23 - The Dollop
I may have already talked about this in a previous post, but The Dollop is one of my most highly recommended podcasts. You might ask me what I'm listening to now, or what a good podcast is for various purposes, but this one is the one that I will always always always recommend.
I was introduced to it like two or three years ago by my ex, and it was one of the best podcast recommendations I've ever received. From their intro:
"The Dollop is a biweekly American history podcast, where I, Dave Anthony, read a story from American history to my friend, Gareth Reynolds, who has no idea what the topic is going to be about."
Obviously, this leads to hilarious riffs and improvs that make the whole thing really easy to listen to. You laugh, you learn - what else do you need from a podcast?!
Note: they do like 5 - 10 minutes of plugs before they start the podcast - just skip through it like I do :D It is so worth it.
Here are some of my favs:
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New York to Paris Car Race - this is one of the most hilarious adventures I've ever listened to on a podcast - in 1907 there was a race from New York to Paris, up through Alaska, across to Russia, through the Eastern European countries and then into Paris. This was a time when there were no phones, or GPS, or ANYTHING - so if they broke down, they had to go to the nearest town and fix it. In the American car, the driver drove the first leg, left the race to his mechanic, and then joined back up just before Paris to take the credit. Some people in American towns didn't like the French competitors so they would waylay them and send them in the wrong direction. One of the teams used a train to transport their car instead of driving it for some portion of the trip because they were so behind. IT'S A RIOT!
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Uber - Dave Anthony is an angry man, and any of his episodes on the failure of American capitalism are the best. This one is about the rise of Uber and focusses on the horrible actions of their founder Travis Kalanick. If you find this one interesting, you should look into their two-parter on Donald Trump, or the Opioid epidemic in America.
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Animal Horror of Macquarie Island - The Dollop has a strong international following, and they've been to Australia for the last 5-7 years. They knew Wil Anderson in uni (I think?) and so have him on the podcast often. When they come down here, they instead do Australian history and oh. my. god. It is incredible. This is one of the most gruesome episodes I've heard, but that's what history's all about, right?
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Competitive Endurance Tickling - this podcast catapulted them to fame (? I think)...it was an investigation into a small ad in a newspaper somewhere looking for 'competitive endurance tickling'...which turns into something incredibly weird, mysterious, and fascinating.
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Icelandic History - another hilarious look into a part of history you will never have heard about. And the guest in this one is hilarious.
If you have any other good podcast recommendations, let me know! I'll get through them as quick as I can...
Chat soon :)
✔️ Other Podcast Recommendations
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Beyond the Screenplay - this is the podcast from the people behind Lessons from a Screenplay, which does some great videos on film analysis. Most of the films are classics so don't feel like you can't relate! Beyond the Screenplay has more discussion on the movies in question with the editors and producers behind the videos - really great podcast!
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How I Built This - an NPR podcast on the entrepreneurs/innovators/idealists behind many of the world's biggest companies (like Instagram, Airbnb, VICE and Lyft). Really fascinating stories and interviews - worth a listen if you're interested in this stuff!
🚌 Adventures on the Information Super-Highway
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Nicki Minaj - Starships - Canon in D version - look, I had to listen to this, so you do too. It's a weird mashup of Canon in D that, well, really works with Starships. I don't know why it came up in my feed, but it did, so let's all enjoy it.
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The Liar's Walk - sometimes, deep learning can be weird - this study was trying to detect deception/lying through how someone is walking. There are a few problems with the study, but my favourite concept they tried to introduce was 'deceptive walking' to train their algorithm. I mean, what does that even mean!? How do you walk deceptively!??
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Automated Finance Apps - idealistic, but interesting! A different way to model what the future of personal finance might be :)
🌱 The Calathea Corner
I noticed that when I brought it home, that the leaves would sort of...come up together at night, and splay out in the morning. It's almost like it's breathing!
Also look at those wonderful reds underneath the leaves - it's so BEAUTIFUL.
But it still might die so don't get attached. Okay?
