A crinkle in design
A podcast mystery that wrinkles time with its crinkle in design, the return of the wonderful The Dream podcast, and some great science and history podcasts that will make you think.
Welcome to Hurt Your Brain #190, the place to get podcasts and links that will make you think.
Apple is starting to put an emphasis around highlighting podcast episode art for iOS 17. ABOUT DAMN TIME. Now, this isn’t something every show can do, but it seems like an absolute no brainer for podcast apps to make this as easy as possible for shows to showcase their custom episode art (even though some podcast apps have been doing this, they still don’t highlight the art enough IMO). Looking forward to seeing how this looks.
Speaking of which, if you reach into the Bello Collective treasure chest, you can find an article I wrote on how two shows really make episode art work for them (Darknet Diaries and The Nocturnists), as well as a gallery of some of my favorite episode art.
Alright, let’s kick off some recommendations with a great episode of Endless Thread…
PODCAST RECOMMENDATIONS
The Big Idea: You would think figuring out who made the cover art for any book in the last 100 years would be an easy feat. Not so in the case of one of the many covers created for A Wrinkle In Time. This is a fun mystery that turns into a rabbit hole within the world of corporate book cover art.
Website with transcript (and the artwork).
For some reason I don’t listen to every Endless Thread, but I always love the episodes I do listen to. I just now saw there was a recent episode about Lofi beats and a certain YouTube channel I’ve spent many hours listening to. I’ll go ahead and recommend it sight unseen (or, er…hearing unlistened?). It’s now at the top of my queue.
The Dream: S3 E1: Becoming a #Boss
The Big Idea: MLM’s are bad and annoying (as covered in season 1 of The Dream), but what are we to make of the ever growing world of life coaches and gurus? (The topic of season 3). It sounds like it won’t be a blanket condemnation of these people, but an appropriate take down of the ones who are simply a tentacle of the MLM industrial complex.
Loving the first three episodes so far, and looking forward to seeing where the season goes.
I can’t mention The Dream without linking to my interview with the show from a few years back. Check it out if you loved that season as much as I did.
Science Vs: Breathwork — A Bunch of Hot Air?
The Big Idea: Breathing through your nose is better and certain breathing exercises really do improve all sorts of things about your mood and physiology. So it’s not all hot air!
Significant Others: James Baldwin and Maya Angelou
The Big Idea: Two of the biggest cultural heavy hitters of the 20th century were great friends and fierce supporters of each other. The tale of how the world might not have had the chance to meet Maya Angelou if not for some sly prodding from Baldwin is a fantastic story.
Incubation: Polio — The Last Mile
The Big Idea: Love that we are getting a science show about viruses from Jacob Goldstein (previously Planet Money, among others).
The first episode is about the eradication of smallpox, which is a great story, but one I was somewhat familiar with. This second one about polio I found to be downright fascinating.
Who is more famous: Jonas Salk…..or Albert Sabin? I’m pretty sure I know which one you’ve heard of as the hero of the polio story. But did you know the competing vaccine developed by Sabin is better and came very shortly after Salk’s, and that Sabin’s is the one largely used still to this day?
Well reported and produced science shows….can’t get enough of this stuff.
PODCAST LINKS
One Podcast Only. What’s the ONE podcast you would recommend to anyone you meet? Reddit thread, lots of recommendations. Some obvious, others not so much.
OTHER LINKS TO MAKE YOU THINK
Are we alone in the universe? A 15 second animated short from The Oatmeal. A little existential kick in the face to end the day right.
FOR FUN
Alright that’s all for today. Please like or comment (or reply) if you want to share any comments. See you next time.