Phonograph
Episodes
Knob Feel: the Story of the Greatest Podcast Ad Campaign of All Time
02 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
On this episode, Rob and Britta tell the story of the golden age of podcast advertising — how it started, why it worked, and why it seems to be over...
Found Footage Horror: How News Podcasts Have Covered ICE
19 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past two weeks, Rob and Britta have combed through numerous podcast episodes produced in the last year about the ICE invasion of American cit...
To Show What's Going On — Photojournalists in Minneapolis
29 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Rob and Britta both live in the Twin Cities, so on this episode, we took a break from discussing audio storytelling, and Britta interviewed two photoj...
Some Crazy Joyous Thing - Apocalyptic Vox Pop from Scott Carrier and Erica Heilman
31 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
At the tail end of 2025, Rob and Britta discuss work by Scott Carrier and Erica Heilman that captures something about how it felt to live through this...
Weirdly Fun - What Podcast Bonus Feeds Are Offering
21 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
To explore the phenomenon of podcast bonus feeds, Rob and Britta start by discussing an episode of Yowei Shaw's podcast Proxy (with guest Alex Goldman...
Hey Jackie - The Evolution of Jonathan Goldstein
23 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Episode Description: With the triumphant return of the podcast Heavyweight, Rob and Britta trace the career of Jonathan Goldstein through several of h...
What a Wonderful Thing - 99% Invisible
31 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As the 15th anniversary of 99% Invisible approaches, Rob and Britta dig into four very different episodes from the first four years of that show's run...
What Covid Did to Them - Nancy Updike's "We Were Three"
03 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Episode Description: Rob and Britta discuss Nancy Updike's podcast "We Were Three," which tells the story of one family devastated by Covid and what t...
Where People Put the Radio Tower - Signal Hill
29 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Rob and Britta discuss the new podcast Signal Hill, which takes its inspiration from the world of print magazines. Rob talks to Liza Yeager and Jackso...
I Don't Know If It's God - Alix Spiegel's "Pray"
29 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Rob and Britta discuss the classic Alix Spiegel story "Pray" from This American Life, including Spiegel's origin story as a producer and what happened...
The Story Becomes the Medicine - The Retrievals (with guest Sophie Nikitas)
03 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Rob is joined by the audio producer Sophie Nikitas to discuss Susan Burton's Peabody award winning podcast from 2023: The Retrievals. Show Notes: Sop...
I Wanted to Be a Stranger - Cement City (with guest Samantha Hodder)
06 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Rob is joined by the podcast critic Samantha Hodder, who writes the newsletter Bingeworthy, to discuss the podcast Cement City: a sound-rich, characte...
What the Evidence Shows - The Problem We All Live With
16 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Rob and Britta discuss a ten year old story from This American Life called "The Problem We All Live With" produced by Chana Joffe-Walt and reported by...
What's Fun About Being in the Dark - Love and Radio
05 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Rob and Britta dig into two classic episodes of the podcast Love and Radio, "The Wisdom of Jay Thunderbolt" and "Choir Boy," sparking a discussion abo...
Do We Ever Go Back to That? - TAL: Notes on Camp
22 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Rob and Britta share a discussion they had in 2019 (but never released) about the classic This American Life episode "Notes on Camp." Topics include t...
Suitcase Full of Cash - Startup Part 2
25 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On the second of a two-part series about the podast Startup, Rob and Britta talk about how the mini-seasons of the podcast Startup about the growth of...
Alarmingly Long Pause - Startup Part 1
05 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On the first episode of the new season Rob and Britta talk about what made them want to restart a show about narrative audio. And they discuss the com...
Season 2 Teaser
03 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After more than five years of silence, new episodes of this podcast finally are on their way. Season 2 starts September 5, 2024.
S1 E5: One Long Poetic HIPAA Violation - The Job That Takes Over Your Life
24 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Rob and Britta discuss This American Life Episode 37 - The Job that Takes Over Your Life, as well as Britta's former job fixing scandals for big compa...
S1 E4: The Cruelty of Children - Tarantula in a Bowl
10 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Rob and Britta discuss whether this episode is TAL's first real masterpiece, the role of David Sedaris in the show's early years, why "The Man in the ...
S1 E3: Accidental Documentaries - Non-humanoid Member of the Family
05 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Rob and Britta discuss This American Life Episode 14: Accidental Documentaries, including their own experience creating accidental documentaries. The ...
S1 E2: Double Lives - The Birth of This American Life
21 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A discussion of This American Life Episode 10: Double Lives. Topics include Rob and Britta's own experiences leading double lives, Rob's childhood hab...
S1 E1: New Beginnings - F*** You, Django Reinhardt!
08 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Rob and Britta discuss the very first episode of This American Life, as well as why the show is worth discussing, how they and others became fans of t...
S1 E0: American Whatever
10 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 0 Show Notes Clips from following were used in this episode: This American Life, Episode 1: New Beginnings This American Life, Episode 17: Na...