Culture

Your 5 Podcasts For Surviving Thanksgiving With Family

Tune out the uncomfortable dinner-table conversations this Thanksgiving with some audio Ativan.

Need to plug in and tune out the family conversation around the Thanksgiving table? We’ve got you covered. If you parents and siblings won't stop arguing about the election results, escape into the challenges of some earlier eras of American history: dive into Making Oprah, a three-part series from WBEZ Chicago on the astounding 1980s rise of an unlikely talk-show phenomenon, or try Making Gay History's archival interview with Dr. Evelyn Hooker, who in 1957 authored the first study proving that homosexuality wasn't a mental illness. Want to lose yourself in something more imaginative? Join Catherine Keener, Oscar Isaac, and David Schwimmer in psychological thriller Homecoming, or imagine our spooky digital afterlives on LifeAfter. And if you’ve been longing for a show about baseball, disco, and simmering racial tensions, the first episode of Pat Walters' Undone might be just right. Save some stuffing for us.

  • Making Oprah, “No Strategy, No Plan, No Formula”

    30 years ago, then-unknown Oprah Winfrey launched a talk show. This three-part series (You get an episode! You get an episode! And you get an episode!) from WBEZ Chicago traces her rise, from her competition with Phil Donahue in the early ‘80s to her openness about her weight issues to her regrets about the show’s highest-rated episode ever. Listen here.

    Ben Gabbe/Getty Images

  • LifeAfter, “Episode 1”

    Eight months after his wife Charlie’s death, Ross can’t stop listening to her audio recordings on social network VoiceTree. It's the only way he can get through his day job paper-pushing at the FBI. He knows all 2,205 of the recordings by heart---until Charlie starts speaking to him through new messages. Listen here.

    Getty Images

  • Making Gay History, “Dr. Evelyn Hooker”

    In Making Gay History, oral historian Eric Marcus mines his archival interviews with the activists who started the LGBTQ civil rights movement. In 1957, answering the plea of one of her students, Dr. Evelyn Hooker authored the first psychology study proving that gay people were not mentally ill, paving the way for the end of electroshock treatment and lobotomies. Hear about what it was like to present her controversial results, and remember how far we’ve come. Listen here.

    Norberto Cuenca/Getty Images
Charley Locke is a writer for WIRED covering culture and photography. ... Read more
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