Robert McGinley Myers - Podcast Details

Shows

PhonographWhat Covid Did to Them - Nancy Updike's "We Were Three"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 that devastation revealed. Also discussed: Nancy Updike’s status as as one of the all time great audio producers. To support Phonograph, subscribe to our new bonus feed, which features experiments in audio storytelling. This month’s story comes from Rob: a collage of recordings he made in the spring of 2020 around the theme of anxiety and grocery shopping. Show Notes: ICU nurse Kelley Anaas talking about the...2025-07-031h 14

The Audio BrowserWhat the Evidence Shows - The Problem We All Live With Podcast: Phonograph (LS 33 · TOP 5% what is this?)Episode: What the Evidence Shows - The Problem We All Live WithPub date: 2025-01-16Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationRob 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 Nikole Hannah-Jones. It's an example of the kind of documentary journalism we need more than ever, in a world where such journalism is increasingly under threat. Show Note...2025-05-301h 06

PhonographWhere People Put the Radio Tower - Signal HillRob and Britta discuss the new podcast Signal Hill, which takes its inspiration from the world of print magazines. Rob talks to Liza Yeager and Jackson Roach about the project, and then we dive into a handful of the stories from Signal Hill’s first “issue.” Show Notes: Signal Hill Fishing the Sky by Jackson Roach Desperado by Neena Pathak A Porous Place by Hannah Sassoon On the Family Group Chat by Hannah Kingsley-Ma Music by Blue Dot Sessions 2025-05-2947 min

PhonographI Don't Know If It's God - Alix Spiegel's "Pray"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 to her when members of the megachurch she was reporting on urged her to become a Christian. This is the second of three episodes Rob and Britta recorded in 2019 and never released until now. The first of those was our episode about TAL’s “Notes on Camp.” Show Notes: Pray - This American Life Tape: A radio show about people who make radio, hosted and edited by Mooj Zadi...2025-04-2943 min

PhonographThe Story Becomes the Medicine - The Retrievals (with guest Sophie Nikitas)Rob is joined by the audio producer Sophie Nikitas to discuss Susan Burton's Peabody award winning podcast from 2023: The Retrievals. Show Notes: Sophie's online dating podcast miniseries The Zoo Sophie's horror anthology podcast Out Cold Susan Burton's story "In The Event Of An Emergency, Put Your Sister In An Upright Position" Susan Burton's story "Tornado Prom" Music from Blue Dot Sessions 2025-04-0350 min

PhonographI Wanted to Be a Stranger - Cement City (with guest Samantha Hodder)Rob is joined by the podcast critic Samantha Hodder, who writes the newsletter Bingeworthy, to discuss the podcast Cement City: a sound-rich, character-rich, immersive exploration of the struggling rust belt town Donora, Pennsylvania. Show Notes: Cement City Samantha Hodder’s website Samantha Hodder’s newsletter Bingeworthy Music - Blue Dot Sessions 2025-03-0651 min

PhonographWhat the Evidence Shows - The Problem We All Live WithRob 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 Nikole Hannah-Jones. It's an example of the kind of documentary journalism we need more than ever, in a world where such journalism is increasingly under threat. Show Notes: TAL Episode 562: The Problem We all Live With Longform Podast interview with Nikole Hannah-Jones Third Coast Audio Festival Session: Make Them Care Saint Louis Public Radio's coverage of the Francis Howell town meeting 2025-01-161h 06

PhonographWhat's Fun About Being in the Dark - Love and RadioRob and Britta dig into two classic episodes of the podcast Love and Radio, "The Wisdom of Jay Thunderbolt" and "Choir Boy," sparking a discussion about the appeal of abrasive art. Show Notes: The Wisdom of Jay Thunderbolt - Love and Radio Choir Boy - Love and Radio Love and Radio on How Sound Salvatore Scibona reads Denis Johnson - New Yorker Fiction Podcast Music: Silence Kid - Pavement You’re Killing Me - Pavement Prefect Depth - Pavement...2024-12-051h 00

PhonographDo We Ever Go Back to That? - TAL: Notes on CampRob and Britta share a discussion they had in 2019 (but never released) about the classic This American Life episode "Notes on Camp." Topics include their own camp experiences, the power of scary stories, Rob's favorite thing ever recorded by any radio show ever, and the wild back story of the beloved camp counselor David Himmel, aka Mr. Popluar. Show Notes: Notes on Camp - This American LIfe “Ira Glass Is a Douche” - Literate Apecast Longform Interview with Julie Snyder Music: Calisson - Blue Do...2024-10-2245 min

PhonographSuitcase Full of Cash - Startup Part 2On 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 Gimlet revealed all kinds of details about the troubles at the company, the ill-fated sale to Spotify, and what all this means for the state of narrative audio. Show Notes: Skye Pillsbury's newsletter The Squeeze Galen Beebe's website Music: A Simple Plan Soundrack Nine Count by Blue Dot Sessions Within the Garden Walls by Blu...2024-09-251h 06

PhonographAlarmingly Long Pause - Startup Part 1On 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 complicated legacy of a podcast that's having its tenth anniversary this year. Show Notes: Music: Coffaro’s Theme by Bill Frisell "Arabic Tallow" and "At Our Best Alone" from Blue Dot Sessions Gentle Chase - Podington Bear Audio Excerpts: This American Life - Double Lives Constellation Prize 2024-09-0656 min

PhonographSeason 2 TeaserAfter more than five years of silence, new episodes of this podcast finally are on their way. Season 2 starts September 5, 2024. 2024-09-0303 min

The ZooIntroducing: Out ColdIt's been a while! I'm back with a new project: Out Cold, a spooky anthology series. Here's an episode for you to get a taste of the series. You can listen to the rest of the series here:Apple PodcastsSpotifyMore about this episode of "Out Cold":Zoe enters the downtown Minneapolis skyway and discovers a bizarre lunch hour culture.Out Cold is a spooky anthology series created and produced by Sophie Nikitas and Julie Censullo."The Lunch Rush" was written, directed, and mixed by Sophie...2024-01-0416 min

Out ColdThe Lunch RushZoe enters the downtown Minneapolis skyway and discovers a bizarre lunch hour culture. Out Cold is a spooky anthology series created and produced by Sophie Nikitas and Julie Censullo."The Lunch Rush" was written, directed, and mixed by Sophie Nikitas. This episode stars Diana Chao, Kristin Dare, Sophie Nikitas, Robert Sager, Anna Van Sice, and Eric Weathers. Editing help from Rob McGinley Myers and Julie Censullo. Music by Randy Dever, Anna Van Sice, and Blue Dot Sessions. Additional audio from freesound.org and Splice.com. Series art by James Napoli. Special thanks to Miguel Vargas, N...2023-11-1015 min

Anxious MachineThe NewsI’ve always had a problematic relationship to the news, and I’ve struggled to navigate that even more since this pandemic began. I talk to my father about the night I yelled at him over his insufficient fear of the virus, and I look back on a 1954 essay by E.B. White about the disparity between his experience of a hurricane and the coverage he hears of that hurricane on the radio. Subscribe (or write a review) in iTunes Music: Blue Dot Sessions Links: The Eye of Edna by E...2020-05-1917 min

Anxious MachineContagionLike most people, I imagine, I've been having a lot of anxious thoughts these days. And I’ve been wishing I could get those thoughts out of my head. Then I remembered that I used to have a podcast called Anxious Machine. So here’s my first episode in three years, part of a planned, ongoing audio journal. This episode starts with some thoughts about how this virus first entered my consciousness, how it felt to watch the movie Contagion with my daughter, and trying to stay awake to what's happening. Music: The Hous...2020-04-2810 min

PhonographS1 E5: One Long Poetic HIPAA Violation - The Job That Takes Over Your LifeRob 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 companies, and Rob’s former job working for Garrison Keillor. Other topics include the great radio reporter Scott Carrier and his masterpiece of a story The Test, and Rob interviews Peter Clowney, one of the original producers of This American Life, about what it was like to work on the show in the early days. Links and Show Notes: The Job that Takes Over Your Life In P...2019-01-2455 min

PhonographS1 E4: The Cruelty of Children - Tarantula in a BowlRob 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 Well” is the rare example of great audio fiction, the bone-chilling music of the Bulgarian State Television Female Choir, and why an effort to keep children from excluding each other makes Rob weirdly emotional. And we talk to the amazing Marlo Mack, from the podcast How to Be a Girl, about her own unique perspective on the cruelty of children. Links and Show Notes: The Crue...2019-01-1051 min

PhonographS1 E3: Accidental Documentaries - Non-humanoid Member of the FamilyRob and Britta discuss This American Life Episode 14: Accidental Documentaries, including their own experience creating accidental documentaries. The main focus of the discussion is the centerpiece of this episode, a documentary edited out of reel to reel tapes that a family sent back and forth to each other back in 1967. And Rob talks to Joe Silovsky, the man who originally found those tapes and gave them to Ira Glass, and whose work as a performance artist echos the experience he had with those tapes back when he was an art student. And since this is the final episode of...2018-12-0551 min

PhonographS1 E2: Double Lives - The Birth of This American LifeA discussion of This American Life Episode 10: Double Lives. Topics include Rob and Britta's own experiences leading double lives, Rob's childhood habit of breaking into schools at night, why this episode feels like the birth of This American Life, why parents so often hide secrets from their children, what Britta’s parents have been hiding from her, and how it feels to hear Ira Glass talk about sex. This episode also includes an interview with Peter Bresnan, a podcast producer for Gimlet, about what it's like to listen to this old episode of TAL on the topic of...2018-11-2157 min

Anxious MachineNew Show AnnouncementI'm announcing a whole new podcast, and giving you a listen to the first episode. The podcast is called Before It Had a Theme, and on it, Britta Greene an I discuss and deconstruct old episodes of This American Life. On this episode, we discuss the very first episode of that show, as well as why the show is worth discussing, how we and others became fans of the show, and why we love Ira Glass’s mother. Clips from following were used in this episode: Coffaro’s Theme by Bill Frisell Episode of T...2018-11-0849 min

PhonographS1 E1: New Beginnings - F*** You, Django Reinhardt!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 the show, and why they love Ira Glass’s mother. Clips from following were used in this episode: Coffaro’s Theme by Bill Frisell Episode of Tape with Jonathan Menjivar Episode of Tape with Ben Calhoun Ira’s talk at the Third Coast Audio Festival Longform Podcast, Episode 159: Ira Glass This American Life, Episode 1: New Beginnings Ira’...2018-11-0847 min

PhonographS1 E0: American WhateverEpisode 0 Show Notes Clips from following were used in this episode: This American Life, Episode 1: New Beginnings This American Life, Episode 17: Name Change/No Theme Longform Podcast, Episode 159: Ira Glass Coffaro’s Theme by Bill Frisell 2018-10-1006 min

Anxious MachineIf You Could Do Anything?Sometimes in your life, you reach a crossroads, go on a men’s weekend, spend too much time alone in the forest, have a mid-life crisis, and start thinking you can change the world with your podcast. This episode is about that happening to me. Part one of a three-part series. Support Anxious Machine on Patreon Subscribe (or write a review) in iTunes Links: Startup Music: Opening Credits by johnny_ripper Divider by Chris Zabriskie Audrey by johnny_ripper Mario Bava Sl...2016-05-1136 min

Anxious MachinePay Attention All the TimeParents of young children have an especially fraught relationship with their smartphones. On the one hand, these devices are indispensable tools for getting things done and staying connected to the adult world while in the midst of childcare. On the other hand, the culture is constantly telling parents, and particularly mothers, that they’re too distracted by these devices, that smartphones are stealing precious attention away from our kids. But the idea that parents should be focusing so much attention on their kids is itself a modern invention. In fact, our current understanding of parenthood and childhood is...2015-09-2824 min

Anxious MachineDo You Feel More Like Gods?This past week, my kids went back to school. Summer vacation has come and gone. And that’s gotten me thinking about the very idea of summer vacation because every summer, for the past several years, my wife, her sisters and our families have had this tradition of going to a cabin for a few days to get out of the city. We don’t own a cabin. We have to rent one. And this year, the process of finding it, looking at pictures of all the possible cabins on all the possible lakes, made me wonder about this part...2015-09-1420 min

Anxious MachineBringing Wes HomeSince the wide-spread adoption of embalming in the United States, most Americans have turned the process of handling the deceased over to experts in the undertaking business. On this episode, the story of one family who decided that they wanted to be the ones to wash and prepare the body of the son and brother they’d lost. This episode was previously aired on the podcast Neighbors, one of the podcasts in The Heard. Support Anxious Machine on Patreon Subscribe (or write a review) in iTunes Music: Cyl...2015-08-3116 min

Anxious MachineA Horrible ExperienceMy older brother Scott lives almost completely outside the network of modern life: he has no internet, no email address, no cable TV or satellite, not even an antenna for his television. Until recently, he didn’t even have a bank account or a telephone. In this episode, I try to get to the bottom of why he hates computers, and especially the internet, even though the internet helped him solve a question he’s had since the day he was born. Support Anxious Machine on Patreon Subscribe (or write a review) in iTunes Mu...2015-08-1728 min

Anxious MachineTeleportation DeviceHumans have been reading for thousands of years, but ever since the invention of television, people have been worried that reading is in decline. The latest worry is that, even if the Internet has caused an uptick in the quantity of our reading, we're reading on screens instead of paper, and this seems to degrade the quality of our reading. On this episode, technology writer Clive Thompson talks about the history of reading as a technology, why we’re worried about its future, and what happened when he tried to read War and Peace on his iPhone....2015-08-0330 min

Anxious MachineThese Things Is MiraclesWhen she was growing up, Adrienne didn’t want to believe she was losing her hearing, and she didn’t want to wear hearing aids. This is the story of how she decided to embrace the technology that restored her hearing, and what happened when she did. Support Anxious Machine on Patreon Subscribe (or write a review) in iTunes Patrons: Mark Bramhill Music: Cylinder Five by Chris Zabriskie There Are Many Different Kinds of Love by Chris Zabriskie Cylinder Six by Chris Zabriskie 2015-07-1922 min

Anxious MachineA Piece of Paper (S2: E4)When I heard the news of the recent Supreme Court ruling on marriage between same sex couples, I wanted to go back to an interview I did in 2009 with two women who decided to get married before it was legal in their state. It’s easy to forget what couples like them had to go through back then — traveling outside of their state to get a document that would have no legal standing at all where they lived. I wanted to know why that piece of paper mattered to them. This is their story. Support Anxious Machine on Pa...2015-07-0618 min

Anxious MachineLooking at the Wall (S2: E3)Amelia’s childhood was largely devoid of technology. But when she got a computer and the internet in her own bedroom, she found the new mode of communication through chatrooms and email utterly addictive. She’s struggled ever since with how much technology she wants in her life, especially now that she’s a mother. Support Anxious Machine on Patreon Subscribe (or write a review) in iTunes Sponsor: Due My video review of Due Links: The Knowledge, London’s Legendary Taxi-Driver Test, Puts Up a Fight in the Age...2015-06-2923 min

Anxious MachineAll My Days Have Been Guns (S2: E2)Bernard did not get along with his father, who expected him to work like a full-time employee in the family gas station starting when Bernard was just eight years old. But then Bernard went off to the army, and when he came home, an incident with a gun changed his relationship to his father, to society, and to himself. Subscribe (or write a review) in iTunes Links: The Heard ARRVLS Samuel Colt A Tradition of Arms The Price of Valor Music: ...2015-06-1531 min

Anxious MachineDidn't Want to Be Conscious (S2: E1)Humans have been getting intoxicated, and finding new ways to get intoxicated, for thousands of years. On this episode, I explore the history of intoxication, and how that history played out in the life of one young woman. Subscribe (or write a review) in iTunes Links: In researching this topic, I relied on the following sources (in addition to Wikipedia): The Beer Archaeologist ‘Apparently Useless’: The Accidental Discovery of LSD The Trip Treatment The Cocoa Crux Heroin: A Hundred-Year Habit Music: ...2015-06-0129 min

Anxious MachineThe Question is Ridiculous (Interim Episode 4)I recently decided to ask a big question at a cocktail party. This episode is about asking the question, some of the answers I got, and how that question is shaping the stories I’m trying to tell in the second season of this show. Subscribe in iTunes Share Your Story Music: I Am Running Down the Long Hallway of Viewmont Elementary by Chris Zabriskie Divider by Chris Zabriskie A Void by johnny_ripper 2015-05-2509 min

Anxious MachineEvery Other Fight (Interim Episode 3)I’ve always loved telling the story of the first (and only) time I got punched in the face, and not because I won the fight. I lost, by a long shot. But it’s a story about standing up to one of the toughest scariest guys in my high school, and it made me feel like a hero. But the stories we tell about ourselves are rarely the whole story. This story changed for me when I decided to pick up a microphone and interview the guy I fought that day. The story I’d been sharin...2015-05-1111 min

Anxious MachineCompletely Clueless and Completely Paranoid (Interim Episode 2)Sara thought she knew her son, but then a medical diagnosis left her questioning everything. This is the story of how she coped when the medical treatment turned him into a completely different child. Subscribe (or write a review) in iTunes Music: Mario Bava Sleeps in a Little Later Than He Expected by Chris Zabriskie Enough of Our Machines by Son Lux, remixed by jonny_ripper Summa by Tape.2015-04-2710 min

Anxious MachineThe Letter (Interim Episode 1)Fewer and fewer people writes letters anymore, especially by hand. It’s a dying technology. But for this episode, I have a story from the 20th century about how a single, handwritten letter changed the course of a life. Subscribe (or write a review) in iTunes Music: CGI Snake by Chris Zabriskie Constellation by Podington Bear 2015-04-1306 min

Techtonic1: We All Want Robots but They’re Going to Kill UsJoe and Joshua, along with special guest Robert McGinley Myers, introduce themes for the show and discuss everyday experiences and life-altering events we have with technology.2015-04-0400 min

Anxious MachineInbox Time Machine (S1: E6)Sarah’s parents got divorced when she was little. She and her siblings stayed with their mom, even though Sarah preferred her father’s company. She only saw her father for dinner once a week and stayed with him every other weekend. When she got to talk to him on the phone, her mother often stood nearby and listened. So when email entered their lives, Sarah finally had a mode of communication with their father that felt private. This is the story of how email affected their relationship, what kinds of communication it enabled, and what kinds of c...2015-03-3024 min

Anxious MachineThe Window Seat (S1: E5)Mohamed fell in love with air travel at a young age. He lived in Kuwait, but he would fly with his family back to Egypt at the end of every school year, so air travel was imbued with the pleasure of summer, vacation, family, and fun. Then he grew up and moved to the United States, and suddenly air travel was much more expensive, much more difficult. This is the story of how his relationship to flying changed. Download mp3(Mohamed) Subscribe in iTunes Links: Louis CK on the Conan O’Br...2015-03-1614 min

Anxious MachineI Had No Instinct (S1: E4)Kate Hopper had dreamed of a totally natural birth, with no drugs and no medical interventions. But when her baby was born two months early, Kate had to enter the unnatural world of the neonatal intensive care unit, where incubators, tubes, and monitors kept her daughter at a distance, and where Kate had to struggle to find her own identity as a mother. Anxious Machine on iTunes Links: Kate Hopper’s book about her experience: Ready for Air Kate Hopper’s website: Motherhood and Words Music: Imaginary Frie...2015-03-0220 min

Anxious MachineI Was Deprived (S1: E3)Tanya grew up in a home with only one approved hour of television a week. She had no music in her bedroom, no cellphone, and no computer access, unless her mother was watching over her shoulder. In Krystyna’s house, on the other hand, the TV was always on, and she could watch whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. She now worries, as a single mother, that her children have too much access to screens, since she has very little time or energy to monitor their usage. The two women take turns telling their stories ab...2015-02-1623 min

Anxious MachineNot a Phone Person (S1: E2)Andria Williams met her husband Dave when they were in their first year of high school. They’ve been together now for almost two decades, but they’ve also spent a significant portion of that time living apart, conducting their relationship over a long distance. Over the course of those two decades, the technology of communication has also changed in a number of ways. Andria describes her struggle to adapt to those communication technologies, especially considering that she doesn’t even enjoy talking on the phone. Andria runs the Military Spouse Book Review, and she has a...2015-01-1924 min

Anxious MachineProtect My Family (S1: E1)On this episode, my guest is Stephen Hackett, who publishes the website 512 Pixels and co-hosts the podcast Connected. We talk about what it’s like to put the life of someone you love, someone you would protect with your own life, in the hands of medical experts. Stephen has written a number of pieces on this topic over the years. These are my favorites: Two Years The Fifth Floor Three Six Stephen also runs a fundraiser for St. Jude Research Hospital every year. The hospital not only treat...2015-01-0430 min

SystematicSystematic #95: Robert McGinley Myers - Tech AnxietyRobert McGinley Myers joins Brett to discuss working in public radio, creative writing, blogging, and coping with email and tech anxiety.2014-05-061h 05

Third Coast Audio Library :: AllRe:sound #117: The Hunting ShowThis hour: hunting for moose, buffalo, and love.Year: 2009Producers:Jamie YuengerJohn ConnellRobert McGinley MyersDelaney HallSharon Davis 2010-01-0859 min

Third Coast Audio Library :: AllInvasionOne mother's attempt to fight off an invasion of mice just after her two-year-old son has been diagnosed with leukemia. Year: 2007Producers:Robert McGinley Myers 2009-11-2903 min