Turntable
I’ve always loved making mixtapes and playlists, both for myself and as gifts to others. The originals were done on cassettes, full of mixed-media collage art and carefully-set clips from movies and shows for transitions between songs. Ironically, the ease and prevalence of music streaming made mixtaping both less physically practical and less creatively fulfilling, for me at least. Then, during lockdown in 2020, I found myself noodling around on Spotify again. Since then, I’ve fallen into the habit of making myself a playlist themed around each year—a combination of new stuff I’ve been into and a sense of what the year has been while I’m in it.
I’ll link those playlists here, along with some other playlists I’ve made specifically for this hike. I imagine that music and podcasts will be a fun part of this journey, and I reckon I’ll be adding to and changing the soundtrack to this trip quite a bit as I go on. If you want to recommend a podcast, or share a playlist, feel free to contact me here. I’d love to hear what you’ve been listening to.
Podcasts in Rotation:
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You Must Remember This
Karina Longworth’s tagline for this podcast: “A podcast about the secret and/or forgotten stories of Hollywood’s first century.” Most episodes are done in seasons organized around a central theme. Great stuff.
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If Books Could Kill
Peter Shamshiri from 5-4 and Michael Hobbes from Maintenance Phase discuss (mostly dunk on, to be honest) popular ‘airport books’ and nonfiction bestsellers, from Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers to Who Moved My Cheese?
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The Moth
Live storytelling at its finest.
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Normal Gossip
Sponsored by the awesome folks at Defector, Normal Gossip is exactly what the tin says. Hosts discuss listener-submitted gossip.
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Song Exploder
Tagline for this awesome podcast: “a podcast where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made.” Each episode is a single song.
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Radiolab
A grab bag of investigative journalism, slice-of-life, and sound collage. I never know what I’m going to get.
Yearly Playlists:
Hiking Playlists:
Currently roughly organized by mood/situation, at least until I figure out what kinds of specific mixes I might need.
Shared with Me:
My sister Sam (who is generally awesome for all sorts of things and specifically awesome for helping me with this website while I’m on trail) is not only a musician (Listen) in her own right, but remains one of my best sources for cool new music these days. This is her most recent playlist for me.
Because sometimes you just need a little bachelor pad music in the woods.