How we’re spending our leisure time.
Everyone has a bit of quiet downtime once in a while. Whether you’re sitting quietly at home or trying to relax on a plane or just giving your busy mind and hands a break, it’s important to relax.
A good way to do that is to read a book, listen to some music or watch a movie or show. See what’s caught our attention recently!
Ara Wagoner
Oooh boy, let’s get started. What have I been watching? The VICE News piece on Charlottesville, the truth to power being spoken by late-night comedy, been getting my anime on with some Log Horizon, Knights and Magic, and Restaurant to Another World, and I’ve been scratching my nostalgia itch with Sword in the Stone, Robin Hood, and the free first episode of the DuckTales reboot.
I haven’t had much time to read outside news and research lately, but I have been listening to a lot of music. I could list all the albums and artists out, but I’ve done enough of that, so here’s one giant Google Play Music playlist I’ve been rocking out to. Hit shuffle and jam out with me! And to anyone who says it’s too early for Christmas music, I’m gonna listen to it now, because who knows what’s gonna happen between now and December and I’ll listen to anything that keeps my spirits up right now!
Oh, and I’ve been listening to the No Midnight Podcast because they are freaking hilarious.
Tom Westrick
I just moved into a new apartment, and one thing I really wanted to do was set up a projector and screen instead of using a TV. My upstairs neighbor was kind enough to help me mount the screen itself, and the projector, (an Optoma GT1080 Darbee) itself was set up Monday. As a closer look at the photo will show, I’m still working on getting a 100% perfect placement of the projector, but even now it’s an awesome way to watch content.
Speaking of that content, I’ve been on a few different kicks. My go to relaxation show for this week has been the 1966 Batman series. Once I’m through that, I plan to re-watch the second season of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend before its third season premiere. I’ve also been reading through Ms. Marvel Vol 1, which will be followed by Halo: Tales from Slipspace. For music, I’ll listen to anything and everything. Just today, I listened to Styx: Greatest Hits and Carter Family: Country Legends.
Harish Jonnalagadda
I didn’t have any free time over the last three weeks as I moved houses and was busy setting everything up, but I’m looking forward to watching the tenth season of Doctor Who this Saturday. I generally prefer waiting until a particular season is finished, and then just binge-watch it over a weekend.
I’m also behind on my reading quota (I try to read a hundred books every year), so I’m cheating by going through a lot of thrillers. I finished Dark Matter by Blake Crouch — a techno-thriller that leverages the idea of a multiverse to great effect — last month and loved it so much that I started reading else he’s written. I had a lot of fun reading the Wayward Pines trilogy, and am now mid-way through Abandon. After that, I’m going to get started with Alan Moore’s sprawling time-traveling epic, Jerusalem. Oh, and I’m listening to Metallica’s Ride The Lightning all week.
Andrew Martonik
Now that the English Premier League is back in swing, I’m back on two different podcasts: Men In Blazers and ESPN FC. The former is a roughly weekly show with hilarious hosts, covering soccer around the world (yes, including the U.S.!) but primarily focusing on the EPL during the season. The latter is a daily segment that’s just an audio rip of the ESPN FC TV show, recapping news and events. Between the long Men In Blazers episodes and short daily ESPN shows there’s always something soccer-related in Pocket Casts for me.
Considering the amount of traveling I’ve been doing lately I haven’t had much long-form stuff to read or watch, but I have been jumping into watching a whole lot of episodes of Ignition and Head 2 Head from Motor Trend on YouTube. If you’re casually into cars, but not a super nerd about them, you’ll enjoy the great production value and insight on a bunch of cars you’ll never be able to afford. It’s interesting how some YouTube channels can really feel more like TV stations with proper full episodes rather than just one-off clips and short videos.
Jen Karner
I’m absolutely terrible at being up to date on my music or books, but when I dive in, I really dive in. I watch Vice News Tonight every week, but right now I’m also bingeing my way through Supernatural, and The Walking Dead to prep for the new seasons.
When it comes to reading, I just finished Ruth Ware’s “In a Dark, Dark Wood” which is a supremely creepy thriller, along with Final Girls by Riley Sagan. I’m about to dive into Stephen King’s memoir/writing manual, “On Writing” and after that, I’ve got “The Winter People” by Jennifer McMahon to dive into.
Marc Lagace
I recently binge-watched the first season of Ozark on Netflix and OOO BOY, is it ever good. I’ve been waiting years for a show that hits the same tone and themes as Breaking Bad and I think I’ve found it. The only issue is that that I watched it all too fast and must now wait until next summer for season two.
In terms of reading recommendations, I have to give the nod to the tongue-in-cheek, self-sabotage book “How to be Miserable: 40 Strategies You Already Use” by Randy J. Paterson Ph.D. It’s an easy read and hits on a lot of common modern behaviors and habits that will lead us towards a life of misery. This CGP Grey video made in collaboration with the author gives you a great idea of the “advice” given in the book. It’s available via Kindle, Audible, or old-school paperback, so choose the version that’s most convenient for you.
Finally, as a “Friend of the Pod”, I’ve been listening to Crooked Media podcasts, most notably Pod Save America and Lovett or Leave It, which has helped this Canadian make some sense of what’s going on in The White House and U.S. Capitol these days.
Russell Holly
Every minute of my free time is being spent in three places right now.
For video, I’m watching Marvel’s Defenders on Netflix. I loved what Marvel did with Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage, and the group series is everything I imagined it would be and more. As for Iron Fist, well let’s just say I’m looking forward the real Danny Rand showing up in Defenders and not the weak imitation we got in that sad first season.
My latest book is Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson. I don’t find myself frequently needing to really know enough about the topic to hold a conversation, but I love the stars and could always stand to learn a little more about them. It’s a great read that doesn’t get too terribly into the weeds, so if you’ve been curious I’d recommend it without hesitation.
I’m not a big podcast person, but Alice Isn’t Dead has been an amazing story voiced by the ridiculously talented Jasika Nicole. It’s a little weird, and then it’s a lot weird, but it’s also an amazingly fun way of imagining the rural parts of America. I’m totally hooked, so my highly biased opinion says you should give it a listen.
Daniel Bader
I seem to be on a dystopia kick. I’ve been voraciously reading Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, which is about a troupe of Shakespeare actors touring around the country twenty years after a devastating flu wiped out much of the earth’s population. It’s gripping and surreal and funny and relatable and oh-so-good, and I can’t wait to finish my work every day so I can get back to reading it.
On a similar vein — a little less fun but no less addictive — is The Handmaid’s Tale, a Hulu show that my wife and I are devouring on Crave TV. It’s a show based on the popular 1985 Margaret Atwood novel of the same name, and it depicts a world upended by climate change and an unspecified mass fertility problem that leads to part of the U.S. being overrun by militant theocrats. While the larger story certainly has elements of real-life foreshadowing to it, it’s the characters, especially the lead Ofred, played by Elisabeth Moss, that makes it so watchable and addictive.
Finally, back in the real world (but no less disturbing), I wake up every morning to NPR’s Up First, which distills the three or four most important daily news stories into a 12-minute show that I can consume in its entirety while I prepare breakfast.
Oh, and when I actually want to laugh (because everything is dark enough these days), I’m watching season four of Brooklyn 99 on Netflix, which I think is one of the most consistently funny shows being made right now.
Jerry Hildenbrand
I’m actually not consuming much good stuff this week. I’m in the middle of “redoing” my office space so I’m fiddling with wires and knocking holes in walls when I’m not working.
I do have a book on the way from Amazon, though. I’ll be reading Diana Walstad’s Ecology of the Planted Aquarium: A Practical Manual and Scientific Treatise because part of the moving/rearranging/remodeling involves breaking down a 6-foot long aquarium. That’s not going to be fun and I only want to do it once so I want to make sure I do it right.
Once everything is moved and hooked up, I can go back to listening and reading and watching!
Your turn
What are YOU reading, watching, or listening to this week? Let us know in the comments!