Podcast Review: Mobituaries
Look who’s back after the holiday break! For the new year, I am changing my posting schedule to include reviews of the podcasts, books, documentaries, and more that I absorb in preparation for my travels and essays. This style of post will typically appear on Mondays when I am not posting a blog roundup to LinkedIn. My first review of 2025 is on the episodic podcast Mobitituaries hosted by Mo Rocca.
Rocca is a humorous correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning who got his start in television as a writer on the PBS children’s show Wishbone, which received its own episode. During each episode, he speaks with experts to uncover the story of a forgotten person, thing, or idea mostly in modern American history, although a few episodes cover Europe and East Asia, and one episode focused on prehistory. Topics might be serious, such as overturning bans on interracial marriage in the United States, but they are equally likely to be frivolous, like the cancellation of the Lawrence Welk Show. During breaks in recording, the podcast either reruns episodes with the tagline “Reviving a Mobit” or includes excerpts from Rocca’s latest audiobook.
While I am an American history expert, my focus has been on earlier eras, while Rocca prefers more recent history. I loved his episode on Benedict Arnold, which included an interiew with author Nathaniel Philbrick, who I last saw in Uxbridge during a talk promoting his book Travels with George back in March 2023. I also appreciated the episode about Olympic athlete and NFL founder Jim Thorpe, which included an interview with author David Maraniss, whose book Path Lit by Lightning I reviewed in August 2022. These episodes served as great refreshers for me and an entertaining way to learn for those who prefer listening to reading.
Whenever I review a podcast, I try to choose my top three favorite episodes. The decision was especially hard for this podcast, since the content and production quality was so high, but the show outdid itself during its latest season. I loved the excerpt from Rocca’s latest audiobook Roctogenarians, which launched during Season 4. This excerpt focused on literary frontierswoman Laura Ingalls Wilder. While I have read all of the books in the Little House series and read biographies of the author, I did not know as much about her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, and how she contributed both to her mother’s work and American politics.
Discussion about the Transatlantic or mid Atlantic Accent in Season 4, Episode 4: Death of an Accent featured both linguist John McWhorter, who appeared in the MasterClass Black History, Black Freedom, & Black Love which I reviewed in 2023, and dialect coach Jessica Drake. They shared an explanation on why the accent was heard in Hollywood films between the 1920s to 1950s, and how to speak in the accent. The funniest episode was Season 4, Episode 5: Things I Wish Would Die, where Rocca ranted against buffets, standing ovations, and noise pollution. His over-the-top description on food safety issues surrounding self-serve food bars may not be everyone’s sense of humor, but I laughed the entire time.
Three honorable mentions include the very first episode of the first season covering JFK impersonator Vaughn Meader, whose career ended upon the assassination of the young president; Season 4, Episode 1: Died the Same Day, which revealed the assassination took place on the same day theologian and author C.S. Lewis died; and an episode about Neanderthals for its mention of multiple archaic humans, including Homo florencias, colloquially called hobbits after the fictional characters. This only scratches the surface for the variety of excellent episodes appearing on the podcast.
Mobituaries is currently on break after Season 4. The podcast typically posts on Tuesdays every week with regular episodes running between forty and fifty minutes in length. A few special episodes are as short as sixteen minutes and as long as an hour. One live episode was recorded in 2020. No transcript is available on the official website, but the transcript is available on iHeart Radio. While many episodes are family-friendly, some content may not be considered appropriate for all ages. For those who like offbeat humor with their history, I highly recommend this podcast.
Abby Epplett’s Rating System
Experience: 9/10
Accessibility: 7/10