Getting To Know You - The Dinner Party

What, No Desert ?!?
The Dinner Party Podcast is the perfect way to meet new people and pick up some new ideas. It’s short. It’s cleverly arranged. And you do not actually have to go anywhere, awkwardly greet strangers and make mumbling chit chat.

The hard info is that The Dinner Party is produced by American Public Media and is hosted by Rico Gagliano and Brendan Francis Newnam. The appeal is the format. Kudos to whoever came up with it.

The Dinner party begins with an Icebreaker, which consists of a joke, the quality of which ranges from smile inducing to laugh out loud. The joke is selected and delivered by a different guest each podcast.

Then comes Small Talk a segment where the hosts use the resources of their sister show Marketplace to sort of go around the room and have the Marketplace staff throw out topical news items and other crazy happenings which are foremost in their minds and which could be fodder for conversation at a real dinner party.

Moving right along, it time for Cocktails, my favorite segment, combining history and drinking. An historical event, which occurred around the same time, calendar wise, as the podcast is debut is explained for our enjoyment. Notable examples have included the first woman to serve as a U.S Senator, the eruption of Krakatoa and literacy in Korea. After the event is outlined, a call is placed to a guest bartender who comes up with a concoction inspired by the story of the week. For the events I highlighted, the drinks were: The Hattie Bo Battie (Jack Daniels and Rye Whiskey), the Blood and Ashes (Gin and Indonesian Rum) and Song for Sejong (Chili pepper infused Soju).

Next up is the Guest of Honor. The guest of honor is generally a musician, writer or filmmaker (you can check the episode list on the Dinner Party Download website for the gamut. After the interview comes the twist. The guest is asked what question are they sick of and what question do they never get asked. The answers create a focus on the public image of the guest (the typical question) Vis a Vis the unexplored side.

As you can see there are a lot of segments but, trust me, they flow well together and the whole podcast is less than twenty minutes. After the Guest of Honor, it’s the Main Course, wherein the hosts discuss a food topic Main Courses have included Barbeque, Chocolate, music in restaurants even litigation in the food industry (the Veggie Libel Law).

After the Main Course, we are gently ushered out to the sounds of One for the Road, a song, sometimes obscure, to aid with our mental digestion of the gratifying content of this top notch podcast.
Posted by