Easy Listening

If you remember where you were when you listened to the last words of the podcast S-Town, if you still don’t see how Adnan Syed could have murdered Hae Min Lee, as he was in the library talking to Asia McClain, The Improvement Association is for you. From the makers of Serial, this is another juggernaut of podcast production, talent and news gathering, and we will be breaking it down today. Teresa Strasser and Gina Grad bring you Easy Listening, a podcast about podcasts. Welcome to the show. 

CARDS on the table: I avoid MOM content. Essay books, cable series, and wacky social media accounts. When it comes to podcasts, I like a getaway - not a faux-edgy look at motherhood that’s supposed to cut close to the bone because it swears. But wait - a friend suggested a mom podcast, and I was all in. I related, it didn’t feel forced and did the thing you want a podcast to do, keep you good company. This is Easy Listening, a podcast about podcasts. Teresa Strasser and Gina Grad welcome you to the show.

A child star who “Blossom’d” into a respected neuroscientist then went BACK into acting to PLAY a neuroscientist on a hit TV show… It doesn’t get more meta than that!  Mayim Bialik has had a lot on her plate…and not just her Passover Seder plate. In her podcast, Mayim Bialik’s Breakdown, she dissects the myths about mental health. We’re going to dip into Bialik’s brain in this episode of Easy Listening, a podcast about podcasts.  Gina Grad and Teresa Strasser welcome you to the show.

Before the phrase “ME TOO” or “CANCEL CULTURE” a guy was obsessed with his 7 year old daughter, then he married, essentially, his step-daughter. And people were like … okay, we don’t love this but Broadway Danny Rose is still a great movie, so … the heart wants what it wants? There’s a new podcast series, Farrow V Allen, and this week, we’re gonna discuss it, our thoughts, some clips -- the USHE -- this is Easy Listening, a podcast about podcasts. Teresa Strasser and Gina Grad welcome you to the show!

Like anyone who wanted to know the score of a Laker’s game while stuck in traffic, I switched over my radio dial to KNX-1070, where I heard the avuncular updates from a sportscaster who always felt like family. But to Gina Grad, he was literally family. Legendary broadcaster Steve Grad passed away last week. Today, we focus on a man that constructed his own mic as kid, spoke into one across decades in radio and TV, and lived long enough to see his daughter on the podcast stage. Welcome to the show. 

Bethenny Frankel believes in saying YES. She’s written books about it. She’s said yes to reality shows. She created SkinnyGirl cocktails and workout videos and recipes, but if any of us could sample even a sip of the confidence that Bethenny breathes into every venture, well, I’m not even sure how that would feel. Where we say … uh, maybe. She says YES, and now she’s said yes to being a podcast host. This is Easy Listening, a podcast about podcasts. Teresa Strasser and GIna Grad welcome you to the show!

Theft. Affairs. A debilitating illness. A whole other family hidden somewhere else. Some secrets are way too big to tell. Others are way too big to keep. No matter what your secret is, take some comfort in knowing we all have them. And sometimes the best thing you can do is set them free. Today’s episode of Easy Listening is all about secrets - how they start and why we keep them. And if you listen closely, you’ll probably hear us share some of our own.  I’m GG and I’m TS. Welcome to the show.

We’ve cried over the injustice of a missing college student, and we’ve laughed at Leah Remini cursing. We’ve lived through being bored in the house, with help in our earbuds from all the podcasts we’ve loved.  We've even added virologists to our list of favorite podcast hosts.  Podcasts, we love you. We have loved you so hard for 100 episodes. We play clips, we kibbitz, and we share our favorites. This is Easy Listening, a podcast about podcasts. Teresa Strasser and Gina Grad. welcome you to the show. 

If we were to make the perfect woman, we might make her a gorgeous actress with the patience of a saint, and enough courage to fend off men who are monsters.  We make her fiercely loyal to those turned into pop culture punchlines.  This nearly perfect woman looks a lot like Salma Hayek.  We only know that because of the honest, funny interview she recently gave to Marc Maron. We get into it on this week’s Easy Listening, a podcast about podcasts. Gina Grad and Teresa Strasser welcome you to the show!

Here we are in the middle of a pandemic, and you might be asking yourself, what do I need in a new podcast? Some crime or comedy or star power? How about an in-depth look at a teenage soccer player whose name you forget if you ever knew it. But that’s precisely what you need, for reasons that I can and can’t explain. It’s a beautifully told American story, from a top notch sports writer who goes deep. This is Easy Listening, a podcast about podcasts, Teresa Strasser and GIna Grad welcome you to the show!