Post a controversial opinion

completely agreed but i've accepted that i'm on the wrong side of history here

I have never enjoyed a single episode of just people bullshitting. Like, I've enjoyed Molly Lambert's stuff on the internet, for Grantland etc, so I gave her new podcast Nightcall(?) a listen, and just noooo

they're also all 2-3 fucking hours long now

it's infuriating to me that ppl routinely put out long-ass podcasts that no one edits properly. madness

i feel like a lot of the appeal of making a podcast is that you can get away with not editing. probably very useful for overbooked and underpaid upstart comedian types. i think about this a lot 'cause back in 2010-2011 i had this comics blog with my buddy, covering old chris claremont and grant morrison comics, about which some folks here spoke very kindly. it kinda died because it was just so much work to take our AIM conversation and edit it down to something someone might conceivably want to read, plus formatting and adding images and stuff. in hindsight if we'd just done it as a "hit record, talk a while, hit stop" kind of podcast, we probably would have 500 episodes and 2,500 patreon subscribers right now, just from being early enough to the game. oops.

where it gets annoying is when a podcast gets 'big,' and clearly has the resources, but are now high on their own fame and their awful dumb injokey fanbase, who will eat up every last crumb of would-be-hilarious chatter. but when it's somebody's hobby i can't really fault it too much. i post thousands of architectural photos into the void on flickr with god knows how many words of commentary underneath, seen and read by roughly five people. sometimes the texts are horribly-edited, longwinded and blinkered to important context i've failed to do my homework on. notwithstanding the little side money i've made licensing photos for publication here and there, which is nice, it's a personal project.

obviously really good talk podcasts are more like really good public radio - - - paid producers working the levels, trimming out junk and dead air, even working from a script, etc.

I find podcasts convenient for when I'm doing household chores. I can spend hours cleaning my house while completely absorbed by some podcast (even if it's just two people bullshitting, as long as they're good at it) in way that I am never able to do while just listening to music. Music is good for when I'm at work and need to actually think (something I am completely unable to do when listening to people talk).

luv2build extremely healthy parasocial relationships with all the hosts of my favourite longform podcasts, the only people who really understand and value me

Blank Check is the only long podcast I listen to on the reg and even that's become self-indulgent in the last few months. TBF they have made a point of retiring a lot of bits, I think they've twigged its on the verge of turning (even more) into a wankathon.

I just don't understand where people find the time to listen to episode after episode of two comedians horsing around for 90 minutes. It's all I can do to keep up with listening to albums I buy. I'm sure there are many podcasts I would find enjoyable and interesting, but I don't commute to work and if I have free time to listen to something, I want to hear music, not chatter

― Paul Ponzi, Thursday, March 21, 2019 7:09 AM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i don't really get excited by new music anymore. i listen to podcasts when doing tasks - dishes, walking to grocery store, cleaning. my gf puts them on at bedtime sometimes also, they help me fall asleep.

i feel like i expect more from music, which it can no longer deliver to me, whereas with a podcast i am accepting that it's just going to be some people talking, and that's ok.

and here’s why

Never listened to one tbh.

otm re: Blank Check

The sleep with me podcast sorta changed my life. Or I should say it changes my life when I use it, which I don't always because I'm bad at knowing what's good for me

i don't really get excited by new music anymore. i listen to podcasts when doing tasks - dishes, walking to grocery store, cleaning. my gf puts them on at bedtime sometimes also, they help me fall asleep.

― ( ͡☉ ͜ʖ ͡☉) (jim in vancouver), Thursday, March 21, 2019 2:13 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

do you also no longer get excited about old music? Because I feel you (strongly) on your first point but I still feel like there aren't enough hours in the day to hear everything I want. For instance: just last week I decided I really like Traffic, so now I'm bingeing on all the albums I didn't know (which is all but two of them). There's always new stuff to hear and get excited about, which is to me a far more worthwhile way to spend time than listening to podcasts. Similarly I'd also always rather read a book about something than listen to a podcast about it (ie true crime, country music, etc). But like Brad upthread I recognize and acknowledge that I am on the wrong side of history here

I'm with Paul on this one (except for that last sentence, it's the kids who are wrong).

uhh yeah dude is the only non-documentary podcast i can listen to. it's hilarious but thank goodness they're not comedians. i honestly can't think of anything more unfunny and insufferable than comedians. the only guest they have on the show is one of their moms when one of them can't make it (and it's always a treat)

do you also no longer get excited about old music?

yes. i still listen to it, but it doesn't excite me. it's mainly background for me

Similarly I'd also always rather read a book about something than listen to a podcast about it (ie true crime, country music, etc). But like Brad upthread I recognize and acknowledge that I am on the wrong side of history here

id also rather read a book but i can't read a book while doing chores

history is what we make of it

what's the real actual difference between a "comedian" chatting and a funny person chatting? I think it just comes down to the person in question.

The problem with many comedians on podcasts is that they're always trying to be funny, often at the expense of having a naturally flowing conversation. This can be funny in short bursts, but gets tiresome.

I recently tried the James Acaster Ed Gamble podcast. No, in a word.

Oh Christ that's so bad, just rambling self-congratulatory, go-nowhere pointless bullshit. (board description etc). My Brother, My Brother and Me's the same, and although I'll at least get 1 chuckle out of them an episode, it doesn't make it worth my time. The Dollop is the worst one of these that I've dipped into, tho fair play to them getting a gig from reading out a wiki entry.

acaster netflix special bored the fuck out of me for the ten mins i could stand

uhh yeah dude is the only non-documentary podcast i can listen to.

do you have to be american because this is unlistenable.

weve touched upon the unlistenability of the american podcast voice elsewhere im sure

we have

btw i’ve read this thread twice and i cannot work out who diamonddave is referring to

The Dollop is the worst one of these that I've dipped into

this is violence

I've struggled with The Dollop, too. It comes down to when you first 'join' a podcast, innit, and how invested in their own mythos the presenters are. If you join a podcast late and there's a whole associated idiolect and extended periods of self-congratulatory banter it quickly becomes unbearable.

can become unbearable even if you've followed it from the beginning (side-eye to the greatest generation).

oh the dollop! yes, that was fucking unbearable and easily my worst 14 minutes of last year

I listened to the most recent episode of UYD and they're funny but I think I'm just too late to the party. I know a lot of ppl who venerate it but since it's been going for 13 years it's 90% in-jokes at this point

The only podcast i can regularly listen to is 99% Invisible.

There are a couple of others I like but the episodes are sooooooo long. 45 minutes should be the max for any podcast.

The Dollop isn't quite as good as it used to be. I feel like they're maybe running out of good material. Some of the classic episodes are among the funniest things I've ever heard though.

But I feel like almost any comedy podcast requires a lot of time investment to get the most out of it. Pretty much all of them have a whole bunch of intricate long-running in-jokes. I don't know if there's any way around this, in-jokes are basically 90% of all humour.

i've listened to a good amount of the dollop because some of the stories they dig up are legitimately interesting. kind of in spite of the comedy, which more often than not is too intrusive, obnoxious, and not funny imo.

im inventing “podcastify zing” app in which u drop in a permalink frrom a thread, and a rapid version of robot voice of your choice/accent recites “(poster display name) sed (recite post). If there’s only a pic it says “(pdn) left a link.”

There will be presets to link thread order— by date, or by search term, like band or song name, or by most common posters in thread.

In robot recitation of thread, initial post will have a month/year, then dates will only be referred to of theres a gap of more than a month. When you get to within a month of now it’ll just announce “this month pdn sed” for the first one. At any time if you look at the screen the complete thread name and entire post being recited will be displayed.

then you can vacuum the ouse.

im inventing “podcastify zing” app in which u drop in a permalink frrom a thread, and a rapid version of robot voice of your choice/accent recites (poster display name) sed (recite post).” If there’s only a pic it says “(pdn) left a link.”

There will be presets to link thread order— by date, or by search term, like band or song name, or by most common posters in thread.

In robot recitation of thread, initial post will have a month/year, then dates will only be referred to of theres a gap of more than a month. When you get to within a month of now it’ll just announce “this month pdn sed” for the first one. At any time if you look at the screen the complete thread name and entire post being recited will be displayed.

then you can vacuum the ouse.

dupe is from my other app, “post terrible boring joekz twice.”

i feel like you should get together with karl malone on this, it's got potential. an alternative would be to set it up as a Clock of the Long Now style installation where it just starts slowly reading the entirety of ILX out loud, in order, for years to come.

Fleabag isgood without a doubt, but also irritating in that there is a certain element of ‘posh’/class privilege in how we are invited to indulge the main character.

I got heavily into podcasts and out of new music a few years ago. Now I'm back at the opposite, unsubscribed from most podcasts I liked, now find them really corny. There is hope.

I listen to lots of podcasts and still find time for music - it's a brave new world! i realise this doesn't give me the jouissance of being able to say 'I'm on the wrong side of history' but it's a brave new world all the same. (Double winky face emoticon.)

maffew otm, some popular veins of podcasting are beginning to stale already

my braindead job does help me keep up with the subscriptions I have. This has probably helped me get back to new music on my own time.

There's a controversial opinion brewing here. I'll find it yet.

I mean if you don't have a good "radio voice" or whatever, you should probably write instead of podcast, or just yak with your friends, idk

fire emoticon

all the alan partridge stuff written by those two brothers is bad
twin peaks the return is bad
autumn is not a good season