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.
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What podcasts did you enjoy this week and which ones do you recommend?