Podcasts

MAC WELDON
WARBY PARKER
AUDIBLE DOT COM

gaaaahhhhhh

Bombas Socks seem to have chilled a bit recently though Casper will never stop.

My sister gave MeUndies to everyone for Xmas last year

I have been listening to lots of history podcasts covering the early years of the 20th century, and the amount of ads for Square Space, Stamps.com, 1-800-flowers, Blue Apron, Me Undies is fucking insane, sometimes 30% of the episode. Stuff You Missed In History Class is the worst offender. I want to link to them but not going to now.

Yeah, some podcasts are overboard with the ad reads. Do they get paid even if no one uses them? I always wondered that. I also wonder if there are different tiered ad reads. Some of the podcasts I listen to reads each ad for like 30 seconds, others will take a minute and half, two minutes to read the same ad.

Definitely most of these high profile post-Serial podcasts are jacked to the brim with ads. It can be nuts.

skip ahead 45 seconds button a godsend.

For podcast recs, I really dug this interview about how people form beliefs, why facts can’t change the tightly held ones, and why Twitter sucks:

https://soundcloud.com/youarenotsosmart/119-the-unpersuadables

I used to like how Greg Proops would do sarcastic commentary on the copyediting in the ads as he was reading them, but guessing the advertisers didn't like that as he eventually stopped doing that.

skip ahead 45 seconds button a godsend.

― Jeff, Tuesday, January 16, 2018 6:14 AM (thirteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

iirc there are ways to tell when ppl do this--basically if you actually like a podcast and want to support it, suffer through the ad reads.

^ Bill Burr made fun of his advertisers' ad copy all of the time. I haven't listened to him in a while to know if he still does that.

exhaustive list of podcast genres:
- my friends are funny so i never edit them
- you didn't know how X worked, now you do
- how much personal trauma will people reveal into a mic? lots
- murder exists

— Eleanor Gordon-Smith (@TheRealEGS) January 15, 2018

trooth

iirc there are ways to tell when ppl do this--basically if you actually like a podcast and want to support it, suffer through the ad reads.

i don't think this is true. it was only a month ago that apple started providing analytics on skips and it hasn't affected (wanker word alert) cpms afaik. skipping is probably less common than you think - maybe 10-15% of listeners will skip some portion of an ad. also keep in mind that advertisers already knew people skipped, even on platforms that don't provide that info, so it's "costed in". that could change of course. but there's no reason i know of at the moment to feel guilty about it.

there is no possible way of knowing when I fast-forward through an ad on an mp3 that I have downloaded and transferred to a portable device

I never tire of hearing about Squatty Potty and how it works

anyway 94% of podcast ads are for products or services unavailable to most of the world

Seeso would still be running if the people they spent money advertising to had been able to subscribe to it

sic if you're using the apple podcasts app, then it reports that info back to apple, along with other behaviour, and publishers can see it aggregated in a stats dashboard.

ditto acast, stitcher, etc

yeah but I don't

fair!

I tried the Harrys razor trial thing which seems to be on every UK podcast and it was a mediocre shave so fuck that.

i hate the guilty feminist with the white hot heat of a thousand suns, it is awful, smug, privileged bullshit

also it is neither guilty, nor feminist

any good recent podcasts? I'm pretty much out on comedy. As for history and whatnot I'm enjoying Literature and History. Tides of History can be good, but so scattered. Why try to simultaneously cover the aftermath of the Roman empire and the beginning of the Modern World? And then drop in an interview about other stuff every other week? And the ads!

Heaven's Gate was pretty good. I'm worried Atlanta Monster will be too exploitative.

Atlanta Monster is good so far - almost like an oral history of what it was like growing up in that time, he talks to the brother of one of the victims, it doesnt seem exploitative so far

i am going to tell everyone to listen to Rumble Strip until it's world-famous. what's it about? don't worry about it. just subscribe to it. it's my favorite podcast.

also, um, i'm kind of lowkey hosting a BBC podcast (about... BBC podcasts)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05ltqxn/episodes/downloads

ftr i like my casper mattress but it took about a month (offer code handbook)

podcastception

i am going to tell everyone to listen to Rumble Strip until it's world-famous. what's it about? don't worry about it. just subscribe to it. it's my favorite podcast.

subscribed

if i don't like it i'll send you an invoice for my time

also, um, i'm kind of lowkey hosting a BBC podcast (about... BBC podcasts)

Nice one, Tracer!

I'm enjoying "Slow Burn," Slate's Watergate series. I know Watergate sort of moderately well, but there's a lot of stuff in here I've never heard. And they do a pretty good job of noting obvious contemporary parallels without beating you over the head. Mostly it's about how just totally crazy the whole thing was, and how long it took for most people to really pay attention to it as it was playing out.

that sounds kinda good to me

One thing I like is getting away from the Woodward-Bernstein framing — those guys were important, but there were a lot of other important people too, in the media and outside it.

it is v good

also one of the podcastiest podcasts you ever will podcast

I'm starting to get obsessed with RPG podcasts fyi

like what?

On the subject of roleplaying podcasts, I feel like Friends at the Table is a hard sell because of the time investment involved and the deep nerdery of the enterprise, but the Marielda/Winter in Hieron (post-post-apocalyptic fantasy) and COUNTER/Weight (cyberpunk anime SF) seasons are really rewarding. FatT's storytelling isn't as tight or funny as The Adventure Zone (partly because it's more heavily improvised), but it's equally creative and often more thoughtful and ambitious.

http://friendsatthetable.net/category/Marielda

yeah i have been listening to the adventure zone, counterweight and FILM REROLL which is just a ridiculous hoot. wizard of oz a highlight

i know FatT is v well-regarded but yeah i haven't quite got into it

i will check out the marielda thing, thank you!

campaign and one shot also have their moments

I plugged my own Burning Ambulance podcast (link goes to iTunes) when it first launched back in October; there are now eight episodes up, and I've already got the next two recorded. Hour-long interviews with jazz musicians, no ads (wouldn't even know how to get advertisers), and a minimum of pre-interview jabber.

that sounds like the right recipe, thank you grawlix

here's a link that works by the way :) https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/burning-ambulance-podcast/id1296224800?mt=2

some more rpg recs:
https://fuckyeahdnd.tumblr.com/post/169958969417/podcasts

I will second Slow Burn. Listened to almost all of if this weekend. As a Canadian who mostly only knew the broad outlines of Watergate (and mostly from a viewing of 'all the president's men' ~20 years ago) I'm finding this very informative. Also enjoy that they've cut it up into short 20-something minute episodes.

Really liking This Week In Parasitism - http://www.microbe.tv/twip/
Three doctors taking about, what else, parasites! Lots of science talk, but the best part of the show is their case study of the week where listeners are invited to ID the parasite based on stuff like:

"Case Study for TWiP 145
Male 40s, visiting NYC on business. Lives in Thailand, seeks medical attention for diarrhea and abdominal pain. Diarrhea is continuous, even at night. Feels swollen. Stool cultures come back negative. CBC reveals eosinophilia. Clinician orders stool O&P. See something in stool: large elliptical objects, over 100 microns.

Perhaps not for everyone, but a must listen if you're at all fascinated.

If musician interviews are your thing The Trap Set might appeal, it's a drummer's podcast but 99% of the talk is non-technical. Joe, the host, is more interested in finding out what makes his interviewee tick and he can be kinda fearless but still non-aggressive in his questioning.

Even the silly premise of interviewing Roland, Steve Albini's Big Black era drum machine comes across as really interesting.

http://www.thetrapset.net/

Trap Set is great - La Lechera turned me onto it a while back

yeah, i don't have a ton of interest in technical drum stuff, but the trap set is consistently interesting. there's a new spin-off with Laura Veirs hosting, featuring interview with musicians about parenting. great so far ... http://www.midnightlightning.net/

Glad to see people who are not me talking about the Trap Set. :)

I'm low-key trying to start my own podcast where I talk to producers/electronic music people, still have some things to figure out but I'm recording the first one this weekend.

Some of my resolutions are to avoid things I'm tired of in other interview podcasts, such as 1) spending too long in the intro talking about what they talk about with the guest, and 2) spending too long in the beginning of the interview asking about the guest's childhood. Sometimes this yields interesting material but is more often boring, and feels like an inevitable topic that has to be discussed before you can get to the real conversation. I blame Maron for this.