Here's a question you probably don't get asked very often: How would you describe your social class?

Working class…middle class…upper class — or maybe something else?

If thinking about this question makes you feel kind of uncomfortable, well, that's pretty normal. Especially if you're in a different class now than the one you grew up in.

Jonathan Menjivar grew up working class, but now that he's an adult, that label doesn't really apply anymore. He likes eating oysters and wearing cashmere. He owns a house. And he feels kind of guilty about it.

Jonathan took his mixed feelings and turned them into a podcast about all the ways class shows up in our daily lives. It's called Classy.

Then, the story of the composer Raymond Scott. Raymond journeyed on a lifelong quest to build an automatic songwriting machine. The podcast The Last Archive explores where the songwriting machine fits in our present AI-addled, ChatGPT world.

All that and more, this week on Podcast Playlist.

Featuring:

Classy with Jonathan Menjivar - "Jonathan has some hangups about class. In the first episode of this series, he takes us from a nightclub outside LA to the halls of a fancy Manhattan prep school, and asks sociologist Rachel Sherman 'are rich people bad?'"

The Banned Teacher - "He says it was consensual sex. She says it was rape. He was her music teacher. She was a teen. And it wasn't just once, with one girl. He had sex with students in closets, classrooms, and cars. The Banned Teacher begins with one victim's search for justice but turns into a full investigation by host Julie Ireton."

The Last Archive - "The story of the composer Raymond Scott's lifelong quest to build an automatic songwriting machine, and what it means for our own AI-addled, ChatGPT world."

The Headwaters - "Before our insatiable addiction to the almighty car, getting around B.C.'s Columbia River Basin was a much different affair. We were transported on trains and paddle-wheelers, a mode of travel that was often an adventure in itself."

Without - "People love coffee, but climate change is fundamentally altering where and how coffee is grown. Because of the damage being done to the planet, coffee is in trouble. And so are the farmers who grow it."