hollywood boulevard by malik, available under a Creative Commons License
This week’s podcast highlights take us on a tour through time and space as we look back at a series of crimes that struck at the heart of Hollywood in the 1960’s, soccer news that broke in New York and Zurich and spread around the globe, and a short but far-flung story that takes us out into our solar system.
You Must Remember This: The podcast from film critic and author Karina Longworth that recounts the lost stories of 20th century Hollywood began a new season on Tuesday. Longworth is coming off a series on the lives of Hollywood stars during war time and is now moving into a series on “the life, crimes and cultural reverberations of Charles Manson.” The first episode of the new series took a fascinating and disturbing look at how Manson came to Los Angeles and the murders that he and his followers committed in the late 1960’s. Future episodes should be worth a listen for any fans of Hollywood lore as Longworth goes more in depth into Manson’s history and the people in Hollywood that became forever connected to him.
The Leonard Lopate Show: Eccentric filmmaker John Waters joined The Leonard Lopate Show this week to talk about his book, Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America, which recently came out in paperback. The book tells the story of Waters hitchhiking from Baltimore to San Francisco, and is part fantasy (Waters’ own imaginings about what could happen on his trip, good and bad), part reality (stories of what actually happened when he hit the road). Waters told a number of stories from his book, including his best-case scenario of getting kidnapped by aliens, a worst-case scenario of getting rescued from police custody by a militant gay separatist, and the real-life, unlikely friendship he formed with a 19-year-old Republican elected official from Maryland who helped Waters make his way across America.
Men in Blazers: Strangely enough, the world of soccer turned its eyes to the U.S. this week with the federal indictment and arrest of a number of high ranking officials from world soccer’s governing body, FIFA. The news was so big, Michael Davies and Roger Bennett, the titular Men in Blazers, recorded a special episode of their podcast this week to talk about the charges and speculate on the long term ramifications. Davies and Bennett were absolutely giddy over the news, taking a number of jabs at the man many people blame for rampant corruption in FIFA, its newly re-elected president, Sepp Blatter. If you want to catch up on the FIFA scandal and have a laugh while doing it, check out this week’s special Men in Blazers episode.
You Made it Weird: On Wednesday’s episode of You Made it Weird, Pete Holmes interviewed musician and former Oasis band member Noel Gallagher. Gallagher reflected on kids, drugs, spirituality, fame, creative inspiration and more in a wide-ranging interview with Holmes. For his part, Holmes took the opportunity to draw the discussion into a broader scope, comparing his own experience as a comedian to Gallagher’s experience as a musician, while Gallagher came across as a mature, grounded rock star, if there could be such a thing.
Verge ESP: The Verge launched a new podcast on Wednesday, hosted by Verge editors, Emily Yoshida and Liz Lopatto. The podcast, similar to the website itself, will cover entertainment, science and the convergence of the two. On the first episode, released Wednesday, Yoshida and Lopatto swerved from lane to lane, covering a sciency topic like the Santa Barbara oil spill, then crossing over to the entertainment world, following the topic of oil into a discussion of Mad Max. The episode also included an interview with the creators of the AMC show, Halt and Catch Fire, which begins its second season on Sunday, May 31st. Verge ESP will release new episodes every other Wednesday.
Scienceology: Speaking of science, or in this case, faux science, Funny or Die News released a new podcast this week called Scienceology, a mock news show Funny or Die describes as a weekly look at the “important work being done in the fields of astronomy, physics, biology, chemistry, dog fighting, computer technology and medical research.” As you may expect from the source, the podcast is nothing but absurd. The first episode was a short three minute news-style segment on a pornography-obsessed man that scientists have observed floating in space. The show gets explicit right out of the gate, so listeners with sensitive ears consider yourselves warned. However, if you’re a fan of the absurd, fake-news style of Funny or Die News or The Onion, this short podcast is worth a try.
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