Listening: "#FSCK 'Em All" and "Make No Law"
I haven't been motivated to write any fiction since I finished the draft of Frost. I wrote a few new scenes while editing it, but I finished the last of those last Friday.
I'm not really working on anything now. I've poked at The Princess, Her Dragon, and Their Prince, but only wrote a couple hundred new words.
I've been reading more, and listening.
I finally started listening to some podcasts when I'm biking outside. I've been meaning to try "listen to podcasts while biking" for several years, but getting podcasts loaded to my iPod was always awkward. And my old phone was too old to load new apps or stream audio. But Shiny New Phone has no such limitations.
I don't need recommendations for podcasts because I have ones that I've been meaning to try for years and years, so ... lots of backlog when I get to them. Recommendations for Android podcast apps would be appreciated, though.
The first podcast I tried was T. Greg Doucette's "#FSCK 'Em All". I've been following Doucette on Twitter for a while; he's a criminal defense attorney in North Carolina, and politically he's pretty much a conservative Black Lives Matter activist. This is not a combination I see often and I find his perspective interesting. #FSCK 'Em All is a weekly podcast, usually around ninety minutes. It's mostly about the failures in the criminal justice system over the previous week. This covers a spectrum of problems, from wrongdoing by cops, judges, DAs, etc., to citizens calling the police for bad reasons, to the occasional story where the cops or other legal officials handle a bad situation well. ("Look, the cops were called on a suicidal guy with a weapon and they DIDN'T kill him!") That last is depressingly rare.
In addition to the news round-up, there's often a "Law 140" section, which covers some aspect of civil rights or criminal law. There are also "What the FSCK" segments, where Doucette addresses audience questions.
I've listened to the last fifteen or so of sixty-five episodes. Doucette is enjoyable to listen to: he has a good voice and a casual, conversational manner. I do note that he swears often, but the material is also swear-worthy, so, there's that. The criminal justice news is both depressing and monotonous, because it's so often the same story with new names and other minor variations. "No, no, this is a new story about a white cop shooting a black guy, you can tell because this time the black guy was holding a cellphone and the other time it was a shower head." But it's enlightening on just how pervasive injustice and racism are in the justice system. There may be only a few of these that attract national attention in a given year, but there are so many that don't. Every week.
The production values are fine on most episodes, and minimalist: it's pretty much just Doucette talking, no bells or whistles. He does occasional interviews, and these sometimes have audibility issues. Only one that I had to give up on, though, and I suspect it would've been fine if I wasn't trying to listen to it with all the background noise of bike riding. This aside, the podcast does well the things it is trying to do. I will happily listen to new episodes as they drop. I'm probably not going to dive further back in the archives unless I run out of other podcasts I want to listen to while biking, though.
~
"Make No Law" is the second podcast I checked out. This is a monthly podcast on first amendment law. It's hosted by criminal defense attorney Ken White of popehat.com; I found out about it because I follow Popehat on Twitter. There are six episodes so far, I have listened to them all, and they are magnificent. These are done in conjunction with Legal Talk Network, and the production values are great, including voice actors to read excerpts from trial transcripts and Supreme Court arguments. They're like short history lessons on different important First Amendment cases. The June episode is "Fire in a Crowded Theater" and I can't wait. The episodes weave together White's narration with pieces of interviews and transcripts, so that you get these wonderful informative stories. I had expected to love the content -- I am fascinated by First Amendment law -- but I was surprised at how much I love the particular format of this show. The interviews are often with actual participants from Supreme Court cases, so that's pretty cool.
Amusingly, where Doucette is careful to avoid swear words on his Twitter feed but has no compunctions on his podcast, White is the opposite. "Make No Law" contains no objectionable language, while White is perfectly happy to use obscenities on his feed and website.
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