I hate being asked for recommendations. For anything. No, I don't have a type of cold and flu medicine I think will work for you. I have no idea what to get your mom for Mother's Day. And you're taking a vacation and want to know what to see? Let me introduce you to this website, which is full of recommendations. 

Strangely enough, however, I very much want to recommend something to all of you. It's a podcast called The Control Group, from the HowStuffWorks network. I listen to a lot of podcasts—everything from educational programs to true crime series—but rarely do I come across a show that I legitimately want to shout from the rooftops about. 

The Control Group is set in the mid-twentieth century and focuses on a doctor at an all female mental ward, who is encouraged to abandon his morals while attempting to pioneer a new method of mental cleansing. The show takes on the form of an old-time radio show, which allows the listener to feel very much a part of the story, as if they were also admitted at New Canaan.

If you're not familiar with old-time radio, allow me to catch you up: the Golden Age of Radio was an era that lasted from the 1920s to about the 1940s; you know, before television came to ruin us all.

From quiz shows and variety programs to comedy series and soap operas—radio had it all. Comedy program The Abbott and Costello Show and the soap opera The Guiding Light were among the most popular radio series (even James Bond was a radio show at one point). 

And with the increasing popularity of podcasts today, it's as if the Golden Age of Radio has made a return, just in a slightly different form. But The Control Group immerses us fully in the radio broadcasts of yesteryear; even the sponsored ad breaks are recited in era-appropriate style, so you're never truly taken out of the experience. 

So if you're a fan of creepy, suspenseful stories or have an interest in the bonkers medical experiments of the last century, give it a listen. And even if you aren't interested in those things, I bet you'll like it anyway.