Usually, I just throw it out there and give a few of my favorites, but this time I’m going to implore you to listen in particular the Happiness Episode: “#168 The Happiness Calculator vs. Alex Goldman.” More on that in a minute.

This show is hosted by Alex Goldman and PJ Vogt. It’s basically a podcast about the internet. Which may sound boring on the surface, but it’s anything but. I love it. If you’ve ever read a tweet you didn’t understand or be baffled why something is popular, this will help you understand.

OK so, in this episode Alex is interviewing a man Peter Dodds, a data scientist who is involved in this project called the Hedonometer, where researchers measure everyone’s happiness based on their social media posts. It’s fascinating how they can quantify happiness but also interesting what makes us happy (Christmas) and what makes us sad (suicide or terrorist). He is explaining this all to PJ Vogt, his co-host.

For English speakers, the happiest time is the holidays, Christmas Day in particular. So, when measuring happiness, they will say that happiness “went up half a Christmas day” and they use that as the yardstick for happiness.

It was interesting to learn about the most unhappy date in history (since this project began, and up to when the interview happened). No, I’m not going to tell you

The hosts also talk about things that make them happy and I don’t want to spoil anything, but basically, it’s about self-care. Alex talks about how he went into the kitchen one morning and saw half a lemon sitting there. He asked his wife about it and she said she used the other half for her water. He was sort of blown away by the fact that his wife had identified that she likes lemon in her water, and then went and did something for herself to make that happen. This is second nature to me, but I understand that others do not think this way. I wish they did.

So please take a listen to this podcast, but especially this episode. This might be a tough winter for some of us and I want you all to be happy.

Here’s the article for the New York Times called “Is Everybody Doing … OK? Let’s Ask Social Media”.


Other episodes I liked:
#166 Country of Liars (it’s about Q-Anon)
#51 Perfect Crime (about a woman who plays the same part in a play, every night. For years)
#164 Long Distance: The Real Alex Martin (3 years ago, Alex returned a call from a telephone spammer and held his feet to the fire. He actually traveled to India to meet him. This is the follow-up. Original episodes are #102-103)
#161 Brian vs. Brian (a Christmas song that almost wasn’t)
#96 The Secret Life of Alex Goldman (Alex lets PJ hack his phone giving him surveillance of his life)
#83 Voyage into Pizzagate (the conspiracy theory explained)
OK, I’ll stop there, I love all the episodes, but these are just a few of my favorites.

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The post Podcast Rec :: Reply All first appeared on Collected Sounds.

Today’s podcast recommendation is Sleep with Me. No, it’s not naughty. It’s a guide to help you sleep. Our host is Scooter, aka Scoots, aka Drew Ackerman.

I discovered this podcast several years ago when I was having trouble sleeping (due to a shitty job that was causing me stress). If you’re like me, and bedtime is when your brain wakes up and goes, “Hey what about that document, did you remember to shred that?” or “do dogs have belly buttons?” or “did you *really* lock all the doors though?” … then this is for you.

It is a guide to help you turn off all those other thoughts and focus on Scooter as he guides you to sleep by rambling about nearly nothing in his “smooth, dulcet tones”.

I felt with all the anxiety most of us have been feeling lately (and all the horror I recommended in October) you might welcome a nice gentle podcast to lull you to sleep or at least calm you.

There are a lot of sleep podcasts out there, and you should try a bunch to see what works for you, but this is my favorite. Mostly because Scoots is so charming and I love listening to my “Borefriend”.

I urge you to follow and become a patron on Patreon. He’s very generous and puts out many episodes each week! You’ll get a special RSS feed that allows you to download the special episodes (without the meandering introductions, if you just want the story).

He does a few series where he talks you through a TV show. He’s done Game of Thrones, Doctor Who and his newest one that I love is The Great British Baking Show. I know, right?! I’ve already listened to the three episodes on this and even watched the show so I could see all the things he described. It’s soooo wonderful!

Find it in on your favorite podcast app or right here
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The post Podcast Rec :: Sleep with Me first appeared on Collected Sounds.

I dare say that podcasts might be a good part of the reason I stopped listening to music as much as I did. I mean I can multi-task like crazy, but I can’t listen to two things at once.

So while this site is definitely aimed at music, I’m going to be making some podcast recommendations here as well and invite you to join in and add yours or comment with your experience with the one I’m recommending. Maybe you didn’t like it and would like to let us know why. Maybe you also love it, or have a similar recommendation.

So I’m going to start with…My Favorite Murder. After I listened to Serial (twice #nerdalert) I watched The Staircase on Amazon Prime. I am still VERY interested in this case (#teamowl) and try to read, listen to, watch anything I can get my hands on that mentions it.
Well when My Favorite Murder was recommended to me via Podbean (the app I used at the time) I tried it and immediately loved Karen and Georgia. And not just because they referenced The Staircase and the death of Kathleen Peterson in the first episode.

I love the way Karen and Georgia play off each other and they’re both hilarious. They cover really interesting stories in an entertaining way. Some argue that they don’t do very goo research and “just read Wikipedia” but I don’t care. If I’m really curious about the case I’ll research it on my own or listen to another podcast about it whose focus isn’t to make me laugh. I am a proud Murderino to this day! Shout out to Karen, Georgia, STEVEN and all the other Murderinos.

There was a time a year or so ago when I felt the episodes were a little stale and forced. I got the impression that there was some discomfort between the ladies and it just wasn’t as fun to listen. I think they lost a lot of fans at that time. But those who stuck with them are richly rewarded. So if you left before, give them another shot.

Another thing I love about the podcast is the community it created. I am currently in a ton of MFM related groups made up of Murderinos (that’s what the fans call themselves) and focused on a HUGE variety of topics like cooking, drinking, pets, fans of streaming services (where we discuss our favorite shows and movies) even Microsoft excel nerds, and people with curly hair. This is only the tip of the iceberg. It’s not hyperbole for me to say that there’s probably a MFM group for everything.

Anyway, I encourage you to check out My Favorite Murder if you are not already a Murderino. While true crime is my favorite genre, I will not always be suggesting true crime podcasts. I am currently subscribed to almost 150 different podcasts so I will have recommendations from many other genres.

Stay Sexy and Listen to cool podcasts.

The post Podcast Recommendation – My Favorite Murder first appeared on Collected Sounds.