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A trio of my favorite independent podcasts:
1. STARGIRL — Created and hosted by Emma Glenn Baker, STARGIRL explores girls with that ineffable star quality. (There is such a thing as a non-STARGIRL "It" Girl, which Baker frequently clarifies on the show.) A podcast that is equal parts pop culture tea and highbrow cultural critism, every episode delves into a different STARGIRL, their patterns, and what their fame reveals about our culture and ourselves. Episodes range from Gwyneth Paltrow and Zendaya to Addison Rae, Jennie Kim, and Willa Cather (!). Gentle and soothing, this is also a great podcast to put on before bedtime. Listen to STARGIRL on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/show/6VFykudaxSh0XNLzcL2YmS?si=pZOfBXBnQESmkjYRCtNgww&nd=1&dlsi=f58ee3b787a9497f
2. EYEWITNESS BEAUTY — Created and hosted by two experienced beauty industry and DTC brand professionals, Nick Axelrod-Welk and Annie Kreighbaum—who met during their tenure at golden-era Into The Gloss—EYEWITNESS BEAUTY investigates both the biggest and more niche beauty topics of the day, from why "the artist [Harry Styles] has left the building" with the f.k.a. nailpolish brand PLEASING to why a recent book release on Glossier may not be an altogether factually correct portrayal of the beauty company's rise. I also enjoy when Nick and Annie discuss their culture & art favorites, bring on special guests (from aestheticians and make-up artists to entrepreneurs and fellow beauty podcasters), and discuss their Products of the Week. This podcast is fully independent—no advertising dollars are at play here—and it shows in the tastes, discernment, and honest opinions of its hosts.
Listen to EYEWITNESS BEAUTY on Apple Podcasts here:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pelotons-cody-rigsby-the-seinfeld-of-cycling/id1518313105?i=1000514517551
3. THE IMMORTAL ICONS OF DANCE — Created and hosted by Lauryn Johnson, a dancer and dance history curator, THE IMMORTAL ICONS OF DANCE explores dancemakers, directors and choreographers who have changed the course of the medium. Each episode focuses on a game-changing subject (for example: Gene Kelly or Martha Graham), as told through the lens of a dancer, usually a protégé, who worked with that icon and was actually in the (rehearsal) room where it happened. As dance is such a presence-oriented art, and often an ephemeral one, I'm a big fan of anyone who has the dedication to preserve its priceless oral histories in stone so that anyone can access and be enriched by it in some way.
Listen to THE IMMORTAL ICONS OF DANCE on Apple Podcasts here:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/immortal-icons-of-dance/id1708302372
Feb 3, 2024
Related Recs
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🎧 Ride the Pod - Mary Beth Barone and Benito Skinner
🎧 Two Hot Takes - Morgan Absher
🎧 Giggly Squad - Paige DeSorbo and Hannah Berner
🎧 A Good Hang -Amy Poehler
🎧 Pod Save America - Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer, and Tommy Vietor
Share your podcast recs!
May 29, 2025
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Some I like are more produced and less indie but they're still more than people just sitting around and yapping about whatever people online are currently arguing about, so I feel like they fit the bill!
Lateral with Tom Scott -- combo of trivia and riddles, nerdiest thing i've ever been into and that's saying something
Escape This Podcast -- second nerdiest thing i've ever been into, listening to people do a table top game (think D&D) and their goal is to accomplish an escape room
Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week -- bunch of short science stories
Ologies -- long form, thoughtful interviews with experts in a variety of fields, many of which are quite timely
You Are Good -- Diving into movies that are culturally well known and/or just favorites of the hosts, and getting into why those stories are compelling and what the creators of the movie are saying/trying to say with it
You're Wrong About -- Getting into things that most people think they know about but there's way more to the story and there's often a fundamental misunderstanding in how most people think of the things (stanford prison experiment, donner party, stonewall uprising, and satanic panic are classic eps I recommend to everyone)
Decoder Ring -- Answers why random pop culture things of the present or past became things in the first place
American Hysteria -- Insights into pop culture and society (sounds boring with that description but I promise it's good)
3d ago
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- Straightiolab
- NOTA BENE: This Week in The Art World
- Las Culturistas
- Laid Bare
- Cosigning on the Bald and the Beautiful bc those divas are everything to me
- Sounds Like a Cult
- Seek Treatment
- Like a Virgin (rip to this one ❤️🩹 but all eps are still up)
- The Broski Report (must watch on YouTube because the way in which I cackle)
- Keep It
- The A24 Podcast: so many brilliant combinations of actors, directors, and more on this one with fascinating and candid convos
- Pop Culture Happy Hour
Feb 21, 2024
