What’s new to listen to
George Fenwick rounds up what we’re tuning into in the world of podcasts.
The A24 Podcast
Despite their increasingly stacked output of great movies, film studio A24’s in-house podcast is a fairly quiet beast, rearing its head only once every few months with a delightful and unexpected pairing of guests. The most recent episode was a treat for New Zealanders, Euphoria fans and everyone in the middle of that Venn diagram, with Lorde and Hunter Schafer – pictured above – teaming up for a chat about music, identity and the many shapes of womanhood. The conversation is a real charmer: both Lorde and Schafer are clearly great admirers of each other, and their conversation is at times timid, often beautifully inquisitive, and above all, very caring. I was moved by Schafer describing aspects of the trans experience she hopes to see in media moving forward and Lorde’s evocative descriptions of her life-changing journey to Antarctica. The pair also nerd out over astrology and discuss what it means to be a pop culture fan and creator. There are no spoilers for the new Euphoria season, so listen to your heart’s content.
Offline with Jon Favreau
This is a new(ish) podcast about the internet and, more specifically, the ways in which it is shaping the way we live, think and feel. Each episode features an interview with a particular artist, journalist, politician, writer or entertainer, discussing their relationship with the internet and social media and the ways in which is has both enlightened and harmed them. Favreau, known for Pod Save America, is an excellent interviewer, and these conversations help make some muchneeded sense of an online world that can feel alarmingly chaotic and noisy at times. The show also looks to the future and asks questions about how we may be able to safely regain control over our online lives. The very first interview was with Jia Tolentino, whose essay collection Trick Mirror contains one of the best pieces of writing about the internet I’ve ever read, and other guests include Monica Lewinsky, Alex Stamos and Stephen Colbert.
Am I Normal? with Mona Chalabi
If you’re anything like me, you’re insecure in basically everything you do, from major life decisions like where in the world to live, to tiny things like which combination of fruit makes the best smoothie. Beyond harassing my best friend over Messenger, with incessant requests to validate my decisions, I’ve found Am I Normal? with Mona Chalabi tobea great help, if not for solving my exact problems, then just for the reassurance that lots of others feel this way all the time. Each episode, data journalist Chalabi – pictured here – addresses a new life dilemma (Should I break the law? Should I freeze my eggs? Do I have enough friends?) and consults experts to flesh out a fuller picture. It shouldn’t surprise you that there are no clear answers to life’s problems in the podcast, but many episodes provide deeply compelling insights into human averages, and as Chalabi compares her own examples to these, there’s a lot of reassurance to be found here. Think of this podcast as free therapy: even where I couldn’t find answers to my problems, I at least realised I wasn’t the only one asking.