This week, I listened to 34 hours and 26 minutes of podcasts.

I honestly thought the time would be SO MUCH HIGHER but I ended up being conscripted to help with a gigantic yard sale being held at my own house and I’ve been working on that since 6 AM (it is now 9:30 PM as I’m writing this, finally sitting down for the first time today)… so nothing has been listened to today!

But nonetheless: This is the most listening time I’ve had since I started this newsletter, so now we can start to see a trend in what I was doing on the weeks when my listening is higher or lower and predict where my stats are going to end.

One thing I noticed is that I listened to MORE episodes this past week, but more episodes of shorter lengths. I started a few new shows and series, so trailers definitely contributed to increasing the episode count and decreasing the average length.

Here’s the chart showing weekly listening time so far… in the future, I’ll add this to the “Listening Stats” section!

Table of Contents

• Listening Stats

• Weekly Playlist

  • Sixteenth Minute (of Fame)

  • Fur & Loathing

  • Smologies with Alie Ward

  • tbd

    • “tbd”

  • Last Seen: Postmortem

  • The Competition

Listening Stats

For May 26th - June 1st, 2024…

• Listening Time: 34 hours, 26 minutes

• Number of Episodes: 60

• Average Episode Length: 34 minutes, 26 seconds*

  (*I thought this was wrong for a hot second because it was the same numbers as the listening time, but then I realized this calculation is just… listening time divided by number of episodes… 60 minutes in an hour… 🤦)

Weekly Playlist

Sixteenth Minute (of Fame)

“boston slide cop”

Please Jamie Loftus, we can’t keep doing this! I can’t keep putting your podcasts on my list of favorites— what, what’s that? It’s my list of favorites and I can do what I want? Well, in that case… 🦐 😇 ⏰

Listening to Jamie Loftus talk about the “Boston slide cop” had me cracking up. I was sitting in the same room as my friend Wil while we both listened individually on our headphones, and they were a few minutes ahead of me absolutely BUSTING A GUT at their desk.

Jamie starts the episode by explaining the setting for this clip, telling the audience about the position of the police in Boston, the summer 2023 heatwave, the Barbenheimer phenomenon… and then playing the audio from the slid cop clip SEVERAL times in a row. 😂

After holding back my laughter from hearing this cop flail down a slide for the third time in this episode (and only 13 minutes in), Loftus comes in clutch with just… such a good description of what’s happening in the video:

Loftus also brings back the classic air horn bit after some of her best jokes, which I remember people being so mad about in My Year In Mensa but I found endlessly hilarious. (My brother and I have a tradition of using an air horn app at family dinners to stop forbidden topics like politics and relationships from getting too hostile.)

But the real mystery of this episode… who IS the Boston slide cop? He certainly doesn’t want us to know, and neither does the Boston PD!

Fur & Loathing

“The Furry With The Gas”

Did you get a chance to listen to Fur & Loathing last week? Come ON! It’s so good!

This week’s installment continues the investigation into who set off the chlorine bomb at Midwest Furfest 2014. And the list of suspects is not getting any more normal. The main subject of this case update is Magnus Diridian, whose life and family seem too famous to be true (and some things are easily proven false). Diridian has a history of being banned from Furfest, so he would have the motive to do something like this. But his history with gas is… not what you’d expect.

I’ll leave the details for you to discover.

Smologies with Alie Ward

“OCEANS with Ayana Johnson”

I grew up on the Jersey Shore (yeah, the one from the TV show… is that reference too outdated now? do people still talk about Snooki?) and still live there now. I can never leave because I like being close to the ocean. Do I ever go to the beach? No. But I like knowing it’s there and that I could see it in 10 minutes if I wanted to.

I’ve already listened to this episode about oceanology on the full Ologies feed, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to talk about my buddy the ocean and shout out Alie Ward’s work at the same time.

Ologies is SUCH a good podcast in which Alie Ward interviews different “ologists” about the subjects they specialize in. Smologies is a kid-friendly version of the same podcast and is long overdue to exist because it means that these interviews are now accessible for teachers to use in their classrooms.

The ocean is important and I love him, so please do your part to educate yourself about how to help protect it! Also, tell me your favorite sea creature! (Mine is sharks—specifically I love a whale shark or a hammerhead shark.)

Pop Culture Happy Hour

“Terrible but bingeable TV shows”

When I first heard the title of this episode, about a dozen TV shows popped into my head that I have found myself binging on a rainy day. Once Upon a Time, Hell’s Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, Cutthroat Kitchen, Heartland, Grey’s Anatomy (I am currently binging this)… I could go on.

None of these shows are mentioned in this episode, but I think they all deserved a shout out nonetheless.

This episode was just a fun listen! Hosts Glen Weldon, Linda Holmes, Aisha Harris, and Stephen Thompson (I feel bad for the editor who had to work with 4 audio tracks… my nightmare) each have their own pick that’s worth listening to find out which shows they binge watch and why, but it seems like the trend is that a lot of reality TV is made for being binged. And even more so, TV today is made for that exact purpose (the “Netflix model”)… except that — as you might have noticed if you’re anxiously awaiting the next half of Bridgerton Season 3 after THAT ENDING??? or you’re like one of my friends who subscribed to Netflix just to watch Dungeon Meshi — even Netflix is starting to move away from releasing everything at once and drawing out the suspense between episodes.

Which watch style do you prefer? Do you do the same with serialized podcasts?

Apparently I love to just marathon an entire show in one go because…

Last Seen: Postmortem

Postmortem: The Stolen Bodies of Harvard

This five-part series about the macabre story of how bodies donated to Harvard Medical School ended up being stolen and sold in a nationwide human remains trade route had me hooked. I don’t want to spoil things, but I listened to all five episodes in succession on a long drive.

When I first heard about the concept of the series, I thought I already knew about this because I had listened to a few other podcasts discussing how bodies involved in medical school use were stolen. But this one happened in between 2018 and 2023. This isn’t like the body stealing of old—and I was shocked to learn the details about what happened.

I have a lot of thoughts about the treatment of human remains, but I’ll leave you to your own opinions! If you want to discuss it, hit me up!

The Competition

surprise! it’s another one that I listened to so many episodes of in a row

Now I have a six-part series for you: The Competition. The series goes behind the scenes into the Distinguished Young Women program that has been held in Mobile, Alabama for the past 66 years. DYW is one of the most lucrative scholarship competitions available to teenage girls and takes place over the course of two weeks of rehearsals, talent competitions, and some of the most high-stress situations these kids have ever been in. Host Shima Oliaee was a contestant in this competition in 2001 and has returned to Mobile as a judge, documenting her experience and that of seven of the girls entered in this program.

And in the midst of the competition? The decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is announced!

As a lover of the 2000 Sandra Bullock classic Miss Congeniality, this podcast hit just the right spot in my brain. 10/10 recommend.

What were the stand-out episodes that you listened to this week? Know of a podcast you think would make it on to my list of favorites? Let me know in the comments or a reply to this issue in your inbox!

And if you happened upon this on the web, make sure you subscribe to get weekly updates on my listening habits!

See you all next week!