Finding Favorites with Leah Jones
Finding Favorites is where we learn about people’s favorite things and get recommendations without using an algorithm. Every other week, host Leah Jones sits down with a guest to learn about how they found their favorite thing, why they love it and why they think other people will fall in love, too.
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Episodes
Sunday Aug 30, 2020
Sunday Aug 30, 2020
Jen Myers, a Chicago-based technologist, writer and podcaster, loves the movie-watch-along show Mystery Science Theater 3000. We talk about her earliest fandom to how she's trying to figure out how to take a life size Tom Servo along with her to Comic Cons.
Related Links
Mystery Science Theater 3000 IMDB
Follow Jen on Twitter and check out her website for news about projects.
Quiet Little Horrors podcast
Riff Trax
Shout Factory
The Flophouse Podcast
Thank you to sound engineer Nancy Caddigan who cleans up my zoomy audio!
Stay home, stay safe.
(Fresh file with music instead of dead air breaks, plus 19)
Tuesday Aug 25, 2020
Tuesday Aug 25, 2020
Jason Diamond is a Brooklyn-based writer who loves the weird American suburb, so much so that he wrote the book on them. The Sprawl: Reconsidering the Weird American Suburb is available today and is Jason's exploration of the art and culture that is born of suburbs.
We talk about so many of his favorite things, starting with a conversation about music and the Chicago live-music scene in the 90s, Romantic Comedies, independent bookstores, and great Chicago meals.
Links!
Follow Jason Diamond on Twitter and Instagram
Join Jason virtually at Volumes Bookstore on September 9th
Buy The Sprawl from an independent bookstore or his first book Searching for John Hughes
Leah's profile in the 2010 Big Jewcy list
Jason drove all around Lake Michigan in November
And the Mother-In-Law sandwich is real
Sunday Aug 23, 2020
Sunday Aug 23, 2020
Scotty Iseri, the host of The Imagine Neighborhood, loves open mic nights (and probably open mic afternoons, too). He learned plenty of life lessons trying to make strangers look up from their laptops and pay attention to him.
Links
The Imagine Neighborhood
The Digits
Scotty Got an Office Job
Emily Heller - writing retreats
Tumblr acquired by Yahoo, David Karp founder
Thea Lux runs a Zoom open mic
Find Leah on other podcasts
Friday Night Movies - Mantzoukas-Fest: Just talking about Jason Mantzoukas for an hour with friends
The Blank Slate with Sam Tanios
Saturday Aug 15, 2020
Saturday Aug 15, 2020
Robert Loerzel was once voted Chicago's best person to follow on Twitter and he still is. He also loves the film 2001: A Space Odyssey and all of the assorted books, comic books, and music associated with it. Robert almost picked David Lynch, so we don't leave him out of the conversation.
Leah recorded an extra-long introduction about the Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, which is available on Play per View until August 20, 2020.
Links
Follow @RobertLoerzel on Twitter and Instagram
Buy his new book Walking Chicago
Buy his first book Alchemy of Bones
2001: A Space Odyssey (the novel) by Arthur C Clarke
How Uptown became an entertainment hub on Curious City
2001: A Space Odyssey. What it means and how it was made, The New Yorker
Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece
Our beloved Music Box Theater
Bonus Links
Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity Play Per View available until August 20, 2020
Sunday Aug 09, 2020
Sunday Aug 09, 2020
Amy Hatch, a content consultant and CEO of her own business, loves all things Disney. The parks, the properties, the cruises and the movies. She takes us through her journey of melting her Gen-X cynicism with the power of Disney.
Links
The Imagineering Story
Disney Fairy Tale Weddings
Follow Amy on Twitter
Wednesday Aug 05, 2020
Wednesday Aug 05, 2020
In this episode, I flipped the script and interviewed one of my favorites - Andy Slavitt. You can find him on Twitter at @aslavitt or on almost any given news channel on a daily basis. He is a tireless advocate for improving healthcare access in the United States and is currently focused on stopping the public mismanagement of COVID-19.
The episode ends with a pep talk for people planning High Holy Day services at synagogues.
Links
In the Bubble - the podcast he and his son started during the lockdown
Laurie Kilmartin's tweets about her mother's death and a Washington Post article about the same subject
Paul Smith is the co-founder and CTO of Ad Hoc
Northwestern's Health Communication MS program
Get health insurance on the exchange
Sunday Aug 02, 2020
Sunday Aug 02, 2020
William Pacholski, the owner and founder of the Portland Psychic School, talks with me about Dave Malloy's musical Natasha and Pierre and the Great Comet of 1912. The Great Comet ran on Broadway for nearly a year, closing on September 3, 2017, but as you'll hear - it was performed in a variety of venues for a few years as Dave Malloy developed the show.
Additional Links
The One That Got Away videos are all on Vimeo. Here's Eric Himan performing Both Hands as a taste of the show.
The cast recording of The Great Comet is available on Spotify and lots of other places.
The Assassins
Dave Malloy - the artistic genius
Millikin University
Sunday Jul 26, 2020
Sunday Jul 26, 2020
Esther Kustanowitz is an LA based writer and journalist who loves most things Star Wars. Join us as we talk about how she found Star Wars, what she loves about it and her special appreciation for Carrie Fisher. She explains what the Machete Order is and recommends some novels that fill in Princess Leia's life story.
You can subscribe to Esther's podcast The Bagel Report, follow her on Twitter where she is @EstherK, or follow her TV Gone Jewy Facebook page for the latest in Jewish representation on TV.
Related Links
Bloodline by Claudia Gray
Leia, Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray
Newcomers podcast with Nicole Byer and Lauren Lapkus
Bibi's Bakery in LA
Esther's essay on Star Wars and grieving
Transcript follows
Sunday Jul 19, 2020
Sunday Jul 19, 2020
Jill Alexander Essbaum is a poet, author and professor based in Austin, Texas. Her favorite thing is old time radio - specifically thriller radio programs. We talk about Suspense (CBS Radio from 1940 to 1962), how Jill found the first set of CDs that turned her on to Old Time Radio, and just how many hours of recordings she keeps on her iPod.
Her new book of poetry, Would-Land, is available from Cooper Dillon and her first novel, Hausfrau, has been translated into over 20 languages. Chances are good there is a copy available in your preferred language.
Other helpful links from our conversation
RUSC.com
USA Today article which covers Old Time Radio and many online archives
Libri Vox - the home of free public domain audiobooks
Sunday Jul 12, 2020
Sunday Jul 12, 2020
Brad Manilla, AKA DJ Sparklebomb, is a user experience designer and recovering entrepreneur who joined me to talk about how he became a DJ. In this episode, Brad describes his chill summer mix tape Infinity Pool, which I suggest you listen to before diving into our full conversation. Fakin' the Funk is his new mixtape that brings you a lot of underground hip hop that we talk about.
Learn more about Scribble Jam - a hip hop music festival in Cincinnati, Ohio that ran from 1996 to 2009. This video shows the graffiti walls that we talk about.
Follow Brad on Twitter and sign up for his emails for occasional mix tape drops.
Finding Favorites with Leah Jones
Everyone loves something. A hobby, a musician, an artist, a book genre - everyone has a favorite thing and this is the podcast where we hear the stories.
How did you discover your favorite thing? What do you love about it? Who have you met through it? How would someone sample your favorite thing?
At Finding Favorites, we get recommendations without using an algorithm.
Hosted by Leah Jones