'Cast call: How my lifelong love of news led me to two of my favorite listens

Like it was for all Americans, August 1974 was a stressful time for me: Inflation was at an all-time high. We were deep in a global recession and weary from the constant threat of living in a Cold War. And I was trying to decide whether the Cinderella dress my grandma had made me for a Halloween costume would make the right impression for my first day of kindergarten.

But above all, there was Watergate and the resulting resignation of President Richard Nixon - perhaps the only event more significant to me that year than starting school.

I was a news junkie since the day I was born. Literally. My mom quickly learned that, when I'd get fussy as a baby, putting me in front of "Today" or any other news show, I'd calm down immediately. I was an early reader and always more interested in newspapers than books. So when the president resigned, I was following the story more closely than most, or realistically any, 5-year-old. Mainly because I was anxious that the president had "quit his job" and "Soviets" might be invading us. I didn't know what a "Soviet" was, but my neighbor was pretty mad about them, so I naturally assumed I should be as worried about them too, especially if the U.S. didn't have a president. Ah, a 5-year-old's interpretation of current events.

So I bet you're wondering: Mel. What does this have to do with podcasts? A lot. It led me to two of my favorite listens, "iGen Politics" and "#SistersInLaw," because of the fierce, fearless woman they have in common: Jill Wine-Banks - a North Shore resident, pin enthusiast and, of course, one of three assistant Watergate special prosecutors and the only woman on the team. She played a significant role in the already historic trial, cross-examining Rose Mary Woods, the president's secretary, about the 18.5 minute gap in a key White House tape.

I'll talk about "#Sisters-in-Law" more in depth in a future column; this week, I want to focus more on "iGen Politics," which she co-hosts with 2020 Stevenson High School grad Victor Shi of Buffalo Grove. Victor currently attends UCLA and is active in politics and was now-President Joe Biden's youngest delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 2020.

Every week, Victor and Jill talk about current events from generational standpoint - she is a baby boomer, he is Gen Z - with a variety of guests, from former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara to noted author and historian (and south suburban Flossmoor native!) Michael Beschloss, to the ACLU's Lee Gelernt, California Congresswoman Barbara Lee, and former RNC Chairman Michael Steele.

Of course, many of their guests are talking heads elsewhere or even have their own podcasts, as Preet Bharara does. What makes this show such a worthwhile listen is the generational view. It's not "GET OFF MY YARD, YOU KIDS/OK, BOOMER" as you could expect from the title. Rather, it's an informed - and fascinating - discussion by people active in politics viewed through the lens of their own histories.

• Melynda Shamie is a multiplatform editor at the Daily Herald. You can email her at mshamie@dailyherald.com.