Categories
Alberta Politics

Podcast recommendations to start off 2017

Back in October 2015, I shared a list of podcasts that were on my regular listening feed. Each year I purposely look for new podcasts to listen to. This means removing some of my older regular listens and keeping some of my favourites.

The Expats, Radiolab, Hardcore HistorySlate’s Political Gabfest and Whistestop remain at the top of my list, but I intentionally branched out from politics-themed podcasts in 2017 in response to the saturation of coverage of the American Presidential election and Donald Trump‘s election victory.

Here are some of the podcasts new to my feed that get my stamp of approval:

Let’s Find Out: Edmonton’s Historian Laureate Chris Chang-Yen Phillips answers questions about our city’s history in this semi-regular podcast, which released its sixth episode last week.

SpyCast: An interesting podcast from the International Spy Museum in Washington DC. The two most recent episodes about a Canadian diplomat in Havana working for the CIA and the lead up to the attack on Pearl Harbour are particularity fascinating.

Don’t Call me a Guru: A podcast about social media strategy hosted by Edmontonians Linda Hoang and Tyler Butler. (I’m a guest on episode three).

Escape Plan and Horizon Line: Atlas Obscura is the definitive online guidebook and friendly tour-guide to the world’s most wondrous, weird, and obscure places and it is one of my favourite websites. They are now producing two podcasts.

The World Next Week: The Council on Foreign Relations produces a weekly podcast that provides previews, analysis and information about upcoming international events.

The Axe Files and the Ezra Klein Show: Both of these podcasts include interesting and thought-provoking interviews with some of America’s key cultural, academic and political players. David Axelrod’s final podcast of 2016 included an interview with outgoing President Barack Obama.

Categories
Alberta Politics

New History Podcast launched by Edmonton’s Historian-Laureate

A new Edmonton-based history podcast was launched today. Let’s Find Out is hosted by our city’s Historian-Laureate Chris Chang-Yen Phillips and the first two episodes of the podcast can be found on the podcast website or on iTunes.

Chris Chang-Yen Phillips
Chris Chang-Yen Phillips

The first episode delves into the history of Edmonton’s Snow Goose Chase (which I had never heard of until I listened to this episode) and the second tries to answer the question has Edmonton ever had a black public school trustee?

Chris is encouraging curious Edmontonians to email him with historical questions they want answered that could turn out to be inspirations for future podcast themes. Email him at chris@letsfindoutpodcast.com with your questions.

As an avid fan of history and podcasts, I am looking forward to listening to more podcasts from Edmonton’s official historian and chief story teller.

Two other history podcasts, Stuff You Missed in History Class and Hardcore History with Dan Carlin, are also on my subscription list and are worth listening to. I would also recommend that history and journalism buffs take some time to listen to the BBCs War and Words podcast series.

Categories
Alberta Politics

Recommended Listening: A list of my favourite podcasts

I had the pleasure of chatting with the talented Karen Unland on her excellent Seen and Heard in Edmonton podcast last week about my experiences while blogging about Alberta politics and some of the changes that have happened in online media since I started writing this blog a decade ago.

One of the things that has changed over the past ten years is the proliferation of podcasts available on almost any topic. On Karen’s podcast, I recommended a handful of podcasts that I listen to on a weekly basis. Here is an expanded list of podcasts that I would give my seal of approval: