What Covid Did to Them - Nancy Updike's "We Were Three"
Phonograph
Episode Description: Rob and Britta discuss Nancy Updike’s podcast “We Were Three,” which tells the story of one family devastated by Covid and what that devastation revealed. Also discussed: Nancy Updike’s status as as one of the all time great audio producers. To support Phonograph, , which features experiments in audio storytelling. This month’s story comes from Rob: a collage of recordings he made in the spring of 2020 around the theme of anxiety and grocery shopping. Show Notes: talking about the state of nurses near the end of 2020 Serial Productions podcast about private...
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Where People Put the Radio Tower - Signal Hill
Phonograph
Rob and Britta discuss the new podcast Signal Hill, which takes its inspiration from the world of print magazines. Rob talks to Liza Yeager and Jackson Roach about the project, and then we dive into a handful of the stories from Signal Hill’s first “issue.” Show Notes: by Jackson Roach by Neena Pathak by Hannah Sassoon by Hannah Kingsley-Ma Music by
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I Don't Know If It's God - Alix Spiegel's "Pray"
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Rob and Britta discuss the classic Alix Spiegel story “Pray” from This American Life, including Spiegel’s origin story as a producer and what happened to her when members of the megachurch she was reporting on urged her to become a Christian. This is the second of three episodes Rob and Britta recorded in 2019 and never released until now. The first of those was Show Notes: Music: Other Music -
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The Story Becomes the Medicine - The Retrievals (with guest Sophie Nikitas)
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Rob is joined by the audio producer Sophie Nikitas to discuss 's Peabody award winning podcast from 2023: . Show Notes: Sophie's online dating podcast miniseries Sophie's horror anthology podcast Susan Burton's story "" Susan Burton's story "" Music from
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I Wanted to Be a Stranger - Cement City (with guest Samantha Hodder)
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Rob is joined by the podcast critic Samantha Hodder, who writes the newsletter Bingeworthy, to discuss the podcast Cement City: a sound-rich, character-rich, immersive exploration of the struggling rust belt town Donora, Pennsylvania. Show Notes:
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What the Evidence Shows - The Problem We All Live With
Phonograph
Rob and Britta discuss a ten year old story from This American Life called "The Problem We All Live With" produced by Chana Joffe-Walt and reported by Nikole Hannah-Jones. It's an example of the kind of documentary journalism we need more than ever, in a world where such journalism is increasingly under threat. Show Notes: Music -
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What's Fun About Being in the Dark - Love and Radio
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Rob and Britta dig into two classic episodes of the podcast Love and Radio, "The Wisdom of Jay Thunderbolt" and "Choir Boy," sparking a discussion about the appeal of abrasive art. Show Notes: Music:
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Do We Ever Go Back to That? - TAL: Notes on Camp
Phonograph
Rob and Britta share a discussion they had in 2019 (but never released) about the classic This American Life episode "Notes on Camp." Topics include their own camp experiences, the power of scary stories, Rob's favorite thing ever recorded by any radio show ever, and the wild back story of the beloved camp counselor David Himmel, aka Mr. Popluar. Show Notes: - This American LIfe Music:
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Suitcase Full of Cash - Startup Part 2
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On the second of a two-part series about the podast Startup, Rob and Britta talk about how the mini-seasons of the podcast Startup about the growth of Gimlet revealed all kinds of details about the troubles at the company, the ill-fated sale to Spotify, and what all this means for the state of narrative audio. Show Notes: Skye Pillsbury's newsletter Galen Beebe's Music: Nine Count by Within the Garden Walls by Audio Excerpts:
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Alarmingly Long Pause - Startup Part 1
Phonograph
On the first episode of the new season Rob and Britta talk about what made them want to restart a show about narrative audio. And they discuss the complicated legacy of a podcast that's having its tenth anniversary this year. Show Notes: Music: "Arabic Tallow" and "At Our Best Alone" from Audio Excerpts:
info_outlineRob and Britta discuss the new podcast Signal Hill, which takes its inspiration from the world of print magazines. Rob talks to Liza Yeager and Jackson Roach about the project, and then we dive into a handful of the stories from Signal Hill’s first “issue.”
Show Notes:
Fishing the Sky by Jackson Roach
Desperado by Neena Pathak
A Porous Place by Hannah Sassoon
On the Family Group Chat by Hannah Kingsley-Ma
Music by Blue Dot Sessions