Pod Particle

News, reviews and other bits from the podcast universe. www.podparticle.com

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Week in Review: Week of January 25, 2016

One month into 2016 and are you still following through on your resolutions? Trying to kick your habit of blindly checking for new Tumblr posts? Looking to soften those beastly manners of yours? Or, just trying to learn a bit more about your world this year than you did last year? Last week’s podcast highlights can help with all of this and more.

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Week in Review: Week of January 18, 2016

It’s not every week you have a podcast celebrating its 500th episode. For you grammar freaks out there, you know what I’m talking about. The Grammar Girl podcast celebrated its 500th episode with, …

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Readers’ Poll Results: Favorite New Podcast of 2015

The people have spoken and Lore came out the winner of the Pod Particle poll for Favorite New Podcast of 2015. Congratulations to Lore and thanks to everyone who voted.

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Most podcast listeners will be well aware that there was big news in podcasting last week with the beginning of Serial’s second season. Check out the “Week in Review” for last week if you’d like to find a few more podcast highlights worth a listen.

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If you’re still looking for a gift for the podcast lover in your life, I’ve just posted a few podcast-themed gift ideas to Pod Particle. From coffee to earrings to drink coasters, you’ll be amazed at the range of stuff you can get for your podcast nerd.

-Nathan, Pod Particle

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The wait is over. Season #2 of Serial is here! Let’s just say it’s a very complicated story…

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Week in Review: Week of November 30, 2015

Lincoln-Douglas. Kennedy-Nixon. Now, Pashman-Hodgman. Taking their place among the great debaters of U.S. history, The Sporkful podcast host Dan Pashman and writer, actor and comedian John Hodgman took to the podcast waves to argue one of the great issues of our time: Are hot dogs sandwiches? This history-making Sporkful podcast and other equally enjoyable shows are included in last week’s podcast highlights.

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Are you experiencing presidential election fatigue? Has your faith in humanity been shattered by the polls? Never fear, here’s a new poll to restore that faith. Vote for your favorite new podcast of 2015! The list of candidates is just as long as the presidential race, but this list is a lot more impressive:

The Friend Zone

The Allusionist

Limetown

Happier with Gretchen Rubin

Women of the Hour

Surprisingly Awesome

Mystery Show

The Black Tapes

WOMP It Up!

Hidden Brain

The Garbage Time Podcast with Katie Nolan

The Message

Magic Lessons

Spontaneanation

Lore 

Have a different favorite new podcast? You can enter it too and feel free to stump for it in the comments.

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Thanksgiving week means lots of travel for people across the country. There are plenty of suggestions out there for some good podcast companions for your Thanksgiving travels, but if you’re looking for some fresh podcast listening, here are just a few more. Last week’s podcast highlights should easily keep you entertained on your way to Grandma’s with big-name guests and tales of sex and near-death experiences.

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Week in Review: Week of November 9, 2015

Some say politics is theater, and I guess that makes politics podcasts theater for the ears. Last week saw the launch of a new politics podcast by NPR and an episode of another new podcast (The Mash-Up Americans) that took a look at the Trump family’s (yes that Trump family) immigrant history. Rather limit your intake of election coverage to some time closer to the actual election? There was plenty more going on in podcasting last week to keep you entertained.

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Military History

Battles, wars and important military figures from around the world.

For Veterans Day: a collection of military history.

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Week in Review: Week of November 2, 2015

Podcasters attempted to make use of last week’s collective time travel (i.e., coming off of daylight saving time) by offering up a slew of new shows to fill the hour we gained.  See the Week in Review for some of the more interesting new podcasts, including shows about science, sports, friendship and more. 

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If you’re a fan of aliens and a fan of podcasts, you’ve likely been listening to The Message for the last five weeks. If you haven’t, now’s the time to get in. The show is a limited-run, serialized sci-fi drama that is doing its best to channel the golden age of radio in this, what could be argued, the golden age of podcasts. Check out the link for my full review of The Message.

-Nathan, Pod Particle

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As you might have guessed, a ton of podcasts had special Halloween episodes this week. For that reason, I posted the Week in Review a little early because I thought it might just pod-”cast” a spell on you as you get ready for whatever it is you do to celebrate/ignore Halloween. (Sorry about the pun, they’re just so tempting this time of year.) The podcast highlights this week include extra-Halloweeny episodes of Stuff Mom Never Told You, I Was There Too, Selected Shorts, Nocturne and The Moth Podcast.

- Nathan, Pod Particle

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Last week’s podcast highlights include the story of a decades-old battle over Jim Thorpe’s remains that still goes on today. Thorpe’s wife had his body removed from a funeral ceremony in Oklahoma and taken to his current resting place in a town in Pennsylvania, which changed its name to “Jim Thorpe” so that it could be the home of his burial site. If you thought estate planning was difficult, I bet you never considered your family fighting over your body for 60 years. This story from Life of the Law and more are included in the podcast Week in Review for last week.

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Starting Monday, October 26th, you’ll have a chance to listen to something cool. Literally. A new podcast/audio documentary called Something Cool is coming to the Howl Premium audio service, and it’s designed to tell the story of unsung artists from the worlds of music, comedy and pop culture to a new group of fans. The podcast is the creation of executive producers Sarah Thyre (actor, comedian and writer) and Rachel Lichtman (writer and filmmaker), whom I had a chance to speak with ahead of the launch of their new show. If you’re looking for something cool to listen to, read on at the link. 

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When I find myself slipping into that self-pittying feeling I get when not everything in the world bends in my favor, it’s helpful to have a week of podcasts like last week’s to listen to. Hearing about people who were strong enough to work at the first all female radio station in the 1950s or stand up as the first openly gay star of 1930s Hollywood can hush that whiny voice in my head pretty quickly. Click on the link for my full article on last week’s podcast highlights, which include a number of inspirational firsts.

Photo: The number 1 by Timothy Krause, available under a Creative Commons License