The Big Ponder
Goethe-Institut
This transatlantic podcast explores abstract concepts and phenomena through personal radio essays. Every other week, one of our producers transforms a broad topic into a captivating story told from a US-German perspective.
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Top 10 The Big Ponder Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best The Big Ponder episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to The Big Ponder for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite The Big Ponder episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
The Farm
The Big Ponder
07/06/22 • 27 min
Ira Karp lives on a farm in northern Vermont, surrounded by music, puppets, and a family of incredible storytellers. Over his brief lifetime, he has become a ‘story keeper’ himself, collecting epic tales from his everyday life that he recounts with relish.
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How Buildings Mean
The Big Ponder
03/11/21 • 28 min
Producer Alex van Oss ponders the external, internal, and eternal meanings of buildings in his Washington, D.C. neighborhood. The result is a personal rumination featuring thoughts from friends and neighbors on their buildings, homes, and communities.
The Diary
The Big Ponder
06/03/21 • 28 min
Working with personal diary entries, Dina Elsayed and Monika Müller-Kroll take listeners on a journey through the seasons to different places in the U.S. and Germany. These entries create a mosaic of our daily lives in all its contradictions and parallels, seriousness and banality.
A Day With John Lennon
The Big Ponder
10/17/18 • 28 min
In 1975, the German journalist Frances Schoenberger interviewed John Lennon in New York, a dream gig for her – but this interview was never published. For The Big Pond, Schoenberger listens to the recordings again for the first time in more than 40 years, recalling what she calls the best day of her career.
Community
The Big Ponder
10/14/21 • 29 min
Community is the story of our lives. It is who we are, who we have been, and who we hope to become. Melissa Gerr visits Jewish congregations in Baltimore, Maryland, and Dresden, Germany, where she speaks with members about the importance of community.
Road Trip
The Big Ponder
09/02/21 • 30 min
Cariad Harmon and her partner John Kesling embark on a long-awaited cross-country road trip. Cariad interviews locals and fellow travelers of all kinds at national parks, truck stops, and diners while sharing intimate details of life on the road — the good and the bad.
German Bread - A Nourishing Craft
The Big Ponder
03/13/19 • 19 min
Germany is internationally renowned for its bread. With its diversity of more than 3,000 varieties the Germans are world champions of bread. Since 2014, German bread culture is even an immaterial world cultural heritage, recognized by UNESCO. But the traditional baker's craft is threatened because there is a lack of new blood and competition from large-scale bakeries and cheap prebake stations.
The Diner
The Big Ponder
04/22/21 • 30 min
What happens when you uproot an American institution like the diner and place it somewhere entirely new — like Germany? Florenz Gilly and Leon Ginzel journey into the world of diners, visiting hometown restaurants in the U.S. and Germany to find out.
The Right to Housing
The Big Ponder
10/23/19 • 13 min
Berlin and Los Angeles share a common problem: homelessness. Producer Caroline Porter reports on topic, which is the focus of the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles and the Thomas Mann House in LA. This episode is a contribution of the Thomas Mann House to The Big Pond.
Record Booth
The Big Ponder
07/15/21 • 28 min
By the 1920s, people had begun using coin-operated record booths to create audio souvenirs — immortalizing their thoughts and feelings on a disc. Cariad Harmon travels to one of the last remaining record booths in Louisville, Kentucky, where she captures her own voice and revisits some touching messages from the past.
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FAQ
How many episodes does The Big Ponder have?
The Big Ponder currently has 96 episodes available.
What topics does The Big Ponder cover?
The podcast is about Society & Culture and Podcasts.
What is the most popular episode on The Big Ponder?
The episode title 'The Farm' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on The Big Ponder?
The average episode length on The Big Ponder is 24 minutes.
How often are episodes of The Big Ponder released?
Episodes of The Big Ponder are typically released every 8 days.
When was the first episode of The Big Ponder?
The first episode of The Big Ponder was released on Oct 3, 2018.
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