Which Podcasts Fuel Your Listening Pleasure?

[Vikitty]

Thanks to people in this thread, I’ve started listening to The Babysitter’s Club Club, and it’s a joy reliving my childhood of terribly cliched young adult fiction.

[topanga]

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll be able to get my movie review fix now. 

[Fukui San]

6 minutes ago, topanga said:

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll be able to get my movie review fix now. 

Also I'd suggest giving the /Filmcast more of a chance.  It's my favorite for serious discussion of current films. Not sure which episode you listened to, but maybe they had an off episode. 

[Lisin]

15 hours ago, Valerie said:

Thanks to people in this thread, I’ve started listening to The Babysitter’s Club Club, and it’s a joy reliving my childhood of terribly cliched young adult fiction.

Thank YOU!! Because I didn't know about that and now I'm downloading all the episodes! 

[Princess Sparkle]

16 hours ago, Valerie said:

Thanks to people in this thread, I’ve started listening to The Babysitter’s Club Club, and it’s a joy reliving my childhood of terribly cliched young adult fiction.

I sometimes cry laughing listening to the podcast.  I have listened to the "Dawn and Mrs Barrett CAO of Synertec" role play in episode 5 multiple times.  And Matthew McConaughey Logan never fails to make me laugh.

[AndreaK1041]

I was super late to the Mystery Show train, listened to all of those last weekend, then went on a Starlee Kine binge including the podcast she is currently producing called Election Profit Maker. Start at the beginning, it's hilarious even in retrospect.

[Vikitty]

10 hours ago, Princess Sparkle said:

I sometimes cry laughing listening to the podcast.  I have listened to the "Dawn and Mrs Barrett CAO of Synertec" role play in episode 5 multiple times.  And Matthew McConaughey Logan never fails to make me laugh.

Their denial over Mimi dying in Claudia and the Sad Goodbye had me rolling.

[SVNBob]

On 10/7/2016 at 1:05 PM, SVNBob said:

They've also got a fourth podcast debuting next week, The Orbiting Human Circus (of the Air).  This one sounds less creepypasta and more whimsical from the teaser, but it is a Night Vale production, so who the hell knows what's going to happen.

First episode debuted last week.  And while not as dark overall as other Night Vale productions, there's still some darkness to it.  In particular, there's a segment on the show within the show that goes really dark at the end.  But there is also a melancholy to the main character that tinges the entire show.  And I might be reading a bit too much into it from one episode, but I think there is a possibility that the entire program is a Tommy Westphall situation.

[Qoass]

Quote

the podcast she is currently producing called Election Profit Maker.

I guess that explains why we haven't gotten any more Mystery Shows.

[Fukui San]

1 hour ago, Qoass said:

I guess that explains why we haven't gotten any more Mystery Shows.

It's possible to produce more than one podcast at a time. The McElroy brothers from My Brother, My Brother and Me have proven that!

I really hate when podcasts just stop without notifying their audience. This just happened to the food podcast "How it Got in Your Mouth" which just had a one sentence notice on their Facebook page.  C'mon. Just record 2 minutes thanking your audience for listening so they all know to unsubscribe. 

[AndreaK1041]

Mystery Show stopped making new episodes because of the production company - Starlee posted about it on Facebook:

Quote

 

Hi everyone.

Many of you have been asking what's going on with Mystery Show, wondering when it will come back. This has often been phrased as “help me solve the mystery of what happened to Mystery Show.” Okay. I kind of left myself open for that one. Really though, I can’t begin to tell you how much this means to me, to have produced something that is so actively missed. But it’s unfair for me to do all the appreciating and you to do all the wondering. I owe every listener an explanation. So here goes.

In April, Gimlet let me go. This came without warning while I was in the midst of working on the second season. I’d been having trouble figuring out the new season – second seasons can be tricky – and so I'd gone away, to work on an episode. I didn't make as much progress as I had hoped, but the season was starting to take shape. The day I returned, Alex Blumberg told me the show was unsustainable. I was out. I lost my staff, my salary, my benefits, my budget and my email address. Mystery Show is the only show this has happened to at Gimlet. Just a few months prior, iTunes voted it Best Podcast of the Year.

Since then, I’ve been working every day to figure out a new plan for the show. I have things in the works but nothing I can announce just yet. And listen, I know the lack of updates has been maddening. I know how frustrating it has been to go to the Mystery Show accounts and be greeted with silence. You guys are so patient, so loyal and it’s pained me not to be able to say anything until now. Frankly, I was at a loss as to what to say. But the time has come to let you in on what’s been going on, to solve this one mystery for you while I work to solve even more.

Mystery Show is my heart and soul. I've never enjoyed working on anything more. I couldn’t ask for better listeners, better sleuths, better humans. I look forward to opening a new case soon. Thank you.

 

[Qoass]

Wow, thanks for filling us in.  I will transfer any irritation I had about this from the innocent host to the idiot distributor.

[dusang]

That seems... very strange.

[Fukui San]

I mean, it's a podcast that requires paid staff, not just one person talking into a mic in her basement.  The economics might not work for some reason.

[dusang]

1 minute ago, Fukui San said:

I mean, it's a podcast that requires paid staff, not just one person talking into a mic in her basement.  The economics might not work for some reason.

I guess ... but to cancel what had been the #1 podcast of the year with zero notice?  That's bad business.

[Fukui San]

Maybe, but she admitted herself that it wasn't coming together as quickly as she liked.  Gimlet media is a relatively new concern having started in 2014.  I have no idea whether it's built well enough for long term viability, and it's definitely figuring it's own economics out.  Maybe they can't take delays to put out a better show when they're actually paying staff.  High quality is great but not might be able to pay the bills. It might be the French Laundry or Le Cirque of podcasts, but they can't charge $200 a plate.

Only knowing the concept of Mystery Show, I presume that some of it requires Starlee Kine to travel to different places to track down this or that mystery?  That's a lot more money than sitting two or three people down in a room and having them chat about the issue of the day. It wouldn't be the first piece of entertainment to be critically acclaimed but economically nonviable.

[Fukui San]

Attention: The Bugle is back, with Andy Saltzman and the now too busy for podcasting John Oliver replaced by a rotating cohost. First up, Hari Kondabolu.  This is not a drill, an honest to goodness episode is now in my podcast feed. The audio newspaper for a visual world is now back in business in time for the last gasps of the US election.

[Qoass]

I'm thinking of dumping Anna Faris Is Unqualified.  I picked it up as a result of seeing several rapturous reviews but I just don't get it.  Just because people are famous, it doesn't make their rambling chit chat over cocktails any more interesting than that group at the next restaurant table.

Edited October 26, 2016 by Qoass

[topanga]

3 hours ago, Qoass said:

I'm thinking of dumping Anna Faris Is Unqualified.  I picked it up as a result of seeing several rapturous reviews but I just don't get it.  Just because people are famous, it doesn't make their rambling chit chat over cocktails any more interesting than that group at the next restaurant table.

I stumbled upon this podcast, and there have been some episodes I really liked (Mike Birbiglia, Keegan-Michael Key, Tatiana Maslany) and some that have been a complete waste of time (a Two-Parter with Regina Hall). Anna is always genuine, but she's not a great interviewer, and sometimes it really shows. Regina Hall is one of my favorite actresses, and I would have loved to hear more about how she became an actress, what life is like for a working black actress in Hollywood, how she feels about her role of Black Nanny on Black-ish, etc. But that did not happen. I know the two of them have been friends since their "Scary Movie" days, and the interview (both parts!) involved a lot of silly improvising, singing, and wasted time. 

So I'm feeling ya. Anna Faris is unqualified. But I still tune in occasionally when there's a guest I like. 

[Sharpie66]

A bit late with this, but a movie podcast, unfortunately now defunct, but with a large backlist of eps, that I really enjoy is Friends in Your Head. They had some subject specific eps, but most of them were four guys, all movie industry professionals, doing movie commentary for films as they viewed them. They cover a really wide range of movies, from The Sting to Cabin in the Woods and The Avengers. I think their oldest film was Wizard of Oz. They did have two mega marathons, one for the extended Lord of the Rings films and a 24-hour fundraiser marathon of all the Harry Potter films. 

The guys are all really well informed, bringing their experience to their commentary as well as their geeky love of the films. 

[MarkHB]

I enjoy Waiting for the Train, a very funny (and distinctly NSFW) mostly-liberal current-events review, and its sister podcast Strangeful Things, which is about random weird stuff and gruesome murders (and equally NSFW).  Plus, my favorite TV podcasts are Supergirl Radio, and some of its brethren at DC TV Podcasts including their Legends of Tomorrow and DC Films casts. (Note: I linked to Waiting for the Train on Stitcher, but you can find it on iTunes and Google Play as well.)

[Fukui San]

Podcasts I've recently started listening to:

• That Awful Sound, a bad song/video podcast. They just did 90 minutes on The Offsprings's "Get a Job"
• My Dad Wrote a Porno, previously discussed on this thread I believe about a brit whose dad wrote a terrible series of porn novels and who reads it to his friends to snicker at.
• Dead Pilots Society, table reads of unproduced pilot episodes that never made it. Of the four up so far I liked the John Hodgman one the most.

[hendersonrocks]

I've listened to the first episode (and teaser episode, Sad Nora and the Secret Baby) of Terrible, Thanks for Asking and think it's pretty great. I appreciate that it's something different - talking about the really shitty stuff that happens in life and how people live through it. 

[AndreaK1041]

The Making Oprah podcast from WBEZ is pretty entertaining (you can find it on the NPR podcast page). Just 3 episodes, interviews with Oprah and key producers, etc. 

I'm listening currently to the Stranglers podcast on Earwolf. It's about the Boston Strangler. I am not sure how many episodes there will be, and I would like them to have some sort of thesis statement to connect the episodes, but it is informative so far as I know nothing about any of the crimes.

[ABay]

For true crime fans, CBC has a podcast called Missing & Murdered: Who Killed Alberta Williams. I don't know if M&M is a series title and this is one of several stories, or if this is it. This particular murder is a way for the reporter to bring a more individual, personal focus to the frighteningly large number of indigenous women who are killed or go missing every year in Canada.

[AndreaK1041]

Thanks for that, ABay.  It's good, and the "slideshow" for each episode contains video footage taken during the interviews (they had originally planned to do a TV news story).

[Sharpie66]

The Maltin on Movies podcast just posted an excellent episode with Viggo Mortensen, in which he discusses his latest film, working with David Cronenberg, and his admiration of Meryl Streep, who, combined with some LSD, got him into acting to begin with. I am a big fan of his, and this is definitely one of the better interviews I have heard with him. I really liked his anecdote about taking his son to see Dances with Wolves in the theater when he was really young (Michael Blake, who wrote the film, was the son's stepfather, and he insisted on seeing the movie despite the length and grown-up content). 

[Princess Sparkle]

Coming in here to rave about a couple of Gimlet media podcasts:

• Crimetown: the podcast is focusing on one city a year, and doing a deep dive into the culture of crime in that city. The first season is all about Providence, Rhode Island and it's fascinating. I can't rave about this one enough. 
• Heavyweight: This reminds me tonally of Mystery Show, though the subject matter is different.  The host takes different stories of people wondering how their lives either got to the place they're at, wondering how things could've turned out differently, or just wondering if they should've acted upon something they didn't. It sounds deep and while it can be at times, it can also be quite funny and light (which is why it reminds me of Mystery show)
• Homecoming: This one is their first scripted series, and they got some decently big names (Catherine Keener, Oscar Issac, David Schwimmer, David Cross, and Amy Sedaris are the main voice actors). I don't want to describe too much, because I don't want to give it away, but Catherine Keener works at an experimental facility that helps soldiers acclimate back into civilian life. It is definitely one of the best fictional podcasts I've listened to. 

[topanga]

On 10/20/2016 at 11:33 AM, Fukui San said:

Also I'd suggest giving the /Filmcast more of a chance.  It's my favorite for serious discussion of current films. Not sure which episode you listened to, but maybe they had an off episode. 

And I did, thanks! I do like the podcast now. I'd gotten used to hearing comedians and actors on movie podcasts, so it took a few episodes to get used to the tone of this one. But there is humor there, and the hosts know what they're talking about. 

 

Quote

Try Trash, Art, and the Movies, The Flop House, Filmspotting, and We Hate Movies. 

I'm really enjoying Filmspotting and We Hate Movies

Edited January 18, 2017 by topanga

[Joe]

Here's a trend in podcasts I don't like. Begging for 5 star iTunes reviews and to sign up for their patreons. It's so needy. Yes, I understand that it costs time and money to produce these things, it's nice to get validation and money back. But I find it annoying anyway. Especially if, IMO, you aren't producing 5 star content anyway. Also, I'm not exactly well off right now. If I don't give you reviews or money, there's a reason. And all the begging in the world won't change that.

Am I alone in these feelings, or are my issues valid?

[SVNBob]

The money issue makes perfect sense: if you don't have the cash to spare, you can't donate.  Simple as that.  So I'm with you there.

Now, I've not personally heard podcasts asking for "5-star" reviews, or at least not in a way I thought they were serious.  But most of them do ask for reviews in general, and I understand why they do that.  Podcasts with more and higher reviews (on iTunes specifically) get more visibility, thus getting a bigger audience, which increases revenue in one way or another (more donations and/or advertising.)

So a review is a relatively simple and inexpensive thing to do for a podcast you like; it only costs time.  More or less, it's the equivalent of posting about it here in this thread; a recommendation to others as to why they might want to listen themselves.  And many podcasters read the reviews themselves, so it's a way of giving them constructive criticism and feedback.  So saying something akin to "not a bad podcast, but the constant serious begging for 5-star reviews automatically knocked a star of this one", might get the annoying begging to stop.

[dusang]

If they open the episode with review/donation info, that might be annoying since a new listener has no reason to agree at that point.  The plugs should probably come later in the episode or at the end.

However, telling a podcast to entirely stop asking for money and/or reviews is an untenable business model.  Also, the podcast doesn't know your personal financial situation, so that's pretty irrelevant to the inclusion of a donation request in a podcast being downloaded by hundreds or thousands of people.

[Kromm]

I have to renew my much older recommendation for Red State Update, because the Trump Ascendancy presented what could have been a total disaster for the premise of the podcast, and they ran with it... big league (or as Trump always sounds like he says it... "bigly").

For those who don't know, Red State Update is the brainchild of comedians Jonathan Shockley and Travis Harmon. Harmon, a native son of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and Shockley, another Tennesseean, build an alternate reality version of Murfreesboro and presented it to us via a pair of... well... fictional good old boys named Jackie Broyles and Dunlap. Initially primarily via YouTube, but eventually falling back mostly to audio podcasts, they tread such a fine line between PLAYING Good Old Boys, and parodying them, that for years a certain percentage of their viewers/listeners (at least gauging by reading comments on their older YouTube videos written in that period) didn't seem to realize they were not actually a pair of Conservative yahoos. but instead were gently, at times even lovingly, poking fun at those people. 

Make no mistake--their characters aren't two dimensional. Harmon's Jackie Broyles is basically that grumpy but lovable old man you run into every once in a while working at some service job--in Jackie's case at a small market where he shoots the shit with his likewise minded friends, yells at kids to stop congregating in his parking lot, and serves up BBQ. Jackie doesn't like to hear bad words said out loud, mysteriously puts plurals on "newfangled things" he doesn't totally understand, like "YouTubes", "Twitters", "Facebooks", etc., and often refers to people who have been around for a long time in pop culture, or politics, as "ol'" (or sometimes "good ol"). Jackie seems, at least on the surface, to be about as conservative as they come: ranting about how Jimmy Carter was the worst thing to ever happen to our Country, or throwing shade on the Clintons or Obama. 

But Jackie is also a soft touch beneath that, and surprisingly tolerant. He doesn't want to HEAR about gay sex, for example, but also seems to believe in "live and let live, as long as I don't have to hear or see it!" This is mostly the pattern with Jackie. He talks the conservative talk, but when pressed usually falls into that kind of "do what you want, just not around me" mode.

Shockley's Dunlap (it's not known even still if that's his first or last name), is a different kind of character. He's kind of a creep, although in an amusing way. At the very least he's obsessed with sex, obsessed with shocking Jackie and pressing his buttons, and is basically a middle aged man-child, who's always out of work, always low on money, and almost always inappropriate. But like with Jackie, there's more to Dunlap. Although he SEEMS dumb, he's actually very well informed. He has a fairly encyclopedic knowledge of politicians, public affairs issues, and even a pretty good grip on history.

Shockley and Harmon actually took this extended joke pretty far. Although they mostly only do the podcast now, one of the big differences between it and their YouTube channel is that they'd actually get fully dressed up into character, with a cameraman, and go to political events as er... independent reporters. This was their main form of content from around 2007 through 2012 (in other words through two national election cycles). In 2008, they even fooled their way onto the CNN/YouTube co-sponsored Democratic debate as valid questioners--although one suspects someone at YouTube was probably in on the joke--and Joe Biden quite famously retorted to them that "I think the people of Tennessee had their feelings hurt," in response to their question if his feelings were hurt because everyone was asking about if Tennesseean Al Gore was going to run or not.

Anyway, to cut to the chase... for THIS election cycle the comedians made a choice that later came back to haunt them. Remember, although they come from Tennessee, they are actually liberals (who I think don't even live there anymore... I think they moved to California years ago). So they went with the conventional narrative that Trump's candidacy was a total joke and had their characters react appropriately. Dunlap, and ESPECIALLY Jackie, HATE Trump, calling him a "Damn Yankee" and never missing an opportunity to outright mock him.  And that worked fine when everyone saw the Republican leadership playing hands off with Trump--allowing a story narrative on the show that true Republicans wouldn't respond well to Trump. 

And then Trump won.

Now remember. Shockley and Harmon aren't really doing this for a Republican audience. So it's not like they feared having a different political opinion than their viewers and listeners. But their MATERIAL was based on the concept that Jackie and Dunlap represented the common "Red State" person. If the boys suddenly DIDN'T represent those people, then the show's well of material would eventually run dry. Where's the comedy in a pair of disgruntled good old boys who seem to disagree with the rest of the good ol' boys out there? There aren't legs on that.

So they had the Russians take over their Podcast.

You heard me. The Russians. 

They've totally run with the "Russians hacked the election and are calling the shots now" angle and doubled... no... tripled down on it. Jackie and Dunlap spent WEEKS absent from the podcast and were replaced by a smooth voiced but strangely insincere man named Bill Berrynut, who's co-host was a walking talking Christmas present, who made tons of innuendos about little children getting inside of him and constantly asked Berrynut and the audience "what's in me?" The two talked about how their new Russian overlords were making them do "test podcasts" for the new order they are building. And we heard news of how Jackie Broyles, who'd apparently run and won the Mayorship of (fictional) Murfreesboro, had been deposed and replaced by a ghost of a giant prehistoric bird--who was constantly surrounded by prognosticators telling the rest of the town what he means. A few weeks in, Berrynut caught a mysterious illness from climbing inside the Talking Christmas Gift, who we later learned was a Russian agent testing and spreading Russian developed bio weapons, and was replaced by his two sons, Edgar and Phillip Berrynut. Who seem even more slavishly devoted to their new Russian masters.

Yes, it's that weird.  But oddly enough it works.

But Jackie and Dunlap weren't gone for good. The podcast seems to now split their time between the Berrynuts and our original duo, who are podcasting from different locations. The Berrynuts from some studio run by the Russians, and Jackie and Dunlap from Dunlap's Grandmother's basement, because Jackie also lost his Market (where they used to podcast from). Jackie now works a minimum wage job for his former competitor, a crass mini-mart owner named Jockie.

It sounds like a mess. But it isn't. It's weird, yes, but also kind of brilliant now.  It's probably an awkward starting point now, admittedly (you'd probably have to go back around 2-3 months and start listening from back then). But if you've EVER heard them before and lost track of them/stopped listening? It's time to come back, because they're being crazy original now to make up for the uprooting of their original premise (of Jackie and Dunlap actually representing real Red Staters). 

 

Red State Upate YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/travisandjonathan

Red State Update Podcast: http://redstateupdate.libsyn.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's a (pre-Trump) Hightlight reel from them last year.

 

Edited January 29, 2017 by Kromm

[starri]

On 9/3/2016 at 11:43 AM, TattleTeeny said:

I do like Last Podcast on the Left though, for the most part.

I have really liked some of their episodes, and while they have toned things down, there's something about the copious Bro Humor that can really turn me off.  It's hard for me to be supportive of a bunch of white guys making rape jokes and speaking in offensive Asian accents.

I do like My Favorite Murder, though.  The frequent confusion over things is often more funny than not, but their complete ignorance of why the law works the way it does can and does frequently make me angry.  I'm still going to their next live show in NYC.  And I'm drinking out of one of their coffee mugs as I type this.

[TattleTeeny]

Quote

I have really liked some of their episodes, and while they have toned things down, there's something about the copious Bro Humor that can really turn me off.  It's hard for me to be supportive of a bunch of white guys making rape jokes and speaking in offensive Asian accents.

Same here -- sometimes I think, "OK, that's a bit much," especially when it also isn't funny/clever enough to justify it. I can deal with the right ratio of inappropriate and funny but lots of times it just sounds like they're trying too hard for something not worth the joke (if that makes sense). And sometimes, it just sounds like a total clusterfuck in there--loud, interrupty, too many tangents, etc. I like the show but I do pick and choose episodes as opposed to listening to every one. And I'm not totally opposed to checking back in with MFM now and then to see if there's a topic that piques my interest. Those girls will probably get better at the details eventually anyway, especially if they're now appearing as commentators on true-crime TV shows as well.

I like Talking Crime a lot (I might have already said that--sorry if I'm being repetitive). They sometimes screw details up but they correct themselves. I dig their personalities, and it's nice to have something a little "lighter" (for lack of a better term for this subject matter) between the more serious ones. 

OH! I binged season 2 of Someone Knows Something and really liked it! On the other hand, I got really bored with Undisclosed and I'm not sure why.

ETA: I did not like the Charles Manson episodes of You Must Remember This. That host--I just couldn't deal with her (though I did listen to all of the episodes, so I guess I did "deal with" her, haha!).

Edited January 30, 2017 by TattleTeeny

[Princess Sparkle]

On 10/26/2016 at 9:56 AM, Qoass said:

I'm thinking of dumping Anna Faris Is Unqualified.  I picked it up as a result of seeing several rapturous reviews but I just don't get it.  Just because people are famous, it doesn't make their rambling chit chat over cocktails any more interesting than that group at the next restaurant table.

I was one of the people who absoluetly LOVED it in the beginning, but I finally dumped it after she did the cross-over with the HDTGM crew.  Her insistence on making half the show an improv acting exercise when she's terrible at improv isn't enjoyable to listen to.  Plus, she is somehow getting worse at giving advice.

[Qoass]

Well, I unsubscribed but I can't get the listing off my iTunes!

[starri]

How do we feel about paying for podcasts?  The recent massive screw-up with HDTGM really raised the question in my mind.

I personally do not mind.  There are currently three where I pay, for bonus content, a lack of ads, or both.  The problem that I have/had with what Earwolf did (apart from just up and doing it without any warning) was that they locked everything away and make me pay for everything, even though I'm only going to use it for, currently, two podcasts.  I'd be happy to pay for an ad-free HDTGM because it seems like their regular feed is about 1/3 of Paul bumbling through ad copy which annoys the hell out of me, but I don't know that I need access to archives of a bunch of shows that don't appeal to me.  I don't even mind Earwolf charging a fee for their entire archive, because hosting it costs money, but I'd rather have the choice of doing it a la carte.

Which I guess brings me to the other point, the pricing.  Two of the three (five, I guess, since I did bite the bullet and pay for Howl) where I'm subscribing through Patreon are at the lowest levels, which combines to almost as much as I pay for Hulu every month, and net perhaps three bonus episodes.

[Fukui San]

I've yet to pay for a podcast that requires payment, or purchased podcast's bonus content.  I have sent money to podcasts and podcast families I like, to the tune of roughly $100-150/year.  Sometimes in response to NPR style donation drives such as Max Fun does, or sometimes just as a periodic desire to support the thing that represents 75% of my current cultural intake.  "Hey, I haven't sent money to any podcasts recently. Let me figure out which 5 or so I like most right now to send $20 to."

Earwolf's sudden throwing up a paywall may make me intentionally avoid sending them donations in the future. They've received some from me in the past.

I've never cared enough for bonus content for me to pay specifically for it. For How Did This Get Made?, I have in the past prepared for various travel by selecting random back episodes to listen to.  It's kind of an evergreen podcast that I can go back to years later. But given that I listen to three bad movie podcasts regularly and that's only a fraction of bad movie podcasts out there, it's hard for me to get the will to do so. 

[Qoass]

I can't even keep up with the free podcasts I subscribe to although I am occasionally tempted to sign up for Linoleum Knife's programs.  I listen to their movie review program for free but their TV one is paid.

[starri]

3 minutes ago, Qoass said:

I can't even keep up with the free podcasts I subscribe to although I am occasionally tempted to sign up for Linoleum Knife's programs.  I listen to their movie review program for free but their TV one is paid.

That's one of the ones I pay for.  Worth it.

[Qoass]

If only just to hear Alonso announce,  "TV!!!" over and over during the opening theme!

[Lisin]

Isn't HDTGM still free though? It's just old episodes that need the Howl subscription correct? I ask because now I'm really confused and there's no way I'm signing up for Howl but I will be sad to lose the Zouks content in my week.

[starri]

The most recent episodes and a rotating selection of about 25 from the archive are still free.  Howl has the entire archive ad-free plus long-lost Green Lantern and Smurfs episodes.

When Paul came out and addressed the problem and told everyone the new deal, he actually encouraged people who want the archive to download and keep the old ones.

[dusang]

I haven't listened to Paul's discussion of the pay wall but I noticed on my Android app (Podcast Republic) it looks like you can still download any episode from the feed.  But I haven't tested that.  I'm good with just having the new eps.

I haven't ever given money to a podcast -- I doubt I would ever pay for one but I have considered donating to support shows that I like.  My biggest hesitation is that I'm not in the US and the (majority) of shows I listen to are and I'm averse to cross-border donations.  But "recent events" have made me seriously consider giving to the NPR network. 

[Princess Sparkle]

5 hours ago, Lisin said:

Isn't HDTGM still free though? It's just old episodes that need the Howl subscription correct? I ask because now I'm really confused and there's no way I'm signing up for Howl but I will be sad to lose the Zouks content in my week.

In addition to what @starri mentioned, Paul also said they're going to be producing some Howl-only exclusive specials. That was enough to push me over the edge to subscribing, and in the HDTGM newsletter, they sent out a discount code. 

[Kromm]

It's interesting to see that some good, interesting Podcasts have been created specifically about the Big Orange Baboon-in-Chief, and the crisis America currently finds itself in because of him.

Slate's "Trumpcast": http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/trumpcast.html
 

Washington Post's "Can He Do That?":  https ://soundcloud.com/washington-post/sets/can-he-do-that

[dusang]

6 hours ago, Kromm said:

It's interesting to see that some good, interesting Podcasts have been created specifically about the Big Orange Baboon-in-Chief, and the crisis America currently finds itself in because of him.

I haven't listened to "Trumpcast" but I listened to the first two episodes of the "Can He Do That?" podcast and ultimately found it a little dull.  The first episode about Twitter was a little interesting, contextualizing the idea of a president embracing new forms of communication like the first president to use the radio or the TV, but ultimately they didn't answer the question as a Yes or No and the secondary host was SO stiff it was difficult to listen to.  The second episode about the #MuslimBan was less awkward but equally ambivalent on the answer and didn't provide any information I hadn't already heard through other news podcasts.

[Athena]

I can't be the only one gripped by "Missing Richard Simmons". The production is done well and the air of trying to solve a mystery is fascinating.

Other new podcasts I've added include Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, Christopher Kimball's Milk Street Radio (ATK Radio is gone so I had to replace it), and 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy. My favourite podcast still remains the Judge John Hodgman podcast. I really like the The Baby-Sitters Club Club podcast as well for being ludicrous and over the top in its theories. I don't even pay attention to it half the time, but I find the chemistry and silliness a great way to wind down a day. I also like that there are no ads whatsoever on it.

[topanga]

22 hours ago, Athena said:

 

I can't be the only one gripped by "Missing Richard Simmons". The production is done well and the air of trying to solve a mystery is fascinating.

 

I haven't listened to it, but it's iTunes #rated podcast--so you definitely aren't the only one gripped by it. 

 

If you're a true crime fine, I hope you've checked out "My Favorite Murder." I was turned onto it when the show's hosts were guests on Sklarbro County  oops, it's now called Dumb People Town.  Bow now I feel like I'm cheating on the Sklar Brothers because I'm marathoning through the MFM podcast like there's no tomorrow.