Lifestyle
From political dysfunction to America's oldest ballpark, add these podcasts to your playlist
Connecticut Public Radio; WBUR; NPR; LAist Studios; WQXR; WWNO & WRKF
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Connecticut Public Radio; WBUR; NPR; LAist Studios; WQXR; WWNO & WRKF
Connecticut Public Radio; WBUR; NPR; LAist Studios; WQXR; WWNO & WRKF
It’s officially summer, and that means it’s time to update your poolside playlist. The NPR One team has road trip-approved podcasts recommendations from across public media.
The podcast episode descriptions below are from podcast webpages and have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Inheriting — LAist
Japanese American Incarceration. The Third World Liberation Front. The 1992 Los Angeles Uprising. What you think you know isn’t always the full story. “Inheriting” is a show about Asian American and Pacific Islander families that explores how the past is personal. Hosted by NPR’s Emily Kwong, we go deep with families on how their most personal, private moments are part of history.
Start listening to, “Carol & the Los Angeles Uprising: Part 1.”
Embodied — WUNC
A gender transition is a moment of personal flux that can also have a big impact on a romantic relationship. Anita meets two couples who continued to choose each other after one partner came out as trans: a South African couple in their 20s and an American couple who went through a transition after 22 years of marriage.Meet the guests:- Summer Tao and Lucy Aalto, partners and freelance writers in South Africa, describe the unexpected ways in which Summer’s transition brought them closer together and share advice to couples who may be at the beginning of their own queer journeys – Kate and Patty Redman, wife and wife in Missouri, reflect on changes to their sex life, social circles and religious ties when Kate came out as trans after two decades of marriage.
Listen to “Transitioned: When One Partner Comes Out As Trans.”
In Absentia — Connecticut Public Radio
Connecticut Public Radio
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Connecticut Public Radio
Why does political dysfunction happen? What are the systems that enable it? This four-part investigation looks for answers in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where corruption charges, allegations of absentee ballot misconduct, and machine politics have left some residents wondering if their vote even matters.
Start listening to part one, “Wiretapped.”
HumaNature – Wyoming Public Media
Wyoming Public Media
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Wyoming Public Media
HumaNature is the podcast that explores where humans and our habitat meet. The show tells real stories about human experiences in nature. Along the way, we’ll meet people whose encounters help us reflect on our own place in the natural world.
Eric Keeler had a good life, but he was bored. So he decided to shake things up and run across America by himself. Follow his journey from Maine to California on this week’s episode.
Listen to “The Running Man.”
If This Hall Could Talk — WQXR
If This Hall Could Talk tells the story of culture in America as witnessed at one iconic venue: New York City’s Carnegie Hall. It’s long been a destination for the world’s top musical talents, speakers, activists, and with a history spanning more than 100 years. Objects from the Carnegie Hall Rose Archives tell a complicated and quirky history of the hall showcasing the creation, development and celebration of uniquely American historical moments and music. Each episode features an object from the collections of Carnegie Hall’s Rose Archives and uses it as the starting point for stories of broader musical, cultural, and political significance. Hosted by Broadway star Jessica Vosk, the show brings in voices ranging from marquee talent to historical experts, guiding listeners on a journey that is guaranteed to leave them with a newfound appreciation for the breadth, diversity, and endless invention of the country’s musical arts and culture.
Listen to “Judy Garland’s Autographed Album Cover.”
Road to Rickwood — WWNO & WRKF
In June, MLB will host a game at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, AL. In its 114-year history, the field has seen everything from segregated baseball, a women’s suffrage event, a Klan rally and the first integrated sports team in Alabama. Host Roy Wood Jr. speaks with historians, former Negro Leaguers and more to explore how Birmingham’s civil rights story played out at America’s oldest ballpark.
Start listening to, “The Holy Grail of Baseball.”
Last Seen — WBUR
Hundreds of people donated their bodies to Harvard Medical School hoping to advance science and train the next generation of doctors. Meanwhile, prosecutors say that for years, the school’s morgue manager treated it like a storefront, letting potential customers browse body parts and bringing home skin and brains to be shipped out to people across the country. Last year’s arrest of the morgue manager, Cedric Lodge, exposed a nationwide network of human remains swapping that ensnared Harvard and lay bare the school’s broken promises to donors. In this five-part narrative series, host and reporter Ally Jarmanning explains what happened at Harvard, talks to donor families about their interrupted grief, and meets with human remains collectors to find out why they’re interested in this macabre field. We explore the dark origins of our nation’s medical schools. And we try to answer the haunting questions that drive the series: How should we treat the dead? And who gets to decide?
Start listening to part one, “Postmortem Ep. 1: The crime.”
Backed Up — WVXU
There’s something wrong with the plumbing in Cincinnati. Sewage is bubbling up in our basements and pouring into our waterways. Climate change is making it worse, and the powers that be can’t seem to agree on how to fix it. Backed Up is a podcast that demystifies one of the most complex systems of public infrastructure — our sewers — and tells the stories of the people suffering under decades of mismanagement.
Start listening to, “Episode 1: Sewers Gonna Sue.”
Let The Kids Dance! — KUOW
Seattle in the 90s: A tidal wave of unforgettable music roars out of the city. Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam take over global pop culture and Seattle is declared the world’s coolest place to be. But here, reality is different for young people.For almost two decades, the Teen Dance Ordinance has made it illegal for anyone under 18 to attend concerts without a parent or guardian. Police raid punk shows and hip-hop clubs. Politicians ban show posters on electric poles. All-ages music is criminalized. And young people begin to fight back.Let the Kids Dance! is a seven-part docuseries chronicling an untold chapter of pop-culture history. It’s a story about moral panic, grassroots activism and an unstoppable music community that fought for its freedom.
Start listening to “Part 1: City Gone Crazy.”
The Runcast with John Richards — KEXP
On our first Runcast of 2024, John spotlights how dangerous it can be for women and female identifying runners to simply go out for a run, and what it means to be a good ally. Soundtracking this run is a powerful range of artists, from Empress Of and AURORA to Hana Vu and Beth Gibbons. Middle Kids – Bend Brimheim – No Liver, No Lungs GEMZ – Younger Salt Cathedral – Terminal Woes Empress Of – Femenine Ibibio Sound Machine – Mama Say AURORA – Some Type of Skin Tinsley – Distract Me Hana Vu – Hammer Blondshell – Docket (feat. Bully) Star Anna – Pure Magic Gustaf – Starting and Staring Bad Bad Hats – Meter Run Beth Gibbons – Floating On A Moment.
Listen to “The “Be An Ally” Runcast.”
The Students’ Podcast — NPR
NPR’s Jessica Green and Jack Mitchell curated and produced this piece.
On-air challenge
Today I’ve brought a game of ‘Categories’ based on the word “party.” For each category I give, you tell me something in it starting with each of the letters, P-A-R-T-Y. For example, if the category were “Four-Letter Boys’ Names” you might say Paul, Adam, Ross, Tony, and Yuri. Any answer that works is OK, and you can give answers in any order.
1. Colors
2. Major League Baseball Teams
3. Foreign Rivers
4. Foods for a Thanksgiving Meal
Last week’s challenge
I was at a library. On the shelf was a volume whose spine said “OUT TO SEA.” When I opened the volume, I found the contents has nothing to do with sailing or the sea in any sense. It wasn’t a book of fiction either. What was in the volume?
Challenge answer
It was a volume of an encyclopedia with entries from OUT- to SEA-.
Winner
Mark Karp of Marlboro Township, N.J.
This week’s challenge
This week’s challenge comes from Joseph Young, of St. Cloud, Minn. Think of a two-syllable word in four letters. Add two letters in front and one letter behind to make a one-syllable word in seven letters. What words are these?
If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it below by Wednesday, December 31 at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle.
“I’m his wife,” I said to the on-call doctor, asserting my place in the cramped exam room. It was a label I’d only recently acquired. A year ago, it had seemed silly to obtain government proof of what we’d known to be true for six years: We were life partners. Now I was so grateful we signed that piece of paper.
Earlier that morning, I’d driven my husband to an ER in Torrance for what we’d assumed was a nasty flu or its annoying bacterial equivalent. We’d imagined a round of industrial-grade antibiotics, and then heading home in time for our 3-year-old’s usual bath-time routine.
But the doctor’s face was serious. Machines beeped and whirred as my husband laid on the hospital bed. Whatever supernatural power colloquially known as a “gut feeling” flat-lined in my stomach.
“It’s leukemia,” she said, putting a clinical end to what had been our honeymoon period.
Only six months earlier, a female Elvis impersonator had declared us husband and wife. A burlesque dancer pressed her cleavage into both of our faces as our friends cheered and threw dollar bills. A wedding in Vegas was my idea.
After two years of dating Marty, a cute roller hockey player with an unwavering moral compass, I knew I wanted to have a child with him. It was marriage, not commitment, that unnerved me. I wanted romance, freedom and to do things my way. The word “wife” induced an allergic reaction.
As Marty and I became parents and navigated adulthood together, my resistance to matrimony started to feel like an outdated quirk. The emotional equivalent of a person still rocking a septum piercing long after they stopped listening to punk music.
Marty had shown me, over and over, what it was to be a teammate. He’d rubbed my back through hours of labor, made late-night runs for infant Tylenol and was never afraid to cry at the sad parts of movies or take the occasional harsh piece of feedback about his communication style. And like all good teams, we kicked ass together. So why was I still resisting something that meant so much to him? To our family?
One random Saturday, at the Hawthorne In-N-Out Burger, after Marty ordered fries as a treat for our son, I finally said, “Screw it. Let’s get married.”
The wedding day was raucous and covered in glitter. We both wore white. Our son’s jacket had a roaring tiger stitched onto the back and was layered over his toddler-size tuxedo T-shirt. Loved ones from all over the country flew to meet us in a tiny pink chapel. A neon heart buzzed over our heads as we vowed to “love each other in sickness and in health, till death do us part.”
I couldn’t have imagined then that the next chapel I’d be in would be the hospital prayer room. Or that I would have begged a God I struggle to believe in to please spare Marty’s life.
Unlike our decision to marry, acute leukemia came on suddenly. Over the course of a few weeks, Marty’s bone marrow had flooded his blood with malignant cells. Treatment was urgent. He was taken by ambulance from the ER to the City of Hope hospital in Duarte, a part of Los Angeles County we’d never had a reason to visit before.
Traditionally the 50th wedding anniversary is celebrated with gold, the 25th with silver and the first with paper. But we couldn’t even afford to look paper-far-ahead anymore. Instead, we celebrated that the specific genetic modifiers of Marty’s cancer were treatable, the good chemo days and his being able to walk to the hospital lobby to see our son for the first time in weeks.
Leukemia has taught me things such as: how to inject antifungal medication into the open PICC (peripherally inserted central catheter) line in Marty’s veins, how to explain to our son that “Papa will be sleeping with the doctors for a long while so they can help him feel better” and that to do the hibbity-dibbity with a person going through chemo, you must wear a condom. But mostly my husband’s sickness has taught me about healthy love.
When we had a child together, we’d committed to being in each other’s lives forever. But marriage was different. We’d already made a promise to our son, but when we got married, we made one to each other and ourselves. We had gone all in.
Since his diagnosis two months ago, there have been so many ways we’ve shown love for each other. People assume that I would do all the caregiving, but it’s more than that. Yes, I’ve washed my husband’s feet when he couldn’t bend down, been the only parent at preschool dropoff and pickup, and advocated on Marty’s behalf to his health insurance with only a few choice expletives.
But my husband has also taken care of me. Even when he was nauseous, sweating and fatigued, Marty showed up. He made me laugh with macabre jokes about how the only way for us to watch anything other than “PAW Patrol” on TV together was for him to get hospitalized. He insisted that I make time to rest and bring him the car owner’s manual, so he could figure out why the check engine light had come on.
We’d promised in front of our closest friends and Elvis herself to love each other “for better or worse.” And when the worst arrived sooner than expected, we did more than love. We truly cared for each other as husband and wife.
The author is a writer whose short stories have been nominated for the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers and Best of the Net. She is working on a novel and lives in Redondo Beach with her husband and son. She’s on Instagram: @RachelReallyChapman.
L.A. Affairs chronicles the search for romantic love in all its glorious expressions in the L.A. area, and we want to hear your true story. We pay $400 for a published essay. Email LAAffairs@latimes.com. You can find submission guidelines here. You can find past columns here.
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