🏆 10 podcasts not enough people are listening to ✨ FANTI's Tre'vell Anderson 🤴🏿
💌Podcast The Newsletter is your weekly love letter to podcasts and the people who make them.💌
Bonjour!
My life revolves around podcasts, a fact that automatically puts me out of touch with most of humanity. I assume that everyone listens to Ear Hustle, but I also know that many Americans don’t even know how to turn on a podcast. So I have no idea what normal people listen to or don’t. But here’s a list of shows that I think are just phenomenal, and I can’t sing their praises enough. They make me want to dance and shout and scream them in your faces. They’re shows that are just so, so good and consistent, that I think everyone should be listening to them regularly. (I don’t know what their numbers are…maybe I’m wrong and more than enough people are listening! But I don’t think so!) The original list was much longer, I had to cull. This was difficult for me to do. But here are 10. They’re not THE 10. They’re 10 OF.
American Hysteria explores the fantastical thinking and irrational fears of Americans through the lens of moral panics, urban legends, and conspiracy theories, how they shape our psychology and culture, and why we end up believing them. The topics are fascinating, the dives are deep and well-researched, the writing is top-notch, and Chelsey is one of those wonderful hosts who brings humor to these dark, often controversial themes.
Pessimist Archive is a history of why we resist new things. It’s brain-expanding and includes excellent storytelling. Jason, the host, is passionate and will make you care about things you’ve never considered before.
My Year in Mensa Jamie Loftus takes you through her year in the high-IQ Mensa society, from taking the test as a joke to spending the Fourth of July with 2000 angry Mensans in Phoenix. Chaos reigns, but at least it tests well. This is one of the best things I’ve listened to all year. Shocking and hilarious, it demonstrates that not only is Jamie Loftus a talented comedy writer, but she’s smart enough to masterfully handle serious topics. And also smart enough to get into Mensa, I suppose.
The Constant is a science and history podcast about getting things wrong. Mark Chrisler brings so much love to his subjects that it’s contagious.
Dear Young Rocker is an audio memoir about growing up a loner and finding a home in music. I laughed and cried and deeply connected with Chelsea.
Imaginary Advice is a sketchpad for new ideas and new ways of telling stories, hosted by Ross Sutherland. Some stories are true, some are fiction, some are closer to audio essays. Most episodes end up being a blend of all three. This show is wildly creative and breaks all podcast “rules.” There’s nothing like it.
Judge John Hodgman a podcast where John Hodgman decides real personal disputes, with the able assistance of bailiff Jesse Thorn. Every time I listen to Judge John Hodgman, I feel like I’m getting a gift I don’t deserve.
The Truth makes movies for your ears: short stories that are sometimes dark, sometimes funny, and always intriguing. Each story is different, and usually 10 to 20 minutes long. It takes you to unexpected places using only sound. This is the fiction show for people who don’t think they like fiction shows, and also for people who do.
Dr. Gameshow is the family-friendly podcast where people send in games and hosts Jo Firestone and Manolo Moreno play them with comedian guests & callers. This show is a totally weird blast of fun that always puts me in a better mood.
The Daily Zeitgeist brings together some of the funniest and smartest comedic and journalistic minds around. Jack and co-host Miles Gray spend up to an hour every weekday sorting through the events and stories driving the headlines,
to help you find the signal in the noise, with a few laughs thrown in for free. I have listened to this show every single day for three (?) years.
xoxo lp
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👋q & a & q & a & q & a👋
FANTI’s Tre’vell Anderson
Tre’vell Anderson is a journalist and the co-host of FANTI. Follow them on Twitter here. Follow FANTI on Twitter here.
Kindly introduce yourself and tell us what you do!
I’m a journalist by trade and sociologist by training. I focus on diversity in Hollywood with an eye toward Black and queer film and television. I co-host the podcast FANTI where we have complex and complicated conversations about the grey areas of life.
Why are you and Jarrett the perfect hosts for this show?
Well, we’re both journalists. That’s important to us because we care deeply about facts and reporting when we’re talking about every issue that arises. We’re not just sharing emotional appeals and conjecture — though there definitely is a place for that. We want to make sure that people feel like they can trust the things we say, and the guests we bring on. And because we are unapologetically Black and queer people, we’re able to imbue our lived experiences into everything we discuss. So, what the listener gets is rich, deep conversations that make space for complicatedness and complexity by two people they might actually want to eat fried chicken and collard greens with.
What does your listener mail look like?
We get a lot of letters from well-meaning white people that talk to us about the lessons they’ve learned by listening. And we know they’re white because they feel compelled to explicitly tell us because they’re always surprised that they can listen to and enjoy something made for and by Black queer folk.
Has any episode in particular stirred up a lot of controversy?
The episode that’s gotten perhaps the most feedback thus far is “Why White People Love Wakanda” which actually was inspired by a host of letters we got at the start of the show from white people who were amazed that they loved the show. In the episode we talk about the (racist, homophobic, transphobic, overall problematic) issues that undergird someone’s belief that a product made by and for Black and queer folks is not for them.
Do you ever worry about backlash about speaking truth about something that most people (think they) love?
I don’t worry about backlash. I think being a somewhat visible person and having a platform requires one to be open to (valid) critique. I am open to critique and know that I am not perfect. We’ve had listeners call us (and our guests) out for ableist and fatphobic language, for example. And they were right. We addressed it on the show and take steps daily for it not to happen again.
What’s something listeners don’t understand about podcasts and what goes into making them?
I can’t speak for other podcasts, but because Jarrett and I are journalists, we actually have lengthy production meetings every week where we chart out the structure of our conversation, pull relevant source materials, audio clips, etc. We’re not just talent; We don’t just hit record and run our mouths for an hour. We’re also producers and take a very active role, as co-owners of our show, in marketing and advertising conversations, booking guests, etc.
Women in podcasting are constantly being criticized for their voices. What is your relationship with yours? How would you describe your voice?
I love my voice because it is, in the purest sense, a representation of my full being. You hear my voice and it is obviously a Black person’s, presumably a femme and/or queer person’s, and my voice is that of someone from the south with that unique souther twang. I used to hate my voice because I would get misgendered at fast food drive thrus or over the phone — but then I realized gender is a scam anyway lol. Many listeners have said my voice is meditative which is… a choice lol.
🚨If u only have time for 1 thing🚨
This episode of VENT Documentaries makes you feel like you are swimming inside a teenage girl’s brain. It’s the first episode of the new season, which focuses on love, and gives the mic to Hibak. (Each episode of the show offers a story from a young person in one London Borough.) Hearing Hibak swoon and obsess over boys is so authentic I felt like I was her 16-year-old friend sharing secrets with her at the lunch table. The stories on VENT are always great, for the voices and the excellent sound production, which takes playful risks to transport you to a new place. I like how great production is going into content centered around teens. To a teen, crushes and getting dumped and flirting is the most important thing in the world, and this excellent show gives respect to these real feelings. Each moment is full of sounds that are deliberate and powerful, and raise the bar for how podcasters should be telling their stories. I found the next episode in the series, Isaiah, to be quite profound. Isaiah learns a lesson about love and now considers loving a skill. I listened to the last few minutes a few times because I was struck by Isiah’s words.
💎BTW💎
🎙️Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Zack Morris) is pairing with Dashiell Driscoll for Zack to the Future, a show that will review every single episode of Saved By The Bell, which Mark-Paul has never seen. I knew the instant I saw it that I’d listen (I’m a basic bitch and I love dumb things) but I didn’t know how much I’d like it. On episode one, Mark-Paul, Dashiell, and Elizabeth Berkley (who joins the call) get into their feelings and memories about episode one, Dancing to the Max. Zack says at the beginning that he remembers nothing, but fortunately that’s not true. He remembers feeling insecure dancing with Elizabeth. In fact he seems to have many insecurities about his acting and performance as Zack Morris, and how he stacks up against Mario Lopez (who could dance, drum, and was in SICK physical shape.) He saw Elizabeth as a wo-MAN (she was two years older than him!) It was truly interesting to hear these actors go back and time to relive one of the weirdest shows ever made. It’s SO INTERESTING HOW BAD this show was. The plots are preposterous and the teenage dialogue was written by old men who gave the teens Rodney Dangerfield-esque lines. I once heard a conspiracy theory that Saved By The Bell is actually all a dream and the opening theme song's lyrics prove it, and the more I think about it, it’s very possibly true. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an episode of Saved By The Bell but it’s so deeply engrained in the zeitgeist I feel like I have. (Maybe it’s because one of the first podcasts I got hooked on was April Richardson’s Go, Bayside!) So you don’t have to know the show to love these conversations. In fact, it’s probably an even more surreal experience if you don’t.
🎙️Bizarre Albums reviews the weirdest albums ever made in a positive way. Host Tony Thaxton isn’t making fun of them, he’s glorifying them for all their weirdness. The episode on The Shaggs tells a fascinating story about three teen sisters forced into the music industry by their father in 1969, despite the fact they had no musical experience, or even interest in music. The album is so bad it goes past bad and back to good (Kurt Cobain called The Shaggs one of his favorite bands.) You really have to listen to this episode, to hear the story and the music. Because listening to the music without hearing the context is pretty puzzling, and the story is even better than the album.
🎙️The loveable Alex Schmidt is a comedy writer and Jeopardy! champion, but you may know him as ex-host of Cracked, creator of the bison emoji, and creator of the podcast about creating the bison emoji, 1 Way to Make An Emoji. He’s one of those podcasters who just like sounds like a nice guy, and is a nice guy. Secretly Incredibly Fascinating is his new podcast about the “history, science, lore and surprises” about fascinating things. If you love Alex or trivia you’ll like it. Episode one was a joyous exploration of U.S. Post Offices, with funny guests Caitlin Gill and Andrew Ti. Episode two is about cattle (sounds boring, right?) and all I can say is that my husband and I were listening in separate rooms and more than once screamed “seriously?” and “oh my god!”
🎙️This episode of Richard’s Famous Food Podcast, American Michelada, sets to investigate the history and meaning of the Mexican beer cocktail. Host Richard Parks III is a master of audio playfulness, and the episode pops and sounds like how a Michelada tastes…light, bright, and a little spicy. And a little like a michelada, this episode is a treat. Every Richard’s Famous Food Podcast episodes is a break from the norm. Listening, you feel like you’re letting your brain go out for recess to play on the monkey bars. (But I truly did learn about the michelada in this episode.)
🎙️Bela and Martha Karolyi first became famous for shaping young Romanian gymnasts into the best in the world via brutal training tactics from behind the Iron Curtain, and they brought these tactics with them when they opened a gym in the United States. Once here, they succeeded in getting the US gymnastics team gold medals and making the young women a force to be reckoned with for Russia, China, and Romania. 30 for 30’s Heavy Medals tells the whole story, and explains at what cost. The series seems to be asking: if the Karolyis were really so cruel and abusive, why did so many athletes seem to perform so well under their tenure? But hearing interviews with Mary Lou Retton, Dominique Moceanu, Kerri Strug, Simone Biles, coaches, administrators and parents, it seems obvious. These girls paid for the US medals with their childhoods and their lives. Toward the end of the series we see Martha take over the team, and her wickedness cannot be exaggerated—it seems quieter but more sinister than Bela’s. Martha was the queen of silence—she didn’t want to know any setbacks her athletes were facing, she just wanted to win. Under her tutelage, in walks Larry Nasser, and we get to see how he became such a strong and problematic figure in US gymnastics. I don’t follow gymnastics, so many of these stories of the US team were new to me. I felt the excitement of hearing them unfold as if I was watching them live on TV.
🎙️Too often true crime shows are heavy on the dramatics and light on the journalism. The Bellingcat Podcast is heavy on both. Offering series of international stories, Bellingcat uses open-source journalism and social media to get deeper into stories than we are used to, especially on podcasts, fighting harder for the truth. Season 1 examines the downing of MH17 (what I’m listening to now.) I dare you to listen to the first two minutes of episode one and not continue on the journey. It paints a horrifying picture of the crash’s carnage so detailed it’s almost as beautiful as it is deadly. (Would you have imagined that the bodies found on the ground would be naked, because at the speed at which they were falling, their clothes were ripped from their bodies?) The story moves on to solve the mystery of MH17 using facts from open-source material. The reporting feels like nothing you’ll find anywhere else.
🎙️In a way that can only be done by Ross Sutherland, Imaginary Advice ran a twisty, beautiful piece, Ten Thousand Years, discussing the film Groundhog Day that seems particularly relevant for those of us living in quarantine. Part one asks: What power do we have over our lives when, like Bill Murray’s character Phil Connors, every day is the same? Would it make us more cynical or joyful? Could someone do this for three years? 10,000? How long was Phil Connors trapped, and what does that mean? For part two, Ross imagines that Phil Connors is in the time loop for 10,000 years, inviting four writers to dip in on him during different moments of this time to imagine what Phil Connors is experiencing.
🎙️Latino USA take us to one of the seven Mississippi plants that was raided in 2019 bye ICE, the largest immigration raid in U.S. history. (680 workers were arrested.) I think a lot of us have replaced this story in our brains with other horrific tragedies that have happened in the past year, but the story is not over for the families whose lives were destroyed. The moms and dads are trying to build themselves back up, the children are struggling in school. Everyone is demonstrating traits of PTSD. This episode puts people into a story we all heard about in the headlines, bringing to life how scary and traumatizing the raid was.
🎙️Criminals’s How to Sell a Haunted House starts with a ghost story, which is ALWAYS fun. But then it gets into something most spooky podcast episodes pass over…how do you sell a haunted house? One Victorian house in Nyack, New York stands as an example of “The Ghostbusters Ruling" which requires sellers must disclose physical AND emotional defects to a house, and this includes paranormal activity. It’s a story about ghosts and real estate, something I never though I’d find so interesting.
🎙️Endless Thread’s Ghost Town tells the story of a man named Brent Underwood who bought an abandoned silver mining town in Cerro Gordo, California for $1.4 million with a plan to revive the town for visitors while preserving its history. The property includes houses, an eight-bed bunkhouse, a church that also serves as a small theater, a general store, a museum, and reported ghost sightings. Brent is the only resident in the town for now, and he’s the perfect person for this project. He’s genuinely obsessed with the town’s history, and he doesn’t want to turn Cerro Gordo into a Disney World-like experience. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that, I say!) As he works to build the town up, getting water, electricity, and internet to Cerro Gordo, he’s demonstrating a real labor of love. Because of COVID (and a fire!) he’s had endless setbacks but hopes to make Cerro Gordo a place we can visit soon. Redditors are cheering Brent on. You can read his AMAs here and here.
🎙️I texted my husband the first episode of The Untold Story: Policing with the note: IT’S LAWRENCE! We both love Issa Rae’s Insecure, and this show is hosted by Jay Ellis, who plays Lawrence on the show. I’d listen to Jay talk about anything but the two episodes of The Untold Story I listened to were eye-opening and taught me new things, like how exactly police departments expunge cop records, and why. (It’s financial.) And I just listened to the six-episode series Behind The Police, which I thought had covered everything! The Untold Story is well-produced and fun. More personal than Behind The Police, which is more historical. It really feels like friends working through the history of policing in America through story. And it’s totally different than anything I’ve heard on the subject. Even if you think you know everything, give it a listen.
🎙️The United States of Anxiety is running episodes from their project Caught: The Lives of Juvenile Justice, which tells the stories of kids who made one dumb kid mistake that landed them into the criminal justice system, sometimes for life. The series zooms in on Z, a 16-year-old in a Queens detention center. Caught drives home the fact that mass incarceration starts young, and the moment kids get tangled up in it, the harder it is for them to get out. Interviews with Z, his mom, guards, counselors and judges flesh’s out Z’s story and character so that we get a full picture of who Z is—a smart, sweet kid with problems that the system is taking advantage of (instead of helping him fix) to keep him behind bars. It’s tragic but not an anomaly, and this episode exposes the gravity of locking a child up, and what it sets him up for the future.
🎙️Brought To You By… tells the surprising stories behind our biggest, household name brands. For this episode, they teamed up with the podcast Proof from America's Test Kitchen to present the story of Oreos in thee parts—Oreo’s rivalry with the Hydrox cookie (and why Oreo came out ahead,) a serious investigation into who really invented the cream filling and the truth about “Mr. Oreo.” Plus a beautiful audio essay about a little girl who risked divine punishment to taste one. This show does a great job making brand stories feel personal.
🎙️Science Diction is running episodes on food, and I loved the story about rocky road ice cream because it illustrates the power of words and sounds. The reason rocky road is the perfect name for it all comes down to linguistics and marketing. Back vowels (chocolate, moose, caramel, rocky road) are perfect for ice cream and desserts. Front vowels (crisps, Triscuts, Cheeze-Its) are better for crackers. Marketers take advantage of this. (And this might be one of the reasons people preferred Oreos over Hydrox.) We’re all being manipulated by branding, corporations, and ice cream names! What is reality? Is there free will? Is there a God? I’ll never think of Rocky Road or ice cream in the same way again.
🎙️Once Upon a Time…in the Valley has spent 5 episodes talking about the impact Traci Lords had on the porn industry and Traci’s history. By interviewing adult film stars, we’re able to see the power Traci held, what a fucking monster she was (literally,) and how she pushed the industry to new heights. It’s easy to forget that the thing that pushes this story over the edge is that Traci was 15 when she entered the porn industry, and was 18 when she filmed her last movie. The most recent episode is where this all sets in, and we understand that not only was Traci a force to be reckoned with, she was a child. Some people remember where they were when JFK was assassinated, one interviewee says. People in the adult film industry remember where they were when the found out Traci was underage. Apparently it wasn’t a secret known by everyone in the porn world. Traci had truly pulled off an incredible con. Traci was is a victim, but it’s impossible to ignore the power she had over the biggest names in porn, and the agency she had over her own story.
🎙️On Amicus, a two-part series interviews the other women in Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s graduating class at Harvard Law and shows us a world where working women weren’t just on an uphill battle, like they are now, but were fighting to exist in a space that barely recognized their existence. It’s hard believe this was recent enough for us even to be interviewing people who experienced it. We get insight into RBG and hear a bit about these other women’s paths. These women entered their law professions being asked “why are you at Harvard, taking the place of a man?” and live in the world today, often finding themselves in rooms made up of only women. Follow up with this interview with Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
🎙️The latest episode of My Gothic Dissertation (a literal podcast dissertation comparing the PhD program to gothic novels) once again tackles villains in gothic literature, but this time it’s not the PhD program that’s sinister, it’s the students. Host Anna Williams talks about the perils of teacher evaluations, and what teachers should do when students rebel against their leadership, comparing it all to Lucy Snowe in Charlotte Bronte’s Villette. This show is so fucking cool, please listen. This episode in particular gives us a new look at academia, blurring the lines of power, and turning the process of entering a PhD program into a horrifying adventure that can be dark as fiction.
🎙️I am listening to The Piketon Massacre, a show about the largest massacre in Ohio’s history. April 21, 2016 in rural Piketon, Ohio, eight members of the Rhoden family were viciously murdered execution style in their homes. And two years later their neighbors, the Wagners, were arrested and charged. I don’t listen to every true-crime show that I see, but this one is satisfying. Maybe because it isn’t too complicated, just a straight-forward and deadly, mysterious tragedy. (When there are too many details I loose a sense of the story and the people.) Maybe because I am an Ohio girl. It’s about a ruthless murder, and the chilling reality of what something like this can do to a tightly-knit community.
🎙️Pretend is a beautiful storytelling show about true-crime and cons, and it’s back for another series, How to Disappear. The first episode in the series focuses on the disappearance of Olivia Newton Jon’s boyfriend, Patrick McDermott, and digs deep into what it takes to fake your own death and why anyone would do it. Michael Bazzell, a privacy consultant and host of The Privacy, Security, & OSINT Show, joins Javier to explain what people do wrong when they’re trying to disappear, and goes behind-the-scenes of fake disappearances with jaw-dropping facts that felt like things we are not supposed to know.
🎙️The first episode of Truth Be Told addresses joy. Is there room for it in terrible times? It is selfish to be joyful when the world is burning? I love this show and I listened to this episode again. It has new meaning in a COVID world, and in the wake of George Floyd’s lynching. Tonya Mosley talks to her grandmother, who is bursting with wisdom (I LOVE it when older people are on podcasts, I wish it happened more often!) and Adrienne Maree Brown, a women's rights activist and black feminist who is an expert in self-love, and wants us not to feel guilty about it.
🎙️Back From Broken is a show about recovery that interviews people who have overcome addiction. This episode with Jake “The Snake” Roberts, one of the most famous pro wrestlers of the 1980s, is incredible because Jake is a great storyteller, and he has quite the story to tell. (He suffered unbelievable abuse from his family, particularly his father, the famous wrestler Grizzly Smith.) This is what addiction and recovery really looks like. If you’re in recovery, I think you’ll find this show valuable. But if you just love great storytelling, you’ll like it, too.
🎙️I love you!