Happy new year! And hello to all 650+ of you!
While a new year typically ushers in new beginnings, #SoundsLikeImpact is not quite a year old yet. We launched in April 2023, so are about 3 months shy from celebrating our anniversary. However, I have set at least one goal for the new year that pertains to this newsletter: 1,000 subscribers by our 1st anniversary! I think we can get ~350 people more reading this newsletter, in a three-month period; do you? If so, please send SLI to podcast lovers and social justice champions you know!
For those of you who are new here, this edition isn’t a traditional curation by any means. However, I do want to get back to that and I am looking for episode pitches, as well as guest curations. And if you are launching a new show / season, or have a show currently out, you can always advertise in the newsletter.
Nothing to promote but still want to support? You can donate here or upgrade your subscription. With that I want to extend a huge thank you to Morgaine GS for joining as a paid subscriber this month! <3
🎧 New Listens for 2024
As I said in the intro, this isn’t going to be a traditional curation, but I am excited to share about some podcasts that have come out recently (December / January) that are in my queue. It’s never to early to start scouting for my next best of impactful podcasts list!
“Gooned is a deep dive into an industry with blood on its hands. The Troubled Teen Industry (TTI) is a network of profit-incentivized behavior modification facilities for youth, ranging from wilderness programs to therapeutic boarding schools. The decades-old industry uses predatory tactics to capitalize on families in crisis and victimize hundreds of thousands of children and teens every year.”
Hat tip (h/t) to Erik Jones—a previous guest curator—from
for sharing the show on his newsletter.
“Radical: On March 16, 2000, two police officers were shot in one of Atlanta’s oldest neighborhoods. One officer died and the other claimed the shooter was Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, the leader of a local mosque. Once known as H. Rap Brown, a charismatic leader of the Black Power Movement, and an honorary officer in the Black Panther Party, Al-Amin was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. But was Al-Amin truly guilty? Or was it payback for decades of work against the establishment? “
I actually first learned about H. Rap Brown thanks to the Resistance podcast, so I look forward to learning more about his story.
“Ripple is a new investigative podcast that returns to the scene of major events and discovers the long-term impacts that have been raging, unnoticed, for years - or decades.
The largest oil spill in American history captivated the public's attention for the entire summer of 2010. Authorities told a story of a herculean response effort that made shorelines safe and avoided a worst case scenario. Was that really the whole picture? From Western Sound and APM Studios, Ripple is a new series investigating the stories we were told were over. In Season One, we travel hundreds of miles across the Gulf Coast to learn the ongoing effects of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill - which are still impacting many coastal residents more than a decade later.”
🚨 A little bit of this, a little bit of that
For those who are new, typically when I do a curation I align CTAs that relate to the explored theme. Since the “curation” was just me sharing some new shows I want to check out, I figured I would share some updates, revisits, recommendations and opportunities…so yeah, basically, a little bit of this and a little bit of that.
#SoundsLikeImpact Community
Check out EarBuds Podcast Collective Top Podcast Fun Facts of 2023! I will say, my submission wasn’t necessarily “fun”, but people need to know! Once you see my fact, be sure to read the interview with the creators who made me aware. Yes, I am being purposefully cryptic so you click!
Expectant—in addition to making my year-end list—made CBC best podcasts of 2023 list! Congratulations to Pippa Johnstone!
Psstt…If you want to stay up-to-date on the latest in Canadian podcasting, be sure to follow
by Kattie Laur, a podcaster in her own right :-)
Also congratulations to Aline Mayard of Free From Desire: Asexual in the City of Love for their inclusion on The Atlantic’s best of list. It was a pleasure to interview Aline last year and their show definitely made me feel seen!
Ann Marie Awad is hosting a 4-part workshop in March for journalists / podcasters called “Handle with Care: A Crash Course in Ethics”.
I interviewed Ann Marie about the show they produced–National Emergency, as well as show co-host Kate O’Connell, last year.
Climate Action CTAs
My Climate Journey podcast has a newsletter called
and they recently shared tips from Drew Wilkinson on how you can turn your job into a climate job. They are even doing a workshop with Drew on February 8th.For those who don’t remember or are unaware, I had the pleasure of working on season 6 of the Environmental Defense Fund’s podcast Degrees: Real talk about planet saving careers. Drew was our first interview that season and you should check out his story!
Also, if you are interested, I produced the interviews with Ciara Imani May and Pooja Tilvawala from that season. Give them a listen if you can!
Bill McKibben, who writes
, invites those who want to engage in some civil disobedience in February over permitting for Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) export terminals. In his words, “protesters will gather for (very civil) civil disobedience outside the Department of Energy, hoping to persuade Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and her crew that the time has come to pause the permitting of new LNG export terminals”. Direct link to protest info is here.2023 was the hottest year on record; we need to phase out fossil fuels like yesterday. But if you aren’t quite a protest person, that’s okay! Learn about how your bank may be tied to fossil fuels and what you can do about it. And if there wasn’t a more perfectly timed reminder that climate activism can work, be sure to read this piece from
.
More from social issue Substack’s I follow…
ProPublica did a recent investigation into Michigan’s handling of restitution for wrongful convictions. I first learned of this from
newsletter, where the story was republished with permission, but you can also find it on ProPublica.If you’ve connected the dots with my “fun fact” from above, wrongful convictions is a topic that I’ve gotten to learn even more about thanks to the latest season of Obscured podcast.
And speaking of ProPublica, the investigative journalism organization teamed up with Serial / NYTimes last year for a podcast that was also featured on my “best of” list. Have you listened to Kids of Rutherford County yet? That show also relates to miscarriages of justice in the criminal-legal system.
Jeremy Ney, who writes
, provided a sobering update on homelessness in the U.S., and it’s an important read.In a continuation of my previously mentioned documentary watching, I watched Unzipped: An Autopsy of American Inequality, which looks at homelessness in Venice Beach, CA. It’s FREE to watch on Tubi!
But if documentaries aren’t your thing, I suggest watching Maid on Netflix, which is based on the true story of the book the limited series draws its material from. Remember: there are plenty of reasons people can find themselves unhoused, and this story is just one of countless examples.
Good news: Death, Sex and Money—a show that has been previously featured on here—has been saved! The show will move to Slate. I first learned the news from host Anna Sale, who now also writes
.There were a couple times I wanted to become a sociology major in college, and one of them was when taking Dr. Jessie Daniels’ course on community health. I’ve kept up with Dr. Daniels’ work—including her newsletter
. She’s recently announced a book club, which includes her book Nice White Ladies and two others. Sign up by January 31.
I know I threw a lot at you at the end here, but in spite of what is predicted to be a pretty chaotic year globally, I am feeling energized by the people and communities that are doing the work and I wanted to share that with you.
We cannot lose sight of the bigger picture–a world where human rights are upheld and we look out for one another and our environment.
So if I can leave you with two more things on the heels of Martin Luther King Jr. Day,
This short piece on heroism from Heather Cox Richardson who writes
.
Who can be a hero is not as complicated as you may think…🤍 🕊️
Gorgeous.
Thank you for the shoutout!! Love Sounds Like Impact, keep up the great work!