In 2019, Edison Research defined a “Podcast Super Listener” as someone who listens to five or more hours of podcasts each week…

Last week, I listened to 32 hours and 10 minutes of podcasts. So, I think it’s safe to say that I qualify as a Super Listener!

But let’s talk for a second about how I’m able to do that. Maybe we can start with an introduction since this is the first issue?

Hi, reader! I’m Anne Baird! I’ve been listening to podcasts since around 2012 when I started listening to Welcome to Night Vale, The Bright Sessions, and D&D Is For Nerds. My original love in podcasts has been and always will be fiction podcasts and actual play tabletop podcasts—they’re how I met my closest friends, started a podcast production company, and eventually came to be the COO (Chaos & Order Organizer 😉) of Tink Media.

Anyone who knows me will be able to confirm that I do too many things every day and should probably take a nap, but good ol’ mental illness requires that I multitask constantly and never have a quiet moment.

Enter: SO MANY PODCASTS!

The background noise to everything I do is a podcast playing from my phone. I’m listening to one right now as I type this. I’m lucky that since I entered the Professional Workforce, I’ve worked in an environment that allows me to listen to podcasts. And now I’m even luckier that my full time job is listening to podcasts and helping creators grow their audiences!

My other secret… I use Pocket Casts (a favorite of Super Listeners) and listen to everything on 1.5x speed with silences trimmed with “Mad Max” efficiency. I know all of you sound designers just cringed because you put a lot of thought into timing your silences, but there’s just not enough hours in the day to listen to everything I’d like to enjoy, so it has to be this way.

I have absolutely zero intention of these weekly issues being this long on a regular basis (I simply do not have the time to write them), so let’s get on to the actual content you’re here for with the best podcasts I’ve listened to this week.

Table of Contents

• Listening Stats

• Weekly Playlist

  • Well, Now

  • Never Post x ICYMI

  • Darknet Diaries

  • Sixteenth Minute (of Fame)

  • Wonderful

Listening Stats

For May 12th - May 18th, 2024…

• Listening Time: 32 hours, 10 minutes

• Number of Episodes: 48

• Average Episode Length: 40 minutes

Weekly Playlist

Well, Now

“How a Former Surgeon General Took on a $5,000 ER Bill”

I’ve been working on catching up on episodes from a few weeks ago, and the episode on how a former surgeon general took on a $5,000 ER bill from Well, Now was well worth the wait! Up until this past year after aging out of my parents’ insurance, I’ve been on a catastrophic health insurance plan. What does that mean? It means I paid a stupid amount of money each month for health insurance that gives me absolutely nothing until I spend $9,000 on health care each year because New Jersey taxes you if you don’t have health insurance! Once you hit 30, NJ doesn’t allow you to stay on a catastrophic-only plan and requires you to get “better” insurance that costs more and still does pretty much nothing.

All this to say that I am terrible about taking care of myself (see: earlier when I said I do too many things forever) and am terrified of going to the doctor and getting surprise medical bills. You’d think that the former US surgeon general wouldn’t have this problem… but no, it’s the United States, so OF COURSE HE DID! After a quick trip to the ER earlier this year for dehydration, Dr. Jerome Adams found himself dealing with a bill for nearly $5,000. The biggest advice I took away from this is to ask for a detailed breakdown for every medical bill before paying it. Sometimes that can even result in your bill being lowered, which makes it worth the effort!

Never Post x ICYMI

“How Kate Middleton’s Disappearance Redefined Monoculture” & “Everyone is a Journalish”

For the sake of disclosure, Never Post is currently one of our clients at Tink—but I don’t work on their campaign and had no idea this gem of a collaboration was coming to fruition until it popped up in my listening queue!

ICYMI and Never Post are two amazing podcasts that discuss internet culture, and they came together this month for the team-up of a lifetime to discuss what makes an event a monocultural event that everyone is talking about. After taking the time to come up with guidelines, the specific topic of these two episodes (part 1 on May 8th and part 2 on May 11th) dives into the “disappearance” of Kate Middleton in early 2024. We now know that she was undergoing chemotherapy following a cancer diagnosis, but the internet ran rampant with rumors about why she was no longer in the public eye. What could they have done to prevent the rumors? Is there anything they could have done to prevent conspiracy theories? That’s what you’ll find out in this two-parter!

Darknet Diaries

“Shannen”

I LOVE DARKNET DIARIES. Ahem.

I’ve been listening to Darknet Diaries for what feels like forever. I just think cybercrime is such an interesting topic. So it’s no surprise to me that this month’s episode focusing on Shannen Rossmiller made it onto this list.

Shannen was a former municipal court judge in Montana, a mother of three, and a vigilante online terrorist-hunter who posed as militant anti-American radicals in order to prevent further terrorist attacks on the United States. Her work in online forums put her and her family at risk (at one point after her identity first became public during a court case, someone broke into her house, stole her car out of the locked garage, and drove the car into a ditch—all while they slept upstairs, unaware!), but Shannen continued to pursue the cause she believed in.

I’m not pro-military. In fact, I’m pretty anti-military. But this story is just so cool that I had to spotlight it. Shannen unfortunately passed away in 2020, but her work resulted in the development of cyber-counterintelligence that is still used today.

Sixteenth Minute (of Fame)

“hide your kids, hide your wife” (2-parts)

As soon as I saw Jamie Loftus was releasing a new podcast, I ran to all of my podcaster group chats to share the news. In this house we love and respect Jamie Loftus and all of her podcasts. Forever.

So let’s talk about Sixteenth Minute (of Fame), a podcast I’m now realizing is the third one in this issue that covers internet pop culture… hm…

Our second two-part episode feature is the wildly internet famous Antoine Dodson—a.k.a. the guy from the “Bed Intruder” video in 2010. If you were on the internet, Vine (rip), Tumblr, etc. in the early 2010s, you HAVE to know what this is about. There’s no way you could have avoided it (unless you somehow did, in which case I simply do not understand what you did on the internet… please email me and let me study your brain) because it was one of those monocultural events they talked about in the Never Post x ICYMI crossover.

But more than that, Loftus discusses Kelly Dodson: the actual victim of the event that was being parodied in this viral video and song. Kelly’s experience was virtually erased by the media and the popularity of the “Bed Intruder Song” by the Gregory Brothers (who also created the newer “Chrissy Wake Up” and “Corn Kid” songs of TikTok fame. no I will NOT be linking them). These episodes dig into the effects of someone being erased from their own story.

A great couple of first episodes for this podcast, so I’m looking forward to listening to whatever topic is discussed in this upcoming week’s release!

(Author’s Note: I originally mis-typed that Loftus interviewed Kelly Dodson—I meant to say that she discussed her! Thanks LP for catching my mistake!) ((Also I just got tossed into Fanfiction.net hell for including an author’s note. We’re really in 2010 now.))

Wonderful

“Dinner Milk”

Coming in under the wire is this week’s episode of Wonderful that I decided to add as I was writing the issue (because I was obviously still clocking in listening time while writing, of course). In typical Wonderful fashion, the title has really… not a lot to do with why I’m recommending it! In truth, “Dinner Milk” really isn’t a standout episode of the show and follows the typical weekly episode format. But Griffin goes on a long rant about his favorite television comedy and it renewed my love of the show so much that I’m now debating going back and watching it again.

The Good Place is one of the best completed shows I have ever watched (right up there with Avatar: The Last Airbender) and the way Griffin speak about it without giving spoilers reminded me just how clever and fun it was. I was a late-comer to it, not finishing the final season until a couple years after it aired, but even knowing the ending didn’t ruin the fun for me. If you haven’t had a chance to watch it yet (or, let’s be honest, even if you’ve already watched the show), the next best time to start is today! It looks like it’s on Netflix right now, so get on it! (And maybe Apple+, but if you have Apple+ and not Netflix………. why???)

I suppose this is really why I enjoy listening to Wonderful. It’s just two people talking about the things they like an enjoy. Such a simple premise, but it’s low-stakes and just a fun podcast to listen to.

And there you have the first issue of Fancy A Listen! I’m actually hoping to be able to have these out on Fridays or Saturdays, but I got so caught up in the formatting for this one that it took me a few extra days—whoops!

What did you think? Is there anything you think I should do more or less of? What were the stand-out episodes that you listened to this week? Let me know in the comments or a reply to this issue in your inbox.

See you all next week!