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At the surface level, Denny’s story is a modern semi-autobiographical reframing of the fable of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, about the life of Goldie (Drew Denny), an aspiring musician and runaway teenager throughout her romantic life as it becomes abusive, toxic, and a seemingly unbreakable cycle. Asking For It is an uncomfortably personal journey, and a representation of an oppressive elephantine issue that lurks in the shadows: the silence regarding domestic violence in queer relationships is a hundredfold that found in straight relationships, and we will not be able to address the problem until we start talking about it.

“I know we need to talk, but I don’t want to bring up anything complicated.”

I am twenty-three, and I am at a friend’s Halloween party that’s mostly people I don’t know, wearing a dress that hadn’t seen the light of day in a year, and there’s this punk lesbian, Maria, who has arrived with another girl dressed as a glittering fairy.

Maria is adorable, dryly sarcastic and clever, and apparently she ended up here after meeting the fairy at a bar the night before. We lean back on huge sofas studded with holes and cat scratches, and throughout the night, the fairy keeps calling her by a name she doesn’t like, a nickname she finds grating.

Her requests for the fairy to stop it go ignored.

“How do you solve a problem if you’re only speaking to half the people who experience it?” Drew Denny asks rhetorically, into the staticky air between the three of us in my memory.

Myself, Denny, and Kaitlin Prest, the CEO of Mermaid Palace, are on the phone with me, talking about Asking For It and all the topics gnarled up within it. Denny is honest about her approach and her fears about this podcast, as it goes into places media very rarely does: deep into queer sex, relationships, violence, abuse, and inherited trauma.

Discussions about and portrayals of domestic violence and abuse are often conversations directed exclusively towards survivors, and “rightfully so,” as Denny says. But Denny, and Prest, wanted to complicate the story:

“There are people perpetrating abuse, and I do believe those people need to be spoken to as well if we hope to address the problem,” Denny says.

Read more: CBC’s “The Shadows” Will Teach You What a Love Story Really Is

At the tail end of 2020, hidden amid the copious goodbyes to a hellish year, North Carolina’s Court of Appeals determined that queer people are protected by the state’s domestic violence laws as equally as straight people, becoming the final, fiftieth state of the United States to do so.

Queer folks are now entitled to the protections under all domestic violence laws, which vary in form and execution from state to state. And now, of course, vary greatly federally since the Trump administration changed the definition of domestic violence in 2019.

I scrolled past these headlines with a certain leaden feeling of exhaustion, one that didn’t go away when faced with astonishment, surprise, or celebration. I understand it is meaningful and momentous for conservative hold-outs to finally include your specific marginalized community under its wings. It feels like progress. Perhaps it is.

I will not couch this in rhetorical questions: domestic violence laws in the United States, where domestic violence offenders are able to legally acquire a gun after conviction, are useless. My jaded opinion is that now we’re ready to do absolutely nothing about domestic violence for everyone legally. Including punishing survivors.

Goldie meets Coach (Kaitlin Prest) in an electrified, heart-stopping moment backstage at her first major gig. Coach is hurricane made into a woman, who lectures Goldie about sex after pushing her face into a sink full of water without discussion, ghosts her, and then begins to control every aspect of her life.

It’s an absolute whirlwind of a toxic romance, and you get swept up in it too, between Goldie whispering, “It’s fine,” in your ear and the rushed, trembling dance beats of the podcast’s soundtrack by Hips. “We make the best of it,” Goldie says bravely, “it’s nice to be needed, to be useful.”

“Love,” Goldie tells us, when Coach expresses suicidal ideation, with the fervor of someone who knows this must be true, “is the point.”

“I literally met you last night at a bar,” Maria says in exasperation.

My friends have a house safeword of “seriously” for parties, in order to clearly indicate when you need a conversation shift or for something in a conversation to stop. I can read the insecurity and uncomfortable feeling in the set of Maria’s shoulders, in the way she’s trying to not hold the drunk fairy swaying in her lap.

“You can use ‘seriously’,” I tell her, “to get her to stop. House safeword.”

“Seriously,” Maria says immediately.  “Stop calling me that.”

The fairy just laughs.

Asking For It was birthed as a comedy stand-up set.

Dark comedy, the kind that survivors of violence use in order to talk about trauma without immediately depressing everyone in the vicinity, but comedy. Muted threads of that still exist in the podcast, because Denny is a videographer who cast her real life friend to join her in a road trip across the country to scatter her real dad’s real ashes to make a comedy about death. It’s in her nature.

“I am really fascinated by that line between truth and fiction and how I almost feel like you need one to do the other.”  Denny’s first love, greatest love, is video, especially documentaries. “ I’ve made so many documentaries and there’s so much manipulation of the work that some people don’t,” she huffs. “There’s so much shaping of the story in documentaries; very rarely are you just seeing a true fact portrayed without bias. And in fiction, you know, for me, if it’s something that gets me to really laugh out loud or something that gets me to cry… I know there’s something true in there.”

 It’s been about two minutes, and the fairy has tried to cajole her date into “being nicer.”

I haven’t ever really encountered someone at these parties who ignores the house safeword. I’m baffled, frozen in my chair with the single drink I have been nursing all night, and someone else appears out of some hidden corner and gently takes the fairy away.

We sit there, surrounded by an enormous amount of noise and music and chatter, in what feels like a totally silent time bubble.

“Why did you come?” I ask Maria.

“I don’t know,” she says. “I just… did.”

You know how sometimes you look back on something and you realized you missed every signpost, every warning, every cue?

I swapped numbers with Maria that night, my only real successful attempt at doing that in my life. And then we went on a coffee date.

Denny stepped into the world of audio creation with a fear that I have heard expressed far too often.

“I feel like anytime you make something with queer characters as a queer creator, I brace myself for the people who say, ‘How dare you show us in this light?’ And I think that’s a really dangerous mentality. Queer abuse is underreported because we want to protect our own.”

Denny’s right.

In 2010, the CDC released the results of National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey that showed more bisexual women (61%) and lesbian women (44%) experience various forms of intimate partner violence at some point in their lifetime than heterosexual women (35%). As remarked upon by such authors and activists as Toni Newman, queer people of color suffer even higher rates of violence. The 2015 US Transgender Study, the largest survey of transgender people ever conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality, found that 54% of respondents experienced some form of intimate partner violence and of their Black responsdents alone, more than half experienced some form of intimate partner violence in their lifetime.

In 2012, fewer than 5% of queer survivors of intimate partner violence sought legal protection in the US, a year before queer people were explicitly added to the Violence Against Women Act.

In 2017, that same report found 60% of queer survivors interacted with law enforcement and 47% of those found law enforcement indifferent towards them; 11% said law enforcement was actively hostile. We don’t know how many of these respondents called law enforcement themselves.

A small Australian study conducted by Relationships Australia New South Wales (RANSW) and ACON (formerly the AIDS Council of NSW) found that domestic family and intimate partner violence was perceived as a “heterosexual issue that did not easily apply to LGBTQ relationships” and that queer relationships can “avoid the inherent sexism and patriarchal values of heterosexual, cisgender relationships” and, therefore, also avoid domestic violence. But queer relationships can and do experience domestic abuse, and even experience special forms of abuse that cisgender, heterosexual relationships cannot, in particular using forced outing as a deterrent from or barrier to seeking help and a tool for abuse.

I have never believed that queer people do not suffer from abuse in their relationships. I did not have the opportunity to do so when I was in the process of realizing I’m queer. I would have thought I’d have been able to see the signs, especially if I were actively seeking physical and emotional comfort with someone.

When I first heard Goldie say to the audience, “Everyone asks themself at some point, how did I get here?” when facing down her second partner’s loaded gun, I was sitting on my sofa in my living room getting ready to write a version of this article for the first time.

Maria’s face whispered to me in my mind for some reason, but I ignored it. I’d be conducting an interview soon with Denny and Prest, and I had to focus. But I kept thinking about Maria. I shrugged it off as a coincidence, since Maria had, to date, been the only lesbian I’d dated.

“A lot of the time, the way that [abusive relationships] are represented is very polarized. Like, there’s the monster and the victim,” Prest describes when we’re 20 minutes deep into a conversation about mainstream media’s representation of domestic violence. “And I think that polarized thinking actually really prevents people from seeing themselves in that role of the monster. And if we continue to only represent people who are doing these things as monsters, then that also prevents victims from identifying their own partner and their loved ones as the person who’s perpetrating the abuse.

“Because they’re like, ‘Oh, this isn’t this isn’t a monster. This is my love.'”

Have you ever had that moment where you literally drop whatever it is you’re holding, because you’ve had an unwelcome realization about something you can’t do anything about anymore?

“She’s not a monster or anything,” Maria had said to me in the coffeeshop, a week after I first met her at that party. The fairy at the party has been a bit of a rebound, a search for companionship, after a recent sour break-up that Maria both wanted and didn’t want to talk about. “I mean, she was my girlfriend.” Maria falters, and then asks me if I’ve ever seen The L-Word.

I can hear a blip in the background of the recording during this part of the conversation, behind Prest’s words. It’s me, because I’d had to physically stifle my voice as Maria’s mannerisms, her decisions when we had sex, her turns of phrase coalesced into a picture of someone holding a neon sign that says, “I AM AN ABUSE VICTIM.”

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We didn’t get a chance to talk about it. She ghosted after a few dates, and I never realized what was going on. I never noticed the mistakes I had made, that I can see now plain as day, because I didn’t realize she was an abuse survivor. Because we didn’t talk about it. Because I hadn’t learned as well as I had thought what these things can look like in other people.

This is what happens when abuse narratives in media are only focused on cishet couples, and this is what happens when queer people don’t let queer creators make queer stories that paint us in a darker light. That portray us as human.

This is why Asking For It remains one of the most impactful podcasts I’ve ever experienced, and one of the most compassionate.

I don’t think I ever would have noticed the signs without Goldie and Coach. I am not the same person after experiencing their stories, and neither will you be. If we create more narratives like theirs, more people will be able to hear it all sooner–in themselves, in their friends, in their loved ones–and perhaps then, collectively, we can push for change.

The post “Asking for It” Wants Honesty about Queer Domestic Violence appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

“Public radio has grappled with its diversity problem for decades, and yet it remains a largely white, largely male industry,” notes Celeste Headlee, the letter creation team’s lead and former public media host with NPR, PBS, and PRI. “When we began this work, we were all reeling from George Floyd’s death (and Brianna and Ahmaud, among too many others) and from the exposure of long-standing discrimination and harassment at several public radio stations. We were angry and upset and ready to fight to force our leaders to implement anti-racist policies.”

The letter comes during a long and arduous fight for anti-racist workplaces and reporting across public media that has been pushed into the light, in part thanks to the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements. Diversity reports from NPR have long shown that Black voices are rarely reporting on Black stories and that upper management is overwhelmingly white and male. Even though audiences and employees have been pushing for more diversity, and even though this diversity rhetoric has been at the forefront in public spheres for years, white employees make up almost 71% of NPR’s staff. Between 2015 and 2019, NPR’s staff showed a 3.5% increase in Latinx employees, a 0.8% increase in Black employees, and much less than even that for every other person of color.

“A Vision for an Anti-Racist Future” also arrives while several public radio stations and public media organizations are grappling publicly with the effects of their ongoing racist reporting policies.

Last month, The New York Times was forced to retract the bulk of reporting for Caliphate, a podcast about ISIS based heavily on the stories told by Shehroze Chaudhry, a 26-year-old arrested by Canadian police in September 2020 on a terrorism hoax charge. Just this weekend, Michael Barbaro delivered his apology on Twitter, a day after New York Times’ The Daily was pulled from four major radio stations; it was, unsurprisingly, not well-received.

Also in September, Martin Di Caro was finally dismissed from WAMU for a long history of sexual harassment at the station, after a flurry of departures by employees of color, specifically women of color. These events are only some of the more recent turmoils that public media has faced in terms of their lack of adept handling of racism and sexism in the workplace.

“A Vision for an Anti-Racist Future” addresses these hiring practices and payment structures, demanding that every station have a proportionally representative demographic of the community it serves. It also envisions a full pay transparency policy and standardized chart in order to address the wealth gap between people of color and white people, especially Black women who are undervalued and face extreme bias when negotiating for their salaries.

The third section details equity and accountability in training and professional development, with a vision of competent and accountable leadership when it comes to commitments of justice and equity. As noted here, “public media leadership is dominated by whites” at 87 percent, a managerial system that is failing both its responsibility towards Black journalists and its need to attract the next generation of journalists.

In covering this letter, Discover Pods reached out to a few signers to talk about the letter’s intent and why they had signed it. Keisha Dutes, co-executive producer over at Spoke Media, described her experience with job-hunting in 2020 as a Black woman.

“When the uprisings were happening in the summer of 2020, I had just gotten laid off, and you know how the industry is, people know that.” This is how digital media industries work, especially ones that run heavily on hiring contractors and freelancers: when people get laid off, everyone knows it thanks to the grapevine and social media boosting their request for work. “It was such a weird thing to be laid off in the middle of an uprising [. . .] and then being solicited for jobs and going into interviews at this time, when you’re the most mentally exhausted.”

This phenomenon last year could be seen all over several industries: opportunities for Black people to have manuscripts checked and pitches accepted, to come in for interviews or apply for grants. The lack of concern for people who most likely do not have the mental and emotional resources to fill out forms, complete an interview, or polish off a manuscript was transparent in these moments.

Read more: How to make your podcast more accessible using transcripts

Dutes explains, “When you’re an interviewee, you don’t have any power. But as the interviewer, if you zoom out and the conversation is about how to best support Black people and workers, it was very weird that in their fervor to hire ‘good’ Black workers, interviewers would often overstep and not realize that they’re asking for a lot of attention in a time that is very terrible. Coronovarius, uprisings, people getting killed, the cops rolling up on Black Lives Matter, all this replaying over and over on the news.

“And then they’re talking about oh well, if you’re stressed then take a break.” Dutes laughs. “I can’t take a break if people more powerful than me are asking for my time. I think folks are so into getting into this diversity shit and inclusion shit, and they aren’t even realizing that the people they’re targeting are people.”

Morgan Givens, an independent podcast producer who used to work as a producer on 1A at WAMU–and who is not signing the letter–agrees.

“If we don’t do what they want us to do, there’s a problem. Because there were things they wanted me to do, but they wanted me to do it in a way that would continue to uphold white supremacy and would have made me a token. And I’m not about being a token. I’m not anyone’s token.”

People at his station asked Givens to apply for an open host spot at Pop Culture Happy Hour, right before the news broke about Di Caro, and Givens expressed how flabbergasted he was. “Why would I want to join y’all when you can’t even recognize the issues you have within your journalistic departments, you can’t even recognize it within headquarters, you can’t recognize it within your member stations? And you think I want to join something called Pop Culture Happy Hour where I am going to have to, [in order] to do my job well, not hold back at all when it comes to talking about different systems of oppression and how they manifest themselves in art.  At NPR? No thanks!”

This letter is a vision plan, full of hope and concrete actionable steps that public radio leadership needs to take in order to improve their working conditions for their Black and brown employees. And, as mentioned earlier, it hopes to help decrease income disparity and attract more journalists. Givens elaborates on what the future will look like if something doesn’t change:

“[Public radio are] getting themselves into a situation where they don’t have a lock on our ability to reach people and they’re going to suffer what is colloquially known as browndrain. Who do they think is going to want to try to work with them?”

When asked why he isn’t signing the letter, Givens expressed both support of his friends and colleagues who have signed the letter and a deep, understandable frustration with repeating the same story over and over.

“At a certain point, if they need a letter still, I don’t know how to help them. If they still need me to sign my name to a letter that has the list of all the things they already know to do, I’m not doing that. We’ve done this before and we’ve done it before and we’ve done it before. I feel like we’re past the point where we need to be sending these people open letters. We are past that point where we ask them to meet us where we are because we have been asking them to meet us and they say, ‘We’ll get there when we get there.'”

The United States is now two weeks past the January 6 insurrection at the United States Capitol, and two days from Joseph Biden’s presidential inauguration. Notably, several public mainstream media outlets did not call the attack an insurrection or coup during the entire day (and some still have not). Headlee has said, “In my opinion, [what happened two weeks ago] in DC is directly related to the tolerance of bigotry and racism at all levels in our society, including our workplaces and our newsrooms. We wanted to take a stand and now, thanks to the dedicated work of hundreds of public radio employees, we can.” (Farai Chideya, host of Our Body Politic, recently updated her 2016 article “The Call-to-Whitness” to talk about how public media’s responsibility in this outcome).

Givens states plainly that “public radio is a problem: they both sides everything to death. The problem I am seeing with these institutions is that they have fallen for the lie that the truth is partisan. The truth is the truth; the partisan people will twist the truth to make it partisan.”

Read more: Podcast Spotlight: Latina to Latina

The letter ends with sections on the transformation of coverage and accountability, particularly “ending the pursuit of objectivity,” a journalistic standard that upholds white supremacist and oppressive structures in the newsroom and in the media. It is why the coverage on the insurrection at the Capitol looks so different from coverage of the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020. Journalistic objectivity is a standard that actively prevents people from telling the truth, as happened to Lewis Wallace with this article that led to his firing from Marketplace in 2017. As he says there, “We should own the fact that to tell the stories and promote the voices of marginalized and targeted people is not a neutral stance from the sidelines, but an important front in a lively battle against the narrow-mindedness, tyranny, and institutional oppression that puts all of our freedoms at risk.”

The pursuit of objectivity would typically consider me, a signer, ineligible from reporting on the letter, even though I signed due to my first-hand experience with the issues the letter has addressed. Why would someone lacking that experience understand the letter and its intent more than myself?

And even though Dutes signed the letter and Givens did not, their thoughts on the matter remain closely aligned for their entire interviews, to the point where they used the same phrases and referenced the same experiences — because all of this racism keeps happening, continuously, because we have not yet done the work to dismantle the structures that enable its existence.

Quoted from the letter’s introduction, “The first public report on public radio in 1978, decades ago, said that ‘public radio has been asleep at the transmitter’ on issues of race.” This is the root of Givens’ reasoning.

“I’m not going to keep letting them say oh, we’re listening, we’re working on it. No, you’re not. You’re lying to me because you said that last year. And you said that the year before. And you said that a decade ago. And you said that in the 60s, and in the 50s. You’re lying. Stop lying to me; be honest and come out and say you don’t want to do the work.”

Both Dutes and Givens, though interviewed separately, commented on being pushed into a trope by public radio: the Magical Negro. When hiring Black people, public radio still assumes their new hires will be the ones to fix the workplace, instead of fixing their own workplace to make it safe for Black people.

Dutes discussed this trope when talking about turning job opportunities down: “I realized what it means to say no and how the conversation changes when these places call you to be their Magical Negro. And how the tone changes when I say I’m not interested. It’s, ‘Wait, did she just say no? Did she just say she’d rather stay out of work?’ [. . .] I think we, as people of color and especially Black people, the mode of conversation in talking about us is as though we are all underprivileged and we need their help. So how dare you not take this thing I gave you?”

Givens cited the trope when discussing how he views public radio these days: “I question whether public radio is worth saving because it does not seem like it wants to save itself. I am not going to be out here trying to save something that has no desire to save itself, was not made for me […] Why am I trying to hold on to something that has clearly shown through the years that does not care about me and mine when I can make something new? I am sick of us being called in to fix the problems they created when this is something that no longer had to be a problem.”

“I’m not here to be their Magical Negro,” Givens stated flatly.

And Dutes is not here to fix anyone’s diversity problem because “a lot of independent houses and other audio creation places are built by people who are offshoots of public media. They bring the same attitude and structure to their new workplaces, because if that’s what you know [. . .] you should be improving, but a lot of times, people are rebuilding the same structures that they came from under the guise of new, and improved, and better. You can’t be new and improved and better if you’re just imitating your old boss.”

Dutes expressed what this letter requires from signers for it to be successful. “People have to live this letter. Are you living this letter? You can’t have this standard for your job, and not have this standard at home. If you can’t talk to your kids about racism, about sexism, about all the -isms, you’re not living it. I need you to talk to your kids, I need you to talk to your spouses, I need you to live it, and then come and tell me about how we’re going to do this shit at work.”

You can read the letter and the list of signers here.

The post Over 200 Audio Professionals Sign Anti-Racist Open Letter to Public Media appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

These are 16 podcasts that are powerful, educational examinations into language, society, and linguistics, the study of language. They’ll cover all kinds of linguistics from syntax and morphology to forensics and sociolinguistics, from historical linguistics to digital communication, and so much more. I’m going to be recommending some of my favorite episodes here for each podcast; a few of the entries are a single episode that happens to talk about language as a central part of the podcast’s overarching conversation.

Additionally, 2019 is the International Year of Indigenous Languages. I’ve included a few podcasts that deal specifically with the education and support of Indigenous languages and the conversation around their revitalization. Look up what Indigenous languages are looking for support in your area, and how you can help them.

Word Up

There’s very little media in the mainstream that celebrates and uplifts the languages of Indigenous cultures and Word Up, a podcast produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, does just that. Word Up explores words from any one of the many Australian Aboriginal languages with a guest who goes in detail into what the word means to them, what meaning it carries, and what resonates for them. Keeping these languages alive is vital, and Word Up helps do its part.

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The Allusionist

More than 100 episodes deep into The Allusionist, many people have found a kindred spirit in host Helen Zaltzman who is fascinated with language’s quirks and evolution and the transitive relationship between language and society. Zaltzman is absolutely one of the funniest podcast hosts out there, with a natural quickness to her humor that plays off well with her interview guests. This is the podcast to go to if you need to learn not just facts about language, but about the wild and cool ways people interact with language like in the episode “Words into Food” where Zaltzman interviews Kate Young, a chef who cooks foods from literature.

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Lingthusiasm

Linguistics Lauren Gawne and Gretchen McCulloch (author of Because Internet) are the two excited and warm hosts of Lingthusiasm, a podcast that truly reflects its name. For thirty minutes, you can sit down and excitedly trek down the path of fascinating questions about language and often debunking myths, like about what counts as a real word (spoiler alert: they’re all real words). Gawne and McCulloch take seriously the task of making these linguistic questions accessible and comprehensible to a listener who isn’t in the middle of a linguistics class, and to keep it to a half-hour or so in order to prevent information overload.

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Talk Talk: Indigenous Languages and Storytelling

Talk Talk is an exploration of Indigenous language and storytelling, between Kyas Sherriff and respected Elder Uncle Bruce Pascoe. The languages of First Nations Australia are connected to people who are alive and thriving today, so this conversation is rooted in a necessity to be aware of the relationships to country and one of the oldest living cultures in the world. Talk Talk is very intimate, deeply moving and emotional; language is about more than just words and grammar, but about knowledge and identity and how we pass those ideas down.

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Lexicon Valley

Slate’s Lexicon Valley is one of the longest-running language-focused podcasts, having been running for seven years and now hosted by John McWhorter. McWhorter is a consummate, entertaining host who breaks down etymology, syntax, historical linguistics, and sociolinguistics for people who may not be linguists. Lexicon Valley winds its way through dialect changes, the death of languages, and the effect of the internet on language–and that includes discussing the magic of languages beyond English too.

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Accentricity

Accentricity focuses on accents and dialect, and how the glorious expanse of variation results in linguistic prejudice. Host Sadie Durkacz Ryan, a PhD in sociolinguistics and education, is a lovely interviewer, who makes sure to interview more than just academics; she includes college students and other language speakers in her communities that speak about how people have perceived them because of their accents. If you’re wondering about things like how it’s possible that someone “doesn’t have an accent” (spoiler alert again: everyone has an accent) or how you seem to speak differently depending on where you are, cue up Accentricity for a calm and cheerful vibe.

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En Clair

En clair is the podcast for people who love the story about how a forensic linguist figured out that J.K. Rowling was the author of The Cuckoo’s Calling, as it is a podcast all about forensic linguistics and its intersection with mysteries and crime. Dr. Claire Hardaker researches cases that range from murder to plagiarism to digital crimes to cryptography, and narrates a cohesive story that doesn’t linger in the gruesome and instead narrows in on the clues and discoveries people made throughout. 

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All My Relations: Can Our Ancestors Hear Us?

This episode of All My Relations, one of Discover Pods’ Best Podcasts of 2019 So Far, is an enormous undertaking of collecting stories from across many Nations about the power of Indigenous languages and the work being done to revitalize them. Dr. Adrienne Keene and Matika Wilbur are, as always, incredible hosts who engage thoughtfully and critically. They have collected so many stories from different Nations and communities, because the language loss suffered is overarching, the histories are distinct, and these are voices that must be heard. There’s hope for resurgence there, too.

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Rough Translation

This NPR podcast wants to break out of the echo chambers, and discover how all kinds of things are being talked about in places that aren’t the US. Their current season discovers rebels and rule-breakers, who are changing the conversations that have been entrenched in culture and society. This is a beautiful, often heart-wrenching season, of people who have changed lives or changed their own all over the world; definitely check out “We Don’t Say That”, about changing racist terminology in France.

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The Vocal Fries

The Vocal Fries takes its title from the term “vocal fry” (or “creaky voice”), a term which immediately comes loaded with sexist and misogynist implications due to its association with young women (even though everyone uses it; yes, even you, young man). Hosts Carrie Gillon and Dr. Megan Figueroa focus on linguistic discrimination, and how to stop being an accidental jerk when it comes to judging people because of their language, via deep dives with linguists on language around subjects like reproductive justice, language revitalization, and inclusive language.

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Hoodrat to Headwrap: Everybody wanna be black til its time to be white: Non-Black POC & AAVE in Service to Antiblackness

Sex educator and speaker Ericka Hart, along with their partner Ebony Donnley, host the podcast Hoodrat to Headwrap: a decolonized podcast. This is a beautiful podcast where listeners sit in on a conversation between Hart and Donnley as they break down tangled topics like colorism, gentrification, and linguistic appropriation, from a queer Black lens. This episode from Hoodrat to Headwrap is an impressive ripping apart of the appropriation of AAVE and intersection with colorism, historical eugenics, and the rampant effects of colonization, using the experiences of their own distinct upbringings and knowledge.

“People love this idea of Blackness, but they don’t think from whence it sprang, and this idea of Blackness comes from the condition of having been othered.”

Ebony Donnley

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The Stoop: The problem with “sounding white”

The storytelling on The Stoop is from the Black diaspora and about how we talk about Blackness with hosts Leila Day and Hana Baba, often a close and emotional investigation that is partly a semi-scripted conversation between the two and party interviews with incredible guests. This classic episode, “The problem with ‘sounding white’”, is about the accusation of “sounding white” and what that means in different contexts. There’s discussion with poet and playwright Chinaka Hodge about r-fullness and performance, a talk with Joshua Johnson about being on national radio and assumed to be white, and Day and Baba being delightful and honest about their histories and how it’s affected them.

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Code Switch

Code Switch is one of NPR’s preeminent outlets and podcasts, one that studies the interweaving of race, ethnicity, identity, and culture. The term code switch refers to the linguistic tactic that occurs when people move between multiple languages and dialects. Some of my favorite episodes are the ones that deal directly with language and linguistic phenomena, like the episode embedded below “Talk American”, about what is called the “Standard American Accent”.

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Subtext

Have you ever wondered what the person you’re interested in meant by that ellipsis? Or why someone you’re dating sent something with SO many emojis? Subtext endeavors to answer all those dating and relationship questions with the combined knowledge of Michelle McSweeney, a linguist, and Sarah Ellis, a millenial (as they introduce themselves; Ellis is also a reporter and writer for Elite Daily). This is a fascinating podcast on digital dating communication, shifting focus on different aspects according to the needs of listeners who call in with their baffling, annoying, and difficult questions. The best part is that McSweeney and Ellis are incredibly empathetic, something incredibly necessary for this work, and it makes for an incredible journey in each episode.

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Unreserved

Hosted by Rosanna Deerchild, CBC’s Unreserved features interviews and stories about and for Indigenous Canada, about topics like repatriation, Inuit art fostering healing, and Indigenous cinema. One of their special series’ is ‘First Words’, a short episode where a special guest teaches listeners certain phrases or words in their language and what parts of their own personal history they’re connected to. They often also celebrate their guest’s accomplishments, like the winners of The Amazing Race Canada in the episode below (you will absolutely cry). It’s a wonderful celebration of the huge variety of Indigenous languages in Canada.

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Little Yarns

This children’s podcast from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation takes listeners on new journeys every episode to a different part of Australia and learning words from Indigenous languages. This podcast is a wonderful way to introduce younger listeners to Indigenous cultures and stories, as it provides concrete contexts and sounds for them to associate to the new word, with gentle music in the background.

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The post 16 Podcasts that Explore the Mystery and Beauty of Language appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

Adam Hayes seems like a whiz kid in the way you expect: a natural talent for debate and public speaking, placed in the super-special math class, and, unsurprisingly, bullied. Adam’s biggest problem is his depression, and how it impacts every aspect of his life, until his biggest problem becomes Caleb Michaels. Caleb’s cute and Adam definitely has a crush, but worst of all, he’s incredibly perceptive and Adam can’t seem to hide around him. And maybe the reason Adam can’t lie about what he’s feeling isn’t because he’s gotten bad at hiding his emotions.

Lauren Shippen’s The Infinite Noise is a heart-warming story of young love, a story that lingers on allowing two teenage boys to feel their feelings and grow to love one another in a thoughtfully rendered fashion. The story takes place during the events of Shippen’s award-winning, critically-acclaimed audio drama podcast The Bright Sessions, but focuses solely on the dual perspectives of Caleb and Adam. This book is a gem for the long-time fans who followed Caleb and Adam in the podcast, but does not leave adrift readers who haven’t listened, which makes The Infinite Noise another wonderful entry point to the world of Atypicals.

No matter what genre Shippen’s writing, she doesn’t lose sight of what’s most important for the story at hand. In The Infinite Noise, it’s a story about teenagers falling in love and learning how to communicate and process their emotions. The supernatural is there too: learning how to process is both aided and hampered by Caleb being an empath, but the mysterious supernatural conspiracies take a backseat to their blossoming relationship. The conspiracies in question don’t even show up in full force until the final chapters, and even then, it’s entirely through the lens of what it could mean for Caleb and Adam.

There is something precious about having a teenage, queer relationship in a space where they’re able to explore that openly and with a support network. Shippen doesn’t gloss over the reality of being openly queer, but she does give Caleb and Adam loving families, each in their own way, and school companions who grow to be friends. This is the kind of story I want to cradle in my hands and protect, because too often, queer kids have to put their feelings into a box and close the lid to keep themselves safe. Too often, they keep their secrets so deeply buried it eats them from the inside. I know, because I was that queer kid; maybe you, too, are that queer kid.

This is why Caleb’s empathy powers are so important. Through them, Caleb’s able to overcome the pull of toxic masculinity that Shippen refers to via side characters like the school bully, Tyler, and another creepy superpowered patient, Damien, and even via his own relationship with anger. He’s able to identify Adam’s “black sludge” of depression, and describe an exhausting all-consuming fog that puts Caleb to sleep. Shippen’s dual perspective is crucial in her presentation of depression. Through Caleb’s powers, she depicts emotion and sensation through gorgeous metaphor, in a way that those who haven’t experienced it could relate to and in a way that never blames Adam for what he’s feeling. In Adam’s voice, Shippen gets right to the heart of the matter, and depicts a teenager trying his best to claw his way out of a hole that leads, sometimes, to self-harm.

Adam’s depression is multifaceted, and self-harm is not the only way it manifests, but most importantly, the power of love is not a cure-all. Shippen’s approach to Adam’s mental illness is refreshing, an honest and realistic portrayal of all of the caveats and reasons people with depression give ourselves to make it to the next day, or feel safe to stay in bed and not move for hours. He refrains from giving in to the desire to harm himself not because it would cause him pain, but because it would cause his parents pain and that, as he notes, is unacceptable. It’s these small and big reasons–like looking forward to debate prep or to a text message from Caleb–that mirror what it’s like to live with depression, and that drove home for me how tasteful and gentle Shippen is with Adam.

The Infinite Noise is the first book of a trilogy set in The Bright Sessions‘ universe, a supernaturally-tinged fantastic young adult novel where superpowers are not a solution to life’s problems. In fact, Caleb’s superpowers tend to make his life more difficult, to the point where he regrets how he’s changed his family’s life and forgets that he has his own emotions, and that those have value, too. This has all of the best parts of The Bright Sessions embedded within: a story that’s more about the characters and their growth rather than about conspiracies. The Infinite Noise is warm and tender, with little melodrama and a lot of care for teenagers finding purpose and love all while learning how to stake their claim in the world.

Buy the Book: IndieBound | Barnes & Noble | Amazon

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The post An Atypical Love Story: Lauren Shippen’s “The Infinite Noise” appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

(Also, I genuinely did drop my head onto my desk while doing some re-listening for this list and took a nap, so thanks for bringing some shuteye into my workday, podcasts.)

Sleepy

In the tradition of our childhoods, Otis Gray reads classic stories in the public domain to help listeners go to sleep. Gray’s presence in this podcast is warm, calm, and inviting, and best for those who like deeper voices; he doesn’t rush through anything nor does he linger dramatically to encourage tension. I highly suggest starting with stories that you already know and love, so that you can achieve the maximum effect of having a beloved story read to you at bedtime again.

Nothing Much Happens: Bedtime Stories for Grown-ups

This scripted podcast doesn’t really have a plot, and that’s the point. Cleverly using second person, Kathryn guides the you in this story through a lovingly detailed and descriptive experience of a calming or happy event, like baking bread or enjoying an unexpected nap. The narrator’s voice is soothing, great for those who prefer higher and breathier voices, and best of all, each episode tells the story twice. The second time, she slows down her speech and lengthens her pauses, which makes this a great podcast for regulating and timing breathing for me.

Sleep with Me

I would be remiss to not include Sleep with Me on this list. Creator Drew Ackerman, or Scooter, blends the need to giggle and to find relief from insomnia to create bedtime stories for adults who, in particular, might be lonely in their insomnia. Ackerman’s voice is kindness personified, best for people who prefer creaky and higher-toned voices, and good at rambling, tumbling words one over the other. If you’re looking for another story where you don’t have to worry about anything happening, Sleep with Me will help.

On a Dark, Cold Night

In a neat twist to the format, this is a horror anthology podcast designed to also be soothing, and I swear by this podcast. Kristen Zaza’s vocal quality is raspy, deep, and slow, a perfect combination to unwind with. Her writing, however, cannot be missed; if you decide to just listen to this for the storytelling while awake, you won’t be disappointed. This is such a difficult concept to execute well–to use a genre that normally is associated with tension and no sleep to help put people to sleep–and Zaza nails it by sticking firmly in the realm of eerie, strange, and sometimes sad.

Slow Radio

The BBC’s Slow Radio is all about slowing down in an active world, and viscerally experiencing sound. This is a headphones-on, eyes closed podcast, so that the sounds of whatever they’ve recorded can take on full color in your brain. I’ve replayed the forgotten, vintage technology sounds episode a million times, because in between clicks and clacks, there’s the silence where every sounds hangs in the air. If you want the sounds of walking through nature or standing in the lives of monks in their monastery, Slow Radio has your back and will help you slow down for a little while.

One Third of Life

One Third of Life’s Zane C. Weber reads Wikipedia articles on religion and mythology for an hour, backed by looped piano and violin classical music. Occasionally, the music becomes blended with electronic beeps and tones, which feels natural somehow against Weber’s whispery, yet resonant voice. Against the music, his voice is just low enough to become a hum when you’re slipping into REM.

Stories from the Borders of Sleep

The backlog of this podcast is one of my fondest loves. Creator Seymour Jacklin writes cute, fantasy stories, often fabulist or dreamy, as they draw inspiration from his dreams. This is perfect for children as well, and fun to escape with even if all you need is a few minutes of being somewhere else. This is a perfect bedtime story podcast, and I have been known to just set up a huge stream of stories in my queue and transform my ceiling into another, safer world.

Bedtime Stories for Nobody

Kai Stewart’s weird little podcast combines poetic language with odd stories, narrated by Stewart’s own rich alto. The stories and poems vary widely in length, and occasionally in style, but even spending a couple of minutes listening to these strange worlds can help me remember how to breathe deeply and unclench my jaw. If you prefer your sleep-friendly podcast to be a brief companion, a small part of a nightly routine to help your brain learn that it’s time to go to sleep, Bedtime Stories for Nobody will fill in that space neatly and with quiet confidence.

Sleep Whispers

While only the latest 6 or so episodes are available for free on the feed, Sleep Whispers is the podcast to go to if you like very soft whispers that are close miced, so you can hear the click of every t and d and the sibilant hiss of every s. This podcast triggers my ASMR so that every part of the back of my neck tingles, so if these kinds of sounds are for you, you may want to listen to host Harris read something just a little bit interesting, but not so much that the squirrels in our brains are fully engaged.

Sleep Meditation Podcast

Another one for the ASMR crowd, the Sleep Meditation Podcast is for those of us who would prefer no one speak at all. With over 200 episodes available, you can indulge in lengthy rainstorms, soft ocean waves, and gently pulsing, rhythmic music. I’ve used this to help guide me through yoga and meditation, as well as the style of white noise I need to fall asleep.

The post 10 Relaxation and Sleep Podcasts So Effective, I Nearly Fell Asleep Writing this List appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

If you have to ask “but is it fiction or nonfiction?”, the answer is “yes”. These episodes sit at the junction between an audio essay and poetic reimagining. Some episodes are based on real events in Sutherland’s life, and others are science-fiction creations, but they all speak to some part of ourselves or our interaction with the world that we hadn’t considered in that kind of detail before. For instance, in “Re: The Moon”, Sutherland guides listeners through an uplifting writing exercise, where he encourages everyone to write metaphors about the moon because the moon is an overused trope.  and therefore one should feel liberated to write about it so that you can finally write something about the moon that has never been written before. It’s absolutely one of his best episodes:full of hope, passionate creativity, and guidance for the listener, where it feels like a genuine, personal interaction, even though it’s a recording.

Sutherland is a creative force not unlike a tornado, sweeping through familiar feelings and banal experiences to then lift them up into the air and twist them into new shapes, finally setting them down somewhere that in the hands of anyone else wouldn’t make sense. In “Six House Parties”, he describes one person’s journey through six fancy costume parties as they try to outdo their rival at each of them. As the parties become more and more obscure, the narrator spirals deeper into wild theories and explosive plans, a story that becomes much bigger than you expect. In “Me vs. The Spar (Parts 1 to 7)”, he rewrites the experience of being refused beer while heartbroken at a supermarket because he lacks ID in seven different genres, including grime-rap.

The technical aspects of Imaginary Advice are all exactly what they need to be: Sutherland has a calm, soothing voice and is consummate performer; the selective sound design and foley are immersive tools; and the music is not just a mood-setter, but an important part of the entire conceit. The music is its own character.Sutherland doesn’t just use music as a bed, but lets it stand on its own for several beats. It helps settle the listener into the space he’s building and the story he’s weaving. In Imaginary Advice, the music is part of the poetry, often foregrounded out from where it has been lingering in the background.

Listening to Imaginary Advice at first can be challenging. You can never really know what to expect, as Sutherland’s art is a fluid creature that reshapes itself in every episode. It’s this point about Imaginary Advice that makes it an incredible podcast to put at the top of your rotation. As a piece of art it challenges both its listener and its host to think and experience outside the box. Sutherland deals with difficult subjects, like grief, jealousy, and failure, but they’re paired up with beauty, honesty, and internal, emotional strength. In “The Sutherland Dunthorne Luck Index”, Sutherland discusses how failure is celebrated in his stories and how it can be difficult to engage with, but also how risks can lead to beautiful endings. Imaginary Advice encourages listeners to step into a space that may be unfamiliar to tell their story, and consider that every act of creation, while difficult, is not a monster to be defeated and killed.

Special thanks to Ella Watts for her input and editing skills.

The post “Imaginary Advice” Challenges You to Create Art appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

The following is a list of a few wonderful podcasts written and designed for children and young adults, in no particular order. The age ranges provided are my suggestions for a minimum age (unless the podcast itself has provided one), but of course they may be enjoyed by older kids (and even adults!).

1. Noodle Loaf

Noodle Loaf is 10-minute episodes of interactive music creation and goofiness, hosted by a dad who specialized in music education and his two kids. It is unbearably adorable and well designed — they even have a little choir kids can join, by getting recorded singing the theme song, which has built up into an impressive number of kids’ voices. Noodle Loaf boasts active engagement that would make for a lovely time to spend with a child, with games that don’t get stale and go through a hearty rotation.

Age Range: 3-9 years

Listen: Apple | Stitcher

2. But Why: A Podcast for Curious Kids

But Why answers questions from kids who want experts to tackle all their questions about anything under the sun, from why turtles have shells to how hurricanes form to what’s up with different cultural beliefs in fairy tales. They’re often recorded on location where possible, creating a great soundscape to identify with the theme of the episode, and the host sometimes breaks into the recording to highlight cool parts that may have been missed.

Age Range: 3-9 years

Listen: Apple | Stitcher

3. What If World

I love this podcast where the creator, Eric O’Keeffe, takes what-if questions from his young listeners and invents an entire story out of them in the episode. Mr. Eric is joined early on by Petey the Pirate, like the classic kids TV shows with companion puppets, and Petey’s growly voice and easily excited nature sets the perfect tone against the soft bed music. Later on, Mr. Eric is joined by more voices and characters! This is such great improvisational storytelling for the entire family to enjoy together.

Age Range: 5-11 years

Listen: Apple | Stitcher

4. Pants on Fire

A key skill in the age of digital access to information is being able to identify lies and falsehoods, tools which are only learned through practice. Pants on Fire is a podcast game show, where a kid goes up against two adults, only one of whom is an expert on the topic of the episode. It helps kids learn how to ask questions and analyze information given. And it’s a lot of fun to play along with! This is an outstanding podcast from Gen-Z Media’s line-up (and particularly good for road trips).

Age Range: 6-12 years

Listen: Apple | Stitcher

5. Tumble

For the brains who want to learn about science, Tumble explores stories about science discovery, both in historical senses and in thinking about the future. The two hosts, Lindsay and Marshall, talk with scientists about their niche topics — like what would Earth be like if volcanoes didn’t exist — while keeping it fun with puns and their jokey back and forth. The balance between easy humor and more middle grade vocabulary makes this a balanced podcast for many ages.

Age Range: 6-12 years

Listen: Apple | Stitcher

6. Flyest Fables

This hopepunk connected anthology fiction podcast is a shot to the heart of the Narnia, Middle Earth, and The Never-Ending Story atmosphere of storytelling. Starting with the discovery of a magic book bearing the name of our first protagonist Antoine, Flyest Fables tackles magic and quests alongside growing up and conquering fear with honest and excited design. Morgan Givens has a gift for sound design and for performance, and has clearly communicated a vision that engages young and adult audiences in empathetic stories.

Age Range: 7-12 years

Listen: Apple | Stitcher

7. Timestorm

Created by the powerhouse team behind Cocotazo Media, Timestorm centers on Puerto Rican twins Alexa and Benito Ventura, and their lives as they time travel in order to observe and record history of their ancestors. The representation here is strong in creators and cast, as well as in the message it sends about histories that have been erased by colonization and oppression. It takes a positive and hopeful outlook, even when characters are grappling with the oncoming Hurricane María, in school bullying, and keeping their time travel a secret.

Age Range: 8-12 years

Listen: Apple

8. The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel

This serialized mystery podcast is a must-have in any kids audio playlist. Mars Patel is hot on the case of his missing friend Aurora, for whom he is recording all the adventures of him and his friends. This is high quality sound design, amazing acting by middle grade kids, and dedication spent into making it a holistically fun experience — the ads by Pruitt Prep include quizzes and brainteaser riddles whose solutions are found on the Pruitt Prep website.

Age Range: 8-12 years

Listen: Apple | Stitcher

9. The Radio Adventures of Eleanor Amplified

This fiction series follows an intrepid radio reporter, Eleanor Amplified, on all her journeys in pursuit of The Big Story. She’s a wonderful hero, sassy and focused and brave, all while she foils evil villains and their nefarious plots. It’s got a vibe straight from classic pulp superheroes, with distinctive character voices and wildly colorful locations. And they have Road Trip Editions for each of the three seasons!

Age Range: 8-12 years

Listen: Apple | Stitcher

10. Fate & the Fablemaidens

This is a delightful family-friendly D&D actual play, played entirely by women, and constructed carefully so that listeners don’t need to be familiar with the system in order to enjoy their storytelling. They are goofy and fun, great at staying in-character with minimal table talk, which makes it easier to follow the story and pacing, aided by snappy rapport and good editing. Renee Rhodes, the Dungeon Master, does a fantastic job narrating the scenes, helping to illuminate what’s happening and fully embodying different people the players encounter.

Age Range: 9-13 years

Listen: Apple | Stitcher

11. The Past & the Curious

This history podcast for kids is so entertaining, I listen to it by myself.  They’ve got great subject matter, like historical hoaxes, shipwrecks, and 1930s women musicians, and all of them are well-researched and written. To keep it invigorating, they’ve got original themed songs and fun segments like Quiz Time, just to make sure you’re paying attention. This is a labor of love, and it shows in the quality of engagement possible here.

Age Range: 8-14 years

Listen: Apple | Stitcher

12. Lethal Lit: A Tig Torres Mystery

On the higher end of the young adult spectrum is Lethal Lit, a fictional true crime podcast about Tig Torres trying to clear her aunt’s name of being labeled the Lit Killer, a serial killer that plagued the town of Hollow Falls with methods pulled from classic literature. It’s a completed storyline with immersive sound design, and Rebeca Soler knocks it out of the park as Torres, a great hero to have in the spotlight.

Age Range: 14+ years

Listen: Apple | Stitcher

The post 12 Adventurous and Educational Podcasts for Kids appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.