Jimi Hendrix is the subject of a recent episode of the 27 Club podcast.Reuters
In a world suddenly filled with shut-ins, it would seem the golden age of podcasts just got a lot more golden. For the newcomers to the medium, the thought of exploring the possibilities might seem daunting. There’s a genre and random topic for everyone – the podcast world is your oyster. Want to sink your teeth into the field of dentistry? Try The Dental Hacks, an irreverent dive into toothy topics. Have you ever wondered whatever happened to pizza at McDonald’s? You might be interested in the offbeat “investigative journalism” of the Whatever Happened to Pizza at McDonald’s? podcast.
And on it goes, endless choices. For newbies and aficionados alike, here’s a list of three recommended new episodes for your self-isolation listening needs.
Something new: From the creator of Disgraceland, a true-crime series devoted to musicians behaving feloniously, comes 27 Club. The title derives from the podcast’s subjects: rock stars who died at 27, including Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, Brian Jones and Amy Winehouse. The first season is devoted to Jimi Hendrix, the guitarist who left this world two months before his 28th birthday in 1970. The most recent gritty episode deals with the musician’s colourful co-manager Michael Jeffery and Hendrix’s sci-fi “kiss the sky” obsessions.
Something classic: Since launching his hugely popular podcast WTF with Marc Maron in 2009, the titular American comedian has spoken with everyone from Barack Obama to Jerry Lee Lewis to Robin Williams, who in a 2010 episode discussed contemplating suicide. Seemingly, Maron, an agreeably loquacious host, may have exhausted his list of big names to interview by now. So who’s he gonna call? For his most recent episode: Dan Aykroyd, of Ghostbusters and Saturday Night Live fame. The Ottawa-born fast talker covers a lot of ground, with stories about old-days CBC and a history with comedy impresario Lorne Michaels that goes back to 1969.
Something COVID-19: “If you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention.” That’s the premise of Angry Americans, a razor-sharp topical series hosted by Paul Rieckhoff, self-billed as “a fighter, a patriot and a force to be reckoned with.” Rieckhoff is an authority-challenging war veteran and author of the 2006′s Chasing Ghosts, a screed against American foreign policy. Rieckhoff’s answer-the-call anger is measured and lucid; his message is “calm is contagious.” His sprawling latest episode deals with the U.S. military response to the novel coronavirus pandemic, “our common enemy.”
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Brad Wheeler