The Big Listen ended production in May 2018. While this site is no longer updated, all the content remains available for archive purposes.
Oh, to be a member of Oprah’s audience on that fateful day in September, 2004, when everyone got a Pontiac.
Hey, pals! I think we can all agree that there is no one like Oprah.
The queen of daytime television survived a childhood of abuse and upheaval to become the first black female billionaire on the planet. And she did it by constantly reinventing the talk show medium, thus making her a singular voice in the American television landscape. Thirty years ago, The Oprah Winfrey Show made its national debut, and lucky for us, our pals at WBEZ in Chicago recently documented the show’s stratospheric rise in the documentary podcast, Making Oprah. This is must-listen audio.
All The Podcasts For Your Listening Pleasure
Tell Me More About The Shows!
There are lots of things to help you get to sleep at night — white noise machines, hot milk, Ambien. Something you might not consider to send you off to slumberland? A podcast. But Sleep With Me does just that — it puts you right to sleep with a series of silly bedtime stories for adults. Seriously, the host, Drew Ackerman, aka Dearest Scooter, has a voice that will knock you out in two seconds flat. I’m getting sleepy just writing about it.
People who enjoy flying are few and far between. Unless you’re a business class traveler, flying is generally the pits. But not for Betty In The Sky With A Suitcase! Betty, a flight attendant with a major airline, is the delightful host of this podcast, which chronicles the craziest in-flight stories out there. Ambien zombies, naked passengers and people who actually bought things from SkyMall — they’re all in there.
Dan Savage is a salacious sex columnist with surprisingly vanilla tastes in podcasts. The host of Savage Lovecast has been dispensing advice to the lovelorn and sexually frustrated for 22 seasons, but he only recently started listening to podcasts. He recommends:
Audio Baubles
– Very attractive listener recommendations for this week: Harry Potter And The Sacred Text and Love + Radio
– As we do each week, let’s check the charts! Or rather, the 289th-ranked podcast on iTunes: Doug Loves Movies. Comedian and marijuana advocate Doug Benson hosts this live panel show featuring comedians talking about movies and playing movie-related games. Occasionally, an amazing Mark Wahlberg impersonator comes on the show and says ridiculous things.
– Best comedy podcast title of the week: Minivan Men
Call Me!
Do you have a podcast recommendation you’d like to share with us? We want to hear it! Give us a jingle on the Pod Line at 202-885-POD1 and leave a message. Then we’ll put you on the radio and your friends will throw you a parade.
Thanks for reading, pals! ‘Til next time…keep listening, America.
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