Podcasts

xxpost yeah idk what happened btw Alie & Georgia but they dont seem to interact anymore

I've been listening to Decode The News a bit recently - it's the project of Zee, who's the wife & producer of Jamie from The British History Podcast. Decode The News is her project, but he's there as much as she is, and it seems like they haven't really worked out the way they should interact with each-other on air yet - he is used to reading from a script, and this is more like a conversation about issues in the news. However, I reckon it has promise, Zee really seems to have done extensive research on everything she talks about, and isn't coming at things from the usual twitter hot take bubble.

https://www.decodethenewspodcast.com/

Kinda want Joe Wong to interview Whiney for The Trap Set, seeing as they both played in Parts & Labour :)

Ha I would enjoy that, I'll ask him about it.

I just interviewed the host of the Zero Squared/Zero Books Podcast last night, and we got a good two plus hours of Portland leftie pod tape that I now need to figure out how to edit down.

has anyone linked this?

https://www.buzzfeed.com/doree/meet-the-people-who-listen-to-podcasts-at-super-fast-speeds

my question is why???

To absorb information as quickly as possible in the limited time available in a human lifespan, I guess? Yeah, doesn't sound good.

it's just quixotic and the ppl they're profiling it's v questionable listening imo.

Take 34-year-old Jason Strickland, who works for a land surveyor in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He listens to around eight hours of podcasts at work every day, and listened at normal speed until he came upon the Movies by Minutes series of podcasts, which analyzes iconic movies minute by minute. (In other words, every episode is devoted to one minute of a movie.) When he found it, the hosts had already completed the original Star Wars trilogy, which was 378 episodes, plus a few special episodes, so he started downloading 50 episodes at a time and listening at 2x speed. "It took about a month per movie to get caught up," he said, explaining that he would listen to whatever podcasts were on his current listening list in the morning, and then power through the Movies by Minutes episodes in the afternoons. "Once I was current, I would then go find another show to download and get caught up, repeating this for all the shows."

isn't it just more pleasant to listen reasonably to stuff at normal speed (so everyone doesn't sound like chipmunks) and a reasonable amount of it? if you have too many podcasts to listen to maybe you're listening to too many podcasts????

I do it all the time. You'll be amazed how easily you can follow a conversation at double speed. And the players only change the speed, not the pitch.

Any podcasters here have strong opinions on hosting?

I use libsyn, it's OK I guess. Rubbish interface, reasonably cheap, recently pretty reliable in terms of outages.

decode the news is a great idea, i just wish it was a bit... better?

Go for Libsyn over SoundCloud, tho soundcloud does offer the benefit of its own network of users.

Libsyn also auto-ports your show over to YouTube, which you want to do

Yeah, I know what you mean. But I feel like they are just finding their way with it, his other podcast took a long time to get good.

Xp

i keep hearing this but what benefits do you get from having it on YouTube?

xposts

I hate how soundcloud puts up barriers to getting the mp3

YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine on the planet, which algorithmically suggests related vids to people.

Can’t hurt.

Once you become accustomed to hearing sped up podcasts normal speed feels like being stuck in a dream where you’re trying to run and your legs don’t work

A friend turned me on to Cocaine & Rhinestones last weekend and I've done three episodes now. They're looooong, and the host/narrator is kind of awkward, but if you want deeeeeeep dives into facets of the history of 20th century country music, this seems like the one to hit up.

Tyler Mahan Coe, the host/narrator, is apparently David Allan Coe's kid it turns out.

i might be into that

of course i want him to do a two-hour episode on the making of red-headed stranger

something else from me - i present a bit of behind the scenes of a new(-ish) BBC podcast thriller: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05vytrj

xp Thanks for linking this, I enjoyed the episode (based around "The Pill") about the gender bias of country music radio bans.

Listening to that one now.

JFC the one on the Judds is insane.

I gather the one about Spade Cooley is even more fucked up than that one, so I'm kind of saving it for last.

https://www.wired.com/story/apple-podcast-analytics-first-month/

I don't know if it's because I am so used to the style of NPR/American podcasts, but I sure do love a lot of the arts & culture shows on BBC Radio 3 & 4. Jarvis Cocker's show about the night (Wireless Nights) is pretty great.

I recently discovered The Organist, produced by NPR/KCRW in collaboration with Mcsweeney's. Great weirdo artsy podcast, sort of like the newsmagazine version of Love & Radio. Recently did shows on Firesign Theatre and vintage experimental radio advertisements. Through them I also found out about The World According To Sound, a 180 second podcast where every episode focus on one unusual/evocative sound.

I'll also mention the podcast I produce/musically score: Solutions To Problems (https://www.stppodcast.com/). It's a fictional Dear Abby, set in space.

Interesting premise.

wow thanks for these Michael

which r4/r3 podcasts do you like especially? and what is it about them that's refreshing when set next to american ones? (he says with not entirely non-professional interest?)

I confess: I'm a bit of a podcast addict. I've just looked at the R3/R4 ones I listen to and realised I sound a bit mental: In Our Time, The Essay, the Arts & Ideas Podcast (formerly Night Waves), the Infinite Monkey Cage, the Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry, David Baddiel Tries to Understand, the History Hour, Soul Music, Seriously and the Documentary.

Current other favourites for me include the (recently returned) Adam Buxton podcast (with an interview with PTA), Revolutions (currently on a mammoth recounting of the Paris Commune) and Russell Brand's Under the Skin interviews.

Tracer, I think it's mainly a matter of taste in the end, but sometimes I just want something that leans a bit more artsy/cerebral yet still is engaging. Most hosts/shows at NPR sound very warm/engaging/accessible, which can lead to a lot of great storytelling and conversations, but doesn't take a lot of risks with their audience or format. I think if you compare NPR's popular quiz show "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" to BBC's "Brain Of Britain" or Round Britain Quiz, you can hear a bit what I'm talking about. I can't imagine something like that fascinatingly trippy "Three Second Rule" episode of BBC's Between The Ears ever being greenlit on U.S. radio. I like poetry, math/statistics, contemporary art, and some philosophy, all of which seems to be covered better and in more depth by BBC shows such as In Our Time, Start The Week, The Philosopher's Arms, The Radio 3 Documentary, The Essay, Arts & Ideas, More Or Less, etc.

This is not to say that BBC doesn't have it's own ring of overly dry, overly niche shows, and that freeform/independent US radio stations like WFMU or KPFA aren't awesome and inspiring. Any station that lets their DJ do live sound collages is more than alright in my book (See long-running shows like Over The Edge, Puzzling Evidence, Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza, others.)

lot of talk abt radio shows, not native podcasts, in the last few posts

worthy distinction

This is true. But w/o podcasts I wouldn’t be able to listen to these shows in the first place, unless I was really good at using a world band radio.

you could use the iPlayer radio app :)

it is not as handy tho

I used to listen to BBC radio online before RSS was even invented

I used to listen to BBC radio before online was invented

Can anyone recommend some podcast drama? I have a long standing love of BBC radio drama, But never explored much beyond the BBC.

i hate pretty much all audio drama. homecoming was good though. season 1. try it. i would also love some suggestions.

there's a ton of dr who dramas from big finish that some people rep for. you could try that if you're a whovian. i listened to the trailer for the new Wolverine thing but i don't think it's for me.

Podcast drama: I like Within The Wires a lot, they just finished their second season. First series is told through a series of subversive relaxation cassettes, second series is through a series of audio guides to museums. I also like The Far Meridian and Greater Boston, both of which have a bit of a surreal/dream logic element to their narratives.

i like far meridian thanks!

i tried within the wires a couple of months ago and got impatient with it - i will give it another chance

i find myself getting impatient with a lot of podcasts tbh

Any good podcasts that interview smaller-time musicians beyond the NPR-related shows, getting into talking about making music? Marc Maron's interview with Ty Segall a couple of years ago was really good and in the ballpark.

No Effects (specializes in '00s indie/Brooklyn musicians, hosted by one of the members of Tanlines)
The Trap Set (drummers)
Secret Skin (specializes in indie rappers, hosted by Open Mike Eagle)
The Wandering Wolf (mostly musicians, hosted by the dude from Why?)
Kinda Neat (L.A. rappers mostly)

Turned Out A Punk (hosted by the singer of Fucked Up)
Kreative Kontrol (lots of Canadians)

Song Exploder

lol there was that rick rubin / malcolm gladwell podcast that came out in november and still hasn't had another episode

578 ratings

I love Song Exploder, I wish each episode was 3x as long. what about Album Exploder. i'm all in. patreon, whatever. let's go

Any suggestions for particularly good Song Exploder eps? I usually only tune in when it is a musician I like, and the few times I've tried listening to some band I've never heard of before I've also found the episodes to be lacking. There have been eps with bands that I like that I didn't enjoy also, but I'm less likely to take a risk on a band I don't know after a few bad tries I guess. Ones I've really enjoyed include Grimes, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Lorde.

this is the one that got me hooked: http://songexploder.net/the-microphones