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The Best Things I Heard This Week (week ending June 9, 2023)

Mint green over-the-ear headphones rest against a color-blocked background. The left half of the background is a rosy pink. The right half is the same mint green as the headphones.

Photo by Moose Photos from Pexels

I'm experimenting with a new post structure. Not sure I want to commit to writing a second post every week, and obligate myself to listening to every episode in my queue, but I'll give it a go.

Anyway, here are the best podcast and podcast episodes I listened to this week. Note that these episodes weren't necessarily released this week, but they're what I listened to this week.

Black Immigrants in the South from NPR’s Consider This podcast

Most black immigrants have not had to consider their race — as in skin color — before moving to the United States. Immigrants experience all of the hurdles that come from moving to, but not yet having citizenship in a new country. Black immigrants have the additional burden of navigating racial and ethnic perceptions.

If Allah Has No Gender, Why Not Refer To God As 'She'? from NPR’s Consider This podcast

I'm an atheist, but I'm intrigued by this understanding of Allah as an entity greater than gender. I think I'm on steady ground when I say that most deists and theists conceive of their god as a gendered human with super powers. But if that god is supposed to be beyond all of our human understanding, does that god have a gender at all? Is god an enby? Are we — well, y'all — even right to think of god as a being?

Food and Drink mini-series: demystifying wine with André Mack from FT Weekend

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The FT Weekend podcast from The Financial Times interviews sommelier, restauranteur, and owner of Maison Noir Wines, André Mack. Mack is one of those sommeliers who've made wine less stuffy and more accessible. In this interview, we learn how Mack went from working in restaurants to owning six of them, in addition to his wine brand. Aside: Knock on Wood, Mack's Wilamette Valley chardonnay is especially delicious. I'm also partial to his O.P.P. pinot noir.

Reign of Error

I have loved the New York Knickerbockers since I was 12. I have not loved Jim Dolan during that time. If you love the Knicks, but want Jimmy D to sell the team, you will appreciate this series about how Jim Dolan ruined our favorite basketball team.

Conservatives vs. ESG from Bloomberg’ Crash Course

ESG stands for environmental, social, and governance. Many conservatives, including some right-wingers and Christians, oppose the idea of considering ESG performance. Indeed they're responsible for a backlash against it. This podcast examines ESG investing; whether these environmental, social, and governance metrics are reasonable to consider; and whether investing or divesting in companies qualifies as ESG investing at all. Also see Using 401(k)s to drain the fossil fuel pool from Molly Wood's Everybody in the Pool podcast. It covers adjacent ground.