minutes and three seconds. Here’s how bit.ly/2wsVJxq
Go after Us
Don’t miss our latest news, features and movies.
We’re On
See what’s inspiring us.
Go after Us
Don’t miss out on WIRED’s latest movies.
Obama’s Exit Interview and nine Other Must-Listen Podcasts
Did your resolutions for two thousand seventeen include figuring out a healthier relationship with social media? Or engaging with political issues? Or eventually figuring out how to create a persuading sonic car explosion? Then you’re in luck! These ten excellent podcast scenes will tell you everything you need to know. They also feature a 1920s Kansan demagogue, Solange’s instrument from Fucktoys “R” Us, and a post-apocalyptic mall, created by the man behind “Too Many Cooks.” Listen on—this year of podcasts is just beginning.
Pod Save America, “Obama’s Last Interview”
For his last interview, President Obama sat down with Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Tommy Vietor, and Dan Pfeiffer, his former speechwriters and the former hosts of election podcast Keepin’ It 1600. Obama speaks candidly about what he hopes his influence on history will be, whether his roast of President Trump influenced the election, and the advice two thousand seventeen Obama would give two thousand nine Obama as he stepped into the presidency. And he’s not done: Obama also discusses how he wants to contribute to an online public square for political discourse going forward. Listen here.
Credit: Crooked Media
For his last interview, President Obama sat down with Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Tommy Vietor, and Dan Pfeiffer, his former speechwriters and the former hosts of election podcast Keepin’ It 1600. Obama speaks candidly about what he hopes his influence on history will be, whether his roast of President Trump influenced the election, and the advice two thousand seventeen Obama would give two thousand nine Obama as he stepped into the presidency. And he’s not done: Obama also discusses how he wants to contribute to an online public square for political discourse going forward. Listen here.
How to Be a Chick, “The Window”
Raising a transgender kid is hard. On How to Be a Woman, Marlo Mack talks about life with her daughter, now nine years old, who was assigned masculine at birth. In “The Window,” Mack and other parents of trans kids discuss the shifts of public opinion on transgender issues during the past eight years and the challenges of readying for a Trump presidency, as Mack prepares to switch the last document identifying her little woman as a boy: her social security card. Listen here.
Raising a transgender kid is hard. On How to Be a Damsel, Marlo Mack talks about life with her daughter, now nine years old, who was assigned masculine at birth. In “The Window,” Mack and other parents of trans kids discuss the shifts of public opinion on transgender issues during the past eight years and the challenges of readying for a Trump presidency, as Mack prepares to switch the last document identifying her little chick as a boy: her social security card. Listen here.
Reply All, “Man of the People”
Dr. John Romulus Brinkley made a fortune implanting goat testicles into people to cure impotence, dementia, and flatulence—but that’s not close to the weirdest part of this story. Brinkley goes on to run for governor of Kansas, promote the Carter Family, and commission a swimming pool paneled with little swastikas. But it’s his medium that’s most chilling and prescient: Brinkley used the radio to become a 1920s demagogue, a con man reaching his listeners with a message of down-home authenticity.
Dr. John Romulus Brinkley made a fortune implanting goat testicles into people to cure impotence, dementia, and flatulence—but that’s not close to the weirdest part of this story. Brinkley goes on to run for governor of Kansas, promote the Carter Family, and commission a swimming pool paneled with lil’ swastikas. But it’s his medium that’s most chilling and prescient: Brinkley used the radio to become a 1920s demagogue, a con man reaching his listeners with a message of down-home authenticity.
Twenty Thousand Hertz, “What Makes Up a Movie Soundtrack?”
Movie audio tracks contain a entire lot more than music and dialogue. That revving engine in Mad Max: Fury Road? That’s a bunch of sewing machines. On this scene of Twenty Thousand Hertz, Chris Aud, the movie’s sound designer, explains how to create a movie explosion and gives tips for how to listen for sound cliches: hawking crows to signal a villain, off-stage cop sirens, etc. Plus, Ann Kroeber tells listeners about her days tracking down Bengal tigers and getting close with howling monkeys to record the sounds used in The Lord of the Rings and Jurassic Park.
Movie audio tracks contain a entire lot more than music and dialogue. That revving engine in Mad Max: Fury Road? That’s a bunch of sewing machines. On this gig of Twenty Thousand Hertz, Chris Aud, the movie’s sound designer, explains how to create a movie explosion and gives tips for how to listen for sound cliches: hawking crows to signal a villain, off-stage cop sirens, etc. Plus, Ann Kroeber tells listeners about her days tracking down Bengal tigers and getting close with howling monkeys to record the sounds used in The Lord of the Rings and Jurassic Park.
On Being with Krista Tippett, “Anil Dash — Tech’s Moral Reckoning”
In On Being, Krista Tippett hosts conversations about how to live thoughtfully and responsibly—and on this gig she talks to Anil Dash about the intersection of civics and tech in an America shaped by technology. Dash speaks to the duties of technologists, the ways that digital formats—like the size of text boxes on blogs—have shaped online journalism; and the risks of visually dramatizing data. Listen here.
Credit: Public Radio Exchange
In On Being, Krista Tippett hosts conversations about how to live thoughtfully and responsibly—and on this gig she talks to Anil Dash about the intersection of civics and tech in an America shaped by technology. Dash speaks to the duties of technologists, the ways that digital formats—like the size of text boxes on blogs—have shaped online journalism; and the risks of visually dramatizing data. Listen here.
Expose, “America’s Digital Dumping Ground”
What happens to your old iPhone or laptop? Expose investigates where that electronic trash actually goes, from a wall of typewriters in Silicon Valley to Guiyu, a toxic dumping ground in China known as the “Chernobyl of e-waste,” to Seattle, where an intrepid environmentalist implants tracking devices into old electronics to catch lounging companies in the act. Plus, how legislation has—and hasn’t—changed how we dispose of electronics.
What happens to your old iPhone or laptop? Expose investigates where that electronic trash actually goes, from a wall of typewriters in Silicon Valley to Guiyu, a toxic dumping ground in China known as the “Chernobyl of e-waste,” to Seattle, where an intrepid environmentalist implants tracking devices into old electronics to catch lounging companies in the act. Plus, how legislation has—and hasn’t—changed how we dispose of electronics.
Crimetown, “Power Street”
If you haven’t been listening to Crimetown, the sordid story of Providence’s own Mate Cianci, convicted-felon-turned-mayor, you’re missing out on dubiously dead turtles, a glass of Scotch in maximum security, and police armed with shotguns railing on the back of garbage trucks—plus, wiseguys and underbosses with accents you’ve just got to hear. Begin at the beginning—or join for the seventh installment, “Power Street,” as FBI Agent Dennis Aiken and Operation Plunder Dome inject the scene.
If you haven’t been listening to Crimetown, the sordid story of Providence’s own Mate Cianci, convicted-felon-turned-mayor, you’re missing out on dubiously dead turtles, a glass of Scotch in maximum security, and police armed with shotguns railing on the back of garbage trucks—plus, wiseguys and underbosses with accents you’ve just got to hear. Commence at the beginning—or join for the seventh installment, “Power Street,” as FBI Agent Dennis Aiken and Operation Plunder Dome inject the scene.
Sound Demonstrate, “Scenes From an Italian Astronaut”
Some residents are bothered by the whirring sounds of airplanes taking off and landing, so they file a complaint with their local airports. But at least one person is truly upset by the sounds, and determined to fight back with some noise of his own: 52-year-old Italian astronaut Roberto Vittori, who lives three miles away from the Reagan International Airport in DC, filed 6,500 complaints in 2015. Meet the stud responsible for seventy five percent of the airport’s annual tally of gripes—and hear the precise, poetic way he words each complaint. Listen here.
Credit: The Outline
Some residents are bothered by the whirring sounds of airplanes taking off and landing, so they file a complaint with their local airports. But at least one person is indeed upset by the sounds, and determined to fight back with some noise of his own: 52-year-old Italian astronaut Roberto Vittori, who lives three miles away from the Reagan International Airport in DC, filed 6,500 complaints in 2015. Meet the dude responsible for seventy five percent of the airport’s annual tally of gripes—and hear the precise, poetic way he words each complaint. Listen here.
The Truth, “The Dark End of the Mall”
In this scene, fiction podcast The Truth takes you back to a mall in the 1950s. Or does it? It’s a post-apocalyptic story in an American mall concocted by Casper Kelly, the man behind “Too Many Cooks,” with a dash of Westworld thrown in—just attempt it. Listen here.
In this gig, fiction podcast The Truth takes you back to a mall in the 1950s. Or does it? It’s a post-apocalyptic story in an American mall concocted by Casper Kelly, the fellow behind “Too Many Cooks,” with a dash of Westworld thrown in—just attempt it. Listen here.
Song Exploder, “Solange”
“Cranes in the Sky” is a tender, soft moment in Solange’s A Seat at the Table—and one that required urban expansion, cockroaches, and a 12-inch plastic harp from Fucktoys “R” Us to create. Hear Solange dissect the song, and explain how a lost instrumental track led her to turn the song into a meditation.
“Cranes in the Sky” is a tender, soft moment in Solange’s A Seat at the Table—and one that required urban expansion, cockroaches, and a 12-inch plastic harp from Fucktoys “R” Us to create. Hear Solange dissect the song, and explain how a lost instrumental track led her to turn the song into a meditation.