Which Podcasts Fuel Your Listening Pleasure?

[lasu]

I've started listening to Dr. Death and discovered that while I am somewhat fine listening to details of murders, I'm a bit more squeamish when it comes to bad surgery details!  Otherwise I'm enjoying it and and interested to see where it goes!  I do wish it had less commercials, but thankfully on spotify I can FF.

[Jenniferbug]

I found out after Masked Singer the other night that Ken Jeong and Joel McHale have a podcast called Darkest Timeline. It's not too bad- mostly them talking and picking on each other with the occasional Community question or behind the scenes info. 

But they happened to mention in an episode that Zach Braff and Donald Faison are doing a Scrubs rewatch podcast, and now I'm in total love with that! It's called Fake Doctors, Real Friends. I'm only through the first 2 episodes but it's fun and interesting if you liked Scrubs. 

And then there's The Office rewatch podcast which isn't new, but while I'm on the subject I don't think I've seen it mentioned here. It's called Office Ladies and Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey host (Pam and Angela). 

@lasu, Dateline is uploading episodes as podcasts too now. It's literally the episode without commercials. And I haven't listened to either of these, but I had a friend recommend The Vanished and In The Dark to me as true crime podcasts so those might be worth checking out. I like Crime Junkies, but didn't like My Favorite Murder either. 

[Kel Varnsen]

47 minutes ago, Jenniferbug said:

I found out after Masked Singer the other night that Ken Jeong and Joel McHale have a podcast called Darkest Timeline. It's not too bad- mostly them talking and picking on each other with the occasional Community question or behind the scenes info. 

Wow that is a real thing? Ken Jeong was on an episode of office ladies and Joel McHale popped in for a minute to insult Ken. One of the ladies suggested they start their own podcast but instead of it being about how they are best friends it should be about how they hate and insult each other.

[Jenniferbug]

1 minute ago, Kel Varnsen said:

Wow that is a real thing? Ken Jeong was on an episode of office ladies and Joel McHale popped in for a minute to insult Ken. One of the ladies suggested they start their own podcast but instead of it being about how they are best friends it should be about how they hate and insult each other.

It truly is! And that's literally what it is too 😂 They started it very recently since they're home during pandemic. They also record it via Skype so you could watch it on YouTube instead of strictly listening.

I had forgotten about it being brought up on Office Ladies, until they mentioned it and then the topic of rewatch podcasts lead them to bring up Scrubs, which also started recently. 

[Danny Franks]

On 4/25/2020 at 3:04 AM, Jenniferbug said:

I found out after Masked Singer the other night that Ken Jeong and Joel McHale have a podcast called Darkest Timeline. It's not too bad- mostly them talking and picking on each other with the occasional Community question or behind the scenes info. 

But they happened to mention in an episode that Zach Braff and Donald Faison are doing a Scrubs rewatch podcast, and now I'm in total love with that! It's called Fake Doctors, Real Friends. I'm only through the first 2 episodes but it's fun and interesting if you liked Scrubs. 

I got through about twenty minutes of the McHale and Jeong podcast before I realised they weren't actually talking about anything. I get why that might be enjoyable for some people, but I have too many podcasts on my favourites list to spend time listening to one that doesn't really have a subject of discussion. 

The Scrubs rewatch pod is fun. You can hear the love that Braff and Faison still have for the show. And they already brought out some of the big guns, having Sarah Chalke and Bill Lawrence as their first guests.

[Avabelle]

I love the Scrubs rewatch podcast. It’s seeet how close they all were on the show. My favourite guest so far has been Sarah Chalke just because she seems so down to earth and sweet.

I wish more old shows would do something like this though as it’s such a good idea.

[Danny Franks]

The Battlestar Galacticast, with Mark Bernardin and Tricia Helfer is a really good rewatch pod. Both of the presenters are passionate about the show and Tricia Helfer obviously has a lot of great insight. They've had a lot of the cast on as guests, and all seem just as proud of the show.

Also, Tricia Helfer has an amazing laugh, which is employed liberally throughout.

I'd love a Chuck podcast with Zach Levi. That show was so full of warmth and heart, and I'm sure a rewatch pod would be as well.

An E.R. one would be pretty great, although a daunting proposition for anyone to take on.

[SVNBob]

A new one for you all:  We Will Get Past This.

It's the audio version (with a couple of minor edits) of Sandi Toksvig's YouTube show Vox Tox that she started around the end of March while in lockdown.  The concept is that Sandi has invited the viewer/listener into her home library for a little chat about something Sandi has read recently and found interesting, typically women whom history had overlooked.  So each episode is about 10 minutes of education and opinion, delivered in a very pleasant and conversational way.  Quite calming, which was the intent.

The original YouTube show was week-daily until the end of April, when she announced it was going to once a week on Fridays.  The podcast has had daily releases since launching, so I imagine that it is trying to play catch-up to the video show, then will slow down to a similar weekly release schedule.

[Kromm]

On 5/1/2020 at 2:33 PM, Avabelle said:

I love the Scrubs rewatch podcast. It’s seeet how close they all were on the show. My favourite guest so far has been Sarah Chalke just because she seems so down to earth and sweet.

I wish more old shows would do something like this though as it’s such a good idea.

There's a The Office one, with Jenna and Angela, but I admit I'm not a big enough Office fan to listen.  https://www.earwolf.com/show/office-ladies/

I've been scattershot listening to the Scrubs one. About 3 episodes so far, not in order.  I did love hearing John McGinley, who in real life seems to be sort of Cox like and totally not Cox like all at once.  He's like what if Cox was just as intense, but it was in more of an extroverted social way versus just anger and sarcasm.  

[Kel Varnsen]

4 hours ago, Kromm said:

There's a The Office one, with Jenna and Angela, but I admit I'm not a big enough Office fan to listen.  https://www.earwolf.com/show/office-ladies/

I've been scattershot listening to the Scrubs one. About 3 episodes so far, not in order.  I did love hearing John McGinley, who in real life seems to be sort of Cox like and totally not Cox like all at once.  He's like what if Cox was just as intense, but it was in more of an extroverted social way versus just anger and sarcasm.  

I think my favourite part of the Office podcast (and it is a lot of fun) is hearing all the second hand behind the scenes stories about King of the Hill.

[Wildcard]

Just started Boom/Bust  which is about the rise and fall of HQ Trivia. As a former player (and someone who still hasn't deleted the app), it's interesting to hear what was going on behind the scenes.

[Danny Franks]

I'm starting to struggle with Fake Doctors, Real Friends now. I'm listening to the My Drug Buddy episode, and it's a real chore. They spent the first five minutes talking about Whoopi Goldberg, then they talked about some rappers and Chris Brown, then they watched some 'funny' monkey videos.

And there's a moment when they're talking about male/female friendships that really, really rubbed me up the wrong way - Donald Faison declares that all women immediately know when men like them, then try to push them into the friend zone. Then, when Zach asked him about his wife's male friends, he immediately (and very seriously) said "my wife doesn't have any straight, male friends."

Blowback, a podcast about the Iraq War and how it was essentially planned and manufactured by the US for years before it took place, is fantastic listening. It's sincere and exhaustive and has some witty moments to, but it will make you very angry.

Edited May 30, 2020 by Danny Franks

[Danny Franks]

Sigh. More signs of toxic masculinity from Donald Faison in the episode for My Bed, Banter and Beyond. He talks about women "playing games" with men by not being completely clear about what they want all the time. Zach actually had to point out to him that women may feel insecure and unsure about what the guy wants too.

Behind the Bastards put out a special episode focusing on David Grossman, director of the Killology Research Group, which runs training courses for American police that essentially teaches them to think like soldiers and consider every encounter with a potential criminal as "him or me". Really interesting and infuriating stuff.

[lasu]

I want to thank whoever suggested You're Wrong About, because I have listened to this series non-stop.  I've found almost every episode fascinating, and I'm bummed I'm almost current.  Does anyone have similar suggestions?  What I like about this show is the hosts are funny and I usually agree with them, it seems VERY well researched, and each episode is on a random topic, so I've listened to episodes on Anna Nicole Smith, Enron, the American Taliban, you name it.  If there are similar series, I'd love to know about them!

To offer up my own suggestion, I really enjoyed Running from COPS, referring to the TV show and its live version, LivePD.  Both shows have now been cancelled with everything going on, and this podcast is a limited series deep dive that will clearly explain why these cancellations are such a good thing.

Edited June 12, 2020 by lasu

[purist]

9 hours ago, lasu said:

Does anyone have similar suggestions?  What I like about this show is the hosts are funny and I usually agree with them, it seems VERY well researched, and each episode is on a random topic

Not a crime-related podcast, but Slate's Decoder Ring is pretty great. The description is: 'In each episode, host Willa Paskin takes a cultural question, object, or habit; examines its history; and tries to figure out what it means and why it matters.' Past topics have included truck nuts (!), gender reveal parties, and the poop emoji.

[coppersin]

The Magnus Archives was recommended to me last year and I'm kicking myself for not trying it sooner, because I'm really loving it. The bright side is that I now have a ton of episodes to enjoy (I think the current count is 172). I am, however, listening while I work and thus burning through them at an alarming rate, so I'll be going through withdrawal soon enough. It's basically the same cycle I went through with Welcome To Night Vale. I am curious whether the creator of Magnus Archives has a full storyline with a definite ending already planned, or if it'll be seemingly endless like WtNV - both shows have characters that I love and want around as long possible, but I really want to know how everything wraps up.

[krankydoodle]

3 hours ago, coppersin said:

I am curious whether the creator of Magnus Archives has a full storyline with a definite ending already planned, or if it'll be seemingly endless like WtNV - both shows have characters that I love and want around as long possible, but I really want to know how everything wraps up.

I remember hearing that there is a plan and that the current season is the final one. I'm way behind so haven't checked in lately, but the subreddit is pretty active so you may get more definitive answers there: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheMagnusArchives/

[SVNBob]

Something new in the TV podcasts genre.

Katherine Greene and her husband Hank (yes, that Hank Greene) have a new podcast called Taskmistress.  In it, they're going through the individual episodes of the Dave/Channel 4 series Taskmaster, and seeing if Taskmistress Katherine agrees with the judgements of Taskmaster Greg Davies.  She does her own scoring, and Little Hank Greene does the comparisons.

Just the first episode so far (even if they're using an old feed with over 100 episodes of a different podcast on it), but it sounds like it'll be a fun one.

[Avabelle]

Anyone listening to Zack to the Future? It’s a podcast with Mark Paul Goselaar and one of the reboot Saved by the Bell writers where he watches certain episodes and they discuss it. It’s similar to Scrubs rewatch podcast

It is not good. It’s awkward, the hosts don’t have the chemistry that Braff and Faison have in the Scrubs Podcast. It tries to be funny but omg it’s just not. 

[Fukui San]

On 8/7/2020 at 10:30 PM, SVNBob said:

Something new in the TV podcasts genre.

Katherine Greene and her husband Hank (yes, that Hank Greene) have a new podcast called Taskmistress.  In it, they're going through the individual episodes of the Dave/Channel 4 series Taskmaster, and seeing if Taskmistress Katherine agrees with the judgements of Taskmaster Greg Davies.  She does her own scoring, and Little Hank Greene does the comparisons.

Just the first episode so far (even if they're using an old feed with over 100 episodes of a different podcast on it), but it sounds like it'll be a fun one.

Sounds fun but I kinda wish the podcast was the host making her husband do all the tasks.

[Sharpie66]

A new limited series for those who liked Rachel Maddow’s Bag Man, or other stories of political corruption—Bunga Bunga, about Silvio Berlusconi’s rise and fall. So far, I’ve only listened to the intro and just the beginning of ep 1, but I am here for all 8 episodes.
 

I like most of the stuff that Wondery releases; their podcasts are very professionally produced, and are very entertaining (even the history ones like Tides of History). Another of theirs that I just started is Murder in Hollywoodland, about the murder of director William Desmond Taylor in the early 1920s.

[topazann]

These are my favorites:

College Info Geek, The Tim Ferriss Show, The Productivity Show, Smart Drugs Smart, Extreme Productivity.

Edited September 12, 2020 by topazann

[Sharpie66]

Bunga Bunga is halfway through now, and it is just as good as I had thought it would be. Not just informative, but entertaining and even funny (the host’s reaction to a Let’s Sing Praises to Berlusconi video is hilarious—basically, “I have never seen so many big breasts in my life!”). Mostly, though, it is infuriating to hear the level of corruption around the man for decades.

[Danny Franks]

I've only recently gotten into Comedy Bang Bang, after being a bit bemused by it for a while - it took me a while to understand that the concept was basically 'improv in the form of fake interviews' but now I do, I love it.

The recent episode with June Dianne Raphael playing a very over-the-top version of the socially conscious, combative and prudish woman that a lot of people see her as, then Paul F. Tomkins playing the "bus pilot" brother of Sully Sullenberger (bitter about his brother's success and profile) was hilarious.

Edited September 26, 2020 by Danny Franks

[lasu]

This may be a silly question, but what platform do y'all like best for podcasts (android)?  Are there good premium accounts that take the ads out of podcasts?  

[SoMuchTV]

2 hours ago, lasu said:

This may be a silly question, but what platform do y'all like best for podcasts (android)?  Are there good premium accounts that take the ads out of podcasts?  

I'll be watching to see what kind of feedback you get.  I'm on IOS, not Android, but I suspect some of the apps are available for both platforms.  I don't really care about taking out ads (I can skip ahead pretty much unless I'm driving or something).  I would like something with maybe a 1.3 speed - the 1.5 is a little too fast but there are some I just want to power through.  I'm using the default Apple podcast app, but with every update, it moves things around, takes away features I liked, and generally makes it harder to use.  For example - it occasionally decides it should stop downloading things I've subscribed to because "you haven't listened to this in a while".  Well, maybe that's because the podcast hasn't had any new episodes for a few weeks!  Then when I download the current one, it goes back and downloads everything from the beginning of history!  (Sorry, maybe I should be in the Pet Peeves thread.)

I've heard references/ads/recommendations for others that are better (Overcast is one, I think), but I just haven't been ready to bite the bullet and transfer everything over from the devil I know.  So, I'm also interested in input.

 

[Jalyn]

I've tried bunches of them and always find some issue with them. I've been using Pocket Casts for quite a while now. You can set up podcasts to be automatically added to the playlist at either the top or bottom. The speed factor can be moved up by .1 percent if you only want to go to 1.3. It also goes up to 3 times speed at the max (where I generally listen to them.) It has multiple other features - including having an Alexa app. 

As with every other one I've tried, there are niggling annoyances. I've just been using this long enough that I don't recall anything other than that it won't create a playlist interspersing the backlog of new podcasts that I add and I have to manually create that list.

There isn't, as far as I know, a pod catcher that can remove ads from all podcasts. For podcasts that are associated with a specific catcher (like stitcher premium) those apps will remove the ads specifically for those podcasts. For a lot of casts, you can sign up for their patreon and get a feed that is ad free. That can be added by using the URL to almost all apps.

If you're subscribed to a lot of podcasts, look for one that will allow you to import an OPML file that brings in all of the podcasts. Generally, this won't work for all of them and you'll have to correct some, but it takes care of most of them.

[Irlandesa]

On 10/1/2020 at 3:40 PM, lasu said:

This may be a silly question, but what platform do y'all like best for podcasts (android)?  Are there good premium accounts that take the ads out of podcasts?  

I am boring. I just Google podcasts. I don't mind ads so much.  I can either fast forward through them or just listen.  They're not that long. Using the app on my phone is fine but it can get finicky when I've connected it to bluetooth and driving.  It'll sometimes stop randomly or not continue to the next episode.

As far as podcast apps that eliminate ads, they are out there but you may need to get multiple subscriptions.  For instance, Wondery+ is something you can subscribe to.  It has its own app, I believe.  When a new Wondery podcast comes out, you can get all of the episodes at once without ads if you're a subscriber.  But they only have the podcasts they produce and not those from other publishers.

[knitorpurl]

On 10/1/2020 at 3:40 PM, lasu said:

This may be a silly question, but what platform do y'all like best for podcasts (android)?  Are there good premium accounts that take the ads out of podcasts?  

I use Castbox and it does a good job of downloading all the episodes of my subscriptions. I can choose to list from newest providers. Can also look at my downloads by show or separate downloaded list.

It also allows you to set you speed in increments of .1 seconds. I just skip through the ads if my hands aren't too busy.

[Danny Franks]

I use Stitcher Premium, and it has its advantages and disadvantages - on the one hand it cuts out ads and gives me access to full archives of shows like Comedy Bang Bang and How Did This Get Made, but on the other hand it defaults to the ad free versions when some podcasts (Conan's in particular) have amazingly funny ad reads.

But it's reliable and easy to navigate, easy to find new shows to add.

I hate Spotify's podcast feature. It just feels messy and completely non-intuitive.

[Kromm]

On 10/1/2020 at 4:40 PM, lasu said:

This may be a silly question, but what platform do y'all like best for podcasts (android)?  Are there good premium accounts that take the ads out of podcasts?  

The apps themselves are mostly inherently interchangeable (even if they can vary in usability a lot).  The exceptions are custom apps built specifically to access individual specific podcast networks.

Remember that podcasts are literally just audio files dumped on servers and advertised.  The apps just play them.  They bundle that with many of the podcasts, or even whole networks of podcasts, being advertised, or at least made accessible, inherently in specific apps.

Premium podcasts are just behind server areas with protected access.  I think they tend to do this more often by specifically needing to use THEIR app, a paid version, to access them rather than anything like a password, but can't say how often it's done each way.  The important thing is that the ads are inherently part of an audio file.  They cant just be plucked out on the fly.  So when you hear about ad free versions, you are literally going to be directed to an alternate audio file containing the same episode.  This winds up being pretty good protection, because someone would have to be downloading the actual full version ad free audio files and aggregating them online in some kind of pirated archive to cheat this system.  But unlike with TV shows and movies, or even music, it's just not worth people's time to do this, I think.  So you have to pay each Podcast network SEPERATELY for access to ad free versions of THEIR CONTENT ONLY.  So say you buy Premium ad free access from Slate.  You aren't going to have ad free Wondry Podcasts as part of that.  Or if you get ad free Wondry podcasts, you aren't going to get ad free NPR podcasts, etc. Again... you're paying each supplier of Podcasts individually.

[Jalyn]

4 hours ago, Kromm said:

Premium podcasts are just behind server areas with protected access.  I think they tend to do this more often by specifically needing to use THEIR app, a paid version, to access them rather than anything like a password, but can't say how often it's done each way.  The important thing is that the ads are inherently part of an audio file.  They cant just be plucked out on the fly.  So when you hear about ad free versions, you are literally going to be directed to an alternate audio file containing the same episode.  This winds up being pretty good protection, because someone would have to be downloading the actual full version ad free audio files and aggregating them online in some kind of pirated archive to cheat this system.  But unlike with TV shows and movies, or even music, it's just not worth people's time to do this, I think.  So you have to pay each Podcast network SEPERATELY for access to ad free versions of THEIR CONTENT ONLY.  So say you buy Premium ad free access from Slate.  You aren't going to have ad free Wondry Podcasts as part of that.  Or if you get ad free Wondry podcasts, you aren't going to get ad free NPR podcasts, etc. Again... you're paying each supplier of Podcasts individually.

Yes, exactly. When you patronize a specific podcast on Patreon and get an ad free version that way, they provide you with an entirely different RSS feed to subscribe to that is ad free. You can then subscribe to that feed in any podcatcher that you want to use. As a note, it is specific to you and will stop publishing when you end your contribution. You can't subscribe, get the feed, cancel and continue to use the feed.

Personally, for podcasts that you really enjoy, that is the way that I would suggest subscribing to them. Unless you like most of the podcasts on a particular network, using their particular app is supporting the entire network and not the podcast that you really like. The tiers on Patreon let you decide how heavily you want to support that particular podcast (and what perks you get) and it's not shared with other podcasts that you might not want to support. Be careful though, it's easy to lose track of what all of those individual items add up to until the monthly bill hits. When I cancelled all of my Patreon subscriptions as the first thing to go in my personal Covid downturn, I was spending over $50 a month for podcasts! 

[Vanderboom]

So far, I'm enjoying Ever After Jaleel "Steve Urkel" White's podcast with his fellow child stars as guests.

Edited October 15, 2020 by Vanderboom

[Fukui San]

On 9/26/2020 at 9:28 AM, Danny Franks said:

I've only recently gotten into Comedy Bang Bang, after being a bit bemused by it for a while - it took me a while to understand that the concept was basically 'improv in the form of fake interviews' but now I do, I love it.

The recent episode with June Dianne Raphael playing a very over-the-top version of the socially conscious, combative and prudish woman that a lot of people see her as, then Paul F. Tomkins playing the "bus pilot" brother of Sully Sullenberger (bitter about his brother's success and profile) was hilarious.

I've fallen away from listening to Comedy Bang Bang. Just wasn't listening to it  enough among the glut of other podcasts I listen to. But I have nothing but fond memories.

Scott Aukerman, Paul F. Tompkins, and Lauren Lapkis do a side project podcast called Threedom in which they're not in character but just goofing around. It just restarted for a new season.

I've started listening to Off Menu by Ed Gamble and James Acaster, who I first encountered from Taskmaster. They interview other comedians about their dream restaurants. It's really fun, especially when the choices get weird like Katherine Ryan declaring that she's never eaten bread or Romesh (forget his last name) not realizing that all of his food picks were deep fried.

[Kromm]

1 hour ago, Fukui San said:

Scott Aukerman, Paul F. Tompkins, and Lauren Lapkis do a side project podcast called Threedom in which they're not in character but just goofing around. It just restarted for a new season.

To be honest, I surprisingly got bored by it last season.  Which was a surprise for me with Tompkins at least.  But the more I think on it, the more I realize that Paul is best in stuff that's slightly more structured.  I still to this day dearly love, but miss, The Dead Authors Podcast. One of the finest productions of any media anywhere.

It's done.  Complete.  But if you've never heard it?

https://thedeadauthorspodcast.libsyn.com/

[SVNBob]

On 10/28/2020 at 6:08 PM, Fukui San said:

I've started listening to Off Menu by Ed Gamble and James Acaster, who I first encountered from Taskmaster.

You'd probably like the official Taskmaster podcast then.  Ed is the host, and the episodes come out shortly after the new series' episodes air (so only 3 episodes thus far.)  Each episode has a Taskmaster-related guest (Alex, Nish, and Jo in order), and they discuss both the episode that just aired and former contestants also talk about their own experiences.  Ed also announces the next episode guest in advance, so the audience can submit questions for them.

I have no idea if this will continue between series 10 and 11, but I get the feeling Ed would like to do so if possible.

[Avabelle]

Of all the celebrity podcasts I’ve listened to my favourites are

Zach Braff and Donald Faisons Scrubs rewatch - two Reasonably down to earth guys who’s 20 year friendship really benefits the podcast. They’re not afraid to Tease or call each other out and the banter is very funny.

Dax Sheperd - it’s a little bit more self indulgent then it used to be but I still enjoy it. 
 

Michael Rosenbaum - he and Dax are fairly similar and sometimes he has a tendency to talk over the guest a bit but I quite like him.

Ones I dont like:

Anna Faris - it’s so fake - just her sucking up to whatever guest she has on. It’s also just an excuse for the guests to brag and list off their various achievements. Really self indulgent.

Smartless - I actually like Bateman, Hayes and Arnett In their work but the podcast is quite meh. It’s roughly an hour and I’d say 40 minutes of the hour is them doing adverts for various sponsors.

 

[Danny Franks]

4 hours ago, Avabelle said:

Of all the celebrity podcasts I’ve listened to my favourites are

Zach Braff and Donald Faisons Scrubs rewatch - two Reasonably down to earth guys who’s 20 year friendship really benefits the podcast. They’re not afraid to Tease or call each other out and the banter is very funny.

Smartless - I actually like Bateman, Hayes and Arnett In their work but the podcast is quite meh. It’s roughly an hour and I’d say 40 minutes of the hour is them doing adverts for various sponsors.

 

I like Faison and Braff (though Faison occasionally says some things that are troubling) and I love the idea of their podcast. I just wish they spent more time focusing on the episodes rather than going off on tangents. I swear there are some episodes of the pod where they only spend about two minutes talking about the episode of the show.

And regarding Smartless, I agree it's a bit wishy-washy. There's just not much there there. They've had some genuine stars as guests - Jennifer Aniston, Robert Downey Jr, Will Ferrell - but it feels more like a bunch of celeb pals cracking inside jokes.

Conan's podcast is, by far, the best 'celebrity' pod I've listened to. He's flat out hilarious and his sidekicks, Sona and Matt, bounce off him perfectly. The guests are actually often the least interesting part of the show, although some of them have been really fun to listen to.

David Tennant's podcast is good. Not as jokey, although there's plenty of wit. He asks interesting questions of people he's interested in. Neil Gaiman was the last one I listened to, and I could happily hear them chat all day.

[Kromm]

4 hours ago, Danny Franks said:

Conan's podcast is, by far, the best 'celebrity' pod I've listened to. He's flat out hilarious and his sidekicks, Sona and Matt, bounce off him perfectly. The guests are actually often the least interesting part of the show, although some of them have been really fun to listen to.

David Tennant's podcast is good. Not as jokey, although there's plenty of wit. He asks interesting questions of people he's interested in. Neil Gaiman was the last one I listened to, and I could happily hear them chat all day.

Agreed and agreed. The podcast is now better than Conan's TV show, and Tennant's podcast is pretty good, because it's not self congratulatory or self indulgent in the least. 

[Kel Varnsen]

16 hours ago, Kromm said:

Agreed and agreed. The podcast is now better than Conan's TV show, and Tennant's podcast is pretty good, because it's not self congratulatory or self indulgent in the least. 

It really is a good podcast. I think I have maybe watched 1 episode of his TBS show, but listening to this reminds me why I used to love Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

[SoMuchTV]

I don’t know if there are any other fivethirtyeight listeners here, but I just heard that Clare Malone was laid off by, I guess, their ABC overlords. Didn’t even realize I was a fan until I heard this. Boo, hiss. 

Edited December 9, 2020 by SoMuchTV
Stupid predictive typing!

[purist]

4 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

I just heard that Clare Malone was laid officially by, I guess, their ABC overlords

She got laid??

[SoMuchTV]

4 hours ago, purist said:

She got laid??

Officially, apparently!  Fixed now. 

[Irlandesa]

12 hours ago, purist said:

She got laid??

Cheap joke times---either way, it definitely seems like she got screwed.

[zoey1996]

I haven’t seen Mobituaries by Mo Rocca mentioned yet. I’ve listened to a few, and they’ve been interesting. 

[wanderingstar]

Quote

I got through about twenty minutes of the McHale and Jeong podcast before I realised they weren't actually talking about anything. I get why that might be enjoyable for some people, but I have too many podcasts on my favourites list to spend time listening to one that doesn't really have a subject of discussion. 

The episode with Pedro Pascal is good.

I have WAY too many podcasts on my Stitcher feed. My favorites are:

FANTI, hosted by Tre'vell Anderson and Jarret Hill, the premise of this podcast is that they discuss problematic faves, so they do a "Fan"  and an "Anti" segment on a celeb (Kanye West) or a piece of pop culture (the Real Housewives franchise.

Slow Burn from Slate. Each season covers a different topic (Watergate, the Clinton Impeachment)

Factually with Adam Conover. Adam Ruins Everything, but make it a podcast.

Several Ringer podcasts - The Watch, Big Picture and Binge Mode, all focusing on some aspect of pop culture.

Past Present, a podcast hosted by three historians, relating current events to historical events from the past.

NPR's Code Switch, hosted by Gene Demby and Shereen Marisol Meraji, this podcast focuses on race in US culture.

Edited January 4, 2021 by Gillian Rosh

[Danny Franks]

Some new ones I've discovered recently:

You're Wrong About... This has already been mentioned further back in the thread, and it's a really informative pod that covers disparate topics that people may know a bit about but not much - everything from the Satanic Panic to the Challenger Disaster by way of Yoko Ono and the breakup of the Beatles.

Time Suck is in a similar vein, but far more long-winded, and I'm not at all convinced that the "comedian" host is funny at all. His research is thorough, although he occasionally comes across as just reading out factoids without actually understanding them.

I've also finally found a true crime podcast that I understand the appeal of - Small Town Murder. It's hosted by the same two stand-up comedians who host Crime in Sports, and they offer an irreverent take on murders that happen in small towns, with a segment at the beginning that focuses on the town, its history and its economic/racial/social makeup. The hosts do laugh and make fun of the town, the people involved and the circumstances of the case, but never make light of the crimes themselves.

[lasu]

I just finished S-Town, which was...a lot.  I know it's discussed more in the Serial thread, but I wanted to mention here as it's a really good limited series.  I have a lot of trouble finding good limited series, and You're Wrong About is the only ongoing series I've stuck with so far.

[Lukeysboat]

On 10/31/2020 at 12:36 PM, Danny Franks said:

regarding Smartless, I agree it's a bit wishy-washy. There's just not much there there. They've had some genuine stars as guests - Jennifer Aniston, Robert Downey Jr, Will Ferrell - but it feels more like a bunch of celeb pals cracking inside jokes.

I agree that Smartless is hit or miss. I really enjoyed the episodes with Paul McCartney and Darius Rucker. 

[Fukui San]

Here's a story about podcasts I heard about when it blew up on Twitter a while back. Gimlet's Reply All podcast was doing an in depth series on the America's Test Kitchen video fiasco, in which the people of color cast members of the video series revealed that they weren't being paid while the white cast members were, and other such indignities. That prompted former employees of Gimlet to speak out about how the people behind Reply All were the cause of a similar atmosphere of hostility towards people of color at Gimlet, going so far as to oppose unionization and attempts to address issues brought up by POC employees.

The resulting kerfuffle has caused the Reply All Bon Appetit series to be paused.

https://apnews.com/article/race-and-ethnicity-media-bba049051ae9187b6db6889eb2996801