Talking points
Youtuber Logan Paul has come under fire from advocacy group Hope Not Hate after he featured widely condemned conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on his podcast earlier this week. Infowars founder Jones has been banned from Youtube for violating the site’s rules on abusive behaviour.
The Dropout, ABC’s popular podcast about the rise and fall of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, is being turned into a TV drama, according to Deadline. Saturday Night Live and Ghostbusters star Kate McKinnon will play Holmes in the series, which will be released on US streaming network Hulu.
Picks of the week
Against the Rules With Michael Lewis
With the idea that life isn’t fair gaining more evidence every day, Moneyball author Michael Lewis has made a seven-part podcast to investigate the concept. It’s about the referees of the world, not just in sport but in banks, media and law. As you’d expect from Puskhin Industries, the new podcast company set up by Malcolm Gladwell and Slate’s Jacob Weisberg, it’s snappy and smart, with Lewis powering the whole thing with dry wit and common sense. Hannah Verdier
Drilled
Only now, approximately 12 years from the point of no return, are we finally getting serious about our climate – and arguably still with less urgency than is required. One of the main reasons for this inaction is a clandestine, decades-long campaign waged by the oil and gas industry to deny the existence of climate change. This podcast from reporter Amy Westervelt looks at how fossil fuel companies sought to shift public opinion on the subject, with well-funded disinformation campaigns that continue to this day. Gwilym Mumford
Guardian pick: Books podcast
The soil beneath our feet is something most of us take for granted. The same can’t be said for the two authors who featured in this week’s brilliant episode of the Books podcast.
Joining Richard Lea in the studio was poet Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, who’s latest offering The Grassling sees her explore her Devon roots – both figuratively and literally. And Ian Maleney who, with his collection of essays Minor Monuments, examines the connections between place, family and loss. Max Sanderson
Producer pick: ZigZag
Chosen by Mythili Rao (Lead Producer, Today in Focus)
ZigZag is the project of Manoush Zomorodi and Jen Poyant - both from the school of WNYC (full disclosure; they’re also former colleagues of mine) - who are deeply interested in the role technology plays in our lives.
The show began as an honest chronicle of their journey to start their own blockchain-backed business. And with the latest season (Season 3), they’ve turned their attention to the ‘hype cycle’, which apparently every new project succumbs to. From the ‘peak of expectations’ to the ‘trough of disappointment’ and finally, the ‘plateau of productivity.’
They highlight how this hype cycle was originally created to demystify the phases of tech-innovation specifically, but could also hold lessons for all kinds of projects – cake-baking, marathon-training, novel-writing, you name it. Jen and Manoush use it as a lens to look at everything from public policy initiatives to their listeners’ career dilemmas, humorously interrogating their own peaks – big and small – and plateaus along the way.
