New on podcasts: Sharon Bala takes on international aid, Alan Doyle on chill celeb culture in St. John’s

Here’s a quick look at some podcasts that might be worthy of your ears.

I’m really looking forward to reading the new novel from St. John’s writer Sharon Bala. Good Guys evidently takes a swipe at the international aid racket, and involves a fictional Toronto-based organization working in a fictional Latin American nation.

On her podcast Shelf Esteem, Trudy Morgan-Cole sat down with Bala, who noted that some of the roots of the novel come out of her (very different, fortunately) experiences working in communications for non-profits. Those experiences were not the stuff in the novel, but as she says, “It’s difficult to see how the sausage is made and never knowing that again.”

Bala’s debut novel, The Boat People, is remarkable and I highly recommend it.

Here’s the conversation with Sharon Bala.

Alan Doyle on why he’d punch himself if he had an entourage

Singer Alan Doyle was the guest on last week’s edition of the usually more political podcast, The Honourable and the Hack, with Andrew Parsons and Alex Bill. It was a fun conversation, in which Doyle dug into how low-key things are St. John’s; for proof, he mentioned his well-known friendship with Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe, and how things roll at the Duke of Duckworth pub in downtown St. John’s.

There’s no currency in celebrity here, and that’s a good thing, right? When Russell, my friend Russell Crowe or whomever comes here, their celebrity lasts 30 seconds at the Duke. It’s like, Hey, good to have you. All right. Done. Onwards.

Noting he still drives an older minivan around St. John’s, Doyle joked:

You imagine me now rolling up Duckworth Street in my Hummer with my cool watch on, getting my assistant to lead me into the Duke? You know, I’d punch myself in the face.

Here’s their chat.

The patient was a zebra

In January, I read a terrific piece by my friend and former colleague Lindsay Bird about how a medical resident found a solution to a young man’s baffling condition. It turned out that the more obvious diagnostic thoughts, based on the evidence, were wrong, and Ian Gillies, Jr., was just getting sicker and sicker.

Then a medical resident named Steven Rowe started digging and digging into Gillies’s case … and found the solution.

I’m a bit late getting around to Lindsay’s documentary, which went out through the Atlantic Voice podcast and program, and it is so good. The Zebra — the episode name comes from how physicians are trained to think “horse” when they hear hoofbeats, not “zebra” — is worth your time. You can listen below, or find all Atlantic Voice episodes here.