Are you a list person? I am. I am list dependent. (I love sticky notes of all sizes) I write all kinds of handwritten lists to help organize my life, and, yes, even some of my podcast listening is also organized into lists.
I have a lot of shows I can’t wait to get to. I don’t just save them in the library on my Podcasts app, I also write down the long-form, storytelling podcasts I want to listen to and in what order. A bit extreme, I know, but that’s me.
Here are the five limited series podcasts (which means they have a beginning, middle, and end, unlike a lot of the other shows I listen to) some new, some a bit older, that are on my To-Listen list:
Wind of Change
Pineapple Street Studios
8 episodes
Spy stories are the best and I think I am going to love this one. It’s 1990. The Berlin Wall just fell. The Soviet Union is on the verge of collapse. The soundtrack to the revolution, the metal ballad “Wind of Change,” by the Scorpions is huge. Decades later, journalist/host Patrick Radden Keefe heard a rumor: the song wasn’t written by the Scorpions. It was written by the CIA. From Moscow to Kyiv to a GI Joe convention in Ohio, it’s a story about spies doing the unthinkable, about propaganda hidden in pop music, and a maze of government secrets.
Toxic: The Britney Spears Story
Stitcher Studios
13 episodes
Isn’t everyone interested in Britney Spears and what happened to her? At least I am. Hosts Tess Barker and Babs Gray lay out everything there is to know about Spears, her controversial conservatorship, and the movement of fans trying to end it. They talk to exclusive sources, examine new sides of the story, and uncover disturbing truths about the US legal system that go way beyond Britney.
Sorry about the kid
CBC Stories
4 episodes
I am into personal meditations and stories that go deep. This podcast is about what happens when trauma and memory hit head on. Alex remembers everything about the day a speeding police car killed his brother, but he doesn’t remember his brother alive. Those memories are lost. Now, some 30 years later, Alex wants them back. Hosted by Alex McKinnon, it’s the story of how Alex unearths his childhood grief thanks to help from family, friends, and a therapist who witnessed his brother’s death.
544 Days
Spotify Original
9-episodes
I am journalism junkie and stories that show the risks journalists take to get us the news do need spotlight attention. For 544 days, Jason Rezaian was held hostage in Iran’s notorious Evin prison. Interrogated. Sealed off from the outside world. He was accused of being an American spy, though his formal title was Washington Post Tehran Correspondent. Little did he know that his release was closely tied to nuclear negotiations between Iran and the United States. Rezaian hosts this first-person account.
Why We Can’t Have Nice Things
Reason Magazine
6 episodes
This may be nerdy, but I just need to understand things like…trade policy. Host Eric Boehm sits down with industry experts in this series to explain the “frustrating and foolish aspects” of American trade policy that make everyday items more expensive. From the sudden shortages of baby formula to the Jones Act and President Lyndon Johnson’s infamous “Chicken War,” how some of these counterproductive rules got made and why they are difficult to undo.
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ROSAMARIA MANCINI, PhD 