I didn’t do a lot of training runs during the week but I had my 18 MILE ridiculous run on this weekend which took me 3+ plus hours. Jeez, I listened to so much just during that period.

56 Zardulu (5/21)

Summary: The story of a mysterious artist, Zardulu, who made a fake web video about the rat selfie. Nefariously crafted and getting strong viral attention from multiple media sources this video made everyone criticize and wonder about the other viral ratio videos, specifically Pizza Rat. A video of a rat dragging a comically large Pizza slice down the subway.

They also talk about a political Yes Yes No, that a friend sent in.

Impressions: Zardulu is one of the more interesting podcasts since Zardulu could be someone who has motivations unknown to us. She could be someone criticizing the virality of the non-contextual internet, she could just want to make a statement and get famous, she could just be an artist who is doing random things. WHO KNOWS. But I love that one of the podcasters talks about how he notices the world different now and that Zardulu existing makes you both question and be impressed by how little one person can change things.

Grade: Listen

55 The Line (5/21)

Summary: The Mormon Church has started opening up and talking about it’s true history over the past few years. The podcast talks with one of the people who helped bring that about and how the Mormon Church got that point. Most interesting was the podcast was led by a guest who was a former Mormon who led the church so it adds a personal touch that isn’t possible.

Impressions: The podcast covers a great topic about unlike the other Christian churches the Mormons have a very recent foundation and a history with actual records. We have birth and marriage certificates and real records of the founder of the Mormon Church. Reason the mythical nature of the man but reconciling it with the reality of the man is a difficult task and the shift from ignorance to reality is a great one for the Church. It also talks about how while the Church might open up, it’s still firmly entrenched in certain parts of it’s nature including the hard line against homosexuality.

Grade: Listen

54 Apologies to Dr Rosalind Franklin (5/21)

Summary: A quick apology about not mentioning Rosalind Franklin, a female Jewish research scientist when mentioning the discovery of the double helix. Especially bad because the last podcast was about minority inclusion.

Impressions: A good apology, has something new for people to learn.

Grade: Solid

53 In The Desert (5/21)

Summary: A small technical mystery about why a couple’s house keeps showing up as people’s lost Find my iPhones. They’ve had dozens of people show up expecting stolen phones or even missing people.

Impressions: Interesting tech mystery. Not really my thing though.

Grade: Skip

52 Raising the Bar (5/21)

Summary: A discussion about the story of Leslie Miley, a black engineer who was taught because he was exposed to computers and worked at Apple in a non-engineering position, and his time at Twitter working on diversity. The episode also covers the interesting position about whether diversity does produce better results and how it does.

Impressions: A good episode about the issues in Silicon Valley about diversity and a very light discussion about the benefits and trade offs of it.

Grade: Solid

51 Perfect Crime (5/21)

Summary: The story of an awfully confusing but long running play called Perfect Crime but the true story is about the main actress Catherine Russel who has run the play for almost 30 year. Her work ethic and how she’s been in the same play for so long.

Impressions: I would say if you enjoyed Jiro Dreams of Sushi and hearing about someone who doesn’t pay attention to the accolades that you’d normally associate with an actress. It’s an interesting insight into how other people have decided to live their life.

Grade: Solid

50 Cathedral (5/18)

Summary: Cathedral is the series yearly opener and probably one of the better episodes Reply All as done. The episode covers the development of a game about a couple’s personal tragedy. I don’t want to talk about this podcast in to much detail to encourage you to listen to it. But I feel I will give two warnings: The story is an emotional roller coaster at times and has strong religious connotations. If you’re a vehemently anti-religious person then perhaps you’d want to skip this as the couple does turn to their faith in the face of tragedy.

Impressions: I listened to this on the bike ride back from work and it was hard not to get teary eyed.

Grade: Listen! (given caveats)

49 Past Present Future (5/18)

Summary: An update episode about a bunch of the previous episodes. Great type of episode and a good follow up

Impressions: It’s an update episode.

Grade: Solid

48 I love you, I loathe you (5/14)

Summary: A Yes Yes No about an internet advocate trying to advance the usage of the Internet and a little bit serendipity coalescing into something funnier. Also a story of “Undo, Undo, Undo”, very similar to the Moth type of story.

Impressions: Good stories and entertaining but you can just skip it.

Grade: Skip