Three Great Podcasts for Long Road Trips! | McLarty Daniel Ford

The world has gone podcast crazy, and that’s a great thing if your job or an upcoming vacation requires you to be behind the wheel for long stretches. Though listening to music is fine, nothing engages your brain (safely) and helps make the miles a little shorter than listening to a great podcast. Light years beyond the stale, “two guys in a basement with a microphone” format that was the hallmark of early examples of the form, the best modern podcasts are exhaustively researched, and feature the behind-the-scenes stories of hidden history or intrigue, with great sound design and professional-grade narration that really brings the story to life.

Here at McLarty Daniel Ford, we’re all about making the miles more enjoyable, so read on for three of our favorite podcasts to make your next long haul less of a haul. And if you’re in the market for a great new or used vehicle to serve as your new roadtrip rocket, stop in and see us today at McLarty Daniel Ford!

You Must Remember This
For over a hundred years now, America has been infatuated with the bright lights of Hollywood. As with any place that attracts naive people with stars in their eyes, however, there’s a dark side to the place dreams are made. If you enjoy the movies, television or Hollywood lore in general, you’re bound to love “You Must Remember This.” Written and narrated by creator Karina Longworth, the podcast, which launched in April 2014, delves into all facets of Hollywood, from the scandalous to the macabre to the comical. If you don’t mind listening to details of true depravity, the multi-part series on the cult leader Charles Manson — who hung out in Hollywood with The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson prior to trying to start a revolution through insanity and shocking violence – is stellar, but there’s plenty of other stories to check out, including the rise and fall of playboy and inventor Howard Hughes, the rivalry between classic horror icons Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, the life and tragic death of Marilyn Monroe, the Hollywood films of pop music icon Madonna, the 1970’s resurgence of Marlon Brando, and lots, lots more. Check it out and stream the whole, addictive series for free at: www.youmustrememberthispodcast.com

Cocaine And Rhinestones
If there’s a place in America OTHER than Hollywood with a reputation for chewing up and spitting out the dreams of both the famous and the unknown alike, it’s Nashville, Tennessee. Every year, the Music City draws in thousands of young hopefuls, all clamoring for their shot at country music stardom. Mix in a heaping dose of ego, fame and failure, and you wind up with some of the greatest music — and some of the most scandalous stories — of all time. That’s the bountiful seam of drama mined every week by the podcast “Cocaine and Rhinestones,” which is dedicated to taking deep dives into the stories behind some of the brightest names and biggest songs in country music. Created, written and hosted by Tyler Mahan Coe (the son of country music legend David Allan Coe), the show features detailed, multi-part episodes on songs and artists, all exhaustively researched, produced and delivered. His two-hour episode on the rise and implosion of mother/daughter singing duo The Judds, for example, is great, as are the episodes on the cultural and social impact of songs like Jeannie C. Riley’s “Harper Valley PTA,” Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode to Billy Joe,” and Merle Haggard’s “Okie From Muskogee.” For old-school charm, his two-parter on the early “blood harmony” duo The Louvin Brothers is also a winner, even though, like a lot of stories on the podcast, it has a tragic ending. Definitely one to sample, and completely free to stream at: www.cocaineandrhinestones.com.

Slow Burn: A Podcast About Watergate:
It’s been over 40 years since the slow-motion trainwreck of Watergate brought down the presidency of Richard M. Nixon. Nixon was the first and only U.S. president to resign the office under threat of impeachment, but even folks who lived through those days may not quite remember how we got from Nixon being re-elected in a landslide in November 1972 to his eventual resignation on August 8, 1974, less than two years and a political rollercoaster later. The story of those days, it turns out, is a heck of a lot wilder than most people, even those involved, ever knew. In this seven-part historical podcast from slate.com, reporter and narrator Leon Neyfakh takes a microscope to the Watergate affair, shining a spotlight on how a botched break-in at the Watergate Hotel set off a chain of events that snowballed bigger and bigger until the pressure on Richard Nixon was too much for his administration to survive. In the process, Neyfakh reveals a story full of absurd, comical and downright shocking details that have mostly been forgotten in the past four decades, but it’s also a story of dogged determination, uncompromising patriotism, the rule of law, checks and balances, the limits of the presidency and why America is such a great place to live. Stream it online for free at: www.slate.com/articles/slate_plus/watergate.html

Well, that should give you something to do the next time the road gets long and you’re tired of listening to Top 40 radio. And speaking of the road, if you’re in the market for a new or used vehicle, come see us at McLarty Daniel Ford in Bentonville. With literally hundreds of great new and pre-owned vehicles in stock, we’re sure to have the vehicle that fits into both your life and your budget. Come see us soon!

McLarty Daniel Ford is a new and used car dealership that is proud to serve the communities of Northwest Arkansas, including Fayetteville, Bentonville, Rogers, Springdale, Lowell, Pea Ridge, Siloam Springs, Tontitown, Bella Vista, Eureka Springs, Fort Smith and all points in between.

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