My current pop culture obsessions

OpenClipart-Vectors / Pixabay

It’s been a while since I’ve written about the various sources of entertainment occupying my time lately.

And by occupying my time, I mean “playing in the background as I do other things” or “being read for ten minutes before I pass out every night.”

(Of course, much of this will be replaced by the Olympics beginning this weekend.  I don’t even care what sport I’m watching.  But I will be watching.)

Like many people, I got sucked into Stranger Things on Netflix.  I managed to watch the entire season (only 8 episodes) in a single weekend while still getting in a 50 mile ride and 11 miles of running.  I’ve been struggling to explain the show.  It’s definitely in the sci-fi realm, not really what I would call horror.  I’d probably put it in the same genre as The X-Files, wherever you put that.  Supernatural mystery?  Either way, it’s excellent storytelling and I have high hopes for the second season.

I’ve been listening to The West Wing Weekly, a podcast about (obviously) The West Wing.  Josh Malina, who joined the cast mid-series, and a friend are working their way through the series, discussing one episode a week while also bringing on great guests, including actors, writers, and directors from the show.  I’ve been rewatching the show along with them, and it’s been a lot of fun to listen to their discussion.  It’s also very hard to make Netflix stop the autoplay and not go on to the next episode.

In other podcasts, I may have already recommended Still Buffering, “a sisters’ guide to teens through the ages,” but it remains highly entertaining.  Three sisters, two in their 30’s and one still in high school, discuss what it’s like to be a teen, both in the 90’s and today.  As someone who was a teen in the 90’s, this is an entertaining reminiscence through the ridiculousness of teenage life, and it’s also mind boggling to learn the teenage “rules” about things like Instagram and group texts.

Radiolab has started up an infrequent podcast called “More Perfect” about the Supreme Court and some major cases and it is fabulous.  I may be their target audience though, as a trained attorney who loved Constitutional Law class in law school.

If you liked the first season of Serial, you might want to check out the second season of Undisclosed.  The Undisclosed team’s first season was on the Adnan Syed case, but they’ve picked up a new case for their second season, and it’s really interesting investigative journalism.  Each week they do a new episode plus an Addendum, hosted by Jon Cryer (yes, Duckie) where they discuss some of the key points of each episode.  Great for the true crime fans out there.

If you’re looking for inspiration as you train, my Coeur teammate Amy Stone hosts the Mile After Mile podcast, where she interviews some impressive athletes and talks about the crazy things they’re doing.

I’ve been listening to audiobooks lately while running, but nothing that I can absolutely rave about at the moment.  I’ve been bouncing between the J.D. Robb In Death series (which I love) and the Outlander books which I have a love/hate relationship with.  (If nothing else, I get my money’s worth out of my Audible credit with those considering how long they are.)  In general, I’m a huge audiobook fan.

I have the latest Harry Potter release sitting on my counter at home but haven’t had the time to delve into it, as I manage to read for a few minutes every night before falling asleep, and I have a feeling that’s not the best way to read that book.  Someday I will have free time to just read for hours again.

So those are the pop culture things taking up my time.  What else should I be watching/reading/listening to?

 

 

The post My current pop culture obsessions appeared first on Elbowglitter.