You mentioned in Craftversations that you listen to a lot of podcasts. Can you share what some of your favorites are? Thanks!

Aww, thanks for watching Craftversations! Re: favorite podcasts, I should probably specify that I mostly just listen to the same couple of podcasts quite often, because they have a lot of backlog episodes and I spend a lot of time in my car by myself. Here’s everything I’m currently subscribed to:

You Made it Weird with Pete Holmes - this is my current favorite, in which comedian Pete Holmes interviews his comedian-type friends. His style is very conversational, and he always asks them about their thoughts on bigger grander topics, like what they think happens in the afterlife. I quite enjoy it, because they’re not answering the same questions we always hear creative people answer (“how did you start doing X”, “what advice would you give a young person” etc. etc.), but rather we’re just hearing them talk like people about things we probably all think about. There’s a terrific blend of humor and psychology and philosophy and really, what more can you ask of a podcast? My favorite episodes are Jeannette McCurdy, John Mulaney, Jenny Slate, Mike Birbiglia, and Chelsea Peretti. Average runtime: 01:30:00 - 2:00:00 hours.

Scriptnotes with John August and Craig Mazin - it’s a podcast about screenwriting and things that are interesting to screenwriters, from the writers of Big Fish and The Hangover (II & III). I really enjoy their banter, and it’s nice to have a good conversation about writing to listen to each week to remind myself to get back to it. Of all the podcasts on this list, it’s the one I’ve been listening to the longest. Average runtime: 01:00:00 - 01:30:00 hours.

The Moth Radio Hour - I’ve recently just discovered storytelling (I’m currently taking a class on it at the Upright Citizens Brigade), but it’s a really rad story form and The Moth is kind of the pinnacle of storytelling. They’re usually 5-10 minute stories from people who share snippets from their lives, and it’s a really lovely podcast that features about 3-4 stories an episode. It’s often funny and poignant and sonder-fying to the max. Average runtime: 00:50:00 - 00:55:00 minutes.

Serial with Sarah Koenig - I’m not sure what it is exactly about Serial that made it take off as such a podcast phenomenon, but it went far beyond the standard This American Life episode in terms of its reporting. The first “season” is over now, but I can’t recommend it enough if you haven’t yet listened to it. It explores in meticulous depth the events surrounding the 1999 murder of a Baltimore teen girl. What I appreciated most was its critical examination of the complexities and imperfections of the American justice system, in a way that we haven’t been conditioned to think about given the good vs. evil narratives we see in fictional courtroom dramas and even in history textbook case studies. Average runtime: 00:45:00 - 00:50:00 minutes.

KCRW’s The Business - Kim Masters from The Hollywood Reporter does a weekly roundup of entertainment news (the kind of headlines you’d read about in Deadline), as well as an interview segment often with a relevant filmmaker each week. I’ve stopped checking my entertainment news sites as diligently now that I no longer work in an office, so The Business makes me feel quite productive when I listen to it.  Average runtime: 00:25:00 - 00:30:00 minutes.

Am I missing any great podcasts? Lemme know!