What if you & books are on a break?
A few non-book recommendations for when reading just isn't working
Hello!
As promised in my last official post, here is a bonus post about the things I filled the almost two months of relatively low reading recently.
Rather than books, I sought solace and entertainment in several shows and podcasts, which I will detail below (I hope books didn’t feel *too* awfully betrayed), along with some specific recommendations of particular episodes I enjoyed and think you might as well. It’s an eclectic mix, so hopefully something in there might strike your fancy.
These lists are of course not comprehensive, and these shows and podcasts are specific to me. There are plenty of other shows and podcasts that my lovely and long-suffering wife (the number of times she just lets me get away with starting sentences with “On the episode of Knowledge Fight I’m listening to…” without sprinting from the room is astounding) Ally and I watch and listen to together, which may make it into a later edition of “StoneWright (Mostly) Reads” bonus posts (she wants to make it clear: we are watching Murder, She Wrote and it’s fabulous). But I think it’s a pretty representative list of May and June non-books that captured my attention (though I also started a lot of these well before May/June, so it’s not like I listened to almost 300 episodes of a podcast in 2 months, that’d be impossible).
Streaming Series:
My Astronaut - mockumentary webseries (YouTube - free)
I won’t necessarily say that evangelizing for this webseries is the *only* reason for this bonus post, but it’s not *not* the main reason…. Because the two stars are friends of mine and are amazing and talented people who are also getting married this weekend (yay!). Which is definitely funnier in the context of this webseries, in which fictional Maggie is a candidate for a SpaceX-like company that wants to put people on Mars, and fictional Micah is her very earthbound boyfriend who is dealing with possibly being left behind. In the vein of The Office, a documentary crew is sent to follow the candidates, and inevitably, the couple’s relationship becomes the main focus. Micah’s character is absurdly pathetic at times (not unlike a Michael Scott), but the quality of the writing, acting, and production are pretty incredible (I’m biased, but also stand behind this recommendation 100%). Each episode is roughly 15 minutes long, and there are only 8 in the first (and sadly only) season, so you can easily blow through it in an afternoon or evening. Give it a try, I bet you’ll be as blown away as I was. You can find all 8 episodes at the link below for free:
https://www.youtube.com/@myastronaut8055
Recommendation: My favorite episode is Episode 4, “No Water,” in which Micah has to deal with a plumbing issue and then gets locked out of the apartment. You’ll never guess where the episode ends. Absolutely brilliant stuff.
Extrapolations - drama series (Apple TV+ - not free)
On the more serious and heady side of things is this criminally under-discussed, under-hyped (imho) Apple TV+ show, which I only heard about because of one of the podcasts in the next section. You can think of it in terms of linked short stories about climate change, just in a different medium (I got strong How High We Go in the Dark [2022] by Sequoia Nagamatsu vibes, which I reviewed here). Each episode takes us several years further into climate disaster (Episode 1 is set in 2037, Episode 8, the final episode of the first and only [so far] season, is set in 2070), following characters who are directly or indirectly related to previous episodes as they weather the fallout of continued climate inaction or misaction (spoiler alert, this is not about how we fixed everything and live happily ever after). Like all good sci-fi, it takes an imagined future and holds it up as mirror for us sitting here today, typing or reading this post. I should also mention it has a stacked cast (Meryl Streep, Sienna Miller, Daveed Diggs, Kit Harrington, and a ton of others, as well as a ton of people I wasn’t familiar with), the special effects and writing and performances are all on point, and the emotional resonance will get ya. Episode 2 is a heartbreaker, and then, a few episodes later, Episode 5 is basically an action flick. So there’s a little of everything, and a lot of philosophical depth. It is only on Apple TV+, so that’s a bummer if you don’t have access to that, but if you ever feel like splurging for a month, there’s some great stuff on there, like Severance (see below), Foundation (based on the Asimov series, which I read relatively recently and enjoyed, and I think this adaptation is pretty cool), Ted Lasso (one of my all-time favorites), and Shrinking (we’re only 2 episodes in, but it is already a must-see).
Recommendation: It’s honestly hard to choose, but my favorite episode is probably the 3rd one, “The Fifth Question,” in which Daveed Diggs (Hamilton, Black-ish, etc.) plays a Rabbi of a sinking Temple, and there is a dream sequence where he and a cynical young lady about to have her bat mitzvah perform “Singing in the Rain.” That should be all you need to hear, but if not, the philosophical questions brought up in the episode are also super thought provoking.
Severance - drama series (Apple TV+ - not free)
Staying on the more serious side of things for a bit, Severance is another show that will leave you a bit breathless and lost in thought after each episode. The quality is just phenomenal: concept, acting, writing, cinematography, etc. And Ben Stiller is a great director. The show revolves around the question, what if you could sever the work-you from the non-work you? In the parlance of the show, the innie (version of you who stays at work) knows that their outie (the version of you outside of work) exists, but other than that, knows nothing else about them. And for all intents and purposes, the innie never leaves the office, works for his or her entire existence. So there’s a ton of moral and philosophical questioning that happens throughout the first season. Add a dash of grief, and a bit of comedic release every now and again, and boom, that’s an incredible show right there.
Recommendation: Unlike Extrapolations, or even My Astronaut to some degree, you can’t really just dip in for an episode with this show and then call it a day (at least I think it would be much more difficult), but my favorite episode is probably Episode 3, “In Perpetuity.” In this episode, we get to see more of what it means to be an ex-employee of a severed department, whether and to what extent bringing your innie and outie back together is possible, and have a bit of comedic relief as a brother-in-law stresses over where and how to leave a copy of his latest self-help book for Adam Scott’s character.
The Equalizer - crime/drama series (CBS/Paramount+ - not free)
Okay, on to slightly lighter fare. Are you now or have you ever been a fan of police procedurals? Your Laws & Orders, and the attendant “police consultant” type shows where a psychic or mystery writer or deductive genius helps police solve a murder of the week? But, have you also grown weary/wary of cop-aganda and the ways these shows tend to valorize and idealize what police departments actually do in the real world? Well, here’s the show (I can hear certain Floridian governors screaming “Woke media!” from here) for you. I freaking love procedurals. Give me a case of the week, and go ahead and miss me with the obligatory season-long arcs (okay, some are fine, I guess). There’s something immensely comforting about them, and I’m unabashedly into the relative mindlessness of crime/solution/done. But if you don’t mind a little mindfulness (and yes, wokeness) thrown in, then The Equalizer ticks all the boxes. I think it’s based off a movie of the same name, which was maybe based on an old show of the same name? Doesn’t matter. Queen Latifah (Robyn McCall) is an amazing ex-CIA jill-of-all-spycraft-trades who has decided to devote her life to helping people the system can’t. There’s a cool hacker dude and his sniper wife who help out along the way. Queen Latifah has to juggle being a vigilante superspy with being a mom to a teenager who is an incredible character in her own right. There’s an Aunt who is going to keep them both in check, and one police detective who’s the good one. All in all, it’s a show that goes out of its way to shine a light on inequities, and I just really enjoy it. It’s a CBS show, so it’s streaming on Paramount+ for $, or you can probably catch reruns on network TV or cable or something? Anyway, worth a watch.
Recommendations: I’m roughly halfway through Season 3, so not quite to the end of the extant episodes, but of the ones I’ve watched, I have several recommendations. And since it’s a procedural, you can definitely dip in and out with relative ease.
Season 1, Episode 7, “Hunting Grounds,” McCall picks up on a serial killer who has gone unnoticed because the victims are all from marginalized communities.
Season 1, Episode 10, “Reckoning”: McCall’s daughter and her friends are on hand for a mob hit and everyone has to deal with the aftermath.
Season 2, Episode 6, “D.W.B.”: The good cop in the show, Det. Dante, falls afoul of racial profiling at the hands of some corrupt smalltown cops (D.W.B. stands for “driving while Black”).
Season 2, Episode 8, “Separated”: McCall and crew help a deported woman who has been separated from her son after seeking asylum.
Season 2, Episode 16, “Vox Populi”: Aunt Vi is put on a jury and is the lone voice who questions the rest of the jury’s unquestioned assumptions.
Season 3, Episode 1, “Boom”: After McCall is kidnapped, the loved ones in her life deal with the fallout and try to save her (the continued emotional impacts, especially on her daughter continue to crop up in later episodes as well, which is great).
Critical Role, Campaign 1: Vox Machina - recorded D&D livestream (YouTube - free, also available as a podcast for free)
Okay, now we’re getting into the nerdiest of weeds. I’ve become a game night guy who has a game night crew, and we’ve played a bunch of Dungeons & Dragons by this point. I’d never really been too awfully interested in D&D until I started playing. Turns out, it’s so fun that I wanted more D&D than a weekly game night could accommodate. So the other fellas told me about Critical Role, a group of nerdy voice actors who have a few epic D&D campaigns that they streamed and recorded and are now available on YouTube (plus the current campaign I think is still going?). When I say epic, I mean each session is like 3 or 4 hours long, and each campaign is over a hundred sessions. I’m on episode 45 of Campaign 1: Vox Machina, and not even halfway through, but within each campaign there are mini arcs and side quests. Since I’m familiar only with Vox Machina and have no idea how the other campaigns are similar or different, I will just briefly explain that Vox Machina is the name of a ragtag group of adventurers (a gnome cleric, a half-elf ranger, a goliath barbarian, etc.) who, well, go on adventures, and the voice actors are very good at being their characters, and it’s very fun. In particular, the gnome bard comes up with songs (based around well-known popular tunes) and limericks that are quite impressive and hilarious. You also will see the mechanics of how a D&D session works, with Matt Mercer, incredible DM, giving amazing oral descriptions of what’s happening and dispersing rules-knowledge, etc. as well as the vicissitudes of the dice as the characters attempt combat moves or try to stealth past baddies or collect valuable teeth from a slain dragon, etc. I got into watching the YouTube videos rather than the podcast version that also exists, and they will often set up elaborate maps or mini sets with the minifigures of the characters, and the visual is cool to me, so I can’t see myself going back. There’s also a lot of preamble that I skip through, and extra stuff at the end I’ll skip past, so some of the truly long episodes aren’t actually quite as long if you do that. I imagine the podcast naturally dispenses with that? Anyway, if any of that strikes your fancy, check it out! I recommend a manageable 4 episode arc below. If you’re sort of interested but it seems weird to you to watch someone else’s uncut D&D sessions (fair), then see the final Streaming Series rec below, which is an animated series based on Critical Role’s Vox Machina campaign.
Link to Campaign 1: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1tiwbzkOjQz7D0l_eLJGAISVtcL7oRu_
Recommendation: There’s a non-bonkers side quest, The Trial of the Take, where the team is split up in 2 groups to go fight 2 beasts and each group has a guest appearance by other actors/voice actors (notably to this Star Trek TNG fan, Wil Wheaton, who aptly demonstrates his hilarious dice-rolling curse), so it’s 2 episodes of the first group on their quest and two episodes of the second group (only 14-ish hours total, c’mon, easy peasy, lol).
Trial of the Take, Part 1: https://youtu.be/60sUkTh6xBc
The Legend of Vox Machina - adult animated series (Amazon Prime - not free)
If you’re mildly interested in the story of a ragtag team of fantasy world adventures going on adventures but do not really care to put in the absurd number of hours to get not even halfway through Campaign 1 of a recorded livestream of D&D sessions (you monster), then the animated Amazon Prime series based on it is maybe more your speed. Very well-done, and certainly adults-only (lewd humor, violence) with all the Critical Role voice actors voicing their characters (of course), it picks up around episode 24 of the campaign with an arc around the character Percy, human gunslinger, who runs into villains from his past. Very fun and only 12 half-hour episodes per season (2 exist currently). I don’t really have particular episodes that stand out more than others, so I’d say just start with Season 1, Episode 1, and if you like it, watch the rest.
Podcasts:
Knowledge Fight
If I haven’t lost you already, I assume this is where I lose you. The next 3 or 4 podcasts are pretty specific to my absurd obsessions (learning more about right-wing weirdos), so if this doesn’t capture your interest, I completely understand and cannot blame you (maybe check out the last 3 podcasts below instead). That being said, Knowledge Fight is my new obsession that I can’t quit. Which is a problem, because the latest episode as of this writing is episode 827…. I’ve listened to coming-up-on 300 episodes so far. Which is concerning, since each episode is over an hour long and many are 2 or 3 hours. Even listening at 1.25x speed, I shudder to think of the time spent, but also, I regret nothing.
Okay, so what is it: Knowledge Fight is a podcast in which the hosts, Dan (who has been obsessed with Alex Jones and his show InfoWars for years) breaks down (critically) episodes of Info Wars (get it? Knowledge Fight?) for the other host, Jordan, who started out knowing nothing about Alex Jones/InfoWars. Both are former comedians who remain incredibly smart and funny. I started listening after Dan and Jordan were guests on another podcast (I forget which one, but I think it was Fever Dreams [R.I.P.], about all things alt-right and Q-Anon and grifter-y) and this was around the time the default judgments and billion dollar penalty started to come through—an all-around bonanza of Alex Jones-ishness. What kept me coming back so that I’ve now worked my way to episode 500-something while also staying current with the about twice-weekly new releases is the ways in which the hosts break down the cultish strategies Jones uses on his audience, the amount of time Dan spends tracking down the headlines Jones mischaracterizes, and then gives the full and un-spun context for, etc. When present-day Alex gets put on timeout for being too horrible, the fellas go back to the past and break down episodes from 2003-4 or other dates that pique their interest (the show on Alex’s coverage of 9/11 and the couple days following is beyond belief, I swear). It’s wild, it’s informative, and I have formed such a parasocial bond with the hosts that, upon forming plans to travel to Chicago for the aforementioned My Astronaut-stars’ wedding, one of my other first thoughts was, “Cool, we could potentially run into Dan and Jordan from Knowledge Fight!” (they live in Chicago, I think I forgot to mention that).
Recommendation: Any of the “Formulaic Objections” episodes are incredible. These are episodes where, instead of talking about InfoWars episodes, they break down depositions from InfoWars folks. Episode 768 is a good one featuring Alex Jones himself. Episode 771 is another good one, featuring Rob Dew, the vastly unprepared corporate representative for Free Speech Systems (parent company), and part of the reason Jones was defaulted in all these lawsuits for failing to do just about anything the court told him to do.
Know Your Enemy
Sticking with the right-wing weirdo side of things, but in a different way, Know Your Enemy is a much more intellectual approach to trying to understand the ideas and foundations of current-day conservatism, by exploring the thought leaders past and present. William F. Buckley is kind of the big one that kick started the project. Cohost Sam Adler-Bell grew up in a lefty Jewish household with labor-lawyer parents. Cohost Matt Sitman was a conservative growing up and relatively recently became a lefty while remaining within the Catholic faith. Both are whip-smart, thoughtful, and their friendship is honestly the real star of the show maybe? Anyway, they cover all kinds of things, breaking down books by conservative (and conservative-adjacent) intellectuals and politicians, as well as doing deep dives on individuals and even concepts. Much less frequently released (often there is one free episode per month), I went back to the beginning with this one and then listened up to the present and now am just staying caught up.
Recommendation: One of the most recent episodes, “What’s Wrong with Men?” (June 5th, 2023) was great and super interesting even for a more general audience who might be interested in gender and patriarchy and how to be better men (fellas, I’m looking at you). Then the May 4th, 2023 episode, where they have writers for the shows Succession and Extrapolations on as guests (this is where I heard of Extrapolations!) was excellent and good for general audiences. They also touch on the Writers’ Strike which was about to happen at the time they recorded. The April 18th, 2023 episode in which they break down DeSantis’s book is another good one. “Bob Dylan’s America” from April 4th, 2023 and “Jesus and Bob Dylan” from December 26th, 2022 are great. “Joan Didion, Conservative” from January 13th, 2022 will be interesting for book-ish folks maybe as well. They’re all fascinating and great, unfortunately, so you might just have to listen to all of them (apologies).
Behind the Bastards
This is a recent problem (lol) I’ve developed, basically in May/June. The gist of the project is that the host, Robert Evans, and guest hosts do deep dives into history’s bad guys, past and present. So like, some of the big names in Nazism as well as Andrew Tate kinda folks. There are a fair amount of tangents as well. I really enjoy the humor and knowledge Evans and guest hosts always bring to the table. One drawback: ads (which the previous two miraculously avoid). But they do also have some of the most entertaining throws to ad-breaks I’ve ever heard (if you have a dark sense of humor), which almost makes up for it. This is one where I hunt & peck a bit more, scrolling until I find a topic I’m interested in and then adding that group of episodes to my queue (there will often be parts 1, 2, 3, etc.). I learn tons and enjoy myself immensely each time I add a new set of episodes.
Recommendations: June 19th and 22nd, 2023’s episodes Parts 1 & 2 of “AI Is Coming for Your Children” is all about how a new get-rich scheme is using AI to write and illustrate terrible children’s books/coloring books that might trick people into buying them and why that’s a bad thing for humanity. If you’d prefer to read about it instead, here’s the article Robert Evans wrote on his substack:
May 2nd, 2023’s episode is a breakdown of Andrew Tate’s terrible book (not for the faint of heart, it’s ROUGH). February 21st-March 9th, 2023’s episodes are a deep dive into the origins and history of the Illuminati, which is fascinating stuff. Then, probably a couple years ago now, they did occasional episodes breaking down parts of Ben Shapiro’s almost unreadable novel, if you revel in that sort of thing. But basically, I would just suggest scrolling through the feed until something strikes your fancy.
Long Shadow, Seasons 1 & 2
A much more manageable podcast with short-ish distinct seasons (two so far), Long Shadow is about important shifts in American culture, hosted by Garrett Graff. The first season is all about September 11th, 2001, going deep on what happened, the intelligence mishaps and incredible stories, like a fireman who went into one of the buildings, did not get out in time, and survived. High production values and just the reminders of what happened on that day, things that I knew about but in the intervening years had forgotten, but also plenty of new information (an image that still sticks with me from Season 1 is describing the view from the International Space Station as told by astronauts, and how, because all aircraft were grounded except Air Force One, they could see the single contrail from Air Force One when they were over North America: haunting). Season 2 is all about the rise of the American far right (so, naturally, this is what drew me to the podcast in the first place and Season 1 was just a bonus), and it’s great in similar ways: production, the depth of storytelling and analysis, all of it. Season 2 neatly maps the ways that Waco and Ruby Ridge led to Timothy McVeigh and Oklahoma City, which has led to the modern far-right militia movement.
Recommendations: Because it’s relatively manageable in length, I do basically just recommend all of Season 1 in particular, and all of Season 2, if you’re into that. But if I had to play favorites, I would say check out Season 1, Episode 1, “Why weren’t more people rescued from the Twin Towers?” It’ll grip you early (I bet) and make you come back for more. And then in Season 2, I thought the Ruby Ridge episode (Episode 2) was great, partly because I didn’t know another author I’ve enjoyed, Jess Walter, was a reporter working the story back then and has a whole book about it (Ruby Ridge: The Truth and Tragedy of the Randy Weaver Family [2012]). So thanks, Long Shadow!
Vibe Check
I’ve already mentioned this podcast a few times (as well as the next 2 podcasts below) in previous posts and bonus posts, but it is still one of my favorites and one I listen to day-of (typically) when new episodes come out, and have never missed an episode of. Hosted by three friends, Zach Stafford, Sam Sanders, and StoneWright Reads-favorite memoirist and poet Saeed Jones, they basically just chat and catch up and then focus on two-ish stories from recent days to dive deep on (pop culture, politics, or concepts like fandom, etc.). They’re always thoughtful and wise and bring a new perspective to things that I probably had not considered before, and they’re just delightful and hilarious. I believe in the earliest episodes they said the goal of the podcast was to bring your favorite group chat to life, and if so: nailed it.
Recommendations: I’m just going to recommend a couple of the most recent episodes here, but you know I essentially mean that you should listen to all of them… The most recent as of this writing, Wednesday, July 12th, 2023’s “Life Has Been Lifing Lately” is an excellent meditation on grief after cohost Sam Sanders recently lost his mother. And then June 18th’s “A Special Conversation with Roxane Gay” with Saeed Jones on his own is excellent as well. Gay, of course, is a great writer, but they mostly talk about her more recent experience working in TV writing, their relationships with TV, and what they’ve been watching.
If Books Could Kill
This is one of the few (surprisingly) book-ish podcasts that I keep up with on a regular basis, and I got into it because I got into the next one below, 5-4, since Peter is a cohost on both. I already discussed this a bit more in depth in this bonus post than maybe the others (Vibe Check, 5-4) I’ve mentioned before in previous posts, so I won’t belabor the point too much. Basically, the cohosts, Peter and Michael, break down what they refer to as “airport books” (books that are often self-help-y or pop-science-y that made a large splash when they came out), and why they made an impact and what sorts of harmful things they may have imparted to the culture through their outsized impact. I just want to say that I am still really into it, and I think they do a good job of not only examining what is wrong with these books, but also what they get right. Often what they conclude is that these books could’ve been an article instead, and that in trying to expand and universalize the concepts they are peddling, they usually lose the thread and the ideas fall apart. So anyway, I think it’s great, but it does criticize some books you may have loved, so it can be a bummer as well. In any case, they are very funny and smart people and the conversations never disappoint.
Recommendations: The two part series they do on the book Nudge is one of my favorites because it is a book that Michael really loved and coming back to it was disappointed in some of the faulty applications of a sometimes decent little idea. That personal connection made these episodes pop for me. But all of them are great. Their breakdown of The Rules and Atomic Habits, two of the most recent episodes are very good, as are the Outsiders and Freakanomics episodes from the early days. But I would just scroll through the list to see what books they’ve done and then choose any that strike your fancy.
5-4
I can’t really get over how much this podcast has shifted how I think about the Supreme Court. First of all, like probably most Americans, I didn’t think about the Supreme Court overly much until (too) recently. I knew about the chicanery around nominations, the ways that McConnell played Dems like fiddles to get the current conservative makeup cemented, and I had a passing familiarity with the big cases, etc. I think prior to listening, I would have nodded along with now former-Justice Stephen Breyer’s ultimately optimistic view of the fairness and legitimacy of institution on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (I’m working off of vague memories, but that’s the impression I remember having) when he was on. Throughout each episode though, the three cohosts breakdown what often is incredibly shoddy logic, blatant partisanship, and gobsmacking inconsistency of a lot of the rulings that have shaped modern America. And they also will often go through the dissents that have very good points and are often elegantly written. It’s infuriating and fascinating at the same time, and I’m grateful for the amount of respect I’ve lost for the Supreme Court as an institution and many of the current and former Justices.
Recommendations: The latest episodes all about the most recent rulings have all been really good. “Biden v. Nebraska” about student loans, “303 Creative LLC v. Elenis” about discrimination especially will probably make your blood boil. Enjoy!
Hope you enjoyed, and if you have recommendations, throw them in the comments! I’d love to bug Ally about a few new obsessions ;)
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