Winter break has finally arrived, and I’m catching up on crafternoons and favorite podcasts before heading off to Mexico for a week. One in particular that I’ve discovered recently and that has really sucked me in is Off Peak, a podcast about the transit system in LA.

Yeah, there’s even a part of me that says wow, how is that an entire podcast topic? But that’s kind of the point in a way, because there are these hidden worlds we would otherwise know nothing about, and although they’re all centered around LA, I’m nonetheless fascinated over here on the east coast. The most recent episode was “The First Woman Everything”, about a woman who achieved many firsts in the public transit realm. To be honest, it’s taken me a few weeks to get around to listening to it. But it blew my mind, and I highly recommend it (and the other episodes as well; another favorite is episode 2, “Roads Were Not Built for Cars”). Even though I read about alternative transportation all the time, I find myself constantly drawn in time and again by how transit is so deeply entwined with civil rights and social issues in our culture and history. Gives me lots of deep thoughts to ponder on my longer rides.

Of course if we’re talking podcast recommendations, I have to also plug the Joyride Podcast again in case you missed my previous post about getting to talk to Cat about bike commuting, and the Spokesmen podcast actually tipped me off to Off Peak in the first place. If you’re hibernating a bit this winter or otherwise looking for new podcast material, I’m also digging Undone, Radiolab and Revisionist History.