🦖 Sphere peers 🏡 “hide yo kids” 🃏 bunco 🪓 talking’ murder 🧹broomgate ⛸️
🍭 👂If Jamie Loftus told me to jump off a bridge, I’d do it 🌈 🤸♀️
Bonjour.
Today is Monday, May 13. In case this newsletter is too long…Jamie Loftus’ new show is here, I wish I could bottle up the feeling I had listening to this, and Aakshi’s favorite show came out on her birthday, a gift for us all.
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xoxo lp
👋q & a & q & a & q & a👋
Myra Flynn
Myra Flynn is the Host and Executive Producer of Homegoings, a podcast that invites listeners to be a fly on the wall, privy to candid and genuine conversations about race.
How would you describe Homegoings in 10 words or less?
Homegoings is a show that takes a humanizing and often artistic dive into the messy world of racial identity.
What inspired you to create it?
Homegoings was created after the one-year anniversary of Geroge Floyd's murder, during a time when folks were scratching their heads as to what to do next. Like there was this mythological set of instructions out there as to how to solve a problem that's been embedded so deeply into our society. But there are no instructions. There are no conclusions and there are no immediate answers. But there are stories. And Homegoings can be a place to normalize and share those.
You're also a musician. Can you tell us a bit about your career in music and why you made the jump to podcasting?
I don't think songwriting and journalism are all that different. Both are working to take these huge emotional and thought-provoking subjects and squeeze them into palatable stanzas or audio. So, in a lot of ways, it felt really natural. Plus, I've always held two degrees: one in music and one in journalism. Over time, I've gone between the two often.
You cover a lot of ground on Homegoings. Some episodes seem like they would be lighter fare, like your episode on cooking collard greens, then dive deeper into the association between race and cooking, while others promise to be hard-hitting from the jump, like your episode on grief. How do you choose your topics, and how deep you should go?
This is my kind of deep question! So, the greens episode is interesting, because it appears light because we're talking about food, but really the whole episode is a way in to talking about slavery, Black physical health, tradition, generational sisterhood, the list goes on and on. I think when it comes to choosing my topics, this is something I love to do. Offer a surprise. Like come --- "come for the greens, stay for the life lessons you will never forget!" But then other times, as it is with the grief episode, you have to dig deeper to find the surprise. For instance, this episode is actually titled "The relief in grief." So, if you listen closely to these stories, you can hear that each person feels both mourning, and a bit unburdened by the loss of their love's ones. And that in experiencing these tragic deaths, they have kind of been brought back to life. Which is an insanely difficult thing to admit to yourself let alone the world --- so I truly respect my sources for this honesty and bravery with me. And as far as how deep you should go? I might be the wrong person to ask! haha. Until the well is empty. You should go until the well is empty.
Your interview with Rachel Dolezal is one of your most listened to episodes, and you did a fantastic job as an interviewer. How do you prepare for interviews in general, and what did you have to do to prepare for Rachel's interview specifically, especially given that a good portion of your audience likely aren't fans of Rachel?
Thank you! I prepare from a place of compassion. I always give every interview that respect, and that grace. When it comes to Rachel in particular it was most important to me to keep compassion top of mind because A.) This isn't a breaking news story anymore and I refused to be a part of the sensationalism and B.) I wanted people to zoom out further than Rachel. I wanted Rachel to zoom out further than Rachel. This is an episode about the idea of choice in racial identity, the fine line between appropriation and activism, mental health, childhood trauma, other construct comparisons and at the end of the day --- a person who started a movement. You don't have to like it for it to be interesting. In fact, most things that are hardest to look at are the things we need to face full-on, and I believe I did this with the Rachel interview.
What are you most excited for in this new season of Homegoings?
Well, if you can believe it, I think we have somehow managed to go deeper than Rachel Dolezal! Two episodes have dropped at the moment, one about taking care of your elders (I got to travel to Mexico for this one, so Homegoings went out of the country!) and one about being biracial (specifically Black and white biracial). From there I'm moving onto a two-part episode about stereotypes where I will be speaking with people about single-motherhood, life after incarceration, coming new to America, the big Black penis (yup we are going there!) and so much more. Some of my guests in this season are super famous and some are everyday folks. It's just a really round and special season, I think.
What are you most hopeful for when it comes to dismantling racist systems in America?
Something shifted after George Floyd's murder. I think we are still trying to figure out how to name that shift? But in general, I think it does have something to do with a collective awareness. And people being more aware always makes me hopeful.
What are some of your must-listen podcasts that you recommend to podcast lovers?
My colleague Erica Hielman makes a podcast called Rumble Strip that I can't recommend enough. It's set in the state I grew up in, Vermont, which while it's sorely lacking in racial diversity is jammed packed with political and economic diversity. Erica captures this with the same insatiable curiosity and precociousness as Homgegoings does with race. Plus, she's way more of an audiophile than me. The show just sounds so beautiful.
🚨If u only have time for 1 thing🚨
If Jamie Loftus told me to jump off a bridge, I’d do it. And when she makes something I know I will have a new favorite thing until the series ends. She has launched something weekly, Sixteenth Minute (of Fame,) which seems too good to be true. The point of the show is to interview internet main characters who have, whether they wanted to or not, gone completely viral, to find out what happens once the fifteen minutes of fame are over. The kick-off is with Antoine Dodson of “Hide Yo Kids, Hide Yo Wife” fame. Jamie has a long, empathetic conversation with Antoine to get the real story about why Antonie’s sister Kelly seemed pushed to the side, when she was really the center of the story. When asked why Kelly was left out of the lot of the press, which mostly starred Antoine, he said something like, “Kelly was dating someone at the time who had money.” Aha. This story is full of exploitation. It’s messy and fascinating and so stuck in the early 2000s, and Jamie is looking into what’s human about it all. Part two is next week.
hell yeah
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✨The Tribeca lineup has been announced. Get your tickets here…
✨…and if you’re going let me know and don’t miss the Audio Flux event (I’ve been interviewing some of the creators) or In the Dark Live, hosted by Talia Augustidis, who won Best Documentary Short at the Third Coast Awards for something I was obsessed with.
💎BTW💎
🎙️I didn’t know what to expect when I turned on Tiny Dinos, which is billed as “part sitcom and part talk show,” with improvisors Connor Ratliff and James III posing as scientists and best friends who revive dinosaurs in miniature form. I was so delighted I wish I could bottle up the feeling and force feed it to you. Connor and James invite Lauren Lapkus over, since she was in a Jurassic Park movie, but they really don’t want her (or us) to know about this top secret project. They don’t want Zach Cherry, their mailman, to know either. (But Zach really wants to hang out.) This show is ridiculous and cute and weird, I think it’s a great canvas for improv stars to get really silly. It’s self-aware and meta, the chemistry between Connor and James is, already in episode one, so good it’s like sheesh give these guys a TV show already. They call their listeners “sphere peers.” I really hope someone stumbles upon this show not realizing it’s improv and starts to super freak out. Maybe they’re high. Listen here.
🎙️I remember getting so jealous of anyone who hadn’t listened to season one of Hang Up yet, because listening for the first time was such a wonderful, surprising experience. It’s your classic reality dating show, where one main dater is put on mini dates with a bunch of strangers for the chance to win a vacation together. It’s super well-done and I cannot imagine how hard it is to pull all of this off, the logistics of arranging all the recordings alone. The host, Zakiya Gibbons, has an undeniable spark. It’s like sheesh, give her a TV show already. Can I date her? On the day of Aakshi Sinha’s birthday (I don’t believe in coincidences) season two dropped, taking us to New Mexico to meet our star Timo, a 41 year old museum curator and parent of two. The first episodes puts Timo on a quick-fire call with each dater, and I was surprised who she kicked off. But that’s why this show is so easy to get invested in. I’m not saying I don’t have anything to live for, but the fact that this show is back makes me excited to be alive. Listen here.
🎙️I can never tell if it’s a good gossip story or a good guest that makes an episode of Normal Gossip sink or swim. And I obsessively read the Normal Gossip subreddit and find myself always disagreeing with the redditors about which episodes fall into which category. But I think the episode with Lindy West and Meagan Hatcher-Mays is the best we’ve had since season one. And it’s because it checked off both boxes: Lindy and Meagan are fantastic together, they’re truly best friends and they both love gossip. The story (about women cheating at Bunch) is not too complicated, it’s believable—I can totally see it happening in my home town—and I feel like I was there. There is also something sweet about the idea of a group of women being friends for so long, even though if one of them is a filthy stinkin’ liar. Now I’m about to go see if the redditors agree. I bet they don’t. (EDIT: THEY DO.) Listen here.
🎙️Dissect is taking a detour from its Madvillain series for a two-part deep dive into the Kendrick / Drake beef. I am fully invested in this beef but don’t have time to research every cultural and historical reference of every line, so I needed these episodes. Part one is a roundtable with Cole Cuchna, Charles Holmes, and Justin Sayles, who go over a timeline of the beefing, give their opinions, and try to crown a winner. For part two, it’s just Cole. He started taking notes on each line the second the track was dropped, and he clarifies which lines are word play, which lines are telling us a secret, which lines were written in pre-self defense of a future clap-back, and which lines are quintuple entendres. Despite the fact that Cole was saving me from going down rabbit holes of my own, his cliff notes to the beef sent me down my own rabbit holes. Is there really a connection to Hitler’s suicide? What is the Kobe Bryant theory? Do I need to spend 20 minutes researching Dikembe Mutombo's finger wag? (Yes I do.) This might be the most significant rap beef of our lifetimes, I could honestly listen to all of this again. I want to be prepared when I get a question about it in trivia or when my daughter asks me about it. This beef is dark beyond belief (lots of throwing women and children under buses! And now someone has been shot.) Most people (everyone?) would crown Kendrick as the winner. (If it’s even over, Jesus.) But what does it mean to win something like this? Listen here.
🎙️From the team that brought you Say More with Dr? Sheila and The Chris Chatman Do-Over comes Women Talkin’ ‘Bout Murder (it’s actually on the same feed,) an improvised comedy podcast series starring Liz Cackowski and Emily Spivey who take on the personas of Donna and Jobeth, true crime podcast hosts who have completely different approaches to true crime. The first case involves Pam and Jamison, who are actually characters who sat in Dr? Sheila’s office. And I’m kind of obsessed with the idea of these meta series that are spoofing podcasts and featuring reoccurring characters. Listen here.
🎙️John Cullen is the host of Blocked Party, a new Jeopardy/comedy podcast with Emily Heller (What Is....a Jeopardy! Podcast,) and now Broomgate, a limited series about “a broom that almost destroyed curling.” Besides being a great podcast host, John was also a semi-professional curler. He was attracted to the sport because it felt like both a physical and mental/problem-solving challenge. He even claims to be one of the first people to use this wretched broom. This show starts on the ice (it feels very exciting! curling! who knew?) and introduces us to the Hardline Curling company, which was first featured on Canada’s version of Shark Tank and makes the broom that at the center of the scandal. Then it turns its attention to the player they convinced to start using it, Mike McEwen. So far this show reminds me of Mighty Pucks and I loved Mighty Pucks. Good sports telling that even people who don’t get sports will love. (But if you happen to love curling you must be PISSING YOUR PANTS right now.) I’m not just enjoying it, I’m happy to be learning something, anything, about curling. Listen here.
🎙️Catrin Skaperdas, an American living in Italy, is the host of Italian, For Sure a show that talks to real Italians to try to get at the heart of what being Italian really is all about. It’s a simple concept but it’s something I’ve been unable to find (I’ve been looking.) The first guest is Maddalena Mazzaferri, who talks about common misunderstandings and accents and hand gestures (which truly isn’t great in audio but I knew what they were talking about.) If you’ve spent a lot of time in Italy this episode will make you feel nostalgic for it because it’s not about Italian vagueness it’s about the normal, delightful specifics that make Italy so very Italian. It doesn’t play to tropes. After listening, I felt like I had just been there. Listen here.
🎙️Making Peace Visible’s Jamil Simon has been trying to interview William Ury for a long time, and it’s finally happened. William is one of the world’s most influential peacebuilders and experts on negotiation. Besides helping to barter peace agreements with Columbia and Korea, he’s the co-author of the book Getting to Yes. I love when you can tell that a host has been dying to do an interview. It makes for…a great interview. And I adore Jamil. It’s always comforting to me to listen to him talk about peace—what it looks, how it’s talked about and written about, and all its fullest potentials. It’s something I really need right now, and I be you do, too. William Uryt had so many profound things to say about peace as the way we deal with conflict and not an end to it. How it’s a process, not a final destination. And how conflict is something we need and it’s something that will never go away. Listen here.
🎙️Rock That Doesn’t Roll has been really focused on rock music, but a recent episode dips into the history of Christian hip-hop. In the 90s, it seemed like everyone was listening to Biggie, Tupac, Dre…not Christians. Why? There’s an interview with Christopher J. Cooper, aka Soup the Chemist, aka Super C, who had to work his Christ-praising ass off to bring hip hop to Christianity. It’s a story about the complicated racial dynamics involved when you bring rap to Black churches, which was even harder than bringing it to white churches. And while it had its own issues, it shares DNA with the story of rock music edging its way into Christianity. Listen here.
🎙️The Girlfriends, which was a total hit last year, is back for a new season, Our Lost Sister, that makes so much sense. In season one, host Carole Fisher told the story about how she and a group of women, who had all dated the same man, helped uncover the truth about his involvement in the murder of his wife and their friend Gail Katz. A torso had been recovered at some point, mis-identified as Gail’s. The girlfriends are back to now seek justice for the owner of the mis-identified torso. I listened to every episode of The Girlfriends season one obsessively, it will be so interesting to see if this season can attract the same interest. So far I’m totally in, partly because Gail seems extraordinarily confident that “3 bossy Jewish ladies and their producer” (who for some reason is identified as a vegan) “will know this girlfriend’s name and story.” Listen here.
🎙️I love you!
📦 From the Archives 📦
[From August 10, 2020] 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.
What if Jamie suggested you enjoy a Coney Dog?
Love Women Talkin' Bout Murder! Everything from Amy Poehler's expanding podcast universe has been gold.