JCC Where's the Subscribe Button? A Podcast Discussion Thread!

So I listened to 4 Kids 0 Sex, the Beautiful Anonymous episode. I was pretty seriously underwhelmed by it. It's a great premise for a show, but I thought the episode I listened to had some significant problems and I figure they probably cross over to the other episodes.

For one thing, I felt like Gethard just isn't a very good host. His questions typically didn't really elicit much in the way of really self-reflective stuff. And the show was very repetitive. Gethard told the caller that he seemed like a really good guy so many times that it seemed like maybe the two of them could get together if the caller's marriage ended up falling apart. And they just kind of circled around and around the same material again and again. I think that the whole raw, unedited conversation is part of the show's aesthetic, but, honestly, the show would be better if it was edited, tightened up. Gethard would probably say that would make the show too artificial, but it wouldn't necessarily. Maybe an hour is just too long; it certainly was for this episode. I mean, at the thirty minute mark, Gethard is already kind of struggling with the guy; I mean they start talking about Less Than Jake. Okay, I'm not listening to this show to hear a couple of guys bond over their love of a middling pop-punk band, you know.

I saw some people earlier in the thread saying that they thought the show had a good premise, but it somehow failed to grab them. I agree totally, except I'm somewhat more negative actually. Parts of the show were actually kind of annoying. And nothing in the show was as profound as Gethard tried to make it seem, not even when the kids showed up at the end. Gethard keeps breathily murmuring "wow," but there's really nothing that justifies that kind of reaction. Now, I did hear only one episode and I always try to listen to five episodes of a show before doing an official review, so I can't fairly pass judgment on the show as a whole, but I don't expect to listen to any more of these any time soon.

Granted, it's still early days and the premise is good. The show could certainly improve and I hope it does. Gethard, at least, just needs to listen to TAL and Fresh Air and Girl on Guy and such to learn how to actually interview someone in an incisive and compelling way. If he improves, that'll go a really long way toward fixing the show's problems.

 

Yeah, I listened to both 4 Kids, 0 Sex and Married to a Monster and just couldn't get into either of them. I also listened to Alcoholics Anonymous because the description promised the show's first hang-up, but the hang-up itself was way oversold and underwhelming. I think your assessment of Gethard is on point, in that he seems to want to make things more profound than they are. I didn't have the same reaction he did to the kids showing up at the end. I do kind of enjoy that he uses the anonymous format to ask the nosy, super-personal questions you couldn't really ask someone in any other context, but the show doesn't really hold together for me. The episode featured on TAL was by far the most compelling.

As for saying Gethard needs to learn how to actually interview someone in an incisive, compelling way, in one of the episodes I listened to he actually dispenses with that and says "if I were a journalist I'd lay some track here about how the story unfolded, but I just want to skip ahead." Of course then a few minutes later he finds himself struggling to keep the conversation going. I'm not sure if it's something he's interested in, but it would definitely improve the show.

TiniTinyTony, not everything is for everyone, but I'm glad you gave it a shot! I do think the main appeal of the show is in the host, and I can get why her style wouldn't be enough to draw everyone in. On the other hand, I actually found the mystery of why someone would have the vanity plate "I Love 9/11" to be the most legitimately compelling mystery in the whole show. Belt Buckle was fascinating not because I really had a burning desire to understand the origins of the Belt Buckle, but because of the way she edits the story to unfold and the relationships depicted. The answer to the meaning of that license plate, though, that one I really did want to know.

 

Boba Nekhbet the latest Mortified is Harry Potter slash

 

Here's another one of those reviews of a completely obscure podcast that I wasted my time on.



Gay Sunday Brunch / LGBT News
Studio: Jim Ver Steeg
Category: Society & Culture

What It Is
The host discusses issues and events related to the gay community with various guests.

Technical Details
This show went belly-up in 2013, but iTunes still has the archive of almost the entire run: 100 episodes starting with episode 23. Episodes run anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour depending on the topics at hand.

What About It
This is going to sound kind of bad, but this is the most serious of the gay podcasts I’ve come across on my journey. Basically all of the other gay podcasts have featured various groups of gay guys (and occasionally [read: once] a gay woman) sitting around and trying to be funny (and, on a few of them, succeeding). But this is a quite serious show. Ver Steeg is dedicated to discussing actual issues related to gay life/culture, whether it’s some larger political news-story or some pretty niche web-movement or the big ideas behind those things. The show is, for this reason, sometimes pretty dry, but silly, comedy-based shows can sometimes be over the top or annoying, so I’m fine with a little over-dryness from time to time. (That’s what she said). Anyway, this show tends to not hold up that well as a show you’d go back through the archives of; a lot of it is extremely topical and those kind of shows only hold up when the topical material is used as a way to springboard into larger philosophical issues and this show only does that occasionally. If it was still running, I think the show would be very interesting listening these days; I’m sure these things are out there, but there’s certainly a place for a serious podcast dedicated to getting into topical issues related to gay life. Too bad it’s defunct. As it stands, it’s a show with an archive that isn’t particularly interesting listening years after original release.

2 stars.

Essential If
You’re receiving your podcasts through a magical mailbox at your lake house.

Avoid Like the Plague If
You had brunch one time . . . ONE TIME

Best Entry Point
N/A

Podcast Reviews!

 

You guys, if our dads were terrorists, we would be SO much farther along.

So, the two person, free-flowing conversation podcast is a real minefield. I should know; I've heard so many in my podcast project and I tend to think that the two person show needs to have a strong thrust or topic if its going to work, ala Filmspotting or Fresh Air. A three person show, like Slate's talk shows or CAGCast is better. A four person show is kind of the sweet spot: Doug Loves Movies, Film Sack, 4Player Podcast, How Did This Get Made? etc.

But I'll stop yammering. I loved this episode. It wasn't until later that I put together that I had actually heard Alie & Georgia once before, on the Goldfinger episode of the much-debated James Bonding podcast. I'm glad I didn't put that together until after I heard this episode, because it might have kind of colored my experience. I found them to be pretty annoying on the James Bonding show where they seemed utterly unable to understand the concepts of judging art by its own standards not the standards of the current moment and also with the whole idea of an anti-hero. I forget which one, but one of them said that they hated Mad Men because it was such a celebration of misogyny. Um . . . no.

But I loved them here. They definitely have great chemistry and are genuinely hilariously funny. I laughed out loud several times listening to this episode. I'd be interested in hearing why a star war picked this episode in particular; they are so many brilliant bits that it seems like any one of them could be "the reason" to listen to this episode. The bit about the second in command of Al Qaeda was pure gold; I was laughing pretty constantly through that. And the "I hate it" bit was funny every time they did it and that's the kind of running gag that usually annoys me. I guess the highest praise I can give this podcast is that it did feel like just sitting at a table while a couple of your friends riff about stuff and these women seem like the kind of folks I would genuinely love to hang out with. Good pick on this one. I think this is my favorite of the three Roulette shows I've heard so far. I'm definitely going to check out some more episodes of this show.

 

"I hate it" is the best thing. If I had to name a singular reason I picked it, that would probably be it. Otherwise, it's one of the better "solo" episodes they've done all the way through.

Typically they have a guest, so it is not normally just the two of them.

 

Unrelated, Marc Maron interviewed Louie Anderson in this Tuesday's episode of WTF. I have no connection to Anderson's comedy, but I used to watch the cartoon show inspired by his childhood on the Fox Kids network as a kid. I was surprised to learn that the depiction of his parents and family on that show were very much an idealization, as his real dad was actually an abusive alcoholic (abusive in the violent way, not the other kind). That certainly explains his dad's colorful personality on the show. They go on to talk about his early years as a standup and entrance to show business. On today's show are Chelsea Handler and Jen Kirkman.

 

Yeah, I went to download a few more and noticed that they often have a guest. I'll be interested to hear how their dynamic works with a guest thrown in the mix. But, yeah, I'm definitely going to keep listening to this one.

 

Traveling this weekend - 2 hour drive - usually listen to This American Life but looking to change it up -- suggestions?

 

2) Beautiful Anonymous - 4 Kids, 0 Sex
Finished it. It's such a bummer and didn't turn me around on the podcast as a whole. I like the idea but something about Chris Gethard doesn't pull me in as much as I'd like to. There's this ongoing theme that he has the freedom to ask all these super personal questions and the people answer them. As a nosy person I thought that I would really enjoy that, but it's never as interesting or satisfying to hear the answers, and this episode didn't do anything for me. I agree with R1.5 about how I didn't find the kids showing up at the end to be as mindblowing as Gethard did.


3) Slumber Party With Alie and Georgia - Pants Suit Feminism
I actually also realized I've heard this before. I listened to an episode they did with Grace Helbig a couple years ago and found them really funny. The solo episode here really worked too. This might be a little self-aggrandizing to say, but listening to them reminds me of the patter and rhythm I have with some of my close friends, so it made it really fun and easy to listen to. Both of the women are hilarious and relatable. The bit about the Al-Qaeda second in command was really funny, but I think my favorite sequence was when they started discussing the origin of the term "spamming."

I was laughing out loud for some reason about that little back and forth.

5)Escape Pod - If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love
Whatever I was expecting, this wasn't it! I'm not sure it lived up to fully "harrowing" or heartbreaking for me, but it was a really beautiful piece of... fiction? poetry? It definitely drew me in, but I didn't totally love it or find it... I don't know, satisfying? I think I might have found it more touching or impactful reading rather than listening to it.


1) Mystery Show - Belt Buckle
2) Beautiful Anonymous - 4 Kids, 0 Sex
3) Slumber Party With Alie and Georgia - Pants Suit Feminism
4) The Heart - Mariya
5) Escape Pod - If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love
6) The Monday Morning Show with Bill Burr
7) America Won't Shut Up - About Rollerblading to School
8)
9)
10)

I've been debating which episode of America Won't Shut Up to add to this list and "About Warning People the Fajita Plate Is Still Hot" narrowly lost to "Rollerblading to School." I'm gonna go with Rogue's tactic of not giving you too much information about this podcast and just letting you listen and draw your own conclusions.

All put together, the four episodes of Reply All's "On The Inside" add up to just over two hours, about two and a half, but you can get most of the way through the story on that trip. It starts out as a normal Reply All episode about a prisoner who writes a blog from prison despite never having seen the internet, but kind of turns into a mini season of Serial. I don't want to give away too much, but it really had me hooked by the end.

Episode One, Two, Three, and Four

 

Oh, yeah, forgot that bit. That is like exactly to my comedy taste.

Yeah, it's an episode that really split the listenership of the podcast. I love it on a level of just being, like you say, "a really beautiful piece of . . . ?" It's an episode I've gone back to like probably ten times (it's helpful that it's so short) just to listen to it as a writer and kind of just marvel at the absolute mastery of the author. I mean, she's just in total control every. single. word. Just the way she draws you in with this kind of weird, comic premise that makes no sense and then you get into the rhythm of it and then she just pulls the rug right out with this amazing twist. It's definitely a really fascinating experiment in terms of the "short story." I just remember the first time I heard it and just going on this journey with it and then just kind of sitting there with my mouth hanging open like, "WTF was that even?" I do find it really heartbreaking, but I'm glad you enjoyed it on the level you did and "Whatever I was expecting, this wasn't it!" is exactly the reaction it seems crafted to elicit and the one I was hoping you'd have. I might do more Escape Pod episodes later; it's a show I really like and this episode is an example of just how wide-ranging their story selection is. I can think of four or five others off the top of my head that would be great for the list.

And now, my next selection.

1) Mystery Show - Belt Buckle
2) Beautiful Anonymous - 4 Kids, 0 Sex
3) Slumber Party With Alie and Georgia - Pants Suit Feminism
4) The Heart - Mariya
5) Escape Pod - If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love
6) The Monday Morning Show with Bill Burr
7) America Won't Shut Up - About Rollerblading to School
8) Ten Minute Podcast - Big Huge 20 Year Old Fat Piece of ****
9)
10)

I'm still loving this idea; I've downloaded the latest Bill Burr show and the Rollerblading one as well. And I'm thinking about episodes from my favorite shows as well and making a little list of the ones I maybe want to post here. I'm thinking about alternating "sad" and "comedic" episodes. But I've kept both of mine very short, both under twenty minutes. Some of the shows I love would require the posting of a much longer episode. Like ninety minutes to two hours for some of them and that is super long. So I'll have to think about that. Maybe I can come up with some shorter episodes from those shows.

Ah, shoot, I just realized I never posted my feedback on Mariya. I'll try to get in here tomorrow to do that. I would do it now, but I wanted to post a new review and this post is now achieving War & Peace levels of length. So, I'll post this review below and then I'll try to get my thoughts organized on Mariya tomorrow or something.


Great Speeches in History
Studio: LearnOutLoud.com
Category: History

What It Is
Recordings & dramatic readings of famous speeches.

Technical Details
The recording quality isn’t always the best because the show features speeches from the sixties and onwards and so the recording technology obviously causes fluctuations in quality over the years. Episodes run, typically, ten to twenty minutes. The show hasn’t posted anything new in three years, but the entire archive, of sixteen speeches, can still be found at their webpage.

What About It
I have a troubled relationship with LearnOutLoud.com. They tend to have good ideas for podcasts, but kind of fumble the execution. I kind of feel like that about this one, but it isn’t exactly crippling. When the speeches are of the modern variety, they offer the original recordings, so you get some genuinely compelling recordings of such significant speeches as Eisenhower’s famous Farewell Address (which just falls on the ear more and more like a tragic prophecy as the years roll on) or RFK’s speech on the death of MLK or even, going very modern, Obama’s 2004 address at the DNC. The really interesting idea is the inclusion of speeches from earlier in history, like Washington’s farewell address. But they don’t get very good readings of those speeches; the performers aren’t engaging at all. So, the actual recorded speeches are typically quite good, but it keeps the show from doing what I wish it could do and really go back and look at older speeches in a compelling way. Too bad; it’s a great idea that only succeeds sporadically.

2 ½ stars.

Essential If
You have a dream.

Avoid Like the Plague If
The fact that a speech by Obama was included in this podcast fills you with a deep and ferocious rage.

Best Entry Point
It would be super easy to go the traditional route and tell you to listen to the I Have a Dream speech which is presented here as the original recording in its entirety. But you’ve probably heard that one. You may not have heard, however, Eisenhower’s Farewell Address and it’s an essential listen. The light that it continues to shed on our current political and economic realities is quite amazing.

 

Why did you skip 4? I will end you

 

You know, I noticed that. But I won't skip it. I found it to be, as you said, emotionally brutal. It is the kind of thing that you just kind of try to believe doesn't happen anymore and certainly couldn't have happened to anyone you might actually know. The idea of this young woman, who sounds very Americanized and modern, being mutilated that way creates a real dissonance. Somehow, I expect to hear people who have had this experience talk about it in halting and heavily accented English or something; but no, this just sounds like a young woman I might meet in a coffee shop or something. I had some serious sympathy pains listening to this. Her description of her first sexual experience made me grit my teeth and the scene where she confronts her mother in the bathroom and discovers that her mother can't even really formulate a reason for it or even really grasp the idea that someone would question it is really disturbing.

I did kind of hate that the website tipped what the show was about when I went to download it. I mean, I get that it's part of marketing and such, but I just thought what an amazing thing it would have been if I'd truly been able to start it with no idea of where it was going. As that story of her first sexual encounter unfolds and gets more and more painful it would have just created a real air of horror and mystery and then with that absolutely shocking line about her mother being the only person who would "understand what it was like to have sex without a clitoris.*" That's a real mic-drop line, like a jaw dropper. Oh, well, it still lands, but, boy, if I hadn't known that's what the show was about and she dropped the line out of the blue . . . that would have absolutely floored me. Anyway, really good pick.

*Actually decided to check the Disallowed Words list; it says that any reference to genitalia in a purely biological sense is allowed. So . . . I'm not censoring it (though I don't think I've seen anyone else ever say it on here). If there's an issue, it can be edited, of course, but, I mean, I am using it in the biological sense of the word. And it's such an important line in the show that it feels kind of lame to censor it to me.

 

For me, the mic drop moment is when she talks to her grandma and finds out that things weren't as straightforward as she had assumed. Ultimately this is a story about the daughter's relationship to and understanding of her mother and it breaks my heart. I'm tearing up just typing this

 

You should post another one to the list.

 

Next time I have a strong reaction to a single stand alone ep of a podcast, sure. I don't listen to a ton like that tho. Most of the podcasts I listen to are either more sequential/serialized or are current events based or are fluff comedy podcasts.

Right now the main podcast that I'm listening to the backlog of is The Worst Idea of All Time, which does not at all lend itself to "check out this one episode". It's two New Zealand comedians who watch movies and talk about them. The twist is that they watch the same movie. Once a week. For a year. Season one was Grown Ups 2. Season two was Sex and the City 2. Season 3 (currently at ep 9) is the Zac Efron DJ hangout movie We Are Your Friends. They go slowly insane as they rehash each and every tiny bit of movies that dont really stand up to one viewing, let alone 52. They come up with all sorts of insane theories and backstories for extras, all while admonishing the audience to NOT watch the movie. The insanity of the project is commendable. It really stretches podcasting to its utmost potential. In what other medium could you do something like this and have it be remotely successful?!

Great show, deffo should be listened to in order tho, at least within a season. The comedy relies too heavily on layered, improvised mythos that accumulates episode to episode for it to work any other way.

I guess if I had to add something to the list it would be the spinoff podcast, Til Death Do Us Blart. Wherein the boys from TWIOAT and some other dudes I don't care about have made a pact to watch Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 every thanksgiving until they all die. The inaugural ep was this past thanksgiving, so I guess watch that and get in on the ground floor of something special.

 

Hi y'all. I love podcasts, so much so that, since discovering them after getting a smart phone 3 years ago, I've stopped watching tv, except for the news a few times a week. I love the variety they offer & that you can learn about stuff you never knew, & find podcasts on stuff you never thought you'd like before listening to them. And especially that I can do other things while listening. Currently subscribe to 30, most of which I listen to regularly, some of which I let accumulate if I'm not in the mood for them & go back and listen later.

In reading through this whole thread, a few people mentioned Slate, & while I fall on the other side of the political aisle than their usual audience, I love listening to their Political Gabfest especially, go figure. Culture Gabfest I've gotten tired of lately, but still like Double X and Lexicon. Also, I listened to all the episodes of the first season of Mystery Show, and liked it, but not enough to go back to it. While Belt Buckle was definitely interesting, the Britney episode was my personal favorite: I just like the way it flowed and all the stuff she went through to get to Britney.

Here are some of my favorite podcasts:

~Horror Etc. podcast~ I can't talk enough about this show. Before listening to it, I knew nothing of horror films, & actively avoided them. Like, I remember going to Blockbuster & refusing to even look in the direction of the section where these were, & leaving the room when ads for scary movies came on TV. BUT listening to most of the episodes from this podcast (ALL of which are still up, going back to 2007) opened my eyes & made me look at the whole horror genre in a completely new light. Each one looks at a different aspect of the horror genre (Zombies, Vampires, Slashers, Ghosts, specific horror franchises or directors, types of horror, etc., seriously they've got 300+ episodes). I realize this obviously isn't everyone's cup of tea, but if you sample a few episodes which go over stuff you think you might be interested in, I think you'll like it. My personal favorites are: Ep. 91 - Public Domain Horror Films, Ep. 130 - Silent Horror Films, Ep. 289 - How to Survive a Horror Movie, Ep. 298 - Elevator Horror, & Ep. 317 - Fear 101. But especially 91 & 130. (Sadly they haven't put out an episdoe since Sept. 2015, but I'm hoping they come back eventually, since it ended abruptly with no signs that they weren't coming back. )

For some reason I really like listening to movie podcasts, its actually gotten me more interested in watching films I've never seen before. Anyway, my favorite ones are Now Playing Podcast & Film Junk Podcast. I love how long episodes from both of these podcasts are, so I can listen to them whilst crafting, painting, cleaning, or doing any number of outdoor stuff (raking, shoveling, etc.), plus I find them funny & easy listening.

From the How Stuff Works network of podcasts, I love listening to Stuff to Blow Your Mind and Stuff They Don't Want You to Know; with the latter I went back & listened to their entire archive, since I'm a bit obsessive with podcasts (as in I've also listened to all of the Now Playing podcasts, despite not seeing most of the movies.)

I'll only mention one more. I love the true crime podcast Generation Why. Love the hosts and the approach they take to each case; think they do a pretty good job of laying it out, going over evidence, & discussing the ins and outs of each case. Even the episodes where they have guests on are really good. Plus I like how they cover true crime cases and tackle conspiracy theories too.

That's it; wow this turned out way longer than I intended. Sorry (not sorry).

 

Oh, I listened to season 1 of that! What a hilariously brutal trip that was.

 

why didnt you stick around?

 

I don't know I got distracted. It's still in my feed.

 

I've been listening to it as well. I'm about ten episodes into the first season and I absolutely love it. There's an early episode where one of the guys decides that the filmmakers slipped in subtle hints about one of the characters having magic powers. I just paused the player and laughed for like a full minute after that explanation. I love the hosts and they're definitely hilarious.

But I know what you mean. A lot of times, I feel like the episode where a person should start is the first episode, so it feels weird to recommend a different episode, but the first episode isn't particularly great, so you really want to post a different one.

And I'm definitely gonna take a look at that Horror podcast. Sounds like it's right up my alley.

 

have you heard The Last Podcast on the Left? that's one of my faves. the early episodes suck tho (first 20 or so). I'd recommend starting with one of the "heavy hitters" multi-part serial killer spotlight episodes

my favorite politics podcast (which happens to be london-based) attempts to make sense of brexit

 

LPotL just did a Chemtrails episode which is the best thing ever.

 

any episode where marcus and henry get to compete to see who can make the loudest, most unhinged rant about "the government" is a good ep

 

I thought about posting this in the theist/atheist thread or the God's Not Dead thread, but I'll just put it here. I know you were listening to GodAwful Movies there for a bit, Rogue_Ten. Did you get around to Loving the Bad Man? I just heard it this week and it is just gloriously unhinged. It's far and away their best episode. It's about a rape victim, yeah, you see the title? Learning to love the guy who raped her and, you know, obviously carrying the baby of rape to full term. The guests are the hosts of Cognitive Dissonance, an atheist podcast I liked, but not enough to stick with. They come in with their energy amped to the ceiling and the GAM hosts are up to the task. About the best thing I can say about this is that Eli doesn't dominate this one as he usually does; many of the episodes are basically Eli going off on rants while Heath and Noah laugh hysterically and I think you might have specifically mentioned that as an issue you had with the podcast. But Heath and Noah are both fully engaged here; Noah gets off maybe the most hilarious joke of the entire series so far. It's . . . amazing.

I'm not into trigger warnings, but, you know, I think I would have to actually give one here. The film being discussed is entirely based around a horrible, kind of morally reprehensible treatment of the issues surrounding rape, so there's that. And then the hosts are pretty well off the chain too. This episode has the most discussion/jokes about rape of anything I've ever encountered really, so be prepared or steer clear. But it's all for the great moment when one of the CD guys drops a really horrible rape joke and, for the first time in the history of the podcast, there's just actual dead air for like three seconds. Yeah, this one's edgy, but it's some kind of brilliant.