🐶 Looty the puppy, Public Universal Friend, The Tuskegee Experiment, Newsies 🗞 Chelsea Devantez 📚
💌Podcast The Newsletter is your weekly love letter to podcasts and the people who make them.💌
Bonjour!
This week we’re getting to peek into the podcast app and listening life of Jenny Jenkins, a traveling veterinarian and friend from my childhood. (She was actually the cool, older sister of my best friend Patty, but luckily Jenny and I have become close, too.)
App I use: 90% Apple / 10% Spotify - no rhyme or reason, pure convenience and click bait.
Listening time per week: Around 10 hours
When I listen: I listen during my commute which can vary from 5 minutes to 40 minutes. I've noticed a twinge of excitement about a longer commute where I know I"ll be able to listen to a full show and really become absorbed. After listening to a recommendation from a friend last week, I arrived at work with puffy eyes, your classic morning commute cry to make the miles fly by. I confirmed, it had made my friend cry too.
I listen when running or biking, and would like to second Aude White, it can be done safely. There is that saying "if you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far, go together." I definitely go farther when listening. Some of these hosts have been in my ears for years, and their voice is as familiar as any friend.
I particularly like to listen when making coffee or cooking, cleaning, doing yard work or any type of project around the house. I often get antsy and rush to get something done, usually to the detriment of the task at hand. But when paired with a good listen, the time spent is enjoyable. I'm more likely to dwell in the kitchen or spend a little extra time to make my project better.
My most excited listening comes from a long road trip. I can rush trip prep, but always make time to download a full selection of listening to cover all driving hours. I may forget a few key clothing items, but never a full playlist.
Anything else? This American Life has been on the air for 25 years, wow. For me, like many of us, this was my way into the listening world. I feel Ira Glass should have one of these statues we are re-erecting. Well deserved in my book.
Another strong statue contender: Avery Truffelman of The Cut, Nice Try!, and Articles of Interest is one of my long time favorites. I'll listen to anything she puts together. I appreciate her storytelling style and sage, yet light hearted approach to a wide variety of topics. Articles of Interest was a miniseries Avery Truffelman created within the 99% Invisible podcast. Start with Suits. I think of it often, it sticks with you, as does a lot of her work.
xoxo lp
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👋q & a & q & a & q & a👋
Celebrity Book Club’s Chelsea Devantez
Chelsea Devantez is a TV writer, comedian, and filmmaker, and host the new podcast Celebrity Book Club, which recaps, celebrates, and deep dives into a different celebrity memoir with a special guest every week. Follow Chelsea on Twitter here, Instagram here.
What's your intention with the show?
My first intention is just to share all the incredible treasures inside these books -- each one offers something immense and entertaining. I also hope to share how powerful it is when a woman tells her own story. I don’t do biographies, I only cover memoirs; what I care about is how this woman got through her life and the meaning she’s taken from it. Since all the authors are celebrities, they are all powerful women in some way, and to become a powerful woman in our society you go through some crazy shit. Yet we learn about these women through the lens of our media, which is often some blogger being like “she’s an ugly slut, now!,” so learning about these women from their perspective is the side of the story we’ve been missing. These are complex women, and their stories are what I crave: they are competitive, they go through failures, make enemies, get fired, go through heartache, lean on great friends, fall in love again, and pick themselves back up and create art and push on -- it’s more fulling storytelling than most TV shows with a “strong female lead.”
How do you describe the show to people? How do you get them to understand that this isn't just a silly, fluffy show and that it's saying something huge about celebrities and our culture and people in general?
To me, these books are the greatest self-help books of all time. Making yourself better is so fucking tedious, but if you can read about how to deal with the shit in your life through Demi Moore losing herself in a relationship with Ashton, or Mariah Carey having to excommunicate her family, or how Mel B got out of an abusive relationship, it’s a lot more fun. But also, we’re not just reading about what it meant for Jessica Simpson to be eviscerated for her weight gain, because that shit happened to us, too! We all saw those magazines on the newsstands and learned the lesson that you lose all value in life if you gain weight. That thesis pervaded our entire lives, and now we’ve gotta go back in time and break that shit. Reading these books helps us all undo and understand that cultural damage, and also find some good laughs in it because it’s insane that we destroyed a woman’s life for wearing unflattering jeans.
What has making the show taught you about people, particularly celebrities and men?
They hate you if you’re hot, they hate you if you’re ugly; they hate you if you’re smart, but also if you’re dumb; they hate you if you try hard, and if you don’t try hard enough; they hate you if you’re too girly and they hate you if you’re too masculine. You’re hated no matter what you do -- so fuck ‘em all, just be kind, but stop being concerned with being liked by everyone, because for womxn, it’s impossible.
Have you learned anything about yourself making the show?
This will sound nuts from someone actively hosting a podcast, but I have a hard time opening up and talking about myself. I’ve been a working comedian and writer for the past decade, but everything I create is a polished product and not personally about me. So just riffing and being messy and vulnerable about personal things, has been something I struggle with. But sharing these memoirs with others have made me strong enough to feel like I can share about my life, too, and face my own demons. I mean, I cried at the end of episode 2 because I related to Demi Moore and all her dad shit, and it’s a goddamn comedy podcast!
Women in podcasting are constantly being criticized for their voices. What is your relationship with yours? How would you describe your voice?
People critique women’s voices because they literally aren’t used to hearing from us. If women had 50 percent of the voice in our media and culture for the last 100 years, higher voices or whatever would not sound off to people. More female voices out there are the only thing that will normalize it. I have not had any critiques on my voice, but only when we have full equality, will I be open to criticisms, because before that happens how am I to know what’s legit critique and what’s just someone’s internalized sexism! You hear that people -- I will not be taking any vocal notes until the patriarchy falls! (Okay, that said, I talk very very fast and am always working on slowing down.)
Should podcasters read their Apple Podcast reviews?
I hope so...because I do! The little community that’s built itself around the podcast has been really smart, cool people and I like reading their feedback. Though I do have a singular, one star review, and I love that one the most, because I know it’s my bitch ass nemesis and they are lurkin’!
What shows do you love?
My Brother’s Sneaker, Bitch Sesh, Scam Goddess, Reading Glasses, Hills I’d Die On, How Did This Get Made?, Ethnically Ambiguous, Code Switch, Add To Cart, and sigh...Brene Brown’s podcast.
🚨If u only have time for 1 thing🚨
99% Invisible has released a new series, According to Need, that is the best account of homelessness I’ve ever heard. Katie Mingle follows the life of a homeless Oakland woman named Tulicia to experience what it’s like to fight for assistance, sleep in your car, and try to make money stretch for meals. Tulicia is easy to fall in love with and you truly hurt for her, but I couldn’t stop thinking about how hard it must be to be Katie Mingle. To spend time with this woman and her son and at the end of the day say, “okay, goodnight, I’m going to my home, now.” I once talked to Lauren Sandler, the author of This is All I Got, which follows the life of Camila, a homeless new mother in New York City. She would spend the day with Camila, who had one newborn and nowhere to sleep and almost nothing to eat, and then have to part ways, returning to her home, that had an empty guest room. But journalists can’t interfere. I hope that as According to Need progresses, we get to hear not only what it’s like to be homeless, but what it’s like to be someone reporting on it.
💎BTW💎
🎙️Hark officially launches in early 2021, but you can download it now—ask me for the code! We’re on Twitter and IG, too—see you there? And in case you’re curious what a Harklist looks like, click here. (It looks even cooler on the app!)
🎙️The Bello Collective released their list of 100 outstanding podcasts of 2020, and it is the best end-of-year podcast list you will read. The shows highlighted are not generally the shows you will see on other lists. The curators are people who appreciate the space better than anyone else. I contributed to it (recommended Sounds Like Hate, California City, Endless Thread, My Year in Mensa, CrossBread, Maintenance Phase, and Those Happy Places,) but there are so many things on this list that are new to me, I consider this list a holiday gift that gives and gives.
🎙️Oh my god, Fil Corbitt’s The Wind is so rich I felt like I was in a pillow of sound. On The Wind, it’s the sound that carries you through the writing and story. Fil, a radio producer outside of Reno, NV, says the idea of the show was taken from the way they use the sound of wind to hear the topography of a place. For The Wind, this same technique is used to listen to “peaks and valleys” of the way people talk to learn about human speech and music. It’s another dimension of storytelling and about listening closely to the world. And as for The Wind, listen closely. Two episodes are out now, Frontier Music, and … god I’m listening to it right now and it’s so beautiful!…where was I? Frontier Music and They/Them, which was one of the best pieces on gender I’ve heard in a long time.
🎙️Tis the season of Christmas Past! And I’m enjoying all the episodes that are flying in. I am a basic bitch who will devour holiday content, no matter how low the quality is. But Christmas Past is great—it digs into the history of Christmas with experts, making all the stuff I love (the phrase “Merry Christmas,” snow globes, candy canes) interesting and relevant. I guarantee I will listen to every single episode Christmas Past releases for the rest of the year.
🎙️I was just thinking about Code Switch and how it’s been my teacher in so many things race related. I value it a lot, yet I feel I still undervalue it, somehow. It taught me about the explanatory comma, rep sweats, and the intricacies of code switching. I’m so happy that Apple Podcasts named them their first-ever show of the year. On the recent episode Words of Advice, Shereen and Gene look back at some of the advice they gave that stirred up conflict (an interesting listener question about a biracial couple and how they should handle money) and yet once again they taught me something new about racial melancholia and dissociation.
🎙️When I saw The Alarmist did an episode on The Tuskegee Experiment, I thought, “oof, how can a comedy podcast cover something so tragic?” But in true Alarmist form, it was an informative, critical, and funny episode. (Also jesus…is it any wonder Black Americans don’t trust the Covid vaccine? ) The Alarmist did the same thingg with The Trail of Tears, too…cover a topic with both seriousness and absolute sillyness. You don’t just get a history lesson with Alarmist episodes. Trying to find out who’s to blame for historical moments frames the story in a whole new way. Why did this happen? If I was a history teacher, I would use the Alarmist in my curriculum. In fact, I almost want to become a history teacher just so I can use The Alarmist in my curriculum.
🎙️Each episode of Stuff The British Stole is the story of an artifact, tracing its life from where it was born to how it ended up in a British museum. It’s such an interesting entry point into history, and also “politics, genocide, heroism, survival, and justice.” (I stole that from the website.) Start with the first episode, A Tiger and a Scream, which is about Titu’s Tiger, a mechanical toy that was created for Tipu Sultan, an Indian ruler in the eighteenth century. The toy includes a crank, and when activated, the tiger comes to live and you see him eating a member of the East India Company (enemy to Tipu) alive. The latest episode tells the wild tale of British and French troops that looted a Beijing palace in 1860, stole some Pekingese puppies from the emperor, and gifted one of them to Queen Victoria, who named the puppy 'Looty.’
🎙️Double Elvis has launched a new show called About a Girl that uses narrative fiction to imagine what it would like to be the women behind iconic male musicians. The first episode about Angie Bowie, was good, but the second one about Pamela Courson and Jim Morrison was great. I’m not sure if this makes any sense but I felt like I was watching a play with VR glasses on, seeing a story I was familiar with, with an added layer on top—the story of the woman who was in the background (with an arguably more interesting story.) I think this podcast is going to be greater than the sum of its parts. Taking each story in one by one is one thing, but listening to a pattern of the “women behind then men” sacrificing their own selves to push their partner to the spotlight traces a complex history that often erases women from the best parts.
🎙️If I was a podcast network, I would hope that I would be Earios. It’s a network of funny, smart women, creating totally creative shows. (I write about The Alarmist nearly every week?) Their show The Big Ones is back for a new season, with an ethical dilemma taken from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Would you steal an Everlasting Gobstopper to bring your family out of poverty?
🎙️As part of their Hunker Down series, Radio Diaries, ran a story, Love at First Quarantine, about Gali Beeri and Joshua Boliver, a couple who decided to quarantine in New York City together after their first date. This could have been the absolute worst idea, but it seems to have been the absolute best idea. (I mean, pressure’s on, you guys. You announced your against-all-odds romance on a podcast and there is no turning back!!!) I have often felt like my husband and I living in a small apartment during a pandemic is akin to living on a desert island. I guess this is kind of like the movie Six Days, Seven Nights. Gali and Boliver feel like the are unsure what will happen to their relationship the moment they step outside together, a regular couple in a regular world. This reminds me of Beetlejuice. You know?
🎙️In May, a maternity ward in Kabul run by Doctors Without Borders was the target of a militant attack that killed 24 people, and while we don’t know who was behind it, we know their intention was to kill the mothers. VICE News takes us to Kabul to meet a midwife who survived the attack and shares her account in petrifying detail. The hospital has shelters inside, built to protect people from these attacks (that’s how used to the attacks these people are.) The midwife describes being told to keep the shelter door shut, but hearing her colleagues screaming on the other side. Trying to keep a mother alive and quiet as she gives birth inside the shelter so as to not draw attention from the attackers. Shortly after the attack, Trump announced his plan to accelerate U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. These people shot mothers dead with their newborns in their arms.
🎙️I am usually so busy listening to new podcast episodes that I don’t often get to revisit old favorites. But I was listening to Throughline’s A Pack of Wolves (it’s really good, about what sparked and sustains the white power movement in America) when I thought of the episode that made me fall in love with Throughline in the first place, Public Universal Friend, the **fascinating** story of a woman born in the 1700s who claimed to have died and come back to life as a genderless prophet, the Public Universal Friend. PUF started an incredibly progressive movement that stressed free will and opposed slavery, but unfortunately, because they supported sexual abstinence, it eventually died out. But not before paving the way for others who wanted to reject societal/gender/religious norms.
🎙️AND SO WEIRD that this morning Chelsey Weber-Smith dropped an episode about charismatic leaders, where PUF makes an appearance. This is a great episode with sooooo many interesting people with crazy ideas. (And Chelsey gets personal at the end.)
🎙️Usually episodes of You’re Wrong About make me feel frustrated—frustrated over how someone has been unfairly portrayed in media, crucial things history has left out, how society devalues our most vulnerable people. (Thank god Sarah and Michael are so funny.) But the two-part series on The Newsboys' Strike of 1899 was a little lighter, using the Disney film to frame the histories of media and news and labor organizing, what the film got right and wrong, and how on earth a movie about all this stuff got packaged into a film for children starring Christian Bale. This week Feminism Ruins Everything ran a great episode covering Newsies (mostly the musical)…covering the female characters and the film’s surprising progressiveness in great detail. It was full of REALLY smart takes, I recommend Newsies fans listen.
🎙️If you feel like listening to something absolutely gruesome and disturbing, I can’t think of a better place to point you to than Crimes of the Centuries’ episode on Bob Berdella. It opens in 1988, when a young man was seen jumping from a second-story window of Berdella's house wearing nothing but a dog collar. This is the tip of one huge-ass, fucked-up ice berg. I felt like the host, Amber Hunt, was protecting us from some of the ghastly information. But I still might have nightmares tonight.
🎙️George Floyd’s murder set off worldwide protests against police brutality, but as this passion died down in most areas, in Portland, it grew stronger. Between recording for his two shows Behind the Bastards and Worst Year Ever, Robert Evans was on the frontline of the protests, getting tear-gassed, witnessing violence, and running through the streets with other protesters, who quickly became his new friends. He’s documenting Portland, this epicenter, in the podcast called Uprising: A Guide from Portland. Right off the bat he explains WHY PORTLAND of all places, and brings in a lot of voices from people who were out there with him protesting. I think that Robert’s Portland perspective is valuable—he really understands the white supremacist movement, and reporting from Portland gives him home-field advantage. This podcast is a living document about what’s happening in Portland and America. Throw it in the time capsule!!!
🎙️The criminal in Criminal’s The Night of the Party, was…wait for it…our justice system!!! Nathan Myers and his uncle Clifford Williams were sentenced to life in prison and a death sentence (respectively) for a murder that was committed when they were at a party in a house full of alibi in 1976. As if that wasn’t enough, there was no physical evidence that Nathan and Clifford were at the scene of the crime and someone else confessed. But through a series of unfortunate events (e.g. their lawyers didn’t bring any of the party-goers to the stand.) That part of the story is fucked up and unbelievable. What follows, though, both equally feels damn good and is also achingly sad: Nathan tells the story about how, after almost 40 years in jail, he contacted Florida’s newly implemented Conviction Integrity Unit, which reviews past convictions where there are credible claims of actual innocence or wrongful conviction, to review his case. He and his his uncle were released after 43 years in jail. Nathan was 60 and Clifford was 76.
🎙️A year ago, Kai Right had a wonderful 3-part series on how climate gentrification is impacting Miami, on The Stakes. This week Outside / In released an episode that talked about pandemic gentrification? People fled New York City for upstate and New Hampshire, home to Outside / In. These types of gentrifications have huge implications for communities. People are displaced, communities are shook up, and culture is lost. This episode starts with the question: where is the best place to live, to be safe from climate change? (The answer is a town in Alaska, if you’re thinking of moving.) But it opens up to a larger discussion about how where we decide to live impacts the world and people in general. Especially now that most people are working remotely now.
🎙️I love you!