The Roundup: Podcasts
Happy belated Fourth! I spent this past weekend celebrating one of my housemate's birthday. We awoke Sunday to sweet and savory waffles - we ate contently through the morning and rested for about four hours before round two. That night we made mojitos, pulled chicken tacos, Mexican street corn (thank you Chrissy Teigen), and a seven layer dip. The birthday girl is a fantastic baker and made a whiskey fudge cake (a la Wolfgang Puck) with blueberry basil ice cream. I can't say enough good things about her food. She made the ice cream from scratch - FROM SCRATCH! I can't even remember the last time I had ice cream made from scratch.
Delicious food and birthday festivities aside, one thing that my housemate has introduced me to is the wonderful world of podcasts. If you're thinking that I'm late to the game, you're probably right. The first podcast that I kept up with consistently was Serial. I started listening about a year ago and was riveted by Koenig's style of journalism. It turns out that all my housemates are also huge Serial fans and they recommended that I check out Undisclosed. The recommendations kept pouring in - Invisibilia, Sawbones, Revisionist History, etc. I ended up committing to Undisclosed and Sawbones, so here are some of my thoughts on each!
Undisclosed Rabia Chaudry
As you might have guessed, this podcast acts as a kind of follow-up to the first season of Serial. While we're on the topic, the second season of Serial wasn't nearly as riveting as the first. Listen if you dare. The show is hosted by Adnan's family friend and lawyer, Rabia Chaudry, alongside two attorneys who were regularly blogging about the case as Serial episodes were being released. Their aim is to dive deep into the evidence that was ignored by the prosecution, missed by the defense, and misrepresented by the trial's "key witness." The podcast unearths a lot of the nitty gritty that was a bit outside of Serial's scope. Episodes of particular interest so far are those that review Hae Min Lee's autopsy and Jay's day (or, rather, his varying stories of what happened on January 13th more than seventeen years ago to the day. The only caveat? The episodes are long and there are a lot of them!
Sawbones Sydnee & Justin McElroy
This podcast has the subtitle, "A Martial Tour of Misguided Medicine" and honestly there isn't a more accurate description than that. Syndee is a practicing physician. During the podcast, she and her (very funny) husband take us back in history for a hilarious look at some of the misguided things that scientist and physicians attempted to use for patient care. The episodes are anywhere from 40-60 minutes and usually cover one medical mishap in-depth. I've only gotten through the first few episodes, but so far they've talked about the use of trepanation, mercury, and bloodletting in medicine.
I'm trying to add a third podcast (Invisibilia) to the mix, but it's proving a little difficult because I keep getting caught up in what's happening next on Undisclosed! Very very recently a court of appeals granted Adnan the right to a new trial. I hope that his current defense attorney will use some of the Undisclosed material to bolster Adnan's chances in court.
In other news - tomorrow is officially the day! The Committee of Student Representatives is hosting a little mixer tonight for the first years so we can all get to know each other, but orientation officially starts tomorrow at 8:00 AM at the School of Medicine. Words can't describe how I'm feeling right now - it's a really strange mixture of anxiety, excitement, and hopefulness. My folks are driving into town next Saturday for the White Coat Ceremony (at Severance Hall!) on Sunday. Hopefully I'll have some find photos to share from next weekend. Until then, hope everyone had a lovely holiday weekend :)
