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Bonjour.
Today is Monday, July 15. I want to live in this series, this and this were made for me and me only, a comedian I adore has a new show here, and if you have time for one thing make it this.
xoxo lp
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Annanda Barclay and Keisha McKenzie
Annanda Barclay is an end of life planner, chaplain, and moral injury researcher in the Bay Area, California. Keisha McKenzie is a technical communicator and narrative strategist based in Maryland.
They are co-hosts of Moral Repair: A Black Exploration of Tech, a series about the innovations that make our world, disrupt our societies, and how we can repair the damage.
Fill in the blank: You will like Moral Repair if you like _______.
Cookouts, Kikiās, Spilling the Tech Tea, Technology, Philosophy & Spirituality, Black Thought, Hip hop, Gil Scott Heron
You are two-timed Ambies nominated, congratulations!! What a testimony to your amazing work. How did this recognition inform and motivate you?
Annanda: It was an invitation to continue to pursue the community education and empowerment project that is this podcast. Iām motivated by imagining new tangible futures with all people and technology, particularly from underrepresented perspectives and people.
How do your different personal and professional backgrounds complement each other?
Keisha: I was raised in the humanities so I think about tech through the lens of people and the stories we tell each otherāfilm, especially. I learned to understand myself through the stories of others and I think I bring that sensibility to the show and to the stories guests tell us.
Annanda: As a clinically trained chaplain, my research and focus is on moral injury and repair in STEM students and professionals. As an End of Life Planner, my work centers on what it means for my clients to have a meaningful life all the way to the end, including how to care for loved ones after death. Both grapple with questions of moral distress, injury, and repair. I simply adore being in the outdoors and caring for the planet and others, this show is an offering of care.Ā
Okay so you know a lot about tech, something that is keeping a lot of peopleā¦.especially creative peopleā¦up at night. What keeps YOU up at night?
Annanda: Unregulated AI, end stage capitalism, and the amount of unhappiness in the world. Happiness, joy, is free, and can be as simple as smiling at a bird in the sky, or recalling a fond memory.Ā
If you could make another podcast, donāt worry about the logistics or whether or not anyone will like it, what would it be? Your budget is $1M.
Annanda: This one. Lifeās too short to not do what I want to do.
Moral Repair explores the intersection of technology and spirituality with a focus on showcasing practical wisdom from the African continent and diaspora. What is the motivation behind highlighting these connections?
Annanda: The motivation behind this is to shift the geography of reason from mainstream representation of wisdom and knowledge as it relates to technology. Too few voices from the African continent and diaspora are taken just as seriously as dominant tech voices, which have little to no representation of Black people. It makes no sense that a narrow representation of the human population can speak to the benefits or perils of technology for all people. We assume their words, guidance, and understanding is practically law. Why? They live such different lives from most people on the planet who come from such different cultures and life experiences.Ā
What is one thing you learned from the first season and wanted to apply to the second season?
Annanda: 35 to 30 minute episodes are gold. Being able to connect our audience with a rich story is worth the hours upon hours on the backend for the 35 minutes for our listeners.
Whatās a podcast you love that everyone already knows about?
Annanda: The Read. I rarely follow gossip and pop culture so it catches me up on everything while keeping me laughing, shocked, and just normalizing a full range of human emotions.Ā
Keisha: I still listen to Ramit Sethiās I Will Teach You To Be Rich. Itās so interesting to hear how other families use money to make the lives they want.
Whatās a podcast you love that not enough people know about?
Keisha: I donāt know if enough people know about the Translash Podcast from Imara Jones? Sheās an incredible journalist, storyteller, and advocate for trans people. Get into it!Ā Ā
Annanda: All My Relations. Itās a podcast about American Indian/Native American culture, celebration, and wisdom. Artist, show creator and host Matika Wilbur is laughing constantly and it brings me great joy to listen and laugh alongside her while I shut up and learn.Ā
What brings you joy?
Annanda: Nature. The smiles on the faces of those I love and care about. Serving others. Learning. Receiving in a non-transactional way. Good food. Silence. Amazing live music. Honey Bees. Being aliveā¦ most days.Ā
What do you do to take care of yourself?
Annanda: Sleep. Work outside in my backyard. Beekeep. Camp. Backpack. Hang with dear ones. Iām learning the power of a good affordable spa.Ā
What do you wish someone told you about podcasting before you did it?
Annanda: How much time it actually takes to execute well.Ā
Are there too many podcasts?
Keisha: No! But not everyone has the resources or community they might need to last in the industry. It takes a lot of work and deep support to make quality audio, and Iām so grateful for our production team and the folks at PRX for getting us started.Ā Ā
Annanda: There arenāt too many podcasts. The market is so saturated when it comes to finding a podcast of interest, or stand out as a podcast. I would love to be surprised to enjoy a podcast that I might not usually listen too, I think experience is a lost gem. Thereās just so many choices and itās hard to tell which podcast is worthy of my time and attention.Ā
What should I have asked you but didnāt?
Annanda: The red or the blue pill and why?
šØIf u only have time for 1 thingšØ
I finally finished Slow Burnās ninth season on the Briggs Initiative, hosted by Christina Cauterucci. Do you remember being young and not quite understanding certain details in history and being amazed that your parents did? Itās obviously because they lived through it. Slow Burn does this thing that makes you feel like you lived through historical events even if you didnāt. It always does this, this season was no exception. Christina sets this tight scene of San Francisco in the 70s, introducing us to characters in queer historyāsome you know, some you donāt. Itās everything to understand the climate that allowed this to happen and all the hard work that went into stopping it, which now seems almost impossible. Or that Briggs didnāt passed based on a fluke, a technicality. A very close call. And the likelihood and real fear that it will all happen again. Every episode is a fascinating subplot that will make you feel like you were just there, in the 70s, with Harvey Milk, Richard Pryor, and Tom Ammiano, a former California legislator who later became famous for telling Arnold Schwarzenegger to ākiss my gay ass.ā There is an anecdote about anti Briggs advocate David MixnerĀ having to meet Reagan advisors in a Dennyās who showed up wearing sunglasses and raincoats that made me laugh out loud. David died last March, right after recording his interview, which we are lucky to have had him for. David lost so many of his friends to AIDS years ago. This series is precious and could not be a more important listen.
hell yeah
āØThank you for your Interest is an upcoming podcast where every day people can share their most heartbreaking,Ā hilarious, or hellish job rejection stories ā turning their most memorable 'thanks, but no thanks' moments into places for connection and humor. A heartfelt reminder that rejection happens to the best of us. Theyāre looking for guests. Submit your story here.
āØRead our first issue of our Launch Series in Podcast Marketing Magic. There will be 3 more editions!
āØThe 3rd Annual BPA Summer Social For Podcast & Content Creators is Sunday, July 28 at 4 - 9pm at AUX Karaoke Box in Brooklyn. Please come, Iāll be there! Corey created a 20% off promo code for you: TINK2024. Or just go here for an immediate discount, or to learn more.
āØArielle Nissenblatt spotlighted Reckon True Stories in herĀ newsletter and podcast.
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šļøOn Dissect, Cole Cuchna and Charles Holmes are doing another round of Last Song Standing, where they go through an artistsā entire catalogue album by album to determine the best song of the bunch. Season one was Kendrick (Iām not telling you which song won) and season two is tacking OutKast. I canāt remember the last time I was so excited for a new season of something. What makes the perfect OutKast song perfect, and do we need to choose the song thatās technically perfect or the song thatās a perfect pop song? Cole and Charles quiz each other about the album which was a nice warm up to the really interesting stuffāgoing through the songs (which bring us back to the early 2000sāAM IN IN MY 1988 VOLKSWAGEN CABRIOLET DRIVING TO HIGH SCHOOL?,) discuss Big Boi tracks vs AndrĆ© 3000 tracks, what makes this sound urgent, fierce and adventurous and at the time felt like something our ears had never experienced before. The bridal chorus is on the hook of Ms. Jackson? I want to live in this series. Listen here.
šļøI have been a fan of Sofie Hagenās comedy for a long time. I discovered her on The Guilty Feminist and enjoyed her show Bad People. I am a new fan of the co-host on her new show, Help Hole, Abby Wambaugh, whoā¦I learned via Sofie was unavailable for interview because she was in The Iron Age. On Help Hole, they read self-help books and pass on the wisdom they absorb. Sofie and Abby love self-help books. (In fact, in one of the episodes they quote someone who says something like, āwhatās wrong with wanting to help yourself?ā) These episodes are earnest reviews of the books, and Sofie and Abby urge you to go out and buy them. They are open about how these books have changed the way they operate. They are insanely entertaining and perfect together. You will like this show if you like funny, smart women, and you will like this show if you like self-help, because they are truly flinging life hacks around like I did as the flower girl at my auntās wedding in 1987. Listen here.
šļøWhat happens to your belief system when youāre a life-long conservative but your kids survive a school shooting? Where do you stand? What would it take for you to change your mind? Supermajority is Embeddedās four-part piece that follows three Tennessee moms bonded by the fact that they found themselves in this exact situation as they learn how to become pop-up activists and head to their state legislature to make a change thatās quite against the grain in their state. This story is smart and compelling, full of incredible tape and unexpected twists and turns, and I really felt like I wanted to stand up and applaud these women. You get a good lesson on the confounding things happening in Tennesseeās state legislature, the power of regular voters and constituents, the importance of state level politics, and what happens to democracy when in the Senate, one party has a supermajority. Start here.
šļøLand of the Giants launched a new season on Disney and how it went from a small animation studio to one of the largest companies in the world. (I used to answer that question with āit was all started by a mouseā but I guess itās more complicated that that?) Episode one talks about how Michael Eisner was able to turn things around and reignite the magic that Walt had sparked years ago (a Newsweek title called him āMore Walt Than Walt.ā) He didnāt want to make a fortune, he wanted to make something magical. Magic first, profit later. (I hope this works with my company, which I named after Tinker Bell, because Iām more into magic-first thinking. That should make everyone on my team nervous, but I know it doesnāt.) The episode also addresses how Michael Eisnerās focus on TV created an engine for the entire company, something that worked for a long time (I guess I have to thank Hannah Montana for something) but doesnāt anymore. Disney is struggling, the fans can feel it every time they have to use the Genie app to pay $100 to go on Space Mountain with their families. Iām taking notes on this season, shoot it into my veins, yummy yummy gimme gimme. Listen here.
šļøRELATED I have been binging episodes of Bippity Boppity Business, the only business podcast I will listen to. (I mean it.) Rita Richa is sharing really smart business stories inspired by Disney magic. Could there be a podcast more Tink-y than that? Nobody comes close to using storytelling and magic to immerse people into their brand experience like Disney does. Hate Disney all you want, they know what the fuck theyāre doing. Rita is my business-whisperer. Episodes feel like they were made just for meā¦why the customer is the hero of your brand story, how Disney uses psychology to create the happiest place on earth (Mickeyās ten commandments,) 10 business storytelling tips inspired by the movie Lilo and Stitch, and a crash course on something called the Storybrand Framework using a rebrand of Hades from the movie Hercules as an example. Ritaās goal is that by episode 100 she gets to see the Cinderella suite at the top of the castle in Walt Disney World. Mine is to be on this show! Can we start a petition? Listen here.
šļøWe place way too much trust in memories. Theyāre fragile. I donāt really trust mine, or anyoneās. Especially after listening to Tortoise Mediaās latest investigative series, Dangerous Memories, about a group of young women who sought out a āteacher of personal developmentā who ended up being a manipulative monster set on severing contact and relationships between her students and their families, even their own identities, and destroying their lives. It seems like a unique kind of evil, because it was allā¦for what? Not sex, not money. Dangerous Memories asks: what was this healer doing and why ? And why were these young women listening to her? This is a strange one, much like the wildly popular Sweet Bobby, also from Tortoise, that will make you wonder about people and power and evil that lurks all around us in plain sight. There is a scene of one of the young, brainwashed women that is burned in my brain so much I had to email Tortoise and ask them to find it for me, so here you go (thanks, Gary!):
Thenā¦ There was the time Lee found her in a vest, covered in sweat, attacking her best sofa cushions with a cricket batā¦
Lee: Everything she did was quite delicate andĀ suddenly she was kind of beating the crap out of the sofa ā¦ she just kind of went, Oh, it's just, um, it's just a technique to get anger out before you paint.Ā
šļøTo celebrate the 4th of July The Constant ran a fun and fascinating episode about our National Anthemāthe history you do know with lots of stuff you donāt, or may not have thought about too much. Originally called āThe Defense of Fort MāHenry,ā it includes a verse that has some explaining to do and ends like this: No refuge could save the hireling and slave / From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave / And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave / Oāer the land of the free and the home of the brave. But this episode isnāt just just historyāitās a fun, musical romp around all the songs that almost became our National Anthems, the ones that definitely should have and shouldnāt have. (MY VOTE has alllllways been for āGolden Dreams,ā from EPCOTās American Adventure, and if you know what Iām talking about let me know and I will kiss you on the mouth.) Also featured: why itās so goddam hard to sing and the people who have really screwed up at National events. I havenāt written about The Constant in awhile so I will repeat: Mark Chrisler storytells like the most animated, theatrical, funny, curious, and engaging history professor you could ever imagine. Listen here.
šļøWhere were you on March 27th, 2024? I was reading the transcript to Elon Muskās deposition, outlining a defamation lawsuit filed by Ben Brody, who Musk falsely tweeted that he suspected Ben was a disguised federal agent in a āfalse flagā situation. Elon and his lawyer tried to retroactively make the deposition confidential, but get out your popcorn, they didnāt. I know what Wil Williams (The Court Reporter) and Anne (Alex Spiro) of Hug House were doing on March 27, 2024, they were reading it, too. (It is hilarious.) They sprang into action, using the transcript as a script to a reenactment/reaction of the deposition to create The Deposition, with one mission for the actors involved: Play your parts as seriously as you can until you absolutely cannot. You hear all of the character breaks, laughs, and incredulity the actors experience while reading. Join them for four episodes, plus a full mastercut of every individual episode stitched together for those who want to experience it the way it was given, more or less. Listen here.
šļøWild Card is such a fun game showāRachel Martin asks listeners to choose cards with questions about life's biggest questions and answer them. Now, there are two people I can think of whom I will frequently search for them in my pod-catcher to make sure Iāve listened to everything theyāve ever said. One is Josh Gondelman and the other is Nikki Giovanni. Nikki Giovanniās episode of Wild Card was joyous. This 81-year-old woman is a queer, brilliant/funny poet with a fascination of space and I could listen to her talk forever.
Nikki: I am Christian. Jesus might not come when you call but he always comes on time. I donāt go to church, but I like Jesus because he was an interesting guy.
Rachel: There are a lot of interesting guys, Nikki.
Nikki: No there arenāt.
She says so many wise things, including that life is a good idea. She wins the game (what an icon,) the prize is a trip in the memory time machine, a trip to revisit one moment from her past that she wouldnāt change even a little, that was perfect. I love this question just as much as I love the fact that Nikki refuses to answer it. āI go there quite a bit but itās none of your business.ā Listen here.
šļø99% Invisible had an episode about an organ piece called ORGANĀ²/ASLSP, that is still playing in Halberstadt, Germany. It will take 639 years to finish. (ASLSP stands for āas slow as possible,ā which is how composer John Cage meant for it to be played.) It was recently getting pretty exciting over there, in Germany, because the piece experienced a chord change, something that happens every year or so, and people flocked to witness it. The episode is about so muchāthe logistics of all this, (the organ is not your run-of-the-mill organ), why the organ is the perfect instrument for the project, the magic of sound, the fatal day of Halberstadt (when the modern twelve-note keyboard was invented, changing music forever) and the reason so many people want to listen to this piece, why the chord change makes people cry. Thatās something I would have found ridiculous before I listened to this episode but I get it now. Itās chilling in the best way, isnāt it? That you could go and sit in this 13th century cloister and experience this thing that is connecting people for centuries. And that brings up a good point. Will the piece really finish? Will we still be around? Will climate change destroy the church? Will Gen-whatever lose interest? Listen here.
šļøI love you!
š¦ From the Archives š¦
[From August 24, 2020] The entire premise of Election Profit Makers is somewhat unusualāthe whole show is based upon political prediction markets. Using predictit.org, hosts Starlee Kine, David Rees, and Jon Kimball bet money on things from as big as who will win the 2020 Presidential election to what words will be used in the debates. Itās always a somewhat madcap political conversation, with the hosts meandering to funny, barely related topics (like debating the best city skylines in the country) but thereās always interesting debate that has me laughing out loud. In an early episode, the brought on 12-year-old Beckett, the son of one of the hostās friends, who seems wise beyond his years. In following episodes, Starlee, David and Jon argue with Beckett and debate his political stances, holding him up as kind of the complete expert on the 2020 Presidential Election. I always want to know what Beckett thinks. And this week, EPM let Beckett kind of take over the feed, dropping episodes that feature Beckettās reaction to the DNC. (Ed. note: this show is still running and currently covering the Biden campaign death watch.)