Getting wet, getting loud, getting better

At the start of the lockdown I asked my Twitter followers how their podcast listening habits had changed. The majority of responders said they were listening to fewer podcasts during the "new normal". A lot of people use their commute as podcast-time! Personally I've replaced the ~10 hours a week travel-time with ~10 hours a week staring-at-a-blank-wall-musing-on-the-futility-of-existence time, so I'm actually listing the same volume of podcasts as before. How have your listening habits changed over the past months? Reply to this email and tell me.

Three great episodes to listen to this week:

Antediluvian, Floodlines (32mins, 2020-03-12)

Vann R. Newkirk II is quite a name! Floodlines is his beautifully told examination of the "unnatural disaster" that occurred when the coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi were hit by a Category 5 tropical cyclone in August, 2005. This is a story about Hurricane Katrina, but it's not all about the meteorology... Find it here.

That beat, that beat right there, Mogul (38mins, 2017-07-16)

The story of music-manager Chris Lighty is tied to the story of hip-hop, and Mogul tells that story. Lighty was a rough-and-tumble entrepreneur, and his sorry tale makes for strangely compelling listening. The series charts his rise and inevitable fall, so I'd recommend starting at episode one to get the full arc. Find it here.

Things can only get better, About Race (25mins, 2018-03-22)

Well produced and well thought out, this podcast was an instant hit when it was released in 2018 and has been hovering around the top of the charts again this week. In episode #1, Host Reni Eddo-Lodge (author of Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race) looks at the golden era of multiculturalism in 90's Britain, and asks what went wrong. Find it here.

Not a podcast, but...

If you like memes, you've probably seen Andrew Huang's work (if not, be sure to check out his "99 red balloons played with red balloons" video). But as well as making viral music clips he also shares his immense music production knowledge. His studio is epic, so if you're interested in synths and music making in general, you'll love his Modular synthesis explained video. Find it here.

Thanks for reading. If you've enjoyed this week's issue of Podcasts for Nerds, feel free to forward it to a friend or two. I'm in "growth hacking" mode now, so I'll be extra grateful for any bonus promotion you can give me. And if you've been forwarded this email (by someone awesome, no doubt), you can sign up for yourself at podcastsfornerds.com to be sent all future issues.

Thanks again, Tom.