This week on Podcast Playlist...

Dylan Marron is an internet sensation. He's racked up millions of views and social media followers from his progressive-leaning viral videos. Unfortunately, with internet fame also comes internet hate.

Over the years, Dylan has received many negative comments online. But instead of shying away, he decided to reach out to these people to chat. After recording phone conversations with his own detractors, one thing led to another and Conversations with People Who Hate Me was born.

On his podcast, Dylan will either speak directly with people who have sent him hate mail, or he'll mediate conversations between others who have clashed in the comment section. The ultimate goal is to get to know the other person behind the screen.

After a two year hiatus, Conversations with People Who Hate Me is back with a new season. Dylan has also released a new book by the same title, with takeaways on how to have your own difficult conversations.

This week, Dylan joins us to share what he’s learned throughout this social experiment. Plus, we’ll listen to some of his favourite podcasts.

Featuring:

Conversations With People Who Hate Me: "A young trans man and his mother speak about her struggle to accept his gender identity."

Song Exploder: "Carly Rae Jepsen released her third album, Emotion, in 2015. The closing track on the record is When I Needed You. In this episode, Carly tells the story of how the song was made. You'll hear the first demo for the song, a version she co-wrote with her longtime collaborator Tavish Crowe. And you'll hear how that led to the album version."

Dead Eyes: "Actor/comedian Connor Ratliff embarks upon a quest to solve a very stupid mystery that has haunted him for two decades: why Tom Hanks fired him from a small role in the 2001 HBO mini-series, Band Of Brothers. In this episode, Connor talks to Lead Writer and Supervising Producer Erik Jendresen, and learns the truth about Episode 5 "Crossroads" and Private John S. Zielinski."

Love Thy Neighbour: "It's August 2020 in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights. Collier Meyerson is at a retirement party for an NYPD officer. Listening to speeches, chatting with guests, watching politicians hobnob with religious leaders, everything seems…all good. But as Meyerson steps back onto the streets of the neighborhood, just weeks after thousands mobilized to protest that Black lives matter, she's reminded of what happened here almost thirty years before. And she can't help but wonder how we got here."

Terrible, Thanks for Asking: "Our language surrounding mental illness has evolved a lot over the past couple of decades … to a point. There are still some mental illnesses that exist outside of the bounds of most people's understanding and compassion, that are not so easily accepted and are really scary to people who don't have them. Illnesses that make the person seem "crazy," where people might not want to associate themselves with you. Today's guest -- Brettina -- has one of those."

Podcast exclusive – Dylan shares what he loves about Unread: One evening in December of 2019, Chris Stedman opened an email no one ever wants to receive. It contained a suicide note from his good friend Alex. At the bottom of his message, Alex included a link to a private SoundCloud account and wrote "here's Alice recordings." Alex has mentioned Alice before. They met online in a Britney Spears fan forum and have been friends for years. Interestingly, Alice is famous herself among the Britney fan circle because she happens to sound like Britney herself. In Unread, Chris tries to uncover who Alice really is, and get in touch in the hopes that she can answer some of the questions that Alex couldn't.

For more recommendations head to: www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastplaylist

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