Really really long audio recs needed with no sexual violence content

November 10, 2019 11:47 AM

I’m working on a several month project that involves listening repeatedly to conversations about sexual trauma for long hours. I use audiobooks to unwind while I do chores and craft and I have run out of non-sexual violence content. I’ve tried only YA audiobooks but so much coercion! Loved The Magnus Archives but maybe less nihilistic. I hate true crime. I need at least 20 to 100 hours of content In one books or podcast, something I can sink into.
posted by dorothyisunderwood to Media & Arts (17 answers total)

Jane Austen or George Eliot?
posted by Don Pepino at 11:57 AM on November 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

We're currently working our way through an unabridged Bleak House audiobook, and Dickens is both touching and hilarious. It's over 30 hours.
posted by scruss at 12:07 PM on November 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

If you are inclined towards Science Fiction/Fantasy then you might find the Sexual Violence in SFF database useful. Here is the google spreadsheet. The database is crowdsourced from the /r/Fantasy community on Reddit, which is a surprisingly wholesome community for such a large subreddit.

The database is far from complete, but you can filter the list to only show works with "none" and it even includes things like questionable consent and non-physical harassment. This way you'll know if the work contains anything even adjacent and let you decide whether to invest your time.

Pretty much everything on the list is available on Audible so you should be able to listen to most of the things that appeal to you. Most single novels clock in around 10 hours, so I would point you in the direction of series to help fill those 100 hours.
posted by forbiddencabinet at 12:18 PM on November 10, 2019 [2 favorites]

Wolf 359? There's some violence and coercion but all in a space corporate context, basically no sexual content, and wonderful found family (in space, looking for aliens, occasionally trying to kill each other). 61 episodes of 45 minutes each plus a lot of extras, I'd say at least 60 hours.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 12:20 PM on November 10, 2019

How about James Herriot? Lovely stories about a country vet in Britain in the first half of the 20th century. Light without being superficial.
posted by Jaclyn at 1:31 PM on November 10, 2019 [3 favorites]

There’s a wonderfully surreal podcast called Greater Boston that’s about the secret history of the Red Line (train) in Boston. It’s weird—similar to Night Vale, but not nearly as creepy or violent—and there’s no sexualized violence.
posted by pxe2000 at 2:05 PM on November 10, 2019

If you have an Audible or Great Courses subscription, the Great Courses Plus has plenty of good courses that are fascinating and have a focused topic. I really loved the one about the History of Food.

There's plenty of good nonfiction books, but most of the ones I would rec you don't quite hit 20 hrs.
posted by Caravantea at 2:21 PM on November 10, 2019

Would food podcasts do? I listen regularly to the sporkful and gastropod and can't remember (or, really, imagine) anything sexually violent or coercive in either of them. Both have been running for some time so they should have hours of content.
posted by 2 cats in the yard at 2:43 PM on November 10, 2019

If you are watching The Good Place and aren't already listening to the podcast, there's at least fifty hours of really good discussion about the show, but also about philosophy, pop culture, TV/film production, the business of Hollywood, and general delightful banter. It seems kinda silly to listen to an hour long podcast every week about a half hour show, but everyone involved puts so much love into it that it really makes you appreciate the thirty minutes more.

If you're not watching The Good Place, well, it's not something you can listen to while you do chores, but when you're done with chores, you should give the show a shot. I think it's the TV equivalent of what you need. And then listen to the podcast!
posted by yeahlikethat at 5:06 PM on November 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I burned out on a dozen or so re-listens through Austen's books in the last few years. Eliot and Dickens have the same problem in that they both deal deeply with implied offscreen sexual violence.

I loved the History of Food and I have several more Great Courses but they're not as absorbing as fiction for me. I adore the Good Place but not chat-format podcasts. Herriot and Wolf 359 look like good possibilities, plus some more SF series that have been prescreened. And I've bumped Ancillary Justice to the top of my audiobook queue.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 12:08 AM on November 11, 2019 [1 favorite]

Take a look at the Toby Daye series by Seanan McGuire, now in the double-digits. Urban fantasy that hits many of the same notes as YA, but she has a stated policy of no sexual violence, so you don't have to worry about it randomly popping up, directly or indirectly. There are questions of consent and power that come up, but in non-sexualized, mostly magical ways. There are guidebooks that they put at least enough care into to delay release of the most recent one until the same performer could record it as did the prior ones.
posted by DebetEsse at 12:26 AM on November 11, 2019

I'm not entirely sure what you're looking for, but perhaps Haruki Murakami? It's a bit nihilist, but the nihilism is light hearted. (I can't think of sexual violence except in the short stories, but it's been a while.) Kafka on The Shore isn't a bad place to start.
posted by eotvos at 5:48 AM on November 11, 2019

Haruki Murakami

1Q84 has such extreme graphic sexual violence that I had to stop reading it, and I’m not particularly sensitive to such things.
posted by jeoc at 9:42 AM on November 11, 2019 [1 favorite]

If you haven't read any Terry Prachett, that could be a good diversion. Start with The Color of Magic and then go wherever. I particularly like Going Postal and its follow ups.
posted by jeoc at 9:47 AM on November 11, 2019 [2 favorites]

In terms of longform podcasts, there's always Hardcore History, which run about six hours an episode and do extremely deep dives on world history. Avoid the Genghis Khan episodes.
posted by zeusianfog at 1:25 PM on November 11, 2019

I adore the Good Place but not chat-format podcasts.

Eeeeeh, getting a little pedantic here, but does interview = chat-format for you? Sorry to push back (especially if you have already tried it), only I also don't enjoy listening to random people shoot the shit with each other and the Good Place podcast feels different to me. It's more like a moderated panel, and Marc Evan Jackson is a pretty good interviewer.
posted by yeahlikethat at 5:22 PM on November 12, 2019

I've been bingeing the British History Podcast recently, and I love it. It's very slowgoing (I'm on episode 87 and it's only the 6th century). There are a couple of episodes so far that have touched on sexual violence, like the Boadicea one or the one that talked about the concubinage system in Anglo-Saxon society, but there's no emphasis on it and no graphical description either.
posted by snakeling at 7:15 AM on November 13, 2019