New and notable podcasts to start your 2022 off right
Even pop superstars need a vocal coach. Eric Vetro helps his star students like Ariana Grande, Shawn Mendes and John Legend perfect their pipes. On his podcast Backstage Pass he brings you into their worlds, and even shares exercises anyone can use to warm up their voice. Including, as it turns out, our host Leah-Simone Bowen!
Eric joins Leah this episode to share how he got his start coaching stars and what he thinks star power is made of. And If you think you can't sing, you'll want to hear this—Eric wants you to reconsider that.
Plus, we have a whole slate of new podcasts we think you should hear this month. Slow Burn is back for its sixth season, covering the 1992 L.A. Riots. The podcast Death By Unknown Event revisits the bizarre unsolved case of Vancouver nurse Cindy James. And Race Against Climate Change questions the role should nuclear power should play in the war against climate change.
Podcasts featured this week:
Backstage Pass with Eric Vetro: "Eric Vetro talks with Ariana Grande on this podcast about her vocal range, how Broadway influences her music, touring, and the struggles of perfect pitch, and how it can be both a blessing and a curse. We also get to learn more about Eric and how being a vocal coach is all about listening and thinking on his feet."
Death by Unknown Event: "For seven years, Vancouver nurse Cindy James reported more than 100 separate incidents of harassment, ranging from threatening phone calls to home invasions to ritualistic assaults, including strangulations and stabbings. Canada's Royal Mounted Police spent over a million dollars investigating her claims and found zero evidence of foul play, leading them to suspect she was making it all up. Then, in 1989, Cindy was found dead, bound and naked, half a mile from where her car was parked in a shopping mall. What happened to Cindy James remains one of the most bizarre and perplexing true crime stories in recent memory. Death by Unknown Event illuminates the enigmatic context around James's life, the efforts and failures of law enforcement, and the lingering theories around how she died from those closest to the case."
Race Against Climate Change: "A decarbonized world is going to need a lot of electricity, but where should we get it from? And what role should nuclear power play in Canada? John Gorman, Denise Balkissoon, Ontario Regional Chief Glen Hare and Durham Nuclear Awareness get into the pros and cons of nuclear power. Linda Solomon Wood chats with climate campaigner Catherine Abreu on what it will take to transform the power grid. And solar-power champion Melina Laboucan-Massimo speaks on the strength of Indigenous-led renewables."
Slow Burn: "In 1992, a jury failed to convict the four Los Angeles police officers who'd been captured on videotape beating Rodney King. The city erupted into fire and chaos––the culmination of decades of unchecked police abuse and racial injustice. For the sixth season of Slate's Slow Burn, Joel Anderson returns to explore the people and events behind the biggest civil disturbance in American history––a story that's still playing out today."
What are you listening to this January? Email, tweet us @PodcastPlaylist, or find us on Facebook.
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