Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish that asks bloggers to create Top Ten lists on a variety of bookish topics. This week’s topic is All About Audio Freebie. I snagged the Authors Who Should Host A Podcast spin on this topic from a Book Riot podcast (thank you!). When creating this list, I thought about authors who are interesting on Twitter and/or have a gift for spot-on social commentary. And, authors of nonfiction lend themselves quite well to the podcast format!
Two giants missing from this list are Cheryl Strayed (author of Tiny Beautiful Things and Wild) and Susan Cain (author of Quiet). In putting this list together, I discovered both of them already have their own podcasts! Strayed hosts Dear Sugar Radio with Steve Almond and Susan Cain hosts Quiet Podcast based on her bestselling book of the same name.
Rick Bragg (My Southern Journey)
Podcast Topic: hilarious and insightful commentary on Southern culture.
Roxanne Gay (Bad Feminist, An Untamed State)
Podcast Topic: Ranty commentary on pop culture, race, feminism, reading and writing, and the competitive Scrabble circuit.
Herman Koch (The Dinner, Dear Mr. M, etc)
Podcast Topic: Social commentary that gets to the “nasty little heart of things” (thanks to Catherine of Gilmore Guide to Books for that perfect summation).
Jon Krakauer (Missoula, Under the Banner of Heaven, etc)
Podcast Topic: Investigative pieces covering just about anything.
Michael Lewis (The Big Short, etc)
Podcast Topic: Ditto Krakauer…and commentary on finance that’s actually interesting.
Mary Roach (Stiff, Grunt, etc)
Podcast Topic: Her signature oddball take on weird science-y stuff.
David Sedaris (Me Talk Pretty One Day, etc)
Podcast Topic: A weekly recap of his daily life…told in his signature hilarious style.
Adelle Waldman (The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.)
Podcast Topic: Commentary on yuppie dating.
Jennifer Weiner (In Her Shoes, etc)
Podcast Topic: Bachelor franchise analysis.
Andy Weir (The Martian)
Podcast Topic: Scientific concepts for non-scientists.
Fantastic list, I’d listen to most of these. Great concepts.
Thank you 🙂 I now want to subscribe to Strayed and Cain!
All of these podcasts would be wonderful! Especially a Jon Krakauer one, I follow him on Instagram and love that he has all of these beautifully stunning landscape shots then a curve ball picture from when he was investigating a cult leader and just all sorts of crazy. Really I could just listen to his stories all day because no matter how exciting or boring I think they’d all be told with that same nonchalance that’s so awesome
Oooh – I’m now off to follow him on Twitter…why was I not doing that already?!
Such great ideas! Especially, Andy Weir- that would be awesome. Kind of like Alton Brown is to cooking. And I know how happy a Bachelor breakdown podcast would make you.
Thanks for the shout out on my Koch take! He could be the Dominick Dunne of the Netherlands!
YES – such a good comparison to Alton Brown (who I love)!
And I already listen to one Bachelor breakdown podcast (obviously..don’t judge!)…could always use a few more!
I agree with absolutely all of these. I also did not know Cheryl Strayed had her own podcast; will definitely be checking that out. Awesome concept for TTT!
I didn’t know either until I made this list and thank you, but I sadly can’t take credit 🙂 Got the idea from Book Riot podcast.
I love this.
Thank you 🙂
I would absolutely listen to a podcast from David Sedaris. I listened to one of his books earlier this year and nearly peed my pants laughing on the train; he’s such an excellent narrator.
Yep, yep! Listened while training for a half marathon and was often laughing while running (interesting combo)!
I have yet to get into podcasts, even though I was interviewed for one! I may need to start listening. I wonder if many authors are as clever with the spoken word as they are on the page?
Definitely agree that Jon Krakauer and Roxane Gay should have their own podcasts! Those will be so much fun to listen to. And I didn’t know that Strayed and Cain had their own podcasts – I have to subscribe! Great list and great idea!
Oh I bet Roxane Gay would host a wonderful podcast! I bet she’d have an amazing array of guests on as well.
Oh, I love this idea! I want Celeste Ng to host a podcast and just write about the funny things that her four-year-old has done recently. 😉
Oh yes – she’s another great one! She does post funny stuff about her kid on Twitter!