road listens

I'm in Louisiana this week and have been busier than expected helping my mom get her new place together (and adopt a rescue cat). So this is just a filler that I started writing at 9pm on Thursday night. I thought I would pass along some things that we enjoyed listening to while we were endlessly driving on our three-week road trip. 

Listening is not my favorite way to consume any type of media, but if I'm in the car and there's no other way to do it, I've listened to plenty of audiobooks and podcasts over the years. When you're traveling with someone, it's super hard to come up with things you both will enjoy. Here are a few that worked for both of us.

- We were latecomers to the "60 Songs that Explain the 90s" podcast, hosted by Rob Harvilla (available through all the usual podcast apps, as are all the podcasts I mention here). By the time we found it, Rob had already bumped up from 60 songs to 90, and then from 90 to 120 songs that explain the 90s. We skipped around and listened to the ones that sounded intriguing, so we've only listened to about 20 so far--which means we have plenty more to listen to the next time we travel.  

- I've told you I'm hit or miss on the "We Can Do Hard Things" podcast, hosted by Glennon Doyle, her wife Abby Wambach, and her sister Amanda Doyle. But episode 282, "Your 'Stuff' Personality Type" was a great one to listen to and discuss. 

- The audiobook You Only Die Twice by Brynn Kelly was surprisingly fun and absorbing, and I say surprising because it's not something either of us would enjoy reading in print. But the reviews were intriguing, and the narrators are great. Unfortunately it is only available from Audible-- it isn't even a print book as of this writing-- and I know that is a deal breaker for a lot of you. But if you're ok with Audible, it kept us completely hooked from start to finish. 

- Another hit or miss podcast for me is "10 Things to Tell You" hosted by Laura Tremaine. Episode 209 ("Best Books Lately") had some interesting stuff about how we talk about books online, which is admittedly more interesting to me than to Doug, but it's his payback for me listening to all the sports podcasts (see below), and he didn't dislike it. Episode 189 from last fall about the Hollywood strikes was also interesting (it's probably pretty basic if you already know all about them, but I knew nothing). She has a new "Best Books Lately" episode (#218) with R. Eric Thomas that just came out this week so I haven't heard it yet-- but usually those episodes are good, even though Laura and I have very different reading tastes.

We also listened to various episodes from our usual favorite podcasts-- ESPN Daily, Pop Culture Happy Hour, No Laying Up (golf), Radiolab, and Throughline. The key is to find some podcasts you enjoy, even if you don't want to listen to them every single time, and then before your trip, scroll through and find the episodes that look intriguing. It works for us.

Have a great weekend. I will eat an extra beignet for you. I'm not proofing this so I hope it is ok.