Culture

Your 5 Podcasts For Surviving Thanksgiving With Family

Tune out the uncomfortable dinner-table conversations this Thanksgiving with some audio Ativan.
1970s 3 GENERATION FAMILY...
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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.

  • In the opening scene of *Homecoming*, Catherine Keener and Oscar Isaac awkwardly introduce themselves to each other, making small talk about a fish. Like with writer and director Eli Horowitz’s previous creations (*The Silent History*, *The Pickle Index*), Gimlet’s first foray into fiction is strange, smart, and immersive---there’s no found footage gimmick here. Instead, you’re dropped right into a psychological thriller about what happened at a military reentry facility, starring Keener, Isaac, and a distracted, panicking David "[Juice!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=726Ujz_KOHE)" Schwimmer.
  • Ben Gabbe/Getty Images

    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.](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-1-no-strategy-no-plan-no/id1171160683?i=1000377703017&mt=2)
  • 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.](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/lifeafter-ep.-1/id1045990056?i=1000377780498&mt=2)
  • Norberto Cuenca/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.](http://makinggayhistory.com/podcast/episode-1-4/)
  • If you liked baseball and hated disco, the July 12, 1979 game at Comiskey Park was a win-win: Bring a disco record, get a ticket for the double-header White Sox-Tigers game for 98 cents, and watch as the records got burned. But halfway through, the game turned into a riot: 50,000 people stormed the field and started a bonfire, yelling, “Disco sucks!” Many see the protest against disco as thinly veiling a riot of racist, homophobic rock fans, spurred by a vindictive DJ in a World War II Jeep. But the night didn’t kill disco entirely: Stick around for the third act, as one of the ushers at that game, Vince Lawrence, recounts his path from Comiskey Park to creating “On and On,” a seminal house-music song.
Charley Locke is a writer for WIRED covering culture and photography. ... Read more
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