Podcast Idea: Finding RP11

July 3, 2020

Description: Today you can get your genes sequenced (at least a bunch of them) for under $100. What you might not know is that the modern genetic free-for-...

Podcast Idea: Advice For And From The Future

June 16, 2020

Description: Okay, I’m cheating here because this isn’t just a podcast idea, it’s a real podcast that I really just launched today and I’m hoping you...

Podcast Idea: Flipped

June 12, 2020

Description: What a time!? Bratz, the (sort of creepy) dolls company, was one of the early companies to post in support of BLM. Then came Gushers, Ben &...

Podcast Idea: Double Exposure

May 23, 2020

Description: Remember when Antz and A Bug’s Life came out in the same year? Or when Dante’s Peak and Inferno both pictured a big scary volcano’s impacts in...

Podcast Idea: Name on Name

April 11, 2020

Description: The very legit-looking website HowManyofMe.com estimates that there are currently 47,923 John Smith’s in the United States. What would happen if...

Podcast Idea: The Window

April 3, 2020

Description: Sometimes, there’s only a very narrow sliver of time before an opportunity ends. Avocados are only ripe for so long, athletes can only operate...

Podcast Idea: Future Now Past

March 27, 2020

Description: The movie Annihilation Earth opens with a team of scientists exploring a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The year? 2020. In the season finale of the...

Podcast Idea: Yes That's Me

March 21, 2020

There’s a global pandemic happening right now. You know that. This newsletter isn’t going to be about that. You know where to go for find information about...

Podcast Idea: Just Following Up

March 13, 2020

Description: Every Tuesday and Friday afternoons I have about an hour blocked off in my calendar called “Just checking in!!!!” in which I follow up on all...

Podcast Idea: Food Wars

March 5, 2020

Description: Every real city has an iconic food (or maybe more than one, if you’re a real mega-center like New York or Delhi). Regions have foods they’re...

Podcast Idea: Not Dead Yet

February 28, 2020

Description: There is no official definition for a ghost town. It’s some combination of economic failure, exodus and forgetting. Ghost towns draw tourists...

Podcast Idea: Why?

February 21, 2020

Description: Every parent or babysitter has stumbled into the “why” trap before. You know the one, where the kid (or sometimes adult) just keeps asking “why”...

Podcast Idea: Fact Holes

February 14, 2020

Description: Did you know Washington had wooden teeth? Or that a neural network trained to detect tanks instead learned to detect time of day? Or that...

Podcast Idea: The Hunt

February 7, 2020

Description: What drives people to give up their lives and hunt for treasure? Why are puzzles so alluring? On The Hunt we meet people who have committed...

Podcast Idea: Mmm...Peach!

January 31, 2020

Description: Right now there are approximately 2,384 podcasts about impeachment. At this rate, every podcast will soon be about impeachment. How can you keep...

Podcast Idea: The Madd Queen

January 24, 2020

Description: On May 3, 1980, a 13-year-old girl, named Cari Lightner, was hit by a drunk driver. The collision sent her body flying 125 feet, and the man at...

Podcast Idea: 36 Questions

January 17, 2020

Description: On January 9th, 2015, the New York Times published a piece by Mandy Len Catron called “To Fall in Love With Anyone, Do This.” The piece offered...

Podcast Idea: Pun Court

January 11, 2020

Description: Do you think punning is genetic? Are some people born with it, and others not? I didn’t get the pun gene, if it exists, but I did get whatever...

Podcast Idea: Hobby Drama

January 3, 2020

Description: When I was a kid, any time we encountered someone with a weird interest my mom would throw up her arms and dramatically yell “there’s a hobby...

Podcast Idea: Smellovision

December 22, 2019

Description: Close your eyes. Block out the sounds around you. Take a deep breath. What do you smell? Nothing? Try harder. There are scents all around you,...

Podcast Idea: Airport Shopper

December 14, 2019

Description: Who buys luggage at the airport? I’m serious. Sure, perhaps your luggage suffered a catastrophic failure and you need to replace it between...

Podcast Idea: Improvtymology

December 6, 2019

Description: The sad fact of the English language is that most words have boring etymologies. For every avocado (named after testicles) there’s a fingerstall...

Podcast Idea: Tiny Town Crime

November 15, 2019

Description: True crime podcasts get a bad rap for being fully of bloody murders, gruesome assaults, and generally unethical reporting. But while some think...

Podcast Idea: What Sound Does A _____ Make?

November 1, 2019

Sure, you probably know what sound a chicken makes, but do you know what a quokka sounds like? Or a lynx? (Hint: it’s not “meow.”) Or a piranha? (Yes, they...

Podcast Idea: Worldbuilding

October 25, 2019

Can a horse-sized flying creature grab and carry a human's weight while flying? How do you make an anatomically correct city-leveling monster? If North...

Podcast Idea: Why Should I Care?

October 19, 2019

The world is complicated and confusing, and there’s just SO MUCH we’re supposed to keep track of these days. And in many cases, the risk or consequences or...

Someone should make a podcast about...

October 14, 2019

Every week, I take a half-baked podcast idea and give it a full pitch treatment, including a logo, a potential host, and possible episodes. That’s it. That’s...