Podcasts

I enjoy Reply All and I think Alex's voice is fine. But as I've probably said upthread, PJ talks way too fast, barely articulates his consonants, and is an inveterate up-talker, which makes me crazy.

Any serious broadcaster shouldn't be uptalking to such a degree, it makes you sound like you don't trust the words you're saying.

But, omfg the new guy, his voice actually is almost completely unlistenable, I'm sure his journalism skills are great but how did anyone *ever* think he'd make a good broadcaster with a voice like that?

Fwiw, I have no problem with the voices of the reply all hosts. I feel the episode about the mystery song is very entertaining even if the whole dramatic arc/search seems a bit fabricated, a bit Rube Goldberg.

I have not listened to the 1980 podcast, but I did see Hanif give a memorable poetry feature a year or two back. He’s a good writer and the crowd energy/atmosphere was way more intense then I expected.

It's crazy that the so not gonna happen episode is now iconic

Forgot to mention episode 22 last month! But episode 23 is live...

https://www.megaphonic.fm/bythebywater/23

Last week I got an email from Sruthi about Reply All’s Test Kitchen series. I had been avoiding listening but once I did I felt gaslit. The truth is RA and specifically PJ and Sruthi contributed to a near identical toxic dynamic at Gimlet. This will be a longer thread, apologies.

— Eric Eddings (@eeddings) February 16, 2021

re: PJ

Tough listen because the main host has a voice like a Daniel Clowes character (mouth-breath-y, slack jaw, excessive saliva?)... not to mention the Arnold Horschack machine-gun laugh.

It's a voice that made me pine for Starly Kine's if you can believe that.

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Sunday, October 16, 2016 3:45 PM (four years ago)

I've occasionally wondered if he might be a PoS in real life, aside from his near-unlistenably manic uptalking and unforgivable (for a broadcaster) absence of spoken clarity and diction.

That thread is pretty inside baseball for someone that knows what Reply All is yet has only heard one episode (guess which one!?). Can someone sum it up?

yeah this is all kinda mystifying to me?

reply all has a series now on bon appetit and the racist and toxic workplace that ba is/was. a black person who worked at gimlet media is pointing out that basically it's exactly how they describe ba in the podcast series

Gimlet workers unionized in 2019 partly because of issues with diversity (and representation after Gimlet sold itself to Spotify for $230 million)

PJ and Sruthi out

That escalated quickly

I guess it's getting overlooked that one of the Invisibilia hosts accused someone who works on Radiolab of sexually harassing her at a work event

Vogt certainly isn't making excuses, which is a nice change from the way these things usually go. I have to say that as far as toxic workplace blowups go, this one feels pretty minor. They didn't support a union drive and also they were aloof from the rest of the Gimlet crowd — not great behavior, but also sort of what you'd expect from the franchise players? Reply All is the main reason Gimlet exists in the first place. I don't really think this is on par with Bon Appetit or other such examples. Seems more like normal office politics to me.

in a vacuum, sure. the hypocrisy is the real killer here.

Yeah, that obviously pushed a lot of buttons.

I only just discovered Reply All possibly from a comment in a thread here. But I thought this food biz mini series was a 4 parter with a specific host before a return to usual set up. Is that a cover up for a rearrangement or something?

Enjoying it so far. Must listen back through some of the older episodes.

Just listened to a couple of the Al Franken podcasts too. Sounds pretty rational so hope I'm not missing anything.

Still listening to a load of others including MSNBC stuff cos it's easier than dlding video. Pod Save stuff. Daily Beans and the new offshoot with Andrew Torrez Cleanup On Aisle 45. Torrez's weekly legal show Opening Arguments and Serious Inquiries Only.
Plus less frequently broadcast things like All Killa No Filla where 2 Northern working class girls talk about daily life and foibles and then serial killers. Your Queer Story which is amusing if you can take the hosts which I guess is part and parcel of the package. I don't like their bigging up Leo Varadker though since I could really do with him disappearing altogether.
Myths Baby where a Canadian feminist talks about Greek Myths and the surrounding patriarchy.
This Podcast Will Kill You where 2 medically trained women talk about the history of specific diseases. They come up with a fitting cocktail for each one.
The Vaginas Museum which seems to be back with some new podcasts after laying off for a lot of the lockdown.
99% which is about design issues and tends to be really good.
America Dissected which is about American medical issues.
My Momma Told Me humorous broadcast about black conspiracy theories.
Yo,Is this Racist humorous addressing issues pertaining to discrimination, white privilege and fun things.
Worst Year Ever which is an alternative news based show.
Lexicon Valley about the evolution of language and Broadway show songs.
Moby Dick Energy where a feminist comedian goes through the Melville book frequently exploring the Queer undercurrents.
Still working through the History Of The English language which has been fascinating.

And several others I may come back to.

https://www.vulture.com/amp/2021/02/reply-all-hosts-step-down-test-kitchen.html

They're now saying that the Bon Appétit 4-parter was already intended to be Sruthi's exit piece before she moved on to other things, but now the other two episodes are in limbo and the other things Sruthi's moving on to may or may not be with Gimlet. And PJ Vogt is not just taking a break, he's gone.

As an early listener to The Nod, I wasn't surprised by anything in Eric Eddings' twitter thread, because he and Brittany Luse both have sort of danced around the raw deal they got from Gimlet ever since they parted ways with the company, but neither had ever been as forthcoming as this.

Sad Reply All as we knew it is over, because I legit enjoyed that podcast for a long time, but it's hard to imagine it ever working as well with different hosts or with Alex and someone/anyone else.

Gimlet does host two of my favorite science-adjacent shows (Science Vs. and Every Little Thing), but they've always seemed like the NBC of the podcast world. No guiding identity, quick to cancel/cut loose shows. Maybe a reorganization will be beneficial, maybe not.

a few months ago they announced that Emmanuel Dzotsi from Serial season 3 was a new co-host on Reply All, but he doesn't seem to have been included in the show much since then

lol fuck Spotify Podcasts

There's not been much of note episode-wise in the last year of Reply All and it seems that these days their pods all start the same way, with lots of pauses/sighing and morose talk about how shitty the world is, it's kinda enervating to listen to.

I don't dig Dzotsi's voice either, so I'm glad he's not been on much.

I did enjoy the side series where PJ was forced to watch horror movies, but yeah. They've mostly been off the schedule in the last year.

I’m not surprised there is a dark side to Reply All’s unbearable smugness

Good pod re: conspiracy theory culture and Qanon

https://conspirituality.net/wellness/how-to-talk-about-conspiracy-theories-w-anna-merlan/

A journalist, a cult researcher, and a philosophical skeptic
Oh no

New episode! We're talking wizards.

https://www.megaphonic.fm/bythebywater/24

Nice segue! I just listened to the Magic episode, so Wizards will follow on nicely.

Timing!

A new one called What the FUP? trying to correct popular misconceptions about science that keep cropping up in tabloid level press and sci fi films etc and seem to have been fully taken onboard by significant amounts of the population.
Its on the 2nd actual episode after an introductory episode and the 2 presenters were on Serious Inquiries Only this week talking about the film What The BLEEP Do We know and some serious misinformation the film was spreading concerning quantum physics and human will.
I've just heard taht Serious Inquiries show and the introductory episode but it sounds great so far

I guess Cocaine & Rhinestones is indeed gearing up again. This is an epic profile:

https://www.gq.com/story/tyler-mahan-coe-country-music-profile

I have been finally checking out cocaine & rhinestones, it is very good, took a while to get going though and still not a fan of his presenting voice.
he is kind of insufferable on twitter and I've had to mute him.

i am looking forward to the new season

Second captains paul kimmage interviewed by david o doherty is yet another exceptional hour of conversation

Is there a cocaine and rhinestones but for house or Detroit techno?

if there is it's probably called ecstasy and acid

Red Nation came back 2 episodes back totally refurbished. Jettisoned some previous members and things. Not sure to what extent they went into detail as to why. May have been covered elsewhere.

So they've now done an episode on writers and one with a review of King Kong vs God zilla in depth and trying to work out which one is more Indian.
Quite fun.

he is kind of insufferable on twitter and I've had to mute him.

Dude has a podcast called Your Favorite Band Sucks where he drops truthbombs like "RATM are clearly a failure because there was no revolution, lol". Cocaine & Rhinestones is great and deeply researched but outside of that he's cringe.

new podcast from Serial "The Improvement Association" seems good.

We just interviewed A.M Gittlitz (AP Andy from the Antifada) on his book on J. Posadas, Argentinian Trotskyism, Juan Peron, UFOs, nuclear accelerationism, and how leftist sects can devolve into cults in the 70s

https://soundcloud.com/givingthemic/79-books-about-ufos-and-communists-w-am-gittlitz

Meantime, second season of Cocaine and Rhinestones is off and running

This is just the first episode in a season of a podcast. It's not a trapdoor dropping you into a maze with only one horrific path out. These are just stories.https://t.co/M2DzoUu497

— Tyler Mahan Coe (@TylerMahanCoe) April 20, 2021

ive had multiple people i know who loathed country as music for racists about about pickups and dead dogs, then got into cocaine & rhinestones and later came at me like "have you ever listened i mean really listened to merle haggard? let me tell u some facts about him!" which although annoying i guess is good in the grand scheme of things

lmao

one of those ppl also ended up trying hard to sell me on your favorite band sucks and i was like dude i realllly dont have time in my life for david allan coe's son's little comedy riffs on the arcade fire or whoever, also if you still feel strongly about racism google david allan coe.

Good convo here from early lockdown, gets into the mix of consp. theory, cult shit, and American Protestantism helping to feed into Covid freakouts https://conspirituality.net/conspiracy-theories/0-1-conspiracy-theories-cult-dynamics/

as promised on the chapo thread, a few unasked for pointers from me, whomst has done a few pods over the years, answering the age-old question: "should I (you) start a podcast?"

I should note I have never done a patreon or any crowdfunding / fundraising of any kind so I can't speak to that model. (maybe ums can swing by and say a bit about that.) seems hard!

• the only good reason to do a podcast (especially now) is because on balance you think it will be fun to produce. ime this is mainly a function of who you're doing it with - ideally you should be working with people you are eager to spend more time hanging around with. "because I think a lot of people might be interested" is a bad reason, or at least a bad principal reason. (if you're planning on flying solo, good luck - I've never even tried it and it seems hard as hell!!)

• many of you already know this but: producing a podcast is easy, but producing a good one remains quite labor-intensive. one hour of the twin peaks pod, for example, involved rewatching, research, coordinating with guests, and of course the dreaded mixing and editing, two things I do myself. in total, each one-hour ep was easily 5+ hours of work for my co-host and likely more than that for me. if you lack spare time, or think you might lack it in the near future, do not make a podcast. (I will say if you have some $$$, there are new tools that help automate some aspects of editing, but I haven't tried them and idk how effective they really are.)

• if you have co-hosts, leverage their particular strengths and arrange the workload accordingly. I had the best time making the peaks pod because I let my co-host do the social heavy lifting (reaching out to new and unfamiliar guests, using their connections etc) - the shit I find absolutely blood-curdling, leaving me free to just do the grunt work I'm more comfortable with anyway.

• guests are good! yes they can be a pain in the ass to schedule and record with, but that's one more point of connection for ppl to discover your podcast from, and it's a great way to keep yr pod lively and non-monotonous.

• there are way way way too many podcasts, so proceed from the assumption that no one will ever listen to yours. then you can be absolutely delighted when you check your stats and there's the slightest uptick. unless you are an internet celebrity or have pre-existing connections, your only reliable tools are consistency and quality, and even then, you're building a small cult at best. I'm plotting a new one right now - I will happily plug it on here if it comes together - and our attitude is very much "this should exist and it would be fun for us so let's do it". if you produce good content consistently and at least some of you are doing something to promote it (even if it's just linking it here as Ned has been doing for his Tolkien cast), at least a few listeners will find you.

• lastly, I strongly recommend that whatever your prospective pod is about, try to keep the topic/subject/format relatively evergreen. I still check the Lodgers stats every couple months, and there's still a steady trickle of new listeners, though we wrapped it up about 2.5 years ago. for me that's reward plenty.

Very good tips!

Yup, these are good tips

agreed with all that Simon, amazed that you can make a one-hour show in 5 hours, that is astonishingly quick, I would put a one-hour show at a full day's work at the very least.

I was interviewed by a podcast newsletter once and it was never used, I suspect this was mainly because I discouraged people from starting podcasts, you really need to have a very good idea and brilliant delivery to make anything which stands out these days, also I was pissed off at all the celebs and showbiz stars coming into podcasting and bringing their unfair clout and their horrible broadcasting styles into the field, I went on a bit of a rant about My D*d Wrote a P*rno, which I still blame for setting a shitty standard which many have followed, guess the interviewer didn't agree.

Don't know if I should stop calling my thing a "podcast" now, when I started in 2007 music mixes were a standard type of podcast, now everyone expects speech. kind of reluctant to let it go as there is a podcast ecosystem which isn't there for mixes, but I suspect the kind of people who would like my mixes probably aren't reading podcast newsletters.

A lot of podcasters need editors, is my takeaway from listening to podcasts. If they were given time constraints, they would be about 200% better programs. Yes Antifada I am looking directly at u.