Music Monday

Looking for some music to write to or add to your already enormous playlist, the Grownish Writer has got your back. Every Monday, we will be sharing our favourite songs or podcasts of the week to get your Monday started.

Top 6 Podcasts:

1. Black Cancer: An episode of Jodi-Ann Burey’s Black Cancer feels like both a personal conversation between old friends and breakthrough research being read aloud. A large part of this is because many of the stories Burey has chosen to spotlight are some of the first of their kind to receive a mainstream platform. After witnessing firsthand the way that medical racism has excluded people of colour from conversations about cancer (and often prevented them from receiving proper screenings and treatment), Burey became determined to promote the stories of those who have been impacted by the disease. The result is a collection of stories from a variety of perspectives—including survivors, family members, and caretakers—about what their cancer journey means to them.

2. The Ezra Klein Show: Vox co-founder Ezra Klein’s beloved biweekly podcast has found a new home at the New York Times this year. The series is, as Klein describes, a “conversation show” where Klein sits down with some of the leading experts in the world to pick their brain on the topics that matter most: from climate change to psychedelics and beyond.

3. Death, Sex, and Money: As the title might imply, Anna Sale’s WNYC series Death, Sex, & Money doesn’t shy from discussing the things we think about the most and talk about the least. From near-death experiences to one-night stands, the student loan crisis, STIs, alcoholism, and whatever else life throws at us, Death, Sex, & Money has a no holds barred approach to its topics. And, with this, comes a deep journey of vulnerability and honesty between Sale and her guests, who range from movie stars to Supreme Court justices to everyday people. It’s messy, freeing, uncomfortable, tender, and, at its core, as human, as it gets. If you have a love for storytelling, tend to muse about life, or are in need of a push into more vulnerable conversations, Sales is the perfect guide to get you there.

4. You Must Remember This: Karina Longworth’s podcast feels like listening to a secret—half because of her perfectly mysterious and dramatic narrative voice, and a half because the show explores the “secret and/or forgotten” histories of Hollywood in the 20th century. Longworth dives deep into the Hollywood history you never really knew about, like Jayne Mansfield’s connection to the Church of Satan or the context behind the Hays Code, a set of “morality” guidelines strictly applied to films from the 1930s to the late ‘60s. A good place to start listening is the multi-part series Charles Manson’s Hollywood.

5. How Did This Get Made?: In December 2020, How Did This Get Made celebrated its tenth anniversary. A decade feels like a lifetime—especially in podcast years. And HDTGM remains a podcast classic thanks to an unbeatable formula: Three hilarious comedians discuss some truly horrible films. Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, and Jason Mantzoukas have trudged through the worst of what Hollywood has to offer over the years, but this podcast isn’t just about dunking on Bad Films. They’ve built a weird and beautiful community that has bonded over their love of watching shitty movies together.

6. Let's Talk About Myths, Baby: There are horse girls, and then there are mythology girls. As a child, I was the latter: an insufferable little nerd who stuffed her brain with sanitized versions of ancient myths. Then I became an insufferable little preteen who leveled up to the real Homeric deal. For grown-up mythology nuts like me who still can’t get enough, there’s Let’s Talk About Myths, Baby, a twice-weekly podcast covering ancient Greek and Roman myths. Host Liv Albert, the author of a forthcoming book about Greek mythology, recounts ancient stories while examining them through a modern lens, considering the place of women, trans, and non-binary people in ancient narratives.