I’m a podcast junkie, and LISTEN TO THIS is a recap of my favorite tidbits, soundbites and short bursts of brilliance from this week. After digesting several hours of podcasts, here are my top 3 must-listen-to moments.

HE CURSED AND HE STOLE

THE MEMORY PALACE | After Party

Lewis Keseberg was the last man out of woods alive from the infamous Donner Party. He was accused of murder and cannibalism. Nate DiMeo says he was not a good man, but that he never resorted to cannibalism. Keseberg’s version of what happened climaxes in an emotional reunion with Eliza Donner, the 3-year-old survivor. Whether Keseberg actually ate those people or not, this is a compelling example of every story having two sides. The entire episode is only 14 minutes. Listen to it all.

WHY IS THERE SO LITTLE CRIME?

FREAKONOMICS RADIO | Fear Thy Nature

I used to work with a guy who always said, “The situation defines the person.” This Freakonomics episode explores how our behavior changes when we’re placed in different sets of circumstances. The two main examples are the interactive theater experience Sleep No More and the Stanford Prison Experiment. I enjoyed the descriptions of performances altering our actions, but my favorite sections are the recaps with Steve Levitt. At 22:44 he expresses doubts with the Stanford Prison Experient results, and poses this thought at 32:45, “When I teach my class on the economics of crime to the undergraduates at the U. of C., one of the points that I stress over and over is that the puzzle is not why is there so much crime, the puzzle is just the opposite, why is there so little crime?”

MORAL LOGIC OF ASSHOLISM

LEXICON VALLEY | Who You Calling A**hole?

I’m thrilled Lexicon Valley is back from it’s summer break, and this episode was facetiously foul-mouthed as they interviewed Geoffrey Nunberg, author of Ascent of the A-word: Assholism, the First Sixty Years. Make sure to catch the explanation of the difference between profanity, obscenity, and vulgarity at 5:38.

SO WHERE’S THE COHERENT VERSION OF THIS?

On Mac Power Users, David and Katie conducted a workflow interview with John Siracusa. At 2:37 in the podcast, John talks about the process of how he thinks things out in his podcast Hypercritical and compares it to the thinking exercise he goes through when writing a blog post. The two are very similar, but with podcasting he doesn’t have the opportunity or even the need to edit it down. He doesn’t say this directly, but the discussion is a perfect reminder that good writing takes lots, and lots, and lots of editing.

ANTI-POETRY DEFLECTOR SHIELDS

Next, check out the interview with Billy Collins on NPR’s TED Radio Hour. Billy’s exploration of the creative process is only twelve and half minutes long and quite stimulating, but if you’re short on time, start at 5:32 where he shares, “When you get a poem on a billboard or on the radio or on a cereal box or whatever, it happens to you so suddenly that you don’t have time to deploy your anti-poetry deflector shields that were installed in high school.” Billy’s presentation and interview reminded me of the incredible thought generating powers of poetry and the need to work a little more of it in my daily life.

“You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket.”

~ John Adams

MY SORROWS COULD SWIM

Wow! Seriously, find an hour and listen to the WHAT HAPPENED AT DOS ERRES episode of This American Life because it chronicles the amazing story of one survivor of the 1982 Guatemalan military massacre of Dos Erres. WARNING it’s disturbing at times as it pieces together the events of the unthinkable genocide of an entire village, but if you can handle a deep emotional journey (yes, I cried), the payoff is well worth the trip. My favorite little nugget comes at 41:14 when an elder farmer reflects back to that day and explains how it led to him drinking.

When I posted this quote on Observation Paper, one of the most thoughtful guys I know, Joel Kidwell, shared that this is also a line in the U2 song Until the End of the World. Informal learning in action!

Podcasts Pickups:

After confessing my addiction to podcasting, my friend Ariadne came out and shared she suffers from a similar condition only she makes my 12 hours in a week look like chump change. So this week, I’m test driving a few of her recommendations:

Tech News Today
Get-It-Done Guy
Stuff You Should Know,

What about you? What podcasts did you enjoy this week and what do you recommend at I should try? Leave your favorites in the comments below.

LISTEN TO THIS | Fogarity