The comedy podcast universe is ever expanding, not unlike the universe universe. We’re here to make it a bit smaller, a bit more manageable. There are a lot of great shows and each has a lot of great episodes, so we want to highlight the exceptional, the noteworthy. Each week our crack team of podcast enthusiasts and specialists and especially enthusiastic people will pick their favorites. We hope to have your ears permanently plugged with the best in aural comedy.
Late Night with Seth Meyers Podcast - Pod Save America Comes to Late Night
Mark: This episode is a crossover with the brand-new Pod Save America politics podcast, formerly known as Keepin’ it 1600. Former White House gurus Tommy Vietor, Jon Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer, and Jon Favreau have spun off from The Ringer to form Crooked Media, which is bound to be shut down by the Trump administration in no time. Jon, Jon & Tommy sit down with Seth Meyers to talk about their experiences writing for the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner. This particular dinner will go down in history as our generation’s Franz Ferdinand moment. Not because President Obama announced he had taken out Osama Bin Laden the next day, but because various sources have claimed Donald Trump decided to run for president that very night in response to the verbal beatdown delivered by Seth Meyers. No wonder the First Lady wants to end bullying; she knows a few mean jokes might inspire someone to run against her husband. Seth also brings up recent interview with bullshit virtuoso Kellyanne Conway, and points out how her approach to the truth didn’t hold up against a live studio audience. This whole discussion might just be the band playing the Titanic, but at least we get some laughs on the way down. [iTunes]
Sooo Many White Guys - Phoebe and St. Vincent: Behind The Music
Noah: She’s back, booboos! Phoebe Robinson and her friends hit the ground running with an excellent second season debut, unapologetically sexual and characteristically forward. Phoebe opens the show casually going over her recent dose of Plan B, leading producer Joanna to admit to hate-making out with an anti-feminist foreigner on holiday and setting the stage for guest Annie Clark (St. Vincent) to later reveal that she once paid double to give a stripper a handjob. Phoebe and Clark have an unexpected rapport that breezes them through Sooo Many White Guys’ welcome return. The joy is in the little moments: Clark explaining tour bus poop etiquette, Phoebe asking her straight up if she’s a better interviewer than Marc Maron, and Clark slyly hinting that she is. Phoebe’s style and sass were an important part of last year, and we can only imagine how much she’ll turn it up this season. [iTunes]
The Hilarious World Of Depression - Jen Kirkman, Bad Therapy, Good Therapy and Nuclear Invasion
Leigh: Is depression funny? That’s the question host John Moe is trying to get to the bottom of. Jen Kirkman, self-proclaimed depression snob, says yes. And she’s got a lot of points to back up her answer. Like all the ways society validates your sadness, especially the music you listen to when you’re a teenage girl and the terrifying movies we watch when we’re probably too young and impressionable to be watching them. In fact, figuring out she was a comedian actually meant also figuring out she was depressed. Her advice? Don’t be afraid of depression, learn that it can be manageable, and accept that it could be a part of your life. So not only can depression hilarious, it’s also interesting. And as Jen Kirkman so aptly puts it, “I’m not interested in well adjusted people because they just don’t know they’re depressed yet.†If nothing else, the story of how she went to school dressed as Mozart as a kid is not to be missed. [iTunes]
Twice Removed - Abbi Jacobson
Elizabeth: Each episode of Twice Removed takes guests through their family tree, highlighting notable connections and introducing them to a mystery relative in person. It’s kind of like PBS’s Finding Your Roots, but funnier and without Ben Affleck censoring information about slave-owning ancestors.This week host A.J. Jacobs dives into the genealogy of Broad City’s Abbi Jacobson. The Twice Removed team solves a cold case from over 50 years ago involving a 160 pound pumpkin. Abbi also learns about her second great aunt who took over and ran her late husband’s mill in 1933, a relative who pushed for New York’s Pooper Scooper law, which made owners clean up after their dogs, and an amazing female basketball player in rural Oklahoma during the Great Depression. Abbi’s family is full of hustlers—including her mystery relative, who is revealed at the end of the episode. [iTunes]
Other Podcasts We’re Listening To:
The Bill Simmons Podcast - Seth Meyers & Michael Schur
Roundball Rock - “Float like a butterfly, sting like Embiidâ€
Beautiful/Anonymous - Inside the Heroin Epidemic
The Best Show - The Great Unburdening! Gail Bennington in Studio! Danny from Newbridge News!
Scriptnotes Podcast - Sinbad and the Sea Monkeys
Another Round - Pour One Out For Elmo w/ Joy Reid
Got a podcast recommendation? Drop us a line at [email protected].
Photo credit: Lloyd Bishop/©NBC
Leigh Cesiro is a writer living in Brooklyn who only needs 10 minutes to solve any Law & Order: SVU episode.
Elizabeth Stamp is a writer living in Brooklyn, New York.
Noah Jacobs is a writer, podcaster, and mark who lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Mark Kramer is a writer, comedian & human boy from Staten Island, New York, but please don’t hold that against him.