7 Podcasts to Get You Through Your Trip Home
By Kelly Kinas ‘16
Finals week has started and that means most of USC will be heading back home or to wherever their internships/jobs take them. That may be by plane, train, or automobile but no matter how you get there, you will need to be entertained along the way.
I am here to offer some amazing Podcasts suggestions so you don’t have to listen to Life of Pablo or Views again. These are interesting, entertaining and most episodes are about 45 minutes long. Give them a listen and make your next trip go by even faster!
First off, if you’ve been under a rock for the past couple years, let’s go over what a podcast is. A podcast is a form of digital media that consists of an episodic series of audio, video, digital radio, PDF, or ePub files subscribed to and downloaded automatically through web syndication or streamed online to a computer or mobile device. The word is a portmanteau of “(i)Pod” and “broadcast.” Without all those fancy words, pretty much a podcast is people talking about a certain subject with other interesting people. Some have a game show format, some have a talk show format, some have a news format, etc. The list goes on and on.
End all be all, there is a podcast out there for you and it might just be one of these 7!
1. Serial
Everyone AND their mothers have heard about Serial. It has been one of the most talked about podcasts this year. Serial is a podcast hosted by Sarah Koenig, first released in October 2014 as a spin-off of the radio program This American Life. The series was co-created and is co-produced by Koenig and Julie Snyder. Using investigative journalism, Koenig narrates a nonfiction story over multiple episodes. Serial ranked number one on iTunes even before its debut and remained there for several weeks. Serial won a Peabody Award in April 2015 for its innovative telling of a long-form nonfiction story.
Koenig has said that Serial is “about the basics: love and death and justice and truth. All these big, big things.” Season 1 investigated the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee (Hangul: 이해민), an 18-year-old student at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. She was last seen about 3 p.m. on January 13, 1999. Her corpse was discovered on February 9 in Leakin Park and identified two days later. The case was immediately treated as a homicide.
I would suggest this podcast for a long plane ride, maybe coming back from study abroad or going back home for international students so you can listen to multiple episodes because you will be HOOKED. You how Lays says you can eat just one chip? You can’t just listen to one episode of Serial.
THIS IS LIKE A MURDER MYSTERY PODCAST AND IT’S SUCH A COOL CONCEPT THAT HAS BEEN EXECUTED AMAZINGLY.
To take a page out of Monty Python’s book…
2. Ask Me Another
Ask Me Another is the rambunctious live show from NPR and WNYC that blends brainteasers, pub trivia, comedy and music into an hour of mind-bending fun. Host Ophira Eisenberg invites guests and listeners alike to stretch their noggins, tickle their funny bones and be serenaded by house musician Jonathan Coulton. What you’ll hear resembles the casual intimacy of game night at a friend’s house: one where scores are forgotten in favor of hilarious gaffes.
I personally got hooked on this podcast thanks to my parents. It’s puns, wordplay, and takes a lot of trivia knowledge but it’s usually pretty hilarious and makes you think.
Ask Me Another is actually going to be taping in Downtown LA on May 11th at the Ace Hotel and there are still tickets on sale if you suddenly become hooked and want to see it live. Tickets are available at amatickets.org.
YAY NPR!
3. How Did This Get Made?
To all my cinema majors out there, this is an AMAZING podcast. Have you ever seen a movie so bad that it’s amazing? Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael and Jason Mantzoukas want to hear about it! They’ll watch it with their funniest friends, and report back to you with the results.
Paul Scheer, Jason Mantzoukas, and June Diane Raphael discuss one thing that unites the entire of humanity: our love for absolutely dreadful films. If you love bad movies you’ll love this podcast.
There are over 30 episodes and if you really like bad movies, maybe you’ll even pick up some new bad movies to watch!
Really funny people talking and laughing about really bad movies. Just the best.
4. Here’s the Thing…
It’s a podcast with ALEC BALDWIN. Like I was already hooked super fast. It was started in 2009 and is a series of intimate and honest conversations hosted by Alec Baldwin. Alec talks with artists, policy makers and performers – to hear their stories, what inspires their creations, what decisions changed their careers, and what relationships influenced their work
From WNYC Studios, award-winning actor Alec Baldwin takes listeners into the lives of artists, policy makers and performers. Alec sidesteps the predictable by going inside the dressing rooms, apartments, and offices of people we want to understand better: Ira Glass, Lena Dunham, David Brooks, Roz Chast, Chris Rock and others. Hear what happens when an inveterate guest becomes a host. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Radiolab, Death, Sex & Money, Freakonomics Radio and many others.
Really cool people being interviewed casually by Alec Baldwin. SIGN ME UP.
5. The History Chicks
Their goal: to introduce you to female characters in history, factual or fictional via our podcast and shownotes. An introduction, an overview and a little push to explore and learn more on your own.
The shownotes will give you a short look at the life of the person that we are discussing- basic facts and links to other sources to learn more. The podcast episodes will go into greater detail as we chat about the challenges, failures and successes, times, and all the juicy bits that we find interesting about the life of our subject. Sometimes, as opportunities present themselves, we will add Special Features here on our website that relate to the person that we are spotlighting.
Learning about awesome women in history through two women practically geeking out about it? YUP. Their motto? “Any resemblance to a boring old history lesson is purely coincidental.”
6. The Smartest Man in the World
Greg Proops, who you might know from Whose Line Is It Anyway fame like I do, takes his stand up and improv to a whole new level with this podcast. It is a hoot of intellectual, witty observations. He talks everything from ’70s funk music to kittens to old cinema, societal unrest to historical baseball tales to druggy escapades, all spliced with a healthy amount of Jeremy Irons impressions and unsubtle tips about feminism being the ~way forward~.
Hilarity about everyday life with unsubtle feminism? GREAT WAY TO SPEND TIME.
7. Anna Farris is Unqualified
Description from their website:
“Not-great-relationship advice from completely unqualified Hollywood types. I am a solid 3.4 student with a major in English from the University of Washington. I’ve also been asked what my SAT score was and it was 1060. It only took five years of dorm/rave life for me to accrue the life knowledge I have received. I’m a Sagittarius, which means I’m super creative and stubborn; but there are walls I need to break down because I always want to leap over the boundaries that make me climb ladders and roofs. I’m agreeable and delightful. I also have incredible leadership skills and following abilities. And, I have 20/20 vision so I’m an eagle eye. I could not love all of you more and please e-mail me at questions@annafarisisunqualified.com with your pressing relationship questions.”
Have a relationship problem and want some celebrities to work it all out for you? Well, this is fortunate. Anna Faris and a celebrity friend such as Judah Friedlander and Alison Janney address personal problems each episode. It feels like you’re just having a chat with your way-more-successful famous friends. IT’S GREAT.
Anna is hilarious. We all love listening to other people’s love problems. So why not?
Hopefully you have a fully loaded podcast playlist ready for your trip home after a great semester as USC. If you need any more recommendations, this buzzfeed article has a lot of other great ones!
Listen on and Fight on!
