Ava’s Podcast Recommendations

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Slow Burn Clinton

From its origins in the Whitewater real estate controversy, the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit, and the suicide of Vince Foster, Clinton’s near-removal from office was the culmination of a process that remains poorly understood—and continues to reverberate through our political system today.

Slow Burn Nixon

You think you know the story, or maybe you don’t. But Watergate was stranger, wilder, and more exciting than you can imagine. What did it feel like to live through the scandal that brought down President Nixon? Find out on this eight-episode podcast miniseries hosted by Leon Neyfakh.

Renegades Born in the USA

Renegades: Born in the USA is a series of conversations between President Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen about their lives, music, and enduring love of America—despite all its challenges.

Wind of Change

This is Patrick’s journey to find the truth. Among former operatives and leather-clad rockers, from Moscow to Kyiv to a GI Joe convention in Ohio, it’s a story about spies doing the unthinkable, about propaganda hidden in pop music, and a maze of government secrets. “Wind of Change.” An offbeat eight part investigation.

Mother Country Radicals

Zayd Dohrn was born underground – his parents were radicals and counter-culture outlaws, on the run from the FBI. Now Zayd takes us back to the 1970s, when his parents and their young friends in the Weather Underground Organization declared war on the United States government. They brawled with riot cops on the streets of Chicago, bombed the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol, broke comrades out of prison, and teamed up with Black militant groups to rob banks, fight racism – and help build a revolution.

The Coldest Cast in Laramie

Kim Barker, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter for The New York Times, revisits an unsolved murder that took place while she was in high school in Laramie, Wyoming, nearly 40 years ago. She confronts the conflicting stories people have told themselves about the crime because of an unexpected development: the arrest of a former Laramie police officer accused in the murder.

S-Town

The story follows a man named John who despises his Alabama town and decides to do something about it. He asks Brian to investigate the son of a wealthy family who’s allegedly been bragging that he got away with murder. But when someone else ends up dead, the search for the truth leads to a nasty feud, a hunt for hidden treasure, and an unearthing of the mysteries of one man’s life.

Serial

It’s Baltimore, 1999. Hae Min Lee, a popular high-school senior, disappears after school one day. Six weeks later detectives arrest her classmate and ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, for her murder. He says he’s innocent – though he can’t exactly remember what he was doing on that January afternoon. But someone can. A classmate at Woodlawn High School says she knows where Adnan was. The trouble is, she’s nowhere to be found.

Radio Lab Argentine Invasion

From a suburban sidewalk in southern California, Jad and Robert witness the carnage of a gruesome turf war. Though the tiny warriors doing battle clock in at just a fraction of an inch, they have evolved a surprising, successful, and rather unsettling strategy of ironclad loyalty, absolute intolerance, and brutal violence.

Hunting Osama bin Laden – Pod Save the World

Tommy sits down with Michael Morell, the former acting Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. They discuss his experience as President Bush’s briefer on 9/11, hunting Osama bin Laden, the state of ISIS, North Korea and the impending release of the JFK assassination files. It was sick.

Vote for El Hottie – Snap Judgment

In sweet home Alabama, from the heart of Libya, comes a renegade candidate with a boombox and a head scarf. The cheerleaders, the geeks, the dweebs and the freaks are about to send a message the country needs right after 9/11.A very big thank you to Yasmin!Yasmin is a comedian and storyteller. You can follow her on Instagram @yasminelhahahady or TikTok @yasmin_elhady. She first told a version of this story at Story District in Washington, DC. Produced by Justin Kramon, original score by Renzo Gorrio, artwork by Teo DucotSeason 15 – Episode 19

200 One-of-a-Kind Shirts with Natalie Chanin

From The Moth: Natalie Chanin shares her story and discusses her life and travels before becoming the owner and designer of Alabama Chanin.

Belly of the Beast

Things go horribly wrong for a safari guide on the Zambezi River when he comes face-to-face with a rogue hippo.

Running the Books

A prison librarian thought he just had to keep track of books until he started reading between the lines. And a young girl in San Francisco discovers something about her mother that turns a secret she’s keeping into a burden.

The Whitey Bulger Capture

Josh Bond lives in Santa Monica where he manages commercial and residential real estate. He also writes original music and performs solo and with his band, For the Kings. Born and raised in the Mississippi Delta, he attended Boston University where he received a Bachelor’s Degree in Film Production.

Switched at Birth

On a summer day in 1951, two baby girls were born in a hospital in small-town Wisconsin. The infants were accidentally switched, and went home with the wrong families.

The Feather Heist

A flute player breaks into a British museum and makes off with a million dollars worth of dead birds.

Into the Abyss

A rookie pilot, a prominent politician, a cop, and a criminal find themselves enduring freezing temperatures in the remote wilderness after their plane crashes in Northern Canada. 

J Dillas’ Lost Scrolls

When record store owner Jeff Bubeck buys an old record collection out of an abandoned storage unit, he has no idea what he’s stumbled across. Jeff learns the collection once belonged to the late great J Dilla, one of the greatest hip-hop producers of all time. Along with the thousands of LPs from Dilla’s personal collection, there is something else that is uncovered, something huge.

Hidden Properties

Subtle motion happens around us all the time, including tiny vibrations caused by sound. New technology shows that we can pick up on these vibrations and actually re-create sound and conversations just from a video of a seemingly still object. But now Abe Davis takes it one step further: Watch him demo software that lets anyone interact with these hidden properties, just from a simple video.

The Price of Shame

“Public shaming as a blood sport has to stop,” says Monica Lewinsky. In 1998, she says, “I was Patient Zero of losing a personal reputation on a global scale almost instantaneously.” Today, the kind of online public shaming she went through has become constant — and can turn deadly. In a brave talk, she takes a hard look at our online culture of humiliation, and asks for a different way.

Steve Kerr with David Axelrod

Head coach of the Golden State Warriors Steve Kerr rejoins David for the Axe Files on CNN to talk about his life, his struggles with chronic pain, and his political activism following the election of Donald Trump.

Secrets of Serena Williams’ Success

Williams has long been a complicated and intriguing figure to the public in part because of her presence as a Black woman in a mostly white sport. How did Williams get to this point in her career? And what does her possible retirement — and the rise of other stars — mean for the future of the game?

Steve Kerr with Jon Stewart

Steve Kerr thinks he’s here to talk with Jon about his career, speaking out on social issues, and the racial and political dynamics of the NBA. And he does get to talk about those things, but not before enduring Jon’s pleas for him to coach the Knicks. Staff writers Jay and Henrik offer some color commentary as well.

Book Review with Ava

Chris talks books with special guest Ava Crayton. Listen in to hear about what books may be right for you!

Shopping for Seafood

Part 2 of TED Radio Hour episode An SOS From The Ocean

For marine biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, not knowing where our seafood comes from isn’t just a mystery— it’s a problem. She says we should reconsider what we eat and how we take it from the sea.

Gaining Ground: The New Georgia

Visit the frontlines of the most pivotal Senate contest of our time as two of Atlanta’s own – journalists Rembert Browne and Jewel Wicker detail what made this historic moment possible and talk to the key organizers, strategists, and voters who are hoping to see years of hard work change the South forever.

Will be Wild

Through in-depth stories from a wide range of characters – from people who tried to stop the attack to those who took part – hosts Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz explore the ongoing effort to bring autocracy to America, the lasting damage that effort is doing to our democracy, and the fate of our attempts to combat those anti-democratic forces. Because January 6th wasn’t the end of the story, January 6th was just a practice run.

Pod Save America

Pod Save America is a no-bullshit conversation about politics hosted by former Obama aides Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer, and Tommy Vietor. It cuts through the noise to break down the week’s news and helps people figure out what matters and how they can help.

Pod Save the World

Like most people, Pod Save America cohost Tommy Vietor thought foreign policy was boring and complicated until he got the education of a lifetime working for President Obama’s National Security Council. It was a crash course that taught him two things: anyone can understand these issues, and we all have an obligation to try.

A City Walks Into an Investigation

Last week’s story continues, about a Michigan couple who walked into a police officer’s house and made a disturbing discovery. This week: the police officer suffers the consequences and so does the couple.

A Couple Walks into a House

Rob and Reyna Mathis make an unsettling discovery in the home of a local police officer. Soon, their whole city is asking questions about who the officer really is and what he’s been doing.

The Suspect Detective

A Philadelphia homicide detective on the rise abused his power in bizarre and extreme ways. How did he get away with it for so long?

Rape on the Night Shift

An investigation into the sexual abuse of immigrant women in the janitorial industry.

The Racist Hoax That Changed Boston

After a pregnant woman’s murder, Boston police rounded up countless Black men in search of her killer. But they were chasing a lie.

A City Walks Into an Investigation

Last week’s story continues, about a Michigan couple who walked into a police officer’s house and made a disturbing discovery. This week: the police officer suffers the consequences and so does the couple.

A Couple Walks into a House

Rob and Reyna Mathis make an unsettling discovery in the home of a local police officer. Soon, their whole city is asking questions about who the officer really is and what he’s been doing.

The Suspect Detective

A Philadelphia homicide detective on the rise abused his power in bizarre and extreme ways. How did he get away with it for so long?

The Curtis Flowers Story

In this season, we investigate the case of Curtis Flowers, a Black man from Winona, Mississippi, who was tried six times for the same crime. Flowers spent more than 20 years fighting for his life while a white prosecutor spent that same time trying just as hard to execute him.

This Land Season 2

The Crooked Media series, hosted by Native journalist Rebecca Nagle, looks into how the far right is using Native children, via a critical adoption dispute in Texas, to destroy American Indian tribes from within. The deep investigation is a testament to the power of the press and the Freedom of Information Act to reveal unsettling truths.

This Land Season 1

The Supreme Court is about to make a decision that will determine the future of five tribes and nearly half the land in Oklahoma, and it all starts with a murder on the side of the road in 1999.

The Freedom Riders

A woman finds motivation through the hardships of Jim Crow in Mississippi.

Talking while Black

Think back to two summers ago, the summer of 2020, when a series of violent, highly-publicized killings of Black Americans sparked outrage and a national movement to eradicate racism and its evils. That movement gave way to a newer, reactionary one, a backlash that is playing out in schools and school board meetings across America. Host Emanuele Berry shares stories about Black people who got tangled up in this current backlash in both extreme and very personal ways.