Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, even when those measures involve whistling at an imaginary dog with your girlfriend and/or sleeping surrounded plush animal-style by a bunch of vibrators. In this new podcast series launched earlier this year, actors and stand-up comedians Jes Tom and Tessa Skara sit down with queer friends and artists for a freewheeling discussion about the activities that have brought them comfort during the pandemic. Six episodes in, the feature question about self-soothing has created a handy list of ideas for stressed-out listeners, such as seeking out HBO’s lesser-discussed spectacular lineup of profession-based single-elimination competition reality shows. Mostly, though, the premise serves as a jumping-off point for broader conversations about relationships, maintaining a comedy career during terrifying times, and insightful tangents, like the gender-affirming importance of a fresh haircut, or how just about everybody along the Kinsey Scale gets something out of cis gay porn. “If there’s no woman,” says Tom, “I don’t have to worry about her.” This week’s episode with Nori Reed was recorded on a particularly apocalyptic day of the Delta variant surge, yet still manages to be funny and uplifting. Without ever feeling heavy or drifting into mawkishness, The Favorites serves as a comforting hand on the shoulder of listeners and asks, “You good?” [Dan Jakes]
Halloween may be over, but ghosts, by their very definition, never rest. Uncanny, from the BBC, is a paranormal podcast that sees host Danny Robbins interview the purported eyewitnesses and experiencers of some of the U.K.’s most disturbing supernatural phenomena. In this episode, Robbins speaks with a woman only identified as Millie who claims that as a teenager she lived in a haunted farmhouse. Millie’s stories of the haunting include the oft-reported strange sounds and movement of objects by unseen forces, as well as a terrifying night where the presence in the house almost succeeded in killing her. In the interest of balance, Robbins presents the testimony from these interviews to both a paranormal researcher and an expert skeptic to try to find the truth behind these reported happenings. Believer Evelyn Holloway is convinced that a centuries-old trauma has imprinted itself on the house and that long-ago suffering can still be felt today. Psychologist Chris French also believes trauma is at the center of things, but the trauma is Millie’s, and the effect was so strong that it caused hallucinations in the young woman. Ghost or not, what’s certain is that Millie herself is still haunted by those experiences. [Anthony D Herrera]
