Each month, Podcast Review’s staff offers recommendations on the best new podcasts to listen to. Here are our favorites for April:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2CvitAW4sqLBxN2wKfXsk8?si=ovXdUJYxRnqj0Sw3Oclq3Q
After a series of unexplained near-miss shootings around Malibu Creek State Park, a man named Tristan Beaudette is murdered by gunshot while camping with his daughters. New Yorker writer Dana Goodyear, skeptical that the person charged with the murder is guilty of all the crimes, sets out to discover if there is something more nefarious afoot. With a Serial-influenced investigative style, Goodyear examines whether or not the near-misses and the murder are linked, and if the police should have done more to warn the public.
Politics of Food, a new show from DCP Entertainment, asks tough questions about how our food supply chain is affected by changes in society and politics. The podcast launched in March with an episode about the pandemic’s impact on perpetuating food scarcity, setting the tone as an in-depth interview series that draws heavily on local stories without forgetting the global narrative. Presenter Cristina Gonzalez is an excellent host. She gives her guests sufficient time to speak, and when she does offer insight, it is incisive. By episode three, the podcast is in its stride. Listeners of The Dave Chang Show will appreciate the discussion on the restaurant industry and how it has changed during the pandemic, with many recognizing Marcus Samuelsson as a regular guest. Gonzalez calls the industry an “ecosystem,” which summarizes Politics of Food’s mission: our food doesn’t arrive on our plates by magic, so we should pay attention to how it’s produced, how much is wasted, and how we can stop people from getting left out.
Wesley Morris and Jenna Wortham are back for the spring season of Still Processing. Since its debut in 2016, Still Processing has been the most critical, significant, and exploratory talk show released by a major media outlet. This season’s second episode, “Now That’s What I Call a Bridge!”, is a typically surprising dive into the evolution of pop song construction. What begins with Morris’s tour through some of the greatest bridges in pop music history and his nostalgia for the pre-chorus build ends with Wortham’s analysis of how TikTok has reshaped the pop song making process.
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