First, some professional news: I'm now the Series Editor of Tiny Desk. So, yes, that includes editing copy for Tiny Desk videos but also lending editorial guidance to the many limbs that spring off the Tiny Desk tree. Lately, that means editing scripts and shaping segments for Tiny Desk Radio, which just launched exclusively across public radio stations a couple weeks ago. For 19 years, I've mostly stuck to web production at NPR Music, but rarely worked on the radio side of National Public Radio. So this is new-but-still-familiar territory! I'm excited about it and hope y'all give Tiny Desk Radio a listen. 

Been All Around the World is a podcast hosted by guitarist and archivist Nathan Salsburg that was first released in 2018, but I stumbled across it just last week. Each episode digs into the decades-spanning field recordings made by Alan Lomax: fiddle tunes, a cappella, gospel and folk songs, Hill country blues, Irish jigs, sacred harp. I'm only a couple episodes in, but the show's best when Nathan digs deeper into the context around these recordings and what makes them unique to the region where they were recorded. 

I'm in need of big, dumb TV right now; Obliterated is that big, dumb TV. Seems like critics hated this action/comedy about a special forces team who celebrated a win too early and too hard (read: sex, drugs, alcohol) and now they have to find a Russian nuke before it blows up Las Vegas. It's silly and formulaic, but turn-off-your-brain fun. Bonus: Jason Mantzoukas voices a drug-induced gremlin. 

Alien is one of my favorite movies of all time — the atmosphere and script terse and tense companions to H.R. Giger's alien design. Aliens is great, too, for blockbuster reasons. Everything else is either just OK or not worth my time. (I'm one of the few and proud Prometheus apologists.) So when I watched this clip from Alien: Earth that details the gestation process of a xenomorph, I squealed with delight. It's terrifying in just the right ways, capturing the body horror of the original Alien, but elevated through new techniques and sparkling sound design. (Related: I'm also excited about Predator: Badlands, from the same director who made the spectacular Prey.) 

Cheez-It understands that cheese, particularly cheddar cheese, is sweaty — like, the left-out-on-the-counter-a-couple-hours sweaty that gives cheddar just enough grease. My wife recently discovered that Cheez-It now makes a smoked gouda flavor and, y'all, it's over. No box of Cheez-It smoked gouda crackers is safe. —Lars Gotrich, vikingschoice.org