Brenna’s Listening Journal

I listen to… a lot of podcasts. I have probably about thirty-five active subscriptions and I try to listen to them all every week (I am also such a nerd about listening to them IN THE ORDER THEY DOWNLOAD and trying hard not to skip ahead… but I sometimes do). Before you ask, I listen to podcasts more than I engage with any other media — I might catch three hours of TV in a week, but I’ll probably listen to five hours of podcasts most days.

I tried to focus for this journal on five podcasts that really shape the rhythm of my week every week.

1. Canadaland Short Cuts. I have been a supporter of Canadaland since it first launched and Short Cuts is my favourite show on the network. I like the content — media criticism — but I especially like the format where host Jesse Brown (who can be A Lot) invites guest co-hosts who challenge him. I usually agree with the co-hosts, and that keeps me listening. I confess that I always skip ahead to this one as soon as it downloads, because the content is so timely.
2. Unerased. This podcast is a rare corporate partnership podcast that is actually listenable. Each season is paired with an upcoming Focus Features film to do a deep-dive documentary into the issue of the film; season one looked as conversion therapy, and season two looks at deportations of international adoptees from America. Deciding how to make a podcast sustainable financially can be a hell of a thing, but most shows created as branding exercises are ads first, content second. This is very much the opposite — and in both cases, the podcast worked to get me hyped for the film.
3. American Queer. This was a recent binge for me — I found it late one night because I love that “it was the 90s” guy on TikTok and I stayed up all night listening to it in its entirely. This is a mode of podcasting I call storytelling — one voice, one narrative — but this example is especially lovely because of the music and because of its vulnerability.
4. Ear Hustle. For me, Ear Hustle does the most important thing a podcast can do: it lets me live in a different world for the duration of the storytelling. This podcast tells the story of incarcerated people, made primarily by the incarcerated or formerly-incarcerated. It uses a mixture of documentary, interview, and conversational formats, and this is part of what makes it such a delight to listen to. It’s at the top of my list every week.
5. Stuff You Should Know and Stuff You Missed in History Class. I lump these two together in a category I lovingly call “cozycasts.” I have been listening to both of these shows since 2009 (omg) and as a result the hosts are like old pals (read more about parasocial relationships here). I listen to these shows as background noise when I’m working and I put them on to fall asleep at night.

Thinking about my listening habits for this task made me realize a couple of things. First, I really like narrative work (especially documentaries). Second, the chemistry between hosts matters a lot to me; I love feeling like I’m listening in on a friendship. The content ranges widely, but if a podcast has both those things, I will probably check it out.