June 1: #13 Subscribe/listen to a podcast you aren't familiar with

Phil: My friend Adam Raymonda is a trusted audio/podcast recommendation, so I took his advice and listened to a podcast called “The Habitat,” which I never heard of before. I also didn’t read anything about it before listening. I went in cold. My usual podcast diet is obviously a lot of news stuff and not a lot of anything else, aside from the occasional interview from someone I might have read about or something. This one was unlike any of the usual stuff I usually listen to. Not only was it an interesting story about a group of people volunteering to live in a simulated environment for an entire year to see how future humans on Mars might live, but it was also produced really well and I liked the way they used real sounds to help tell the story, like people jumping into a pool or water, or hearing people's’ footsteps crunching into the ground as they were hiking, etc. The first episode got me through a horrific 45-minute delay on my LIRR train to work tonight, and I’m now in on the story and ready to see it through. Looks like I’ll be taking a break from the Trumpcast podcast this week. Thanks Adam.

Bruce: I put a request out for podcast suggestions today and my friend Amanda suggested I listen to NPR’s Invisibilia Podcast so I listen to three episodes of that all of which I found incredibly fascinating and the production value of this program and the research is excellent and riveting! I learned about “mirror contact synesthesia“, as well as enmeshment which is turning atomic particles for up to 80 miles away into the same particle, learned about a blind men who uses echolocation to see about as well as our peripheral vision and that external expectations powerfully impact our performance and development. In an emotional and poignant episode “The Callout” I heard about accountability and supporting female victims of abuse in the Richmond hardcore music scene. My friend Janine suggested a candid real couples therapy podcast by Esther Perel that had some powerful an personally relevant themes that I found inspiring and emotional. All in all I had about 4 hours of new content to accompany me in all my driving and gym time and found a new favorite podcast and heard some impacting and emotional statements! Thanks Amanda, Janine and Challenging Days!

Tomorrow's challenge: #24 Write and mail a letter