Boston — December 2, 2020 — Today the Bello Collective, a coalition of writers and journalists celebrating podcasting, named three Hub & Spoke shows—The Constant, Rumble Strip, and Soonish—as part of its list of 100 Outstanding Podcasts from 2020. The 2020 list is the collective’s fifth annual effort to round up Bello members’ favorite episodes of the year.
Bello writers cited the following Hub & Spoke episodes:
The Constant: The Foolkiller, Part 1: Tears Falling from the Sky
“A story about a submarine at the bottom of the Chicago River teaches us about media, the study of history, and why people believe what they believe. Most of all, in typical The Constant fashion, it is a really entertaining story.”
Rumble Strip, Our Show 1
“Of all the audio pieces about life in the pandemic, Rumble Strip’s feel the most accurate to my experience. The tape in this seven-episode series comes from listeners who recorded themselves taking walks, telling stories, getting drunk, singing songs — just sharing dispatches from life in lockdown. For the most part, they’re not doing anything special, and it’s this exquisite composition of mundanities that makes this series so impactful. When days are long and boring, and we’re all alone, creativity is what saves us.”
Soonish, Unpeaceful Transition of Power
“In his most recent season of Soonish, Wade Roush has taken a hard look at the possible fate of democracy in the United States in the wake of the last few tumultuous years. He explores the weaknesses of the system that the founders set up and the ways those weaknesses can be exploited. He also gives us many scenarios for the future of our political system based on the possible outcomes of the U.S. election. Throughout the episodes, I was thinking to myself that if our leaders would do this thought experiment along with him, the entire trajectory of the country might change.”
Among the networks, public radio stations, and production studios whose shows were named on the Bello 100 listings, only Radiotopia scored more listings—four for Radiotopia to three for Hub & Spoke, which tied with WNYC.