Pick of the week: Embedded
It’s rare to listen to Embedded (NPR/iTunes) and not learn something new – and unnerving. Previous episodes of Kelly McEvers’s podcast have covered police shootings, immigration and basketball, but in the latest batch she focuses her investigative spotlight on Donald Trump.
Rumblings about Trump’s behaviour are nothing new, but Embedded brings a fresh perspective, and it’s one that’s subtly delivered, thanks to McEvers’ skill as a storyteller. Here, she looks at how the president’s business deals and his time on The Apprentice helped him get to the White House.
Spending years fronting a hit TV show meant he was familiar to the public, who saw him as a hero. The fact that Jeff Zucker, who put him on the reality show, is now president of CNN didn’t harm his political chances, either.
Twenty-eight million Americans watched the first-season finale and the next year Trump had the highest poll approval ratings ever. “He had a gold toilet,” recalls Heidi Bressler, a fast-talking whirlwind of a contestant. “Who does that?” The producers cut out her reaction. Other outtakes were more controversial. Producer Bill Pruitt signed a non-disclosure agreement over the exact details of the extra footage and remains fairly tight-lipped as McEvers quizzes him about some of the offensive words Trump used. “About African-Americans, Jewish people, all of the above?” she asks. He simply replies: “Yep.”
It would be tempting to put out a straightforward takedown of Trump, but McEvers’ style is nuanced and goes some way towards attempting to understand his popularity. The interviewees add the colour and more revelations spill out in the story of how Trump rescued a golf course in LA. It’s fascinating to hear how the saga unfolds with its lawsuits, insults and a dash of celebrity. Eventually, Trump got what he wanted: a street named after him.
Your picks: Inspiring girl-chat, addictive drama ... and tofu solar panels
Archive 81 is a found-footage radio drama about a man searching for a friend. Said friend went missing after embarking on a mysterious archiving project that sent him to a bunker in the middle of the woods. Produced by Marc Sollinger and Daniel Powell, the show will suck you in from the very first episode and leave you with new questions and theories after each listen. Recommended by Cassandra Baim
This podcast comes from two of the internet’s most inspiring ladies, Emma Gannon and Lliana Bird. In Get It Off Your Breasts, they discuss everything from clean eating and earnings to manners and genderising with a selection of inspiring guests (Dawn O’Porter, Gizzi Erskine and Gemma Cairney to name just three). Think of it as a sit-down chat with your closest girlfriends over a bottle of wine. Recommended by Liv Purvis
University of Liverpool Podcast
The University of Liverpool Podcast brings you closer to the city’s academic experts, authors and innovative thinkers. They cover everything from the Beatles and mermaids to solar panels made out of tofu. Host Neil Morrison asks pertinent questions and always sounds genuinely interested in deepening his own – and therefore his listeners’ – understanding of the subject matter. Recommended by Rachel O’Connel
Guardian pick: Two sides of the American Dream
This week’s Guardian Books podcast brings you two wildly different sides of the American Dream. On the one hand, Claire, Sian, and Richard discuss the winner of the highly prestigious Man Booker prize, George Saunders – controversially the second American in a row to receive the accolade – for his extraordinary first full-length novel Lincoln in the Bardo. Sian positively swoons over it.
On the other hand, the team talk to Valeria Luiselli – a Mexican-born American citizen whose own citizenship nightmare revealed to her the hidden underbelly of the mounting crisis of undocumented migrant children arriving in the US from South America. She speaks passionately on the injustice that she encounters in her essay Tell Me How It Ends. This episode is fun, moving and a brilliant example of what makes this podcast so special. Recommended by Susannah Tresilian
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