Culture

A Trip to Mars and 4 More Must-Hear Podcasts

These are the five podcasts you need to listen to this week.
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Definitely Human

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Oh, did you think your commute would be a subway naptime this week? No way. We've got inspirational séances, office comedy set on Mars, and the original graph paper cartography of Middle-earth to keep your ears awake and alert. Plus, candid stories of how Americans spend their days as recorded by Studs Terkel, and insider gossip for any Gimlet podcast fan.

  • In the 1970s, Studs Terkel traveled around America interviewing people about their jobs. For their latest installment *Radio Diaries* tracked down the original tapes for Terkel’s resulting book, *Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do*. Listen for the legendary interviewing style of Studs Terkel, the candid answers of telephone switchboard operators and car assemblymen, and the reactions of the people Terkel interviewed, 40 years later.
  • How much credit do contemporary fantasy cartographers owe J.R.R. Tolkien? *Imaginary Worlds* delves into the the history of fantasy maps, from *Gulliver’s Travels* to Tolkien’s maps of Middle-earth on graph paper to tips from the fans who help authors create maps for their imagined universes today.
  • If you’re a fan of *Reply All* or *Sampler* or *Science Vs* or *Heavyweight* or *Surprisingly Awesome* or *Mystery Show* (RIP), then the new season of Gimlet’s very first show is an irresistible look at how the sausage is made. Gimlet Media isn’t a scrappy upstart anymore—and now that it’s become an institution of the podcasting space, the co-founders have a new set of questions: How do you deal with growth? How can they judge which shows are successful? It’s the candid panic we’ve come to expect from *Startup*, but from a corner office.
  • In the first episode of *Raw Material*, SFMoMA explores how artists get inspiration from the unknown—séances, interdimensional beings, and agreements made before a musician’s birth. Tune in for a lens into the strange pathways of how performance artists, philosophers, and composers engage with their own creativity.
  • Definitely Human

    MarsCorp, “Welcome”

    In 2072, Station Supervisor E.L. Hob emerged from suspension to terraform Mars. But she finds the mission in disarray. Part space adventure, part *The Office*, follow Hob as she tries to get her coworkers together—and save the expedition to Mars. The series ended last week, but start at the beginning to spend a full season at Hob’s side. [Listen here.](https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/part-1-welcome-introduction/id1130424845?i=1000373152512)
Charley Locke is a writer for WIRED covering culture and photography. ... Read more
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