Impactful & bingeable pods for the vacation you need + A[sex]ual in the City with Aline Laurent-Mayard
Sounds Like Impact: A newsletter for audio and action - Vol. 13
Welcome to Volume 12 of Sounds Like Impact!
☀️ Summer Solstice officially arrived last week and so you know what that means…vacation, I hope! It also means that I have curated a list of bingeable podcasts to take on your travels. Get ready for “Destination: Binge” with the Best of Impactful Podcasts 2023 (So Far)!
We also have an interview with Tribeca Film Festival Audio Storytelling awardee Aline Laurent-Mayard of Free From Desire, a podcast about being asexual in the “City of Love.”
Announcements:
Due to the “Best of” focus there will be no CTAs this week, but you can always do these. Also, I felt I could make the announcements section a little longer.
We are a community of 300+ subscribers now! 310 as of when I hit publish. 🎉 This growth was accomplished in less than three months. Your support reassures me that there is an interest in this content and that I should keep curating. If you want to share any feedback, make a donation, tell your friends, I’d appreciate any and all.
June 24, 2022 was the 1-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ended Roe v. Wade. The Meteor did an excellent write up on the impact of this decision, as well as posted visual documentation of the #YearWithoutRoe. You can also follow
to keep up with the fallout and efforts to organize.🎬 Also on Saturday I posted to my OG Substack,
(to be updated sporadically) about some stories and documentaries that aligned with World Refugee Week and Pride. I also recommend a podcast ep from In-Betweenish.I submitted a podcast recommendation to Podcast Plunge, and you can too!
Previous Sounds Like Impact interviewee Anita Flores published her long-awaited episode on language, memory and love with Latino USA! 👏🏾 I am moved to share this beautiful post below; click to see more images and video. You can listen to “En Español” wherever you get your podcasts!
💼 And lastly, if you are looking for work (not ads, just cool looking ops!):
FERN is seeking an experienced executive producer / showrunner (contract - remote) for the development and early production phase of a limited-series podcast on a biodiversity subject.
Tradeoffs–a podcast about the U.S. healthcare system–is looking for a Director of Marketing and Audience Development (remote, $100-115K).
🙌 Keeping the faith: The youth are alright! Held v. Montana went to trial this month, the first youth-led legal action related to climate change to be able to do so. The plaintiffs are suing on the grounds that the state of Montana is failing to protect them under the state’s constitution, “which guarantees its citizens the right to a clean and healthful environment.”
Read more from Inside Climate News.
🎧 Best of Impactful Podcasts 2023 (So Far)
A lot of publications have a “Best of” list for podcasts. A quick Google will show you that Vulture, Mashable, The Guardian, Vogue, Time Magazine, even Esquire are among the media outlets that have released a mid-year list over the past month or so.
But, none are like mine. Sure, you will probably see a few of the same podcasts recommended here as on other lists, though I’m fairly certain none of the other lists had social impact in mind. 😉
Before sharing my list, I want to go over my basic qualifying criteria:
Narrative (story driven)
Launched in 2023
Finite: A mini series / a complete season with narrative arc / limited series
All episodes available (before this list published)*
*There was one exception made, and it was explained where relevant.
I only chose 10 shows for this list. This doesn’t mean there weren’t more that could have gone on this list; trust me, there is a lot of great stuff out there. But frankly, these lists are subjective anyways and also it was not possible for me to listen to everything before I published this. I am one person and not an editorial team.
That said, I hope you enjoy my list and you share it widely! I really want some of the deserving podcasts left off these other lists to get their due. I did put this list on another page, however, or else this newsletter would be very long. 😅
But first, your sneak peak…
📣 Spotlight
Aline Laurent-Mayard (they/them) is a Journalist, author, and podcaster. They have written for publications such as Le Monde and Slate, and published two books about gender in pop culture. The French version of their podcast Free From Desire received critical acclaim and Aline was featured on the cover of Telerama. Their second podcast, Welcome Baby, is about raising their child in a gender-open way and it is out in France now.
I was super excited to talk to Aline about their podcast, a show that speaks to me because of my own exploration of identity along the asexual spectrum. It’s clear that Aline’s work was well received from their recent win at Tribeca, but I hope you will read beyond the preview below for why this show needed to exist, and what it has meant to Aline.
I think the main misconception is that asexuality means no sex, no sexuality. So, people assume that ace [asexual] people don't have any kind of sexual desire or arousal, which is wrong on so many levels.
Sexuality is a spectrum, which means that some people can have little sexual attraction; but it's very personal, there's no official way to measure it. They just feel like they're having less sexual attraction than other people, or than what is “required” from society.
Learn more about asexuality and rethinking societal expectations.
⏭ Coming Up
Next week I’m taking a break! Well, sort of. There will likely be an edition that goes out, but it will be a survey if I get my shit together over a holiday weekend. If so, PLEASE FILL IT OUT!
Oh, one more thing: I am releasing the first monthly recap on June 30th. Yes, you read correctly! One more newsletter to your inbox, each month. Technically this will put us at five per month, save for any special announcements like that advertising update (pssst there are some advertising / sponsorship slots open!).
🤗 An act of joy: Almost every year for the past six years–save for the year that COVID truly made a gathering impossible–it has been a joy to participate in my friend Victoria’s Pride Beer—Or Drink What You Want—Olympics. Though we have rarely completed all the games (a mixture of never starting on time, lack of attention spans and competing with other Pride events), it has always been the highlight of Pride month for me. And every year I try to do the best makeup I can. How did I do?
Listen to 🎵 Cozy by Beyoncé to hear our team name 😂.
Take care of yourselves! And if you listen or take any actions, be sure to let me know in the comments or via email soundslikeimpact [at] unofficialsocialchair [dot] com.
Love this! Free From Desire is amazing.