One of the most ambitious episodes of This American Life I've heard in the past couple years, "We Are in the Future" delves into the Black futurism movement. The conceit, spoiler alert, is that the future has already come to pass. From a look inside a Detroit political campaign inflected with the ideology, to the implications of the movement in the comic book world, to a harrowing recounting from a young black woman who endured a role as a slave on George Washington's estate and, yes, the zany and magnificent song from clipping (Hamilton star Daveed Digs's alt-rap group, for the uninitiated) - this stretched my concept of the American experience in a way that the show does not always accomplish. That is to say, many of the show's stories are fundamental to the present experience of the country, but this episode encompasses past, present and future in a prescient way that is hard to pull off - even for TAL.

These dudes are the best - insofar as “the best” describes comedic actors from my youth. High school me would place them in the upper pantheon of the modern entertainers. And heck, they still hold up just fine in the realm of semi-rudderless rambling podcast comedy scene. If the episodes were two hours long I may be more inclined to dismiss the show altogether, but some merciful brevity and a murderers row of interviewees help this add up to more than dead-end celebrity rambling. I’m not sure the shtick of having two of the three hosts be in the dark about the guest really adds much to the experience, but it is novel for an interview show. The guest really does make a huge contribution, and I’ve not yet heard an episode with a dud. Melissa McCarthy was excellent. Will Ferrell was perfect. Neil deGrasse Tyson was stellar. Maya Rudolph was probably a little more explicit than I might have imagined, but no less memorable for it. Totally worth browsing the catalog and picking a couple episodes based on the featured celebrity.

Three Mennonite librarians examining media starring Amish culture and saying “you missed a spot” is an odd concept for a show. But this is not an odd show. Is it a history podcast? Is it a culture podcast? Is it pop ethnography through the lens of literature? Do I know what ethnography is? Regardless, it goes down pretty easily. The episodes are blessedly short, which is a welcome change for a talking head show about a specific piece of culture. This is credit to the hosts' chemistry and shared sense of culture, which allows for humor without the meandering riffing chaff so many shows rely upon. I’m not sure I have been convinced to actually read any of the books detailed here, but it’s a great vehicle to take in some commentary from well-read people on a subject I know little about.