Yeah, well, my top podcast is Joe Rogan, a guy called Ja Rogan. I wouldn't do that to you, or the seven Am listener.
From Schwartz Media. I'm Daniel James. This is seven Am Summer series. Every day. This week, critics from the Saturday Paper and beyond I bring you their top picks of the year. We add books, TV music, and today we have podcasts. Twenty twenty four was a year where we saw Donald Trump win an election on the back of the podbrow vote. But today's Pictaker is in a very different direction now. I don't know anyone who listens to
as many podcasts as our senior producer Shane Andsen. Anytime anyone on the seven Am production team needs a recommendation, we turned to Shane. She's pood three shows for your Boxing Day, Food Haze and the Long Road Trips Ahead. It's Thursday, December twenty sixth Shane, thanks for being here. Let's get into it. What's your first pick?
The very first pick I want to start with is hands down my favorite podcast of the year, which is thrill Seekers from the CBC.
Listen very carefully.
I'm now going to give you the big picture.
I remember telling everyone to be quiet because I couldn't hear what you're saying.
I'm so bossy, you know, be quiet, be quite. I need to hear what you're saying.
You are about to become and.
I don't think I quite processed what he was saying.
The very first televised British.
I had a bit of a listen to this and I'll be fascinating to hear your take on it because it's a very unique podcast.
Yeah.
So the premise is it's two thousand and five and a group of ordinary people across the UK have responded to an ad for a reality TV show that simply is asking for people who are up for an Adventure of a lifetime.
It said, do you want to go an adventure and do something that's really exciting hasn't been done before we launching a new TV show.
And why the people contestants did on the Adventure.
Of the Lifetime.
But they don't tell the prospective contestants anything about the type of show that they're going to be on until it starts filming. So the twists and the reveals of this podcast is really where the joy comes from. But it does also make it difficult to talk about without spoiling too many details, which I'll try not to do, but I can guarantee this is such a fun ride and also speaks a surprising amount to the climate that we're in where our consensus reality is feeling more fragile than ever.
Well, I mean, the word deceiving is It's a very loaded word, isn't it. These people were genuinely up for an adventure, wanted to take part in a TV show that was going to be a bit of a roller coaster, and they certainly got.
That until finally.
So thrill Seck is non narrated, so it's entirely told through interviews with the different contestants, and the fact that you're able to build a podcast from that is truly a testament to Nick Vanderkolk, who's the force behind it.
He's from Love and Radio, which is known for its really in depth, sensitive interviews, and so it has a cast of characters that you get to know really quickly, and they take you on this journey through being part of the show as it's filming, to finding out the true nature of the TV show and that reality unfolds for them at the same time it unfolds for you. As a listener, which makes it compelling to listen to
and gives you all of these little surprises. And then I think the thing that really makes thrill Seekers stand out as a podcast is the final episode. It is really really hard to stick the landing, especially in a narrative podcast, but thrill Seekers does it in a way I don't know I've ever heard a podcast do before. It has one final reveal that plays out, and it does so in a way that's both kind of funny and horrifying and sticks with you long after the ending.
I'm halfway through episode three, and it really took me till about halfway through episode two to actually orientate myself in the story, because, like you said, there is no narrator and you're just being guided along by these very big personalities being thrown into this situation. But once you get it, and once you get the format, and once you come to know the characters, and once you get to know or get an inkling of where you think it's going, it's really compelling listening.
Yeah, but I can guarantee where you think it's going, it's not where it's going to go if you're only at episode three, which is why it's so fun.
Is there anything else that's similar out there to this?
Yeah?
Well, reality TV is really fertile ground for podcasts. The main one that brings to mind is Harsh Reality, which is the story of the There's Something about Miriam show, which was horrifically unethic, and that podcast came out a
few years ago. It's really great. I think this is a kin to that show, But for me, thrill Seekers is really elevated in the way it tackles kind of bigger questions outside of the show about you know, the nature of truth and reality and how easy it is to build a world, a contained world for these contestants and to convince them of the truth of something, only
to kind of rip the curtain away. And I think that fragility of our experience of reality speaks a lot to the current climate in a way that I found really refreshing and unique.
Layers within layers. That's Thrill Seekers by CBC. Shane, What else have you got for us?
The second offering is by Boston Public Radio and it's called Beyond All Repair?
Did You Kill?
Marlene Johnson? I think you're one of the first people to have actually asked.
How could that be when you were put on trial for murder, because.
I wasn't asked. I was told, you know, I know this happened, we know you killed Marlene. Just told me what happened, all right, So I had a quick listen to this one as well. This is something that's probably easier to get into because it does have that traditional narrative structure with a narrada and a host that takes you through the story. But what's it about.
It's a true crime podcast, and I think one of the best true crime podcasts in a couple of years, maybe at a stretch since Cereal, which is the yardstick by which we measure all crime podcasts. And Beyond All Repair is the story of Sophia Johnson, who was accused of murdering her mother in law twenty years ago in the early two thousands. She's always maintained her innocence, even though she was convicted or went to prison for it. She has a younger brother called Shane Carrier, who was
just a kid at the time of the murder. He's now grown up and he's working in a prosecutor's office. He decides to team up with reporter Amory Steberson to look at you know, did she do it? If she didn't do it, who did. And it's not just about the question of innocence. It's also about systemic family abuse. It's about it's about what the prison system does to pregnant women, it's about the injustices of the court system.
But what it keeps at its heart is the relationship between the brother and sister, Sophia and Shane.
Shall we hear a clip?
Yeah, I want to play you the very first minute of the first episode to give you context. What you're about to hear is a voicemail recordings sort have been left to Shane Krreya, who's the one who's working with Amory to tell this story.
Shane, you have no.
Idea how much I'm trying to protect you, little brother. You don't know it yet, but you're being misled.
Mister shame.
Good morning.
Oh you're doing.
Listen to me carefully.
You're not ready for what will come down if you don't stop your nonsense and keep away.
If you, guys attempt to sabotage or to trouble me in any which way, or to try to slow down my life, I'm going to fight you.
Guys.
You don't know what you're playing with.
Okay. I wanted nothing to do with it in the beginning, and up to now, I still want nothing to do with it.
Dark about me, I don't lie on me, but I'm.
Not going to let anybody lie on me.
Okay, Okay, you're Washington, Judress, You're wicked.
All I'm doing is I'm giving you fear fucking warning. If you come at me, I'm going to destroy you too.
It's an incredibly detailed, meticulous investigation that looks at the Career family and their history, and the further you get into that family's past, the more muddy the story becomes. And there's a lot about this that on the surface could seem like just, you know, another run of the mill true crime, but it's the craft behind it that really elevates it. Amor's scripting is amazing. She even composes
the music, which is catchy. There's just so much talent and hard work and just like a cosmic alignment that comes together to make this so good.
Coming up after the Break, Shane picks the best Indie Australian podcast of the year.
It's not as heavy as true crime unless you're afraid of spiders.
Okay, Shane, two recommended podcasts down, one to go. What can you tell us about Umveldt.
Yeah, I'm really excited to talk about Umveldt. It's an Australian independent production. It's by local audio engineer and producer Ryan Pemberton and it's a great little mini series that dropped a couple of months ago, all about getting inside the minds of animals and that's what the word umveldt is.
So the idea behind the term umveldt is that every animal has a unique experience of the world, which is shaped by their senses and the way that they interact with their environment. And in this podcast, we're asking can we expand our understanding and empathy for other animals by trying to understand their unique umvelts. That's the premise.
It's pretty solid premise.
You've got to be able to back it up. If you choose an obscure German word for the name of your podcast, probably shouldn't say that. So that's the premise. And there's four episodes and each one is dedicated to getting inside the subjective world of a different animal. There's whales, octopus, mantis, shrimp, and my favorite one, which is the Porsche Jumping Spider.
It's told through conversations with these scientists who are experts in the field, and through them you learn about how animals talk, dream count fight, etc. All set to this really captivating sound design that tries to draw you into the animal's world. It's kind of like a meditative biology.
When Porsche reaches the edge of another spider's web, it doesn't necessarily lunge into the web to capture that spider. It can actually lure that spider over by starting to use its eight legs and two legi like structures in front of its face called pettipalps that it can use to start plucking the silk strands of that spider's web. It makes these movements on the silk that appear to mimic the movements of a struggling insect caught in the web.
Sometimes Porsche will spend hours doing this, and so the resident spider feels those movements and it's walking across to the source of that movement, and when that spider comes to a safe distance from Porsche, then jumps and grabs that spider and eats it.
Do we have Porsche jumping spiders in Australia.
Yes, they are found in Australia.
That's something to look out for.
They're pretty cool.
That totally depends on your perspective. Shame. So this has all been produced, everything's been done by Ryan himself, that's right.
Yeah.
So he comes from an audio engineering background and this is his first foray into presenting and hosting a podcast, and I think he does an excellent job of combining the technical sound elements with a really fun and light interview. I think it has been a big year for animal related podcasts. There's been The Good Whale, which is out at the moment from Cereal Productions, and Animal which is
also New York Times. But I think there's something about Umvelt that sets it apart from the others, and for me, it's the scientific curiosity. It creates this kind of listening experience where it's like kind of like slow listening. It's very peaceful, it's very calming, even though you're listening to you know, a spider kill and eat its prey.
Shane Anderson, thank you so much for your time.
Thank you, Daniel.
Before I go, I wanted to tell you about my favorite shows of the year. The first one would be probably something that most listeners are probably familiar with. It's been around for a while. It's called through Line from NPR. It's basically a history podcast that takes a deep dive
into a whole bunch of different issues. The one I found of particular interest this year was is deep Dive into the Electoral College, because there is yet to be an expert that I've heard probably explain what the electoral college is and what purpose it serves and where it
comes from. So that's through Line through NPR. And the other one that I have been listening to a lot this year, and it's a few years old now, but it's called Lights Out from BBC Radio four, and it's a podcast series that presents immersive soundwich documentaries, encouraging listeners to engage deeply with diverse narratives. My favorite one was Call Signs, which are chronicles of radio amateur in Kiev during the Russian invasion, highlighting his experiences of sending and
receiving signals at the start of that particular conflict. That episode, in particular takes you right to what makes you feel like you're there as much as you can't be while you're either listening in bed, on a bus or on a couch. But they're my two big ones. I'm Daniel James. This is seven AM Summer Series and I'll be back tomorrow with a conversation with film curator and writer for the monthly Cake Jinx. I'm the best films of twenty
twenty four. It's a great conversation, so I'll catch you then