Five Things You can Do – Part 3

Two Weeks ago, I started a series of posts – in the spirit of my Five Thing Thursday series about Five things you can do while you’re Self-Isolating.

(Note: Self-isolating, social distancing, and washing your hands are all givens here. As is taking care of yourself and being an extra good human being.)

Quite unexpectedly, things exploded. I had this list of five things and I wanted to offer five recommendations, then I wanted to talk about them all.

It was then that I realized that to cram all that stuff into a single post would not only be asking too much from you, Reader, but it would also muddy the waters for the individual recommendations.

So I decided to break it up into parts and here – before your very eyes – I present Part Three of Five things you can do while you’re Self-Isolating.

Thing #3: Podcasts!

This, too, shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. After all, One can’t live on 80’s Hair Metal alone – and I don’t. You can see some of the music I’ve been listening to on an earlier Five Things post.

The great thing about podcasts is that you can find one for just about every subject. Some of them are ongoing, some of them are only around for a limited and definite run, and some of them can just stutter, then stop altogether (It’s called Podfading).

Additionally, unlike an audiobook which can run for hours and hours and hours, podcast episodes can (and often do) run shorter with their episodes.

Also, unlike audio books, Podcasts are usually free to listen to.

So here – in no particular order – is what I’ve been listening to lately:

  1. Strong Female Characters.
    From rebellion leaders to scream queens and everything in between, women have shaped sci-fi and fantasy since its inception. Each week FANGRRLS founder and managing editor Cher Martinetti, contributing editor and author Preeti Chhibber, and associate editor Courtney Enlow celebrate the countless badass women in geek culture through funny, witty, and unfiltered deep dives into the nerdverse.

    As it says on the tin, this genre-focused podcast is geared toward the women working behind the scenes and in front of the camera – Something I think we need more of.

2. Be the Serpent.
With new episodes every other Wednesday, Be The Serpent is a Hugo Award-nominated podcast by three red-headed Slytherinish fantasy authors who enjoy shouting about everything from academic mythology to dick jokes (and sometimes, both at once). In this show, we talk about pieces of literature and media that are exciting or interesting to us, including the role of fanfiction as an integral yet oft-overlooked part of the literary conversation and in the broader cultural context.  We love tropes, fantasy economics, unreliable narrators, critiquing penis metaphors, and crying about our feelings. Take a shot every time we say the word ‘lubrication’. 

It is, obviously, a podcast of extremely deep literary merit.

Entertaining and Educational all at once. Put the Serpents in your ears. You’ll be glad you did.
*Note: Do not put any actual serpents in your ears. I’m sure, in one of the back episodes, there is a Macey, or Freya fun-fact corner advising against such. And, if not, maybe you could ask them about it during one of their Extravaganza episodes that occur every episode ending in Zero.

3. The England Rugby Podcast: O2 Inside Line.
The England Rugby Podcast with O2 Inside Line from England Rugby gives you exclusive insight and tales from inside the England camp. Host Vernon Kay speaks to a member of the elite set-up each week to find out what makes them tick; from their favourite music, to the moment they fell in love with the game.

I may have mentioned this before, but I am a massive rugby fan. So it wouldn’t be odd to find a Rugby podcast on my list (In fact there are 5 that I subscribe to). The reason why I chose this one is that you don’t necessarily need to be “Up” on Rugby to enjoy it. It certainly helps, but this is more about the person being interviewed rather than the game itself. How they got their start, what the do when they’re off the pitch, that sort of thing – AND – There is a pretty good mix between men and women making an appearance.

4. Broadcasts from the Wasteland.

Deep beneath the ruins of a capital city constantly devastated by some apocalypse or another, writers Brandon Crilly and Evan May have hatched a plan to keep themselves entertained. Mostly it involves a revolving door of other creatives, talking shop about their work, the stories they love, and enough tangents to forget the world outside.

Part Wine-Fueled Inside the Actor’s Studio, part chat about film, books, um…wine, Batman, And anything else in between. It’s quickly become one of my favorites.

5. Ditch Diggers.
 Ditch Diggers is the business of writing, when the craft is not as important as the deadline. (Oh the craft is very important. But deadline without craft can be worked with, but craft without deadline will never pay the bills.) We don’t worry about art here, we worry about the business of your writing. Because ditch diggers don’t get ditch digger block, so we refuse to let writer’s block stop us from doing our work.

This list would not be complete without at least one writing podcast. There are so many to choose from (I subscribe to many), but Ditch Diggers stands out to me as the place to go to hear answers to things that aren’t really talked about: The Business side of things – and the occasional space-deli that probably won’t ever happen.

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This wraps up my Five Podcast recommendations to keep you warm and take you away while in the safety of your own home.

I’ll see you on Thursday. Be Excellent to each other.

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Weird Wild West

Trials

Chasing the Light