Podcast: Auralcheology

Ever wish you had a really knowledgeable music-loving friend with a vast and rare record collection? The two of you could hang out as that friend played songs from the span of recorded music, regaling you with context, background and fun facts. Well, you don’t need social skills to go on this musical journey through the past 100-odd years. You just need to tune in to Mike Michalik’s podcast Auralcheology, available on Spotify. The show specializes in talented artists forgotten by time, like crooner Gene Austin, harmonizing singers The Cats & the Fiddle and bluesman Papa Lightfoot. Auralcheology.com. –C. Moon Reed

TV: The Queen's Gmabit

One mark of a good television show is the way it makes us miss living in the world it created after it’s all over. Seven-part “limited series” The Queen’s Gambit certainly does that, thanks largely to its two main ingredients: lead actress Anya Taylor-Joy, who inhabits her role so fully, it’s tough to imagine any other human doing it justice; and the game of chess, which transforms from a hobby for eggheads into a spellbinding pursuit championed by compelling characters in 1960s America and beyond. Checkmate indeed. Netflix. –Spencer Patterson

Show: Extravaganza

A glamorous return to classic Las Vegas productions complete with a cast of fabulous showgirls, Extravaganza performed its one and only show on the Strip on March 14, days before all entertainment and casinos were shut down on Las Vegas Boulevard to fight the spread of COVID-19. The encore performance is now set for November 23, when Extravaganza returns to the stage at the Jubilee Theater inside Bally’s. It’ll continue with two shows a night, six nights a week, packed with acrobats, dancers, aerialists, skaters, the Globe

of Death motorcycle act and more. 6:30 p.m., extravaganza-vegas.com. –Brock Radke

Podcast: Black Mountain Radio

The Beverly Rogers, Carol C. Harter Black Mountain Institute at UNLV, producers of The Believer magazine and its eponymous yearly literary festival (fingers crossed for 2021), now invites you on the proverbial journey into sound. Black Mountain Radio, a locally focused conversation and storytelling program airing on KUNV and widely available on podcast services, combines interviews, aural histories, poetry and prose into a word portrait that reveals itself in considered, expressive brushstrokes. The pilot episode, featuring Fawn Douglas, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Toni Jensen and others, makes for a compelling listen. Blackmountainradio.org. –Geoff Carter

Book: Coffeehouse Knits

Like sourdough baking, there has been an uptick in knitting interest during the pandemic. Understandably so: Studies have shown that the craft elicits a sense of calm and brings about that magical state of flow. Kerry Bogert’s Coffeehouse Knits features essays on the intersection of knitting and café culture, with sumptuous patterns, from hats and socks to sweaters you can spend days in, that appeal to knitters of all skill levels. Quit the doomscrolling and make this book your constant companion for the cooler, quieter days ahead. Amazon. –Genevie Durano