The 3 Best Podcasts I Listened to This Week (1/26/19)
Jack Dorsey, Jeanie Buss, and the best football podcast on the internet highlight this week’s best
I suppose you could call me something of a podcast aficionado. I usually consume around 20 to 40 podcasts any given week, most on double speed (there’s only so much time, #Team2x unite!). Many of them are about sports or sports-adjacent, but I also listen to podcasts on TV, pop culture, media, religion, politics, true crime, and more. I listen to stories and conversations, and most of all, I listen to things that make me think.
Podcasts are still a relatively new media form, and they’re allowing us to find and tell stories in a new and unique way. One reason for that is podcasts are so easy to consume. We can listen to them while we’re driving, doing the dishes, taking a walk, or lying down for a nap. They’re easier than reading, faster than television and movies, and sometimes even more powerful in an audio-only form that gets us out from behind the screen and engages our minds.
Most of us don’t have time to consume 40 podcasts a week, so I thought it might be nice to hear about what you missed this week. Below are the best three podcasts I listened to last week and why I loved them. They’re all recent, though I included a bonus pick from a month ago I just listened to as well. Give a look and see if there’s something for you, and please comment below if you listened to a great podcast this week and want to share!
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Jan 22 — Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey
Simmons’s Rolodex is never-ending, and he has a way of getting guests to open up in a way almost no one else can. These days you choose your Bill Simmons podcast by the guest, and I was immediately intrigued when he landed Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Twitter is my go-to social media app. It’s where I get my news, where I follow sports, and where I talk to friends. Twitter is a huge part of my life, and yet it’s extremely problematic at the same time — and everyone knows it.
Dorsey knows it too, and he addresses many of the concerns head-on in this conversation. Bill and Jack talk about social media silos and the effect they had on the 2016 election, and they debate whether Trump should be banned. They talk about the good parts of Twitter, like one of Dorsey’s favorites, #NBATwitter, and consider Dorsey’s responsibility to censor versus his desire to stimulate open and enlightening conversation. Dorsey finds a special value in text, and that’s Twitter in a nutshell. Text tells stories and does it quickly and in a direct way pictures can’t. You won’t agree with everything Dorsey has to say, but like it or not, he’s an important public figure in 2019 and this far-reaching conversation is must-listen. Dorsey also did a Rolling Stone interview recently if you’re so inclined, though the pod is way better.
The Lowe Post
Jan 22 — Jeanie Buss
Many podcasts I listen to are sporty, but my favorites are the ones that tell the stories adjacent to and behind the world of sports. Few in basketball do that better than Zach Lowe, whose podcasts are almost drop-everything-and-listen for me when they pop up. Many of Lowe’s pods just digest what’s happening in the NBA, but he has a way of processing and describing it all that’s so fresh and informative. Others have a special guest with a story about basketball culture or history.
His conversation with Jeanie Buss is a bit of both. Buss is the primary owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, and that alone makes this worth your time since that makes her one of only nine female owners in sports. Unlike many owners of professional sports teams, Buss isn’t stodgy or curmudgeony. She’s relatable and down to earth, a fan of the game and someone who knows it well because she’s lived it all her life as the Buss trust keeps the Lakers in the family. It’s a wide-ranging conversation as Buss talks about her relationship with the Lakers from childhood to present, LeBron, Kobe, and the Kurt Rambis clothesline, and yet maybe the most memorable part was her borderline spiritual experience dancing with actual wolves with the Apex Protection Project. You’ll have to listen to find out more.
The Ringer NFL Show
Jan 24 — Lessons from the Season
The NFL season is almost over, so I had to get Robert Mays and Kevin Clark in here before we lose them for the long football offseason. Mays and Clark are the NFL to me. I would rather listen to them talk football than anyone I know. They have outstanding chemistry and know the game as well as anyone but talk about it in a relatable way, and more than anything else, they flat out love the game of football. Their passion for the game is palpable, drawing me in and getting me excited about the game.
These two do two pods a week in season, one recapping the games and another previewing the next week, always great, but I won’t typically post a simple sports recap in this space. This isn’t that. It’s Mays and Clark looking back at the 2018–19 NFL season at a macro level to see what lessons we’ve learned. Have offenses passed defenses by? Is it even possible to win with a big-contract quarterback anymore? How long are teams’ NFL windows? Mays and Clark help me see the game different. This is a great retrospective on what we learned last year and a look ahead to where the NFL is going. I reviewed 25+ football podcasts this fall, and Mays and Clark are the best by far.
BONUS: Rob Has a Podcast
Dec 26, 2018 — Christian Hubicki: Survivor Post-Game Retrospective
RHAP is my favorite niche podcast. Rob Cesternino is a former Survivor contestant and uses most of the episodes to talk Survivor and Big Brother, two TV shows that are definitely still happening. Survivor is an all-time favorite, having seen all 37 seasons, and the recent David vs Goliath season was one of its best in a long time, featuring a deep and memorable group of castaways.
The most memorable by far was Christian Hubicki, the loquacious nerd with a unique perspective and an answer for everything. Christian described things in ways we’d never heard before using words we had to look up, and he was tender and lovable and an underdog to the end. This is 3+ hours of Christian’s story as he experienced it on the island, a fun recap of a terrific season and mostly it’s just nice to be spending time with Christian again.
What was your favorite podcast you listened to recently? Leave a note in the comments below!
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