Culture

Stephen King's Batman Story and 4 More Podcasts You Must Hear

Political satire, stalkers, and the Voodoo Queen of Manchac Swamp.
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Short Cuts

Plug in your earbuds and take a seat, because Dr. Clock is here to help you pass the time on that morning commute. For this week's roundup of the best podcasts, we've got tales of a prince buried alive in New Orleans, a stalker from a Harry Potter fan site, and a Stephen King story involving Batman and a trip to Applebee's gone wrong—plus, Malcolm Gladwell on whether political satire actually works.

  • Melissa Anelli has a stalker who has been targeting Anelli and her family for the past eight years—ever since finding her on the Harry Potter fan site she runs in 2008. Since then, she’s regularly made graphic death threats to Anelli and her family through postcards, letters, and phone calls. It’s a harrowing story of fandom, and how one person can turn a safe space into a place of fear. [Listen here.](http://thisiscriminal.com/episode-48-eight-years-8-12-2016/)
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    Lore

    Lore, "Everything Floats"

    This week, *Lore*, a podcast exploring the history behind folklore, ventures into a city that’s home to plenty of tall tales and urban myths: New Orleans. Learn about NOLA’s original Voodoo Queen from Manchac Swamp, a mansion flooded with blood, and a prince buried alive. [Listen here.](http://www.lorepodcast.com/episodes/40)
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    Panoply Media

    Revisionist History, "The Satire Paradox"

    In an era of Stephen Colbert, *Saturday Night Live* impressions, and one presidential candidate who often seems to be parodying himself, Malcolm Gladwell asks: Does political satire work? In 1988, British comic Harry Enfield created the crass, self-satisfied character Loadsamoney to mock Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher—but Enfield doesn’t think it made any difference. In the season finale of *Revisionist History*, Gladwell talks about what political satire can accomplish, covering archival audio of Tina Fey talking about her Sarah Palin impression and a pointed Israeli sketch show. [Listen here.](http://revisionisthistory.com/)
  • If you’re a fan of Stephen King, or a fan of NPR’s *Selected Shorts*, take a listen to the fiction podcast’s new spinoff, *Too Hot For Radio*, which includes all the NSFW themes banned from the airwaves. In the first episode, Stephen Lang reads a Stephen King story about Batman, Alzheimer’s, and a post-Applebee’s altercation. Plus, an interview with Stu Tinker, a resident of Bangor, Maine who leads tours of the spots that inspired King.
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    Short Cuts

    Short Cuts, "The Clock"

    Comedian Josie Long stays awake through a full 24 hours to bring listeners beautifully produced stories of the shifting texture of time: the moment when a bomb explosion disrupted an ordinary day in Oklahoma City in 1995; Dr. Clock, a horologist who spends his workday passing the hours; how time can lengthen and shorten at the end of one’s life. [Listen here.](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06j1xzb)

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Charley Locke writes about growing up and growing old for publications including The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, and WIRED. ... Read More
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