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This week is brought to you by my car being in the shop for a few days getting some much-needed repair work done, so I have no plans to leave my house, and that’s utterly soothing to me.
My Stuff
Mixing it up this week to, first and foremost, tell you that a podcast I’ve been working as editorial director on for a good chunk of this year is launching on Wednesday, October 11. It’s called Have You Heard This One? And it’s executive produced by my friend Melissa Locker through her podcast company, Nevermind Media (also the home of our pod, Songs My Ex Ruined).
We’ve gotten to work with great writers, including music journalists Natalie Weiner and Ilana Kaplan, to tell some awesome stories about lost artists and music history, and fall all the way down little wormholes of fun stuff. Guaranteed, you’ll hear about something you absolutely didn’t know.
We’re launching with an episode on Norma Tanega, whose work you’re probably most acquainted with via her song “You’re Dead” from What We Do in the Shadows. But that song is actually a pitchfork aimed at a music industry that didn’t want her and intentionally let her fail.
I hope you’ll listen!
I’ll be hosting a talk with Tiffany Derry, a great Dallas chef, at Interabang Books on Wednesday as well. We’ll discuss her contribution to Eater’s debut cookbook and lots of other things.
Good Reads
The Decomposition of Rotten Tomatoes (Vulture)
A fascinating read about the film industry's manipulations of Rotten Tomatoes that have made it all but useless to actual criticism and way too important in deciding if a movie will fail the first weekend. This is a real case of the shit people will say on the record.
America’s nonreligious are a growing, diverse phenomenon. They really don’t like organized religion (Associated Press)
A profile of the people who check “none” on polls about their religion — they’re not agnostic or atheist. They just don’t buy it and don’t like it. A comforting read for those who see how evangelicals are running the board in politics.
Misleading headline because the landlord, who gets a break for telling the story here, also is pulling several fast ones with not-up-to-code features and making deals off the platform. File under hot mess/gossiping about people we don’t know.
My 11-Year Relationship That Never Happened (New York Times)
I think I just caught a glimpse of my future.
Good Stuff
My spooky season search for good podcasts continues, and I am hooked on this one. It follows private investigator Arthur Lester as he wakes up without his sight and with a demon sharing his body. They have to work together to…uh, continue to function as a string of terrifying entities are attracted to them. Honestly, the demon sounds kind of hot.
I found this pod in a Reddit thread, and it is scaring the crap out of me. It features a radio host, Dr. Malcolm Ryder, fielding the most terrifying calls imaginable. He tells a guest who keeps seeing a mysterious black door on the first episode that most of his callers don’t ask about the obvious supernatural stuff but things that are more unusual. And that’s a fact — most of the stories in this pod are things you’d have to be deranged to think up. BOO!