This week’s pick is by Assistant Editor Jonathan Valelly.
It’s possible that there are too many podcasts out there. Besides the big names — This American Life, Radiolab, the various programs by Gimlet Media — there’s a veritable ocean of podcasts with not that many listeners and a wide range of production values. Inevitably you hit play on something to realize that it’s just a group of bros talking loudly over one another and a bag of chips, or a libertarian recording paranoid Skype interviews from his basement/gun room.
Peaking above the surface of that ocean is one of my new favorite podcasts, The Critical Lede. Currently hosted by Gregory Mitchell out of Williams College, the podcast is made up primarily of author interviews with some of the biggest names in queer and feminist theory these days. Although the “two people with a microphone” format fails often, here the discussion is always lively, political, and engaging. Folks like Lauren Berlant, Lee Edelman, Marlon Bailey and Sarah Schulman have made appearances, and it feels a lot more friendly and intelligible than reading an academic text.
As a queer theory nerd who will probably never make it to grad school, The Critical Lede gives me a regular dose of smart discussion and is something of a shortcut relieving me of my constant anxiety about not reading enough. Press play!