šMy new favorite podcast, the best podcast of all time šµ Make My Day's Josh Gondelmanāļø
šPodcast The Newsletter is your weekly love letter to podcasts and the people who make them.š
Bonjour!
Iād like to tell you about my new favorite podcast, the BEST podcast of all time. I am the only one who ever listens to it, and I was listening to it walking around the other day and I thought, āwhat a shame that others do not know of this podcast!ā
The show is hosted by an 80-year-old woman named Joyce. Joyce is a little freaked out about āThe Virusā but is more concerned that Pennsylvania has closed all of the liquor stores, and is instead frequenting what I imagine are really just speakeasies in her small Western Pennsylvania town, where bars are technically serving people, illegally, in paper bags. Topics include:
Her sister is driving her crazy. More crazy than The Virus!
She does have mass, she can go pray in the church. She lit a candle for you today. Oh, you said masks? No, she doesnāt have one of those.
She had to cross state lines to buy Uncle Sonny two bottles of Black Velvet, but he only gave her money for one. (Question that remains unanswered: does Joyce get to keep the extra bottle of whiskey?)
How does she log into Facebook now, because sheās been kicked out, and is getting some weird error message that youāve never heard of before. Is someone trying to steal her money? How does she turn off her iPad?
Reading the obituary section of her paper.
Constantly asking you about how many people have died in your city but not taking a breath to hear your answer.
What are you having for dinner? That is not enough.
It is what it is, what can you do?
She loves you.
Oh wait, this isnāt a podcast. Itās a telephone conversation with my Grandma Joyce. The lesson I gain from this podcast is resilience. My grandmother is a resilient single woman who has busted her ass in a tough, male-dominated world, making little money and taking care of herself through many hardships for 80 (eighty) years. She has been training for a pandemic her entire life, itās been one struggle after the other for her. Talking to her on the phone sometimes sounds like Iām listening to a podcast. A very entertaining, surprisingly inspiring podcast. Best host ever. Wish you could hear it.
xoxo lp
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Make My Dayās Josh Gondelman
Josh Gondelman is the host of Make My Day. Follow him on Twitter here.
Kindly introduce yourself and tell us about the show! Convince us to subscribe right now!
I'm Josh Gondelman, a writer (Last Week Tonight With John Oliver,Ā Desus & Mero) and comedian. My new podcast is calledĀ Make My Day. It's a game show where contestants compete to cheer me up! Originally it was going to be a panel show recorded in a studio, while we're social distancing, it's a one-on-one game show where the contestantĀ is guaranteed to win!Ā
Maris (your wife) is a podcaster (I love her show.) Did she give you tips?Ā
I haven't asked yet! Her show (The Maris Review) is so good that I wanted to get a little rhythm before I asked her expert advice!
If you could get any guest, who would it be? Maybe they read Podcast The Newsletter!
There are so many comedy people I can't wait to have on the show, but I think as a dream guest, maybe...Method Man. Is that ridiculous? His work was so formative for me, and I would love to see what's making him feel good and hopeful. So...Method Man. Or Mel Brooks!! Just putting that out into the world!
Why are you the perfect host for this show? (I say that because you are!)
The host is kind of built around my strengths which are self-aware optimism, and an excitement to talk to other people about their enthusiasms. I want the show to feel really breezy, but not ignorant of the state of the world. I want it to consciously be upbeat inĀ spiteĀ of that, but still sharp and funny, is the goal.
Fill in the blank: If you like ______ you will like Make My Day.
āMeeting your very nice friendās much cooler friends.ā
How would you describe your voice? What is your relationship to your voice?
Iāve never thought about how to describe it, but I think I would call my voice āalmost gentle.ā When I was younger I didnāt like it, but from performing so much I have made an uneasy peace with it. Itās not that I think that. have a beautiful voice, but itās mine, and itās specific, and I have figured out how to use it.
What was the last podcast episode you listened to, and would you recommend it?
I've been listening to a lot of Doughboys and Good One (Jesse David Fox's podcast about jokes) lately! I look forward to new episodes every week! Also, Rebecca Carroll's new podcast Come Through, which is really thoughtful and fascinating and sincere!Ā Also My Brother's Sneaker,Ā Yassir and Isaiah Lester's show!
šBTWš
šļøJosh mentioned loving Good One above, and I love it, too. The last episode was an interview with Chelsea Perettiānot about a specific joke, but about Chelseaās comedy concept album all about coffee, Floam and Flotsam. (Itās hilarious.) Hearing about what the album has in common with a standup special was so interesting. Chelsea is paving her own way by doing what makes her happy, and it shows, listening to her talk about it. I donāt mean to sound hyperbolic but hearing her talk about deciding to make an album, when she is not a musician, sort of changed my life. She committed to this project and created something she is so proud of. (She says that she can die happily now.) It made me want to start my own wild project just to see if I could do it.
šļøThanks to The Bello Collective, I discovered Preachā¦ā¦.just in time to hear the last episode. Itās over. Which means I have a lot to catch up on! On Preach, Lee Hale, who grew up in a devout Mormon household, sits down with people from different religious backgrounds to hear about their doubts and beliefs, what their beliefs are, and how spirituality plays into their lives. The first episode interview with Rainn Wilson is about Rainn growing up, leaving, and returning to Bahaāi. Episode two is with the host of Snap Judgmentās Glynn Washington! (He grew up in an apocalyptic cult!) And oh my goodness, the two-part series on Veggie Tales is worth a listen if youāre interested in Christian pop-culture or entrepreneurship. Iām working my way through one by one but slowlyā¦I am already terrified about finishing them.
šļøThis Day in Esoteric Political History (hosted by Jody Avirgan and political historian Nicole Hemmer) reminds me of another show I love, Throughline, which grapples with our present by examining the past. (And come to think of it, another show that Nicole co-hosts, Past Present.) But This Day in Esoteric looks at our present through tiny moments on their anniversaries, in only ten minutes. Every topic so far (Letter From a Birmingham Jail, the Lincoln assassination) has been one that made me think, āoh! I have always wanted to know more than the BARE FUCKING MINIMUM about this subject! Nowās the time!ā
šļøI never expected to find an interview with the social media manager for Steak Umm brand frozen meat slices on a podcast calledĀ COVID Sucks People Donāt (which is about āpeople working very hard to fight COVIDā and hosted by HANK GREEN, THE HANK GREEN) but this is the world we are living in. (See: Nathan Is A Frozen Meat.) Nateās viral Twitter soliloquy about people spreading COVID misinformation made Steak Umm famous (for some reason? for sounding woke?) and he talked to Hank about his philosophy for tweeting for a brand. I didnāt want to love this conversation, BUT I DID. Iām not sure Nate should really be lauded for making the world a better place. (Do you know what Steak Umms are? āchopped and formed emulsified meat product that is comprised of beef trimmings left over after an animal is slaughtered and all of the primary cuts, such as tenderloin, filet, and rib eye, are removedā¦The emulsified meat is pressed into a loaf and sliced, frozen and packaged.ā) But this is an interesting conversation if youāre interested in brands and marketing.
šļøJoshās Make My Day launched, and as I mentioned in the interview above, it is just what we need right now. I donāt know Josh personally, but I am a fan of his writing and comedy, and I know he is one of those people who brings out the best in everyone, who makes terrible situations feel less awful. This is what his work does for people. The gameshow/news format of Make My Day is fresh and fun, and listening to the first episode with Akilah Hughes was a bright spot in my day.
šļøI think the description for The Daily Beastās The New Abnormal sums it up wellā āblunt truth and dark humor for a world in chaos.ā There are so many COVID shows but this one is sharp and funny, feels wildly homemade, which adds to its charm. Hosts Rick Wilson and Molly Jong-Fast (Daily Beastās Editors-At-Large) come from things from different perspectives but have fun chemistry and donāt take themselves too seriously. Love the segment at the end āFuck That Guy,ā which highlights the fuck-head of the week (can also be a group of people, or someone who does not identify as male.)
šļøBarry Sonnenfeld was on WTF with Marc Maron, and it felt like a conversation between friends. Barryās book, Call Your Mother, is humorous and thoughtful, and dives into Barryās film career and strange childhood. I have been working with Barry (heās a Tink client) and I have known heās a talented filmmaker and very funny, but Iām always surprised, reading his writing and listening to him talk, how much I can take away from him. He has a dark humor that resonates with Marc, and the two talk about fate, writing, film, and crazy moms. I kept going back and forth between laughing and saying to myself, āoh my god, thatās brilliant. Write that down, Lauren.ā
šļøI listened to Dani Shapiroās conversation with SinĆ©ad Burke on As Me three times. As Me is wonderfulāSinĆ©ad is unable to gently dig into guests about what it is like to live in their bodies. Daniās story (she found out, as an adult, that the man she believed to be her father was not) created an interesting twist on how people usually answer the question āwhatās it like to live in your body?ā Dani also had wonderful advice for writers and people trying to maintain sanity during a pandemic. (She has a yoga and meditation practice.) She has found that the things that we are most ashamed to talk about are the things that resonate with others the most. Her outlook on work is inspiringāshe admits she experiences imposter syndrome but dives in, anyway. This interview moved me.
šļøItās 1963 when Tara Hollis moves into her ancestral home,Ā Light House, with her family. And Light House is haunted. Light House is a fiction show that tells my favorite kind of classic ghost storyānothing complicated, itās not hard to follow. Just SPOOKY. Just GHOSTS. Listening to it makes me feel like itās Halloween and Iām 8 and about to go trick-or-treating with my friends in my childhood neighborhood. Only one episode has been released and I am PSYCHED to hear more.
šļøI was absolutely devastated to hear that the last episode of The Waves was THE LAST EPISODE OF THE WAVES. Ever. There is not a single show I have been listening to longer, without missing a single one. I was trying to think of my favorite episode to tell you to try, if you havenāt already, but I donāt know. All of them. This show had become part of my life. (You can read my interviews with hosts June Thomas and Christina Cauterucci.) This is a result of advertisers pulling from Slate shows. Nowās a time when I need The Waves more than ever. I imagine I will go back and listen to old episodes, maybe Iāll start from the very beginning, when the show was called Double X. I find such comfort with the hosts, who now feel like friends. And I miss them already.
šļøUnFictionalās The Rowing Man is such a beautiful piece. It tells the story of Ove Joensen, who in 1984 rowed across the North Atlantic Ocean from the Faroe Islands to Copenhagen in a ship he built himself, with a cat. On his first attempt he failed and had to be rescued by villagers of the remote Shetland Islands. This episode is about the relationship that blossomed between Ove and the people of the Shetland Islands. The combination of the music, sound, and voices of the actual villagers 30 years later (speaking in their native tongue) makes this an episode that really thrusts you in another place and time.
šļøI LOVE Remember Reading?, a show from Harper Collins that is a triumphant ode to the best books from our childhoods. If they have an episode about a book you loved when you were young, listen to it. You will love that book even more. But if thereās an episode about a book you specifically did not love when you were young (I have always been a Secret Garden hater!) LISTEN ANYWAY. This sweet Secret Garden conversation with Bridge to Terabithiaās Katherine Paterson and Sara Pennypacker (Pax and Here in the Real World,) about secret places and quiet, slow language providing comfort to shy kids made me want to pick up The Secret Garden and give it another try. Come to think of it, I donāt think Iāve ever *read* The Secret Garden. I think Iāve just seen the 1993 film, which traumatized me, because I saw it at a birthday party that ended badly. Donāt get me started. As if this episode wasnāt convincing enough, minutes after I finished listening to this episode I saw this IG post from my friend Whitney, a photo of a page from The Secret Garden, that includes āA raging plague, screaming, children drinking entire glasses of wine, the insolent are abandoned.ā I think the universe is telling me to read The Secret Garden.
šļøWhere was I? Oh yeah, PODCASTS. On Sugar Calling, Cheryl Strayed interviews hugely impactful authors over the age of 60, (listen to this amazing interview with George Saunders) and I loved her Amy Tan interview. In quarantine, Amy talks about her pastāher grandmother committed suicide after being forced into concubinage, and her mother used to threaten to commit suicide to join her. Amy seems to have a different approach to disaster because of this. (aka resilience.) For years she has lived with her husband in a home built to accommodate them as they age and die.
šļøI have listened to a few shows that generally address why people of color are impacted by COVID more drastically than white people. But on The United States of Anxietyās Why Covid-19 Is Killing Black People, Kai Wright asks Arline Geronimus, a public health researcher, about what relentless racism does to black peopleās bodies on a cellular level. I loved hearing Arline talk about āweathering,ā which can mean to endure something, and can also be used to described something that is worn down, and how it pertains to people of color living in a racist society.
šļøI donāt always listen to The Daily, but when I do, I make sure it is the darkest episode ever. The episode The Next Year (Or Two) Of The Pandemic paints a picture of our future that didnāt really depress me, but it was one I hadnāt thought of before. Donald G. McNeil Jr., a science and health reporter for The New York Times, explains The Hammer And The Dance. The Hammer is the disease, which will come down on The Dance, which is people slowly going back out onto the dance floor (aka into society.) So, McNeil says, we wonāt just slowly ease back to normalcy, we will return a little, then The Hammer will slam down on us, and weāll retreat into our quarantine a little. Then we ease back to normalcy a little more, thenā¦THE HAMMER! My friend told me she was unable to listen to the whole thing, but for some reason I wasnāt too freaked out. This makes total sense.
šļøThen thereās an episode of The Daily, a poem, I Forgive You New York, that brought tears to my eyes. New Yorkers rush through their days, taking for granted the beautiful things about their city, complaining about rats and crowded subways, Times Square and dodging piles of barf on an early Sunday morning walk. (I have always said that I love New York for the things everyone complains aboutāI love the dirt, the grit, and the chaos. I am not a fair-weather New Yorker.) But now we are without the good and the bad, and author Roger Cohen addresses all these things and says, āI forgive you, New York. Just please, come back.ā Itās a beautiful ode to this amazing place.
šļøI donāt LOVE sports and know practically nothing about them, but Iām always interested in them culturally. (Or when something juicy happens, which is why I love Crookedās Hall of Shame, a comedy show about sensationalistic scandals about cheating, gambling and sex, in sports, and the humanity behind the headlines.) I think I love sports more than ever now that they are not happening, because the pandemic is forcing us to ask: what does the world look like without them? What do sports do for humans, and how will we be different now that we canāt watch them in person or even on TV? Mouthpeace (a show hosted by NFL defensive lineman for the Dallas Cowboys Michael Bennett and his wife Pele) had a great episode answering that question: what will this huge gap in the culture impact us?
šļøThere was also a great episode of Telescope that talks to Mina Kimes about the future of sports. Mina points out a lot of huge issues that non-sports fans (like me) probably havenāt thought about (for instance: even if sports can be played without fans in the standsā¦how will that lack of energy impact the game?) and how sports will never be the same.
šļøFinally re: sports, on an episode of Six Feet Apart, Alex Wagner interviewed professional athletes about how theyāre coping when their professions (and obsessions) have been put on hold. Anyone who has trained for an athletic event knows that when you acutely train for something, youāre mentally preparing yourself so specifically, down to the minute. How do you train when you have no idea when youāll be able to preform? Or if you donāt have the equipment (Alex talks to a WNBA player who doesnāt have access to a basketball hoop) or even the ability to work with teammates?
šļøThe biggest compliment I can give a podcast is that listening to it makes me feel that Iām in Disney WorldāI mean it makes me feel like Iām in a magical, curious place, learning about the world or myself. Ologies is one of those shows. Host Alie Ward interviews ologists about science, and itās her hosting abilities that makes this show so magnetic. Sheās so warm and likeable, you want to be her friend. And her writing is lyricalāshe has a special way of putting words together about anything. If you jumped into the middle of an episode of Ologies, you would immediately know what you were listening to, because there is nothing that sounds quite like it. I often feel nostalgic listeningāa lot of the subjects Alie talks about (dinosaurs, ancient Egypt, aliens) are things I was fascinated with as a child. (Who amongst us did not go through a penguin phase as a kid?) Iāll stop gushing in a sec, but another thing I love is that Alie interviews people she is interested in, not celebrities. We are talking to people passionate and knowledgable about their subjects. Theyāre not making podcast rounds. Each of these episodes is extremely special. FINALLY, Alie donates money to a charity of the guestās choice for every episode. My favorite episodes are this one about the future with Flash Forwardās Rose Eveleth, and this one about pumpkins with the charming Anne Copeland.
šļøThe new season of Dissect is covering BeyoncĆ©ās Lemonade. I am SO GRATEFUL for this. Iāve always sensed that Lemonade was too brilliant for me to possibly appreciate, and listening to the first episode (Pray You Catch Me,) Iām finding that thatās true. Because Lemonade demands being examined from all directions, thereās also a visual guide that accompanies each episode.
šļøEpisode two of Rabbit Hole dropped. Kevin has Caleb download all of the YouTube videos he watched in a year to track his entry into the rabbit hole. The exercise gives us a clear picture of how YouTube messaging can subtly mess with our brains, leading to extreme changes in belief. Set with a thoughtful conversation between Kevin and Caleb, itās clear how easy this drastic spiraling can happen, and that maybe it could happen to US. Part three, the final part, drops next week. Listen to part one if you havenāt.
šļøWhen I first saw this episode of Planet Money, Making It Work, stories about businesses that are able to thrive in the pandemic, I thought it would be a grumpy story about people capitalizing on this unfortunate situation. But itās the opposite of thatāitās about small businesses who could have gone under just like so many others, but found a way to pivot and provide their services with a twist. (Think: a goat farm bringing goats into Zoom calls, or a man who owns a strap company.) There is even a piece on trampolines, which have seen incredible growth during our national quarantine. The trampoline seems like the perfect metaphor for what we are all doing in our homes right now. Itās a singular thing kids (and adults) do to release energy, and you donāt need to go anywhere to enjoy it. Iām picturing people all over the country bouncing their way through the pandemic, itās kind of a representation of this time. And yes, I see us bouncing back up.
šļøI love you!