WANTED: These 6 Amazing Podcasts to Come Back
An ode to podcasts gone but not forgottenđ
Our Wishes For The Podcast Genieđ§
Imagine youâre walking through the woods and you discover a lamp and there is a genie inside, and the genie grants you three wishes⌠but they must be podcast wishes. And more specifically, you must wish back into existence 3 podcasts that have, in your humble opinion, ended sadly and too soon. Quick! The genie is impatient and you must choose!
We did this little thought exercise1 and are sharing (below) podcasts we loved long ago that have been canceled, dormant for a while, mysteriously vanished, or have otherwise stopped showing up in our feeds. IN THE COMMENTS please tell us your wishes for the genie.2
đWelcome to PWTA! Lauren Passell & Arielle Nissenblattđ§ here, delivering an issue thatâs one-third love letter to podcasts, one-third recommendations, and one-third a manifestation exercise.
Before we get into all thatâŚ
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6 Podcasts We Miss (come back someday, please!)
Here are just some of the shows we listened to and loved long ago + some commentary on âem. Happy reading / listening!
Lizzy Coopermanâs In Your Hands (2022-2023)
Official description: You know those important life decisions that simply canât be made by others? Lizzy Cooperman asks you to make those for her every other week. Will the ârightâ choice lead to bliss? Disaster? Marriage? Madagascar? Find out when she places her fate...in your hands.
A note from Lauren: Lizzy Coopermanâs In Your Hands was too good for this world. Literally. Lizzy is a hilarious comedian who didnât come in knowing tons about podcasting, so I donât think she knew what she was getting herself into when she agreed to, on each episode, allow her listeners to vote on her social media on what she should do next with her life. Things like getting multiple piercings, becoming an L.A. tour guide for the TV show This Is Us, and burning her journals. These are all things she did for this show. She applied for a job at Victoriaâs Secret, was hired, and continued to work there long after the show ended, but had lied about her identity when she started the job and nobody ever knew she was there for a podcast bit.
This show wasnât just insane, Lizzy is so talented and actually a really great writer. She is a musician and poet, too, and I always say poets are the best podcasters. (I remember her calling someoneâs small hands âthe size of plumbsâ and that is the kind of beautiful detail I truly appreciate.) She had really great comedians on the show to bounce ideas around with and sheâd also call an expert in the field of the decisions she was deciding between to help her listeners make a good choice. I became close with Lizzy after I pitched myself as a podcast marketing expert for an episode and was on the show. That led to me marketing her podcast for free for 30 days, something that was written about in Marketing Brew. When I tell you I was invested in this show I mean it. But I canât say I was sad when it ended. I think I told her to end it! It was killing Lizzie and in the end, I realized I loved her more than the show and I didnât want her to die.
Anthropocene Reviewed (2018-2021)
Official description: The Anthropocene is the current geological age, in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. On The Anthropocene Reviewed, #1 New York Times bestselling author John Green (The Fault in Our Stars, Turtles All the Way Down) reviews different facets of the human-centered planet on a five-star scale.
A note from Arielle:
I loved this show so much that I bought a mug from the merch store. Not just any mug! It was a mug that had an entire episode written on it in tiny font. What a great idea for merch! This was a show that totally blew my mind â if youâre a fun-facts-that-have-deeper-meaning-and-tie-ins type person, this one is a must. I listened to it when lived in Los Angeles and was just a few years out of college and when I think about it now, I can picture myself walking to the beach. Not the point but isnât it the coolest that podcasts (probably great storytelling in general) can do that!? Come back, John Greene!!
Punch up the Jam (2017-2019; 2019-2020; 2021-2022)
Official description: Itâs complicated, see below.
A note from Lauren: Well, The original Punch Up the Jam, my Punch Up the Jam, was hosted by comedians and musicians Miel Bredouw and Demi Adejuyigbe, who would invite a guest on to take apart a song like Love Shack or The Boy Is Mine, then rewrite it as parody. In 2019, Demi left for reasons that are unknown / haunting to me and Miel held down the fort OK, but then left in 2020. In 2021, the show was picked up with new hosts, The Gregory Brothers, (the same brothers who had exploited Kelly Dodson and Antoine Dodson in their uncomfortable, viral âBed Intruderâ song of 2010.)
Technically the description there now, if you look it up, reflects the Gregory Brothersâ version of the show:
âEvery Thursday, Andrew and Evan Gregory (of The Gregory Brothers*) are joined by a special guest to revisit, review, and revise a song of their choice, and then offer an improved âpunched-upâ version.â
God. Not my Punch Up the Jam. I miss it so much I have abandonment issues. I miss this show so much I feel like it is the ONLY answer to the question: âWhich show should come back?â I miss it so much I considered writing about it THREE TIMES for this newsletter.
Mobituaries (2019-2024)
Official description: âCBS News Sunday Morningâ correspondent Mo Rocca has always loved obituaries. Each episode of Mobituaries covers his favorite dearly departed people and things. This season profiles legendary athlete Jim Thorpe in "Death of an All-American", iconic singer/songwriter Peggy Lee in "Death of Cool", and even the death of the mid-Atlantic accent, best known from the likes of Katharine Hepburn, Franklin Roosevelt and Jacqueline Kennedy. Mo even has a few new things in store including an episode that looks back at folks who "Died on the Same Day.â Think: Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett; John Adams and Thomas Jefferson; Jim Henson and Sammy Davis, Jr. â and then thereâs Margaret Thatcher and Annette Funicello? Tune in for fresh takes on famous legacies and tributes to people who never got the sendoff they deserved. Even if you know the names, youâve never understood why they matter until now!
A note from Arielle:
I first heard Mo Rocca on Wait, Wait⌠Donât Tell Me probably around 2016 or so, and thought he was such a goddamn delight. I donât remember how I discovered his show, which launched just a few years later, but it really felt like it was made for me. Itâs part history, part expert interview. Iâve listened to several episodes several times and have annoyed several friends by trying to get them to love it as much as I do. Miss it very much, but thankfully, Mo still makes the podcast rounds as a guest, so I still get my fix.
A few years ago, when we were at On Air Fest in Brooklyn, Mo Rocca was on stage with Connor Ratliff, who had hosted a show called Dead Eyes (yet another show I wish would come back), for a live recording of Mobituaries. I laughed so hard that I cried. Lauren has a picture somewhere.
Go Bayside! (2013-2017)
Official description: April Richardson and a guest watch an episode of Saved by the Bell and then critically analyze it for you, the listener.
A note from Lauren: I have never seen an episode of Saved By the Bell but I carefully listened to April Richardsonâs watch-along podcast in its entirety, including the episodes the covered weird spinoffs and eras of the TV show that ran from 1989-1993. I donât remember how I discovered it but it was during a time when there werenât very many podcasts to discover in the first place. If I found a show I liked I clung to it like a life preserver. I remember April being so funny and Saved By the Bell seeming so strange to me. April would always remind us when super strange plot lines were unfurling it was probably due to the fact that the writersâ room (for this TV show about high schoolers) was made up of men in their 40s who grew up in the 50s. Why was the principal always in Zack Morrisâ room!? I donât know, or want to know, if Go Bayside! stands up. Maybe I wish it was back, but maybe I wish I could go back to this exciting time when I was in my 20s discovering podcasts, living in a shitty apartment with my boyfriend and staying out until 2am on a Monday night. Who knows.
In The Scenes, Behind Plain Sight (2022-2023)
Official description: On âIn The Scenes Behind Plain Sight,â former âBehind Plain Sightâ co-stars Ian and Mike rewatch each episode of the hit 2002 - 2007 TV show, sharing behind the scenes stories and secrets and talk about whatâs going on in their lives now.
A note from Arielle:
Not only did I find this show to be so ridiculously whimsical and entertaining, but I also learned a lot from it as a creator / show development person. ITSBPS is a perfect example of this could only be made as an audio show. You simply have to buy into the farce, but Mike and Ian make it very easy to do so. Oh, maybe itâs not obvious: ITSBPS was never a real show. So they are making everything up. But they never ever ever break character. I havenât listened to it in a while so I donât know how it holds up, but I donât care! It was perfect. I bet itâs still perfect.
Honorable Mentions
There are so many more we used to listen to and love! If this list was interesting / valuable and you want more podcasts we wish would come back posts, let us know. Weâre very down to expand on the following honorable mentions:
Louder Than a Riot
Sixteenth Minute of Fame
Everything Is Alive
Richardâs Famous Food Podcast
Keeping Records
Celebrity Book Club with Steven and Lily
A Womanâs Smile
Invisibilia
The Big Ones
Tiny Dinos
Inconceivable Truth
Classy
Itâs Been a Minute with Sam Sanders
Technically still exists and is hosted by Brittany Luse who is amazing too
10 Things That Scare Me
Every Little Thing
A Very Fatal Murder
How To Be Amazing with Michael Ian Black
Before we go, a few things: whatâs a podcast? | leave us a rating and a review wherever you get your newsletters. Just kidding. But do say hi.
THANK YOU for reading! Tell us what shows you miss, please. Bye!
âLauren & Arielleđđ
The key: you have to give yourself 5 seconds to think, overthinking will leave the genie in limbo forever.
Careful what you wish for. As mentioned, Laurenâs top pick, Punch up the Jam, did come back after hiatus and the return was not good.
Yes Mobituaries! Such a good show. I was in the audience for the Go Bayside! episode at the LA Podcast in 2014. And a show I would bring back is One Year, which I absolutely loved.
I still think about Starlee Kineâs Mystery Show on a regular basis