You’re Wrong About looks back at Princess Di and her monumentally awful marriage
Aux Features Podcasts
David Tennant Does A Podcast With…
Neil Gaiman
David Tennant is probably best-known for being the tenth actor to play The Doctor in the BBC’s Doctor Who. Neil Gaiman is probably best-known for building an expansive career as a storyteller. As the creator of the iconic comic series The Sandman, countless novels-turned-movies and television shows, and even an episode of Doctor Who, Gaiman is a legendary creative, and, it turns out, the perfect conversationalist to bounce off of Tennant (Gaiman was also a co-writer of the novel Good Omens and the TV adaptation, which Tennant starred in). The writer reflects on growing up with an interest in religion and mythology (as a child he was interested in crafting “custom religions” for people), and telling his career advisors that he wanted to write American comic books when he grew up. The episode provides insight into the creative process, but also into how one creator’s warmth and sense of wonder can make the stories they tell more affecting. [Jose Nateras]
Louder Than A Riot
The Conspiracy Against Hip-Hop
Listening to this newly launched podcast about the relationship between “rhyme and punishment”—from the usually Caucasian corridors of National Public Radio—took me back to my days as a hip-hop critic/journalist in the mid-to-late ’90s. MCs were often rapping about the same thing: being the deadliest, most blinged-out, most downright-disrespectful-to-women gangsta out there. In the first episode of Louder Than A Riot, NPR hip-hop writers Rodney Carmichael and Sidney Madden ponder how the rap industry turned into a (sorry) gangsta’s paradise, as the music and its most thugged-out performers became (sorry, again) Public Enemy No. 1. They mostly do this by investigating the authenticity of a notorious, anonymous letter, which details a supposed meeting in the ’90s between the titans of music and the prison-industrial complex and began circulating online in 2012. They also snap up interviews with Killer Mike, legendary Black-music critic Nelson George, and famed X-rated rapper Too $hort, who perfectly sums up how brainwashed we’ve become by hip-hop thuggery: “If you went into a civil-rights meeting and said, ‘Mr. Martin Luther King, I’m a thug from the trap!’ everybody in the damn church would try to save you.” [Craig D. Lindsey]
Race Chaser With Alaska & Willam
VERY THAT E4 “Compensation vs. Facilitation”
Taking the place of a typical installment of Race Chaser this time around is an episode of Very That. Hosted by Raja, winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race season three, and Delta Work, a co-competitor from the same season, Very That is a worthy substitution for Alaska and Willam’s regularly scheduled programming. After a discussion of the recent presidential debates, Raja and Delta offer some advice to a listener who’s written in seeking their thoughts about starting to perform in drag. The co-hosts have been friends for a long time, even before their 2011 season of RPDR, and it shows in how they converse with one another: addressing the listener’s questions, they weigh in on everything from maintaining professionalism to dancing around one’s bedroom in makeup. Their adventures on the road have provided them a plethora of anecdotes to pull from, and both Raja and Delta reflect on their early days as drag queens, sneaking into bars at 19. This isn’t the first time that an episode of Very That has subbed for Race Chaser, and luckily listeners can enjoy hearing from fan-favorite drag queens no matter which series shows up in their podcast feed. [Jose Nateras]
You’re Wrong About
Princess Diana Part 3: The Affairs
It’s exciting to see a podcast’s star rise in real time, and that’s what we’re witnessing with You’re Wrong About, the history podcast hosted by Michael Hobbes and Sarah Marshall. As previously discussed, it’s far from the typical debunking podcast in that it references copious primary sources, and actually cites those sources (a rarity in the Wild West of true-crime-adjacent programming). And the hosts’ chatter doesn’t sound like a script begging to be mistaken for extemporaneous conversation. (Rachel Syme recently lauded this fresh approach in a glowing writeup for the New Yorker.) Those strengths are on clear display in YWA’s latest series on the life of Princess Diana, a woman whose postmortem legacy has now outlasted her living one by several years. This episode, Hobbes tells Marshall about the drawn-out dissolution of Charles and Diana’s loveless, utterly perfunctory marriage, complicated by Diana’s keen understanding of how to maintain a sterling public image and Charles’ seeming unwillingness to even attempt to hide his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles. We all know where this is headed, but along the way, there’s plenty to learn about the institution of the Royal Family and the needless degree to which it can fuck with people’s lives. [Marnie Shure]
17 Comments
you put the words in the wrong order in the last sentence, should be needless Royal Institution
Is there any more pretentious name for a podcast? Just hang a mic in front of that person at the party and walk away. Instant NPR content.
I really wish I knew where I saw You’re Wrong About recommended originally (not here, alas, as I’m so picky about podcasts that I confess I don’t wade into these articles often) – I think it was on Jezebel – but I picked it up last week and wow, just those three episodes about Di sold me on the entire podcast and now I’m way into it. What an excellent balance; I love it when Sarah kind of effortlessly throws out a completely appropriate comparison and moves on when I think a lot of other hosts who make jokes really need to belabor them so everyone can be sure of how witty it was. I was listening to the Chandra Levy episode this morning on my run and she threw out a Book of Esther nod that was so perfect I couldn’t stand it. What a nice dynamic! And again, yeah, I’m picky about my podcasts so if I like one that’s really banter-y I think that’s telling.
I have also been listening for about a year I think. It’s definitely in my top 5. I do think they occasionally editorialize a little too much here and there, but not to a degree I find concerning. Have you heard Michael Hobbes new podcast about the wellness industry? Only on episode but I think it has potential to be just as entertaining and informative as You’re Wrong About.
I hadn’t heard, but that is RIGHT up my alley. Thank you so much for mentioning it!
One of my favorites as well (and I’m very particular about podcasts, too – most of them set my teeth on edge).
I read about it in reference to the Yoko Ono episode. I was interested to see how we’re wrong about Yoko, and they didn’t disappoint! I now listen to a couple episodes a month, I’d say.
I’ve been an avid fan of You’re Wrong About for roughly a year and a half now and it’s so cool to see it’s getting the love it deserves! Michael and Sarah are so smart and thoughtful, I was listening to their episode about child trafficking just last night and it was a highlight listening to Michael go off on the changes we actually need to battle trafficking beyond made up statistics on Facebook and useless organizations calling for “awareness”. They are also funny and have a great rapport with one another, I like them so much I actually started supporting them recently on Patreon, give them a listen, you won’t regret it!
The problem I have with You’re Wrong About is the inappropriate and ill-timed attempts at comedy when discussing important topics like domestic abuse and murder. In addition, (and this is a personal aesthetic) it’s really irritating to listen to the gossipy Valley Girl banter they fall into. Sarah has some interesting takes but she dips into the all too familiar “vocal fry” to emit concern for a subject. Hobbes always seems like he is just waiting to make another poorly timed quip about someone’s death or misfortune. I really like the subjects they choose but they need a producer who can edit them.
Look at Prince Charles eyes in the lead photo. Inbreeding is a bitch.
I’m remembering the Robin Williams (Rest Well in the Summerlands, You Crazy Diamond!) bit about Prince Charles — “Your Highness, how old are you?” ::Snorts like a horse, whinnies, and starts pawing the ground…::
Cum Town was really good this week.
It is always interesting how much more effort is put into Charles’ philandering compared to the amount that focuses on Princes William and Harry not having the same father.
Juuuuuuuuuuuust gonna leave this here:
Hasn’t the timeline for this who-is-Harry’s-father scenario been proven to be completely off?
Juuuuuuust gonna say that not only were two of Diana’s siblings gingers, but Harry is the living image of Prince Philip. Those eyes scream Windsor. The conspiracy theories are complete fantasy.
A true-crime-adjacent podcast that cites sources and doesn’t sound scripted…reminds me of something *cough Last Podcast on the Left cough*