Latest Episodes
The great railway bizarre: A Trans-Siberian story (plus audio endnotes)
“If there is any revelation to be gleaned from spending several days on a single train, it will come from the bizarre details that...
Writer-producer LaToya Morgan on TV storytelling and creative self-discipline
“It’s better for characters if their arc isn’t a straight line. You get to see how far they will go for something. You get...
Punk icon Ian MacKaye on why we should question the official history of rock music
“Punk is not a sound for me. It’s not a style of music. It’s not a look. It’s not even an attitude. For me...
How to survive a natural disaster (and recover when it’s over)
“Social capital is as important as formal training when it comes to disaster response. We see in every event people who have never had...
Wesley Morris on podcast-fame, sports, and performing blackness in America
“There’s nothing that will stop white people from trying to do some black shit. It’s fundamentally baked into every aspect of American popular culture....
Satanic backward masking changed 1980s rock (but not in the way you think)
“There are the actual facts of what was happening in popular culture in the 1980s — and then there was this tantalizing notion that...