Which Podcasts Fuel Your Listening Pleasure?

[RainbowBrite]

2 hours ago, topanga said:

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. 

I was marathoning MFM as well and even joined their huge Facebook group, but I had to take a step back after about two weeks. I was laying awake at night convinced someone was creeping around my house, and I was concocting all of these horrible scenarios in my mind. Now, I listen to the new eps as they come out but no more marathoning for me!

[topanga]

4 minutes ago, RainbowBrite said:

I was marathoning MFM as well and even joined their huge Facebook group, but I had to take a step back after about two weeks. I was laying awake at night convinced someone was creeping around my house, and I was concocting all of these horrible scenarios in my mind. Now, I listen to the new eps as they come out but no more marathoning for me!

Yeah, I can only listen to about 2 or 3 at a time. I had to stop listening to it in the mornings when I take my dog for a walk. Where I live, it's still dark at 5:30 am, and I was getting freaked out. Like you, I began to think there was a murderer or rapist around every corner. 

[ABay]

I couldn't even listen to one all the way through but it was because I found the uptalk and ignorance too much to bear.

[Lisin]

9 hours ago, topanga said:

If you're a true crime fine, I hope you've checked out "My Favorite Murder."

I just downloaded a bunch yesterday! I'm excited to listen.

[SVNBob]

I have to give a major shout-out to the entire Nerdy Show network.  Their tagline "Geeky Programming for All Nerds Across the Multiverse" tells you a lot about what the network, programs, and podcasters themselves are all about.

Their flagship program is the titular Nerdy Show.  "From comics and video games, to science and technology; If it's geeky, we've got it covered."  In this hour-long (or so) program, the hosts will talk about geeky and pop cultural news from the previous week, with some geeky music thrown in for good measure.  For example, topics in the latest episode included the news of the 7 exoplanets just discovered, talk about the Nintendo Switch, and the cartoons the hosts are currently watching or anticipating (like the new season of Rick and Morty and the Samurai Jack revival).  Nerdy Show also does "microsodes", which are typically half the length of the main show.  And the topics for microsodes are decided by audience members, determined by donation.  (They have a Patreon, but before that they had an in-house donation program.  In either case, a donator that pushes the monthly donation total over a multiple of $100 or flat donates $100 earns a microsode.) So like EHG Extra Credit Minis, just longer and some with deeper dives into the topic.  Last Microsode was about Geeky Cars; the vehicles of pop culture.

The network comprises a lot of other different shows, some more niche than others.  Shows include

• Wicked Anime, the anime show
• Flame On!, the gay geek show
• State of the Empire, a Star Wars speculation show "looking for news in Alderaan places"
• Nerd Groove, the nerdy music show
• Friday Night Fanfiction, where people get hammered and read bad fanfic and slash from the internet
• and many more

They also have the Nerdy Show Theater, which is an umbrella podcast for their audio drama shows.  Examples include one based a Ghostbusters RPG, a Call of Cthulu based show, Pokemon: Balls of Steelix, and the Liberty anthologies.

If you had asked me a couple years ago what my favorite show in the network is, I probably would have answered Dungeons and Doritos, one of their audio drama podcasts, roughly based on D&D/Pathfinder.   But currently I'd have to go with Lightning Dogs: the Official Paw'dcast.  This show is about the greatest 80's cartoon ever...that hasn't been made yet.  The hosts of Nerdy Show were hit with a creative spark during an episode where they were talking about mature cartoons, primarily the then-ending Young Justice.  A bad joke leading into the music break lead to creation of Lightning Dogs.  And as soon as that episode was released, two fans each independently donated $100 for microsodes and both wanted more Lightning Dogs.  That soon evolved into the hosts actually attempting to create an animated series, on air.  Every episode is a recording of a staff meeting designing the world and characters for the show.  So this show is behind-the-scenes starting from minute one. 

And this is a serious attempt to create a show.  They're writing show and pitch bibles, and once they have enough funding to pay for his time (they split off and created a separate Patreon just for Lightning Dogs), Greg Weisman (co-creator of the aforementioned Young Justice) will be reviewing the pitch bible and giving advice on how to improve it to increase the chances someone will actually pick up and create the show.

[Kromm]

On 3/1/2017 at 2:01 PM, 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 was just coming here to recommend it to people. It's interesting. Even for people who didn't really like Simmons' shtick, it reveals a very fascinating footprint he's left on the world that most people don't realize. You'd occasionally see morbidly obese people come up to him and act like he's Jesus during some of his media appearances, but because his schtick was so overwhelming, it was easy to pawn it off as PART of his schtick. When it fact, it was real. The way Dan Taberski has laid this show out, it's actually a great tribute to Simmons, because it reveals the shtick to be the smallest part of what he did.

Of course there's a huge moral quandary here, not only in making it, but in listening to it. Since nobody knows WHY Simmons changed his life this way, we also don't know if using his public disappearance as fodder for a web show is a violation of his trust or not.  Taberski doesn't totally duck this question, but he DOES soft peddle it a little, with the justification that people are worried about Simmons, that it's actual friends of his supporting this project, etc.  But Taberski IS selling commercials for this podcast.  So while podcasting isn't huge money, he IS technically commercializing Simmons' disappearance. And while he likely had no idea of the public response to this show, just in the past few days The New York Post, Vulture, Fox News, Yahoo. Vogue, EW, Wired, People, The Toronto Star, The Daily Mail, LA Magazine, The Financial Times, and others have run stories about the podcast. So even if by accident, Dan Taberski has become famous on the back of Richard Simmons... sort of.

But again, it's genuinely good. It shows a real three dimensional person--a good man with good values but a dark troubled soul--and leaves the cartoon character behind. If Simmons is behind closed doors with some illness or something like that, and just doesn't want to appear because he doesn't want the public to see him unhealthy, perhaps this is a good way to help his legacy. 

Or not. Simmons has to speak to that possibility himself. If he chooses to.

On 2/24/2017 at 3:12 AM, 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.

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

 

On 2/24/2017 at 9:47 AM, dusang said:

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.

I kind of like Trumpcast. There's a light-hearted element to parts of it that keep it from being too grim. They have a fairly good impressionist read Trump's tweets, for example.

A few more Trump-analysis-adjacent podcasts... stuff to try, not stuff I know for sure is any good.

"With Friends Like These" - I had real mixed reactions to this. It's just starting out though, so I'm still giving it some slack. The premise is basically that it's a podcast about the current socio & political divides in this country, rather than being directly about Trump's activities. They DID start out with a Trump-cenrtic episode, and it was actually pretty good. but episode two was instead about White Liberal Guilt/White Liberal Patting Themselves on Their Own Back As Being Enlightened, rather than about how Middle America is processing the racial divide now. Not a worthless topic, by any means, but it didn't seem very timely when we have bigger fish to fry right now in this country (a year ago it would have been a great topic). 

"Pod Save America" - Again, like "With Friends Like These"  this is more of a heads up that it exists, rather than a recommendation. It's also pretty new, since it's only around since January. I've only heard a few minutes of Episode 1 so far, so have no real opinion yet. It is described as "a no-bullshit conversation about politics with Democrats, Republicans, activists, journalists, and comedians" and "Trump" seems to be the subject most of the time. It is apparently a sequel/continuation of an earlier podcast though, called "Keepin' it 1600". Oh. A bit misleading is that the main host is named Jon Favreau. But it's not THAT Jon Favreau. It's a different one, who was a political speechwriter who used to work for Obama. Oh, it also has a co-host named Jon Lovett, who is not to be confused with Jon Lovitz. Apparently "Keepin' it 1600" was cited by The Atlantic, GQ, and Entertainment Weekly on their Best of 2016 lists though, so I'm going to give this one a chance.

One I CAN recommend wholeheartedly. There is a podcast version of Late Night With Seth Meyers, which is mostly composed of his A Closer Look segments. If you don't have time to see the videos (perhaps while you are driving, when you have to look at the road, or something like that), then get these podcast versions. 

Edited March 4, 2017 by Kromm

[zxy556575]

I'd need some kind of autotune filter to remove the vocal fry, uptalk, and at least half the instances of "like" in order to enjoy My Favorite Murder.

[starri]

Howl Premium has a new How Did This Get Made spin-off called Origin Stories which actually is about how it got made.

They have several hours of interviews about Surf Ninjas to get started.

[Kromm]

By the way... re: Missing Richard Simmons?

People have been talking in the Dancing With The Stars forum, in the Kym Johnson thread, about how Kym has now bought Richard's studio, Slimmons. The podcast, because it was clearly taped a while ago, hasn't addressed this yet.

Here's Kym's tweet about that, just from a few weeks ago.

Edited March 4, 2017 by Kromm

[starri]

I saw the My Favorite Murder NYC live show last night.  I have not laughed that hard in a very, very long time, and I highly recommend the experience.  My husband is not a true crime fan, and loved it too.

I think it's better to not view it as a true crime podcast in the same way that Last Podcast or Crimes Writers On are.  It's more listening to two funny friends who are obsessed with true crime.  

[Qoass]

Quote

Of course there's a huge moral quandary here, not only in making it, but in listening to it. Since nobody knows WHY Simmons changed his life this way, we also don't know if using his public disappearance as fodder for a web show is a violation of his trust or not. 

Exactly:  either Simmons is being exploited by the producers or Simmons is exploiting his fans by going along with it.

Which is not to say I didn't just subscribe.

[FormerMod-a1]

On 3/1/2017 at 1:01 PM, 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.

On 3/4/2017 at 0:51 AM, Kromm said:

I was just coming here to recommend it to people. It's interesting. Even for people who didn't really like Simmons' shtick, it reveals a very fascinating footprint he's left on the world that most people don't realize. You'd occasionally see morbidly obese people come up to him and act like he's Jesus during some of his media appearances, but because his schtick was so overwhelming, it was easy to pawn it off as PART of his schtick. When it fact, it was real. The way Dan Taberski has laid this show out, it's actually a great tribute to Simmons, because it reveals the shtick to be the smallest part of what he did.

Of course there's a huge moral quandary here, not only in making it, but in listening to it. Since nobody knows WHY Simmons changed his life this way, we also don't know if using his public disappearance as fodder for a web show is a violation of his trust or not.  [snip]

But again, it's genuinely good. It shows a real three dimensional person--a good man with good values but a dark troubled soul--and leaves the cartoon character behind. If Simmons is behind closed doors with some illness or something like that, and just doesn't want to appear because he doesn't want the public to see him unhealthy, perhaps this is a good way to help his legacy. 

Or not. Simmons has to speak to that possibility himself. If he chooses to.

 

I am gripped and fascinated by this podcast.  I liked Richard Simmons, not loved but liked, unironically, but hadn't thought much about why I hadn't seem him.  Just thought maybe he had cut back a little.  But when this podcast came out I remembered a few of those articles about if he was being held hostage, or what the housekeeper was doing.  Anyway, yes, it can be a moral quandary but I do think people are genuinely concerned and if this gets publicity and therefore an answer and they don't actually just barge into the house or anything, I'm all for it.  If he's fine and wants to be a recluse then hopefully that's the end of it.  If he's not fine, they better someone find out.  It is just odd that no one can talk to him, or that he hasn't put out a statement, etc.

The podcast is so compelling that I'm going to keep listening no matter what.  I almost wish I found out about this later so I could binge it, I don't like waiting a week for the next ep.

[Athena]

2 hours ago, aquarian1 said:

Anyway, yes, it can be a moral quandary but I do think people are genuinely concerned and if this gets publicity and therefore an answer and they don't actually just barge into the house or anything, I'm all for it.  If he's fine and wants to be a recluse then hopefully that's the end of it.  If he's not fine, they better someone find out.  It is just odd that no one can talk to him, or that he hasn't put out a statement, etc.

The podcast is so compelling that I'm going to keep listening no matter what.  I almost wish I found out about this later so I could binge it, I don't like waiting a week for the next ep.

 

On 2017-03-04 at 1:51 AM, Kromm said:

Of course there's a huge moral quandary here, not only in making it, but in listening to it. Since nobody knows WHY Simmons changed his life this way, we also don't know if using his public disappearance as fodder for a web show is a violation of his trust or not.  Taberski doesn't totally duck this question, but he DOES soft peddle it a little, with the justification that people are worried about Simmons, that it's actual friends of his supporting this project, etc.  But Taberski IS selling commercials for this podcast.  So while podcasting isn't huge money, he IS technically commercializing Simmons' disappearance. And while he likely had no idea of the public response to this show, just in the past few days The New York Post, Vulture, Fox News, Yahoo. Vogue, EW, Wired, People, The Toronto Star, The Daily Mail, LA Magazine, The Financial Times, and others have run stories about the podcast. So even if by accident, Dan Taberski has become famous on the back of Richard Simmons... sort of.

 

Yes, I got the moral quandry as well which is partially while I feel gripped by it in a way. I am actually not someone who listens to true crime podcasts, and this podcast is produced in a similar way to those. It has this level of drama and suspense. Also with the witch allegations of the last episode, there is even the sense of the paranormal. It is very engrossing.

I do agree about the exploitative feel since money is being made. I believe that if celebrities wanted to retire and be a recluse, they should be allowed and no obligation to anyone. However, I think a lot of his friends miss and are generally very worried about him. I grew up watching Richard Simmons in pop culture. He was a celebrity with a definite style, brand and presence and even as wacky. As weird as he was, I always knew he was a good guy that did change people's lives. I wouldn't say I am a fan, but I do wonder as well.

[topanga]

On 3/4/2017 at 3:31 AM, Lord Donia said:

I'd need some kind of autotune filter to remove the vocal fry, uptalk, and at least half the instances of "like" in order to enjoy My Favorite Murder.

It's funny that the hosts mention that they get a lot of comments like these. 

For some reason, their speech patterns don't bother me. They're both native Californians, so their Valley Girl talk seems genuine. And they talk on the show about wanting to stop saying "like" and "um," and Georgia says her vocal fry annoys her, but she can't seem to stop it. But I like Karen and Georgia mostly because they aren't privileged valley girls who have no concept of world events, even though they might sound like it at times. 

[Kromm]

On 3/6/2017 at 1:49 PM, aquarian1 said:

 

I am gripped and fascinated by this podcast.  I liked Richard Simmons, not loved but liked, unironically, but hadn't thought much about why I hadn't seem him.  Just thought maybe he had cut back a little.  But when this podcast came out I remembered a few of those articles about if he was being held hostage, or what the housekeeper was doing.  Anyway, yes, it can be a moral quandary but I do think people are genuinely concerned and if this gets publicity and therefore an answer and they don't actually just barge into the house or anything, I'm all for it.  If he's fine and wants to be a recluse then hopefully that's the end of it.  If he's not fine, they better someone find out.  It is just odd that no one can talk to him, or that he hasn't put out a statement, etc.

The podcast is so compelling that I'm going to keep listening no matter what.  I almost wish I found out about this later so I could binge it, I don't like waiting a week for the next ep.

Episode 4 was my favorite episode so far.  Something about the structure of that particular episode came off as more sophisticated and more slick (in a good way) than the previous eps.

I do keep wondering if Taberski will extend the run of the series by an episode or two to account for new events and new information which has come in during the airing of these eps. The sale of Slimmons/Kym Johnson thing alone creates a whole new episode's worth of content. Taberski needs to try and track her down and see if she will go on the record about if she ever got to speak to Simmons during the course of this sale or not.

[RainbowBrite]

Episode 5 was my favourite Richard Simmons ep so far. Listening to the voicemail he left for the woman who wrote to him on the comment section of his website, and the podcaster's commentary afterwards, was really touching.

[Kromm]

The final episode of Simmons is up, a few days early in fact (Dan Taberski even talks about that inside the episode).

Wasn't as big a fan of the last episode as many of the others. Obviously real life constrained this, but I think Taberski needed more in the last episode. It should have been double size or something, and featured the best of the stories he's been saying he's been getting (from the phone number he's been giving out) since the show started. It DID acknowledge the end of Slimmons, in fact the episode was themed around that, but I also wound up wishing he'd looked deeper into the circumstances, and talked more directly about it beyond the emotional boo-hoos of everyone saying goodbye to each other and walking away with pieces of gym equipment and signage.

Edited March 22, 2017 by Kromm

[topanga]

On 3/21/2017 at 8:49 PM, Kromm said:

The final episode of Simmons is up, a few days early in fact (Dan Taberski even talks about that inside the episode).

Wasn't as big a fan of the last episode as many of the others. Obviously real life constrained this, but I think Taberski needed more in the last episode. It should have been double size or something, and featured the best of the stories he's been saying he's been getting (from the phone number he's been giving out) since the show started. It DID acknowledge the end of Slimmons, in fact the episode was themed around that, but I also wound up wishing he'd looked deeper into the circumstances, and talked more directly about it beyond the emotional boo-hoos of everyone saying goodbye to each other and walking away with pieces of gym equipment and signage.

The final ep seemed to be more about Dan and his feelings. He almost sounded disappointed that Richard's publicist(?) hung out at the house the day before their interview and that Richard seemed fine. It's almost as if Dan wanted Richard to be obese or depressed or being held hostage. Something bad going on to explain his seclusion, rather than the fact that Richard just doesn't want to be that public person anymore. He certainly didn't like hearing that Richard didn't feel especially close to people he hugged or cried with or counseled. It's like wondering why your therapist doesn't want to go out dancing with you. 

I know Dan and RS were closer than that--he mentioned that they've known each other for years and used to double date. But that still doesn't mean RS felt close to him or anyone outside his small circle. 

Dan tried to explain at the end that Richard was just being his true self. But it didn't sound genuine. Dan, like most clients at Slimmons, felt that RS 'owed' them a good-bye. No he didn't. I do think Richard might have an underlying personality disorder or mild mental illness. The erratic and child-like way he interacted with people never seemed normal. But his abrupt departure from the spotlight was his right. Maybe he simply got tired of emotionally taking care of other people. 

[Fukui San]

MaxFunDrive time has come, and I use that time each year to consider all of the podcasts I listen to regularly send some support to some selected ones. I usually throw support to some of the smaller ones.  Here are the podcasts I'll probably donate to this year.

Maximum Fun for Stop Podcasting Yourself and Judge John Hodgman

The Dreaming

Funemployment Radio

Trash, Art, and the Movies

Extra Hot Great

[Athena]

On 2017-03-23 at 4:04 PM, topanga said:

Dan tried to explain at the end that Richard was just being his true self. But it didn't sound genuine. Dan, like most clients at Slimmons, felt that RS 'owed' them a good-bye. No he didn't. I do think Richard might have an underlying personality disorder or mild mental illness. The erratic and child-like way he interacted with people never seemed normal. But his abrupt departure from the spotlight was his right. Maybe he simply got tired of emotionally taking care of other people. 

To me,  I thought that was Dan's ultimate conclusion too. He alludes to in the last couple of episodes especially where he comments about the voicemail about how tired Richard seems to be doing these things. I concur that Richard has some sort... trait? condition? that set him apart and for him to feel obligated that he had to keep doing that. I think the break from the public really stung a lot of people he had known for many years including Dan, Gladys, the former personal assistant who wrote that book, etc. I thought when the publicist said a lot of people think he's in Richard's inner circle, that was hard to hear.

It seems to me that if my friend was Richard, all he would have done would have been like, "I'm out." and then left without making people wondering if he was alright. Dan makes a good case that something could have happened to Richard when he stopped showing it. He might have had some sort of nervous breakdown after all those dogs died and his lover leaving, etc. Then when he got use to being alone, he was done with the public life.

I didn't always agree with Dan or his methods, but I think there were a lot of angles to the whole scenario. I do feel better now and the series ended on a positive note that Richard may be in small ways reaching out to his inner circle so he's not depressed, obese, or abused.

[Kromm]

In the end, the oddest thing was not just that Richard Simmons walked away without a goodbye, but also that he's completely avoided cameras. Even if his seeming love of mugging for the camera was all part of an act, it's that total avoidance that comes off as odd.

If Richard was a bigger star (he was a ubiquitous public figure, but that's different), you'd likely have had paparazzi ringing his property trying to get photos through windows, or to verify if there's truth to the assertion that supposedly he putters around in his back yard a lot. But he's not. so it's just ET, TMZ and even The Today Show referencing his absence, and now the Podcast, just to fill their endless hunger for content, but not putting any real resources into it. 

I disagree with Taberski's conclusion that because the police said Richard is seemingly "happy and healthy" that means that disease or physical impairment isn't what's going on. I think the police would have given a high level assessment that he wasn't being held captive or anything strange like that, that he was of sound mind, and didn't have any untreated life threatening conditions.  You can say someone with Parksinson's disease, for example, is "healthy" if they're under treatment and stable. I'm not for a moment suggesting that as what's going on with Richard. I'm just saying that he could have an ongoing condition, and why would the police break confidentiality and tell people? Their main concern is that he's where he is voluntarily, and isn't endangered by it. That's all.  So it could be Richard's knee. It could be any other number of conditions. It could just be age, and him no longer being able to pull off being in short shorts and flopping around in front of the camera like a teenager. Whatever it is, he probably doesn't look the same, and that's why he doesn't want to be in front of a camera.

Or it could be something purely emotional or psychological, sure. In which case the abrupt break would really mostly make sense in a context of him going cold turkey on his former lifestyle. But that seems too strange even for an odd guy like Richard Simmons.

Whatever. It was a good podcast, up until that last episode. I enjoyed it. And Richard Simmons deserves his peace, even if it's under odd circumstances.  

[ABay]

This is in reply to @bosawks in the Serial thread

FYI, the podcast Talking Crime took on S-town and it's, as usual, is pretty entertaining.

Thank you for mentioning this podcast! I looked it up--I think it's actually Crime Writers something or other if you're looking for it in Stitcher or elsewhere--and it's very entertaining. From it, I also found These Are Their Stories, a very amusing podcast about Law & Order, all flavors.

[dusang]

I haven't actually listened to it yet but I just heard about Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom via On The Media.  It sounds interesting / crazy depressing and horrifying.  Has anyone listened?

Edited April 10, 2017 by dusang

[Glory]

I started listening to the Magic Tavern podcast and it is hilarious. 

https://hellofromthemagictavern.com/

I'm a big D&D nerd, so this just hits all the right cords for me. The episodes are about 15 minutes long and so perfect for listening for a few minutes at a time. 

[TattleTeeny]

Is anyone listening to S-Town? I think I'm late to it, but I'm sucked in.

[biakbiak]

8 hours ago, TattleTeeny said:

Is anyone listening to S-Town? I think I'm late to it, but I'm sucked in.

People were discussing it in the Serial thread. I forget if it was spoiler tagged so enter at your own risk.

[TattleTeeny]

Oh, thank you--I better not go in there!

[ABay]

There are a lot of spoiler tags.

Has anyone listened to the Black Tapes? I'm 2 years late, but just started it. I keep expecting closure at the end of each episode and there isn't any, and I cannot express the depth of my loathing for the song at the beginning or the theme honk which plays over dialogue at the beginning. It hurts my ears. But, what the hell, maybe it's going somewhere and I need something to listen to after I've exhausted the paly list and have to wait for my favorites to crank out new pieces.

[TattleTeeny]

My BF keeps telling me I'd like Black Tapes, but I keep forgetting.

Finished S-Town today; now I'm listening to Talking Crime's podcast about the S-Town podcast, haha!

[Silje]

I would like to recommend a podcast: Elis James and John Robins on Radio X. Two stand-up comedians with an amazing chemistry who have been friends for over 10 years have a weekly radio show where they chat about their life and misadventures.  

They've had a feature where they discuss if certain bands/artists deserve the accolades they've gotten, a very tense quiz feature and a feature where they would solve the problem of a caller - a lot of the callers were comedians the hosts know. John wrote his own autobiography,  A Robins Amongst the Pigeons, in the style of those grandiose celebrity autobiographies after having read from a radio personality's autobiography. It's hilarious and a funny insight in to how weird John is. 

They're open about the darkness that they've experienced in their lives, and they've created a funny safe space where listeners will email them about their own struggles etc.  Someone wrote in to them something that really describes the feeling I (and others) have about them: "The most bizarre friendship I've ever been a part of, given the warmth and affection I hold for all four [Elis, John and their two producers] of you despite us never having spoken." I've listened to all their episodes twice and really want to start over again, it's just really comforting listening to them. 

If it sounds interesting I would advice to start from the beginning, but if you want to sample a taste first I wold recommend the episode where they filled in for Josh Widdicombe or listen to them on The Comedian's Comedian Podcast where they talk about the show etc and you get a feel for who they are.  

Edited April 16, 2017 by Silje

[ABay]

Has anyone tried Limetown or The Message? I'm looking for a substitute for the Black Tapes since it seems like they're never going to do a season 3. And I am pissed. Strand finally started being human and now they leave me hanging? Bastards. They haven't even posted anything about a season 3 in months. The producers were starting a third show (TBT and Tannis are the others) and were supposedly just holding off on TBT until the new one was up and running. Well, that was last year so where are my new episodes?! 

[RainbowBrite]

I've been listening to a LOT of true crime podcasts lately (i.e. Convicted, Up and Vanished, My Favourite Murder, Accused, Undisclosed, and Someone Knows Something...) and am looking for some lighter listening while working at my desk (with headphones on).  I really enjoy Best of Friends, and would like something with a similar vibe/banter. Does anyone have suggestions?

[Fukui San]

The Slash Filmcast's Summer Movie Wager episode just aired, and you can play along at the site they built: thesummermoviewager.com

It's basically trying to predict in order the Top 10 domestic grossing movies this summer. You get the most points if you nail exactly the rank on the list a movie winds up, a little less if you're a bit off, and at least one point if it's on the Top 10 at all.  There are three Wild Cards that get just one point if it makes the list.

[topanga]

4 hours ago, Fukui San said:

The Slash Filmcast's Summer Movie Wager episode just aired, and you can play along at the site they built: thesummermoviewager.com

It's basically trying to predict in order the Top 10 domestic grossing movies this summer. You get the most points if you nail exactly the rank on the list a movie winds up, a little less if you're a bit off, and at least one point if it's on the Top 10 at all.  There are three Wild Cards that get just one point if it makes the list.

I haven't listened to that ep yet. But thanks for explaining what the wager is. 

 

Is it just me? But when a podcast ends, I feel like I'm being dumped by my boyfriend in public.  And it's more than missing the show itself--though that's certainly a part of it. But whenever the hosts announce that they won't be doing the podcast anymore because they're too busy, or it's hard for the hosts to get together, or they have a new writing/comedy/acting gig, I feel like they're saying, 'Hey, topanga. We don't like you that much anymore. We're just not that into you, and we've got some way cooler shit going on over here.'

Sigh. Maybe I'm being too sensitive. But when I listened to the final episodes of Professor Blastoff, The Champs, Aisha Tyler's Girl on Guy, and now Denzel Washington Is The Greatest Actor of All Time, Period, and the hosts said goodbye, it was like being punched in the gut. And even worse, W. Kamau Bell didn't even say goodbye to Denzealots on the podcast itself--he'd been mostly MIA for months. He said goodbye on Twitter. Yes, it was a heartfelt message, but it's like someone breaking up with you through a text message. 

I still have other podcasts that I love dearly, but I still pine away over the ones that got away. 

[Qoass]

I miss Game Night Guys very much but I'm just grateful that they were willing to blow their weekends making an entertaining podcast out of the goodness of their hearts.  I'm sure some people can make a living out of it-- the LInoleum Knife guys seem to be making a go of it, but most are spending their own time and money for our entertainment.

Edited to add that when my favorite hosts invite their real life friends to be guests on their podcasts, it's weird for me.  Don't mess up our fantasy relationship with actual people!

Edited May 5, 2017 by Qoass

[Fukui San]

I don't mind when podcasts run their course and ends. I really hate it when podcasts ghost on me.  You keep trying to refresh it and then learn somewhere else months later that the hosts moved away or now hate each other or something. 

I'm trying to start a podcast myself, and if nothing else I'm going to be overly careful of informing the audience about scheduling.

[dusang]

22 hours ago, topanga said:

Is it just me? But when a podcast ends, I feel like I'm being dumped by my boyfriend in public.  And it's more than missing the show itself--though that's certainly a part of it. But whenever the hosts announce that they won't be doing the podcast anymore because they're too busy, or it's hard for the hosts to get together, or they have a new writing/comedy/acting gig, I feel like they're saying, 'Hey, topanga. We don't like you that much anymore. We're just not that into you, and we've got some way cooler shit going on over here.'

Sigh. Maybe I'm being too sensitive. But when I listened to the final episodes of Professor Blastoff, The Champs, Aisha Tyler's Girl on Guy, and now Denzel Washington Is The Greatest Actor of All Time, Period, and the hosts said goodbye, it was like being punched in the gut. And even worse, W. Kamau Bell didn't even say goodbye to Denzealots on the podcast itself--he'd been mostly MIA for months. He said goodbye on Twitter. Yes, it was a heartfelt message, but it's like someone breaking up with you through a text message. 

I still have other podcasts that I love dearly, but I still pine away over the ones that got away. 

Agreed -- I still haven't listened to the final studio* episode of DWITGAOATP but I was already getting actively pissed at Kamau for standing us up for so many episodes.  Just see if I buy your book now, Kamau!!  (I will.)

3 hours ago, Fukui San said:

I don't mind when podcasts run their course and ends. I really hate it when podcasts ghost on me.  You keep trying to refresh it and then learn somewhere else months later that the hosts moved away or now hate each other or something. 

Oh, I hate ghosting podcasts.  There's one in my feed (admittedly, a very low-budg one on development issues) that hasn't updated since 2015 but the host still has it in his bio as an active thing.  There's nothing anywhere even acknowledging it's defunct.

* Yes, I'm clinging to hope for live eps.  Despite the fact that their live eps seem literally cursed. sigh

[ABay]

The ghosting of the Mystery Show, one of the first podcasts I followed, still makes me bitter. And right now I'm having dark thoughts about the producers of the Black Tapes who keep saying there will be a 3rd season but seem to have devoted all of their energies to Tanis--which has 3 series of episodes even though it started after the Black Tapes--and Rabbits. I'm listening to Tanis but the first episode was soooo slooooooow. It picks up after that. I like the story but the characters are not as compelling, in my opinion. Also 

Spoiler

A cabin that moves around the woods and is bigger on the inside and NO ONE mentions the Tardis or the cabin on Lost? Come on!

[Kromm]

File this under "Podcasts on subjects you never dreamed you want to know about, but when you hear it it's damned interesting".

 

The Twenty Thousand Hertz Podcast: The stories behind the world's most recognizable and interesting sounds.

https://www.20k.org/

 

 

The one on the NBC Chimes is the one which hooked me in:

 

Edited May 8, 2017 by Kromm

[Kromm]

New this week: Larry Wilmore's new podcast "Black On The Air"

 

[ABay]

The Black Tapes will be back Aug. 30 with  a 6 episode final season. Finally. I'm listening to Tanis but it's not hitting all the same buttons for me.

I listened to Homecoming and...meh. All of the men sound the same to me and the plot isn't keeping my interest.

[ABay]

Limetown is really good! Unfortunately, like every other narrative podcast I get attached to, it seems to have stopped after season 1. It's been a year and a half. So irritating.

[ElleBee]

For fellow fans of "My Dad Wrote a Porno", the first episode of season three is now up. 

[Kromm]

3 hours ago, ElleBee said:

For fellow fans of "My Dad Wrote a Porno", the first episode of season three is now up. 

Yay!

 

[ABay]

It is fun but I find I can only listen to maybe 2 episodes in a row or it isn't as funny. 

I just removed Reply All from my playlist because of the like problem. This is the 3rd or 4th podcast I've bailed on because one of the hosts says "like" every third word of every freaking sentence. SMH. The British podcasters can speak in entire paragraphs and an entire episode without that shit or equally repellent uptalk.

Ars paradoxica I dropped partway into episode 1 because the actor playing William Donovan sounded like a college drama student. No gravitas or menace at all. And the rest wasn't great enough to overcome that for me.

The Bright Sessions is pretty good so far.

[Vikitty]

This season of MDWAP is killing me. I was laughing so hard I was crying in the first episode at the O2 scene. “Twenty thousand ladies…” sets me off every. damn. time.

I’m still following Babysitter’s Club Club as well. which was an ace recommendation in this very thread. Those books were my jam as a teenager.

[Kromm]

On 5/5/2017 at 9:52 AM, Fukui San said:

I don't mind when podcasts run their course and ends. I really hate it when podcasts ghost on me.  You keep trying to refresh it and then learn somewhere else months later that the hosts moved away or now hate each other or something. 

I'm trying to start a podcast myself, and if nothing else I'm going to be overly careful of informing the audience about scheduling.

You do get the occasional podcast though where the hosts genuinely only produce episodes when they can. Mike & Tom Eat Snacks is one like that, where they would do a whole bunch of episodes in a row, then go years between new episodes, because either Tom Cavanaugh or Michael Ian Black would wind up employed away from the other. Or Stephen Tobolowski's podcasts have had long breaks when he was sick, or got bored or had a big acting job get in the way. 

[SVNBob]

Some of you might be familiar with the popular Twitch/YouTube series Critical Role.  For the unfamiliar, it's a live stream on Twitch, later posted to YouTube, where a group of voice actors, led by Matt Mercer, get together and play D&D.  This video series just hit 100 episodes of the campaign proper.  And to celebrate, they released the first 10 episodes (well, 11.  There's an Episode 0 introduction to the characters that was played often during the original video airings) as an audio-only podcast.

For the curious newbies, or the long-standing but unaware Critters, the show can be found on iTunes, Google Music, or here.

Edit:  I should note the following.  Critical Role is not about how to play D&D; it's about why to play D&D.  Getting together with friends and having fun telling a group story in an imaginary world.  There are other shows and podcasts on how to play D&D.  One I'd recommend searching for is the start of Penny Arcade/PVP's joint adventure in Acquisitions Incorporated.  That started a few years ago with the 3 players having a wide variety of scope in history of tabletop RPGs (from first timer to well-experienced) and was at the beginning of 4E, so all the players were learning the new rules at the same time...from the people that made the game.

Edited June 11, 2017 by SVNBob

[LJonEarth]

It seems like most of my fun go-to podcasts have ended in the past year DWITGAOATP, The Indoor Kids, and U Talkin' U2 To Me?, or are changing hosts or styles like FanBros and Radiolab. I have about 35 hours of time to fill during my work week. I really don't want to be stuck with political shows on a daily basis.

Does anyone have anything to replace Radiolab's sciencey content now that they've shifted focus?

Edited June 12, 2017 by LJonEarth

[biakbiak]

17 minutes ago, LJonEarth said:

U Talkin' U2 To Me

Did you get the June 2nd episode?