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Summer Listening: Podcasts

As we wind down summer, we wanted to provide some listening options you can take on those final summer road trips. We couldn’t compile a list of podcasts without starting with our own podcast: SRAI Shop Talk. Shop Talk is produced by Carla DeMarco and she also interviews all guests. The Catalyst’s own Heather Brown and Mark Lucas, along with Rebecca Rosales, were featured in Episode 4 of Hot Topics in Research Administration: Changing Faces, Places, and Spaces of Our Working Worlds in RA. There are currently five episodes for 2022 (Hot Topics in Research Administration) and six episodes from 2021 on Pathways and Perspectives available for listening and is free to all full members of SRAI.  

For listening outside of Research Administration, why not take a look at our own SRAI podcast producer Carla DeMarco’s recommendations?

• Heavyweight (Gimlet Media) is hands down one of my all-time favorite podcasts. Host/producer Jonathan Goldstein invites people on his show who have something unresolved in their past, and his goal is to help them find closure. There are six seasons to enjoy and the show just gets better and better. I find myself laughing and crying with each episode. Goldstein is a master storyteller.
• Not Lost (Pushkin Industries) is a great romp around with Brandon Francis Newnam (of Dinner Party Download Fame, which I also loved). But he travels to various places, meets interesting people, gets acquainted with local culture, and ultimately angles for a dinner party invitation to a complete stranger’s house. It is a fun show and great concept.
• The Next Big Idea with Rufus Griscom is a good podcast if you want to think about interesting topics with fascinating guests and “big ideas.”
• Missing and Murdered: Finding Cleo (CBC True Crime) is an amazing bit of journalistic reporting and some heart stopping moments of discovery when Connie Walker sets out to find a missing and murdered, young Indigenous woman. Highly recommend. Host Connie Walker is thoughtful, sensitive, and an amazing storyteller. I’d listen to anything she works on.
• If you want a break from the heavy news of the day and need a laugh, Judge John Hodgman (Maximum Fun) is your guy. Hodgman and his bailiff, usually Jesse Thorne, settle disputes between various people (couples, siblings, parent/child, etc.) but they bring the funny to every episode. Very clever debates and “punny” puns are all part of the show.
• Lastly, Gastropod, which they describe in their tagline as “food through the lens of science and history.” It’s a great deep dive into all sorts of food-related considerations and information. 

Finally, Co-Editor of the Catalyst, Karen Bone, provided us with this recommendation:

• Planet Money on NPR One – I always find this podcast to be engaging and with topics I may not have considered otherwise. 

Happy Listening!

Authored by Carly Pigg, CRA, Coordinator of Grants and Development
LSU Health New Orleans