Talking points
Many people have tried to present Robert Mueller’s special counsel report on Russian meddling in the US election to a wider audience. The report has become a bestselling book, an all-star cast staged a reading and there are multiple graphic novels in the works, one of which will be penned by Mark Bowden (Black Hawk Down). The man himself spoke to representatives in a marathon seven-hour session on Wednesday. Not to be left behind, the Lawfare blog launched a serialised narrative podcast, The Report, last week. The first episode focuses on the Russian social media campaign and the activities of the Internet Research Agency. The weekly series will make the report accessible to lay people.
On a lighter note, the final episode of series one of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend was released with Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Veep) this week. The US TV host won’t be completely out of the podcast world in between series, though. He has paired with comedian Dana Carvey on the miniseries Deep Dive with Dana, which was released through Stitcher Premium on 1 July. The six-episode series will be available for free starting on 5 August. Read our piece on premium services and whether podcasts have sold out here.
Picks of the week
Canadian pop goddess Leslie Feist’s storytelling podcast is about “the common ground under our common struggles”. Once she is introduced to her subjects, she lets them tell their own truth, which they do beautifully. The first episode, Lost Dreams, quickly gets to the painful heart of disappointment and devastation, with Sara Brooke Curtis talking about losing her newborn baby and athlete Perdita Felicien recalling the moment she fell over in the 2004 Olympic final in Athens. There’s sadness, but courage too. Hannah Verdier
Larger Than Life
Pod giants Wondery and the LA Times – who have previously collaborated on shows including scam saga Dirty John – join up once again for a new series about a famed drag racer. Big Willie Robinson had as many connections with Hollywood as he did on the streets, and may or may not have been the inspiration behind the Fast and the Furious franchise. But just who was he, and how did he fade into obscurity? Hannah J Davies
Guardian Pick: Books podcast; Ocean Vuong
One of the perks of working at the Guardian is meeting incredible people. Ocean Vuong – who appears in this week’s Books podcast – is one of those. I was lucky enough to sit in the studio when the 30-year-old Vietnamese-American poet spoke to Guardian Books editor Sian Cain. Vuong has become something of a literary rock star since releasing his debut novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, which is being hailed as the latest Great American Novel. The book examines the immigrant experience in America through the story of Little Dog and his Vietnamese mother and grandmother, and holds up a mirror to the violence at the heart of that experience. American citizenship begins with American foreign policy, Ocean tells Sian, “Those we destroy as a country end up on our shores ... and that’s something we have to reckon with in order to know where we’re going.” Max Sanderson
