Recommend a Podcast

[Stu Monty]

I subscribed to a few new ones last week:

 

TED talks - Interesting videos from people with interesting views on varied subjects. A few of the videos have been posted in various threads on the GF before. I think this is a real find.

 

Greg Palast's Podcast - Seems to be of very varying regularity and is just bits and bobs of media appearances from him, still well worth the time.

 

This Brave Nation - I've not got into this too much yet but it's a collaboration between The Nation magazine in the US and Brave New Foundation. I'd say anyone with an interest in progressive views wouldn't be wasting time taking a look at it. This Brave Nation.

 

Counterspin - A podcast, again from the USA, which features analysis of the media and the news. Only listened to one episode so far but it was pretty decent.

[Rocky Sullivan]

The Collings and Herrin podcast which is Andrew Collins and Richard Herring being all sweary and stuff or The Collins and Herring podcast which is from the BBC and is less sweary

Adams Buxton's Big Mix Tape also from the Beeb.

Daniel Kitson has got a few recordings from his stand-up as podcasts.

Phil and Phil's perfect 10 is...ok.

The Friday night comedy podcast from Radio 4 which alternates between The Now Show and The News Quiz every 6 weeks or so.

Basically the BBC and The Guardian have got it pretty much wrapped up for the quality stuff.

[Mr. Beast]

these two are good, if a bit heavy

 

Home | This American Life

 

BBC - Radio 4 In Our Time - Homepage

[Ezekiel 25:17]

How do I stick a podcast on me wireless then ??

[ticklemeclemo]

SModcast

 

Tell em stevedave.

For anyone interested in Kevin Smith aka Silent Bob, some funny shit from Stevedave and fanboy as well as the original smodcast

[Stu Monty]

I cannot recommend the David Mitchell Soapbox podcasts enough. I only got onto them two days ago and I've pretty much worked my way through all of them since then. They are all under five minutes and it's just tiny little thoughts that are pretty much always interesting and humourus. Anyone who has an Ipod should check them out, they're superb.

 

Since the last time I posted on this thread I can say that my opinion on the Counterspin podcast has solidified and that it is really very good. It always highlights the hypocrisy and failings of the corporate media and usually has two different contributors each week on current subjects.

 

I've just started with the Dave Gorman podcast too, but I've only listened to one of them so far, so I can't really comment.

 

For people with devices with video capability, and especially those who use public transport to commute each day, I really would try and get involved with those TED talks ones. I struggle to keep up with them, I had to unsubscribe as there's one a day and I wasn't getting through them, and the fact that I drive means I can't watch them every day to and from work. If I used the train I reckon I'd easily keep up with them. They are packed full of interesting ideas.

[DJLJ]

I subscribed to a few new ones last week:

 

TED talks - Interesting videos from people with interesting views on varied subjects. A few of the videos have been posted in various threads on the GF before. I think this is a real find.

 

Greg Palast's Podcast - Seems to be of very varying regularity and is just bits and bobs of media appearances from him, still well worth the time.

 

This Brave Nation - I've not got into this too much yet but it's a collaboration between The Nation magazine in the US and Brave New Foundation. I'd say anyone with an interest in progressive views wouldn't be wasting time taking a look at it. This Brave Nation.

 

Counterspin - A podcast, again from the USA, which features analysis of the media and the news. Only listened to one episode so far but it was pretty decent.

 

Been listening to this one for several years now. I'd say this is the best one out there on a variety of topics.

[Stu Monty]

I decided to act upon the recommendation of leek-munching, cheese-on-toast loving, livestock-bothering legend, Mr R Knight, and have a listen to that Bill Simmons podcast. It was a strange one because even though they seemed to discuss a lot of topics that I wouldn't particularly care about, and in some cases, that of Basketball in particular, knew nothing about I still found it a very entertaining and interesting listen. I think I'll be giving it another couple of goes, and have the feeling it will stay on my subscribed list.

 

Counterspin was, once again, excellent this week. Interesting stuff about Venezuela and Colombia and also the media spin on Afghanistan.

[ATXRED]

Home | This American Life

 

I'll second this recommendation. The music is excellent, an it's one of the most interesting programs in any medium. They also did a TV series on ShowTime that was excellent. Like Beast said though, it's heavy. Definitely not fun times.

[Lee909]

film fans

Film junk

 

boxing

the boxing truth

 

MMA

any from sherdog or mma junkie

 

all have both websites and itunes downloads

[RedKnight]

I decided to act upon the recommendation of leek-munching, cheese-on-toast loving, livestock-bothering legend, Mr R Knight, and have a listen to that Bill Simmons podcast. It was a strange one because even though they seemed to discuss a lot of topics that I wouldn't particularly care about, and in some cases, that of Basketball in particular, knew nothing about I still found it a very entertaining and interesting listen. I think I'll be giving it another couple of goes, and have the feeling it will stay on my subscribed list.

 

Counterspin was, once again, excellent this week. Interesting stuff about Venezuela and Colombia and also the media spin on Afghanistan.

 

Just seen this post, aside from the cultural sleights from Monts, he's right. Simmons is just a great talker, when he discusses a topic he's usually got enough insight to entertain even if the listener is not fully informed of the subject. Take his recent 90210 podcasts as evidence, never seen an episode of that but the podcast was really funny.

[Fink]

A hsitory of the World in 100 objects. Little bits of history in 15 minute chunks with the director of the british museum...

 

An absolute must listen for anyone remotely interested in History - which should be everyone!

[Vim Fuego]

Just seen this post, aside from the cultural sleights from Monts, he's right. Simmons is just a great talker, when he discusses a topic he's usually got enough insight to entertain even if the listener is not fully informed of the subject. Take his recent 90210 podcasts as evidence, never seen an episode of that but the podcast was really funny.

I love the BS report too and would recommend Spider and The Henchman, it's a sports podcast with Kevin Hench who's one of Bill Simmons friends and John Salley who used to play basketball. It covers all the US sports and can be a bit more controversial as they don't have ESPN's lawyers checking everything.

Another great one is Daves of Thunder, it's more of a morning radio show type podcasts with lots of gags and is presented by Dave Dameshek (a friend of Simmons) and David Feeney.

[gingerhulk]

The f***ball ramble. Started off recording in one of the presenters kitchens, recently was number one in the iTunes sports chart.

[Juniper]

Jay and Silent Bob Get Old

 

Recently started listening to this. It's a simple format, Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes recorded in front of a live audience telling stories about Jason Mewes's drug addiction and his struggle to get clean the past 20 years. It's released once a week.

 

Really, really funny but with some obvious serious undertones. Kevin Smith does a great job at telling most of Mewes's escapades over the years, everything from being on the run from the law to trying to score Heroin whilst shooting/promoting their movies over the years.

 

It sounds like a bit of a bummer but it really isn't, it's all told with a lot of humour. Find myself pissing myself with laughter a lot listening to it whilst at the same time marveling how Mewes is still alive. I really recommend it.

 

Can be found off iTunes, but here's a webpage link also.

 

Jay & Silent Bob Get Old - SModcast.com

[Liverpool lad]

The f***ball ramble. Started off recording in one of the presenters kitchens, recently was number one in the iTunes sports chart.

 

It is absolutely quality, 'I can't water to the lads'

[L19red]

Wittertainment is always good. Kermode's rants are are top notch. It takes a week or two to get some of the in jokes as they usually reference the previous few episodes and there is a dialogue with listeners responding to the previous broadcast but its still good.

[Lee909]

SModcast

 

Tell em stevedave.

For anyone interested in Kevin Smith aka Silent Bob, some funny shit from Stevedave and fanboy as well as the original smodcast

 

Just listening to the second jay and silient Bob podcast today

fantastic listening

[bri]

Jay and Silent Bob Get Old

 

Recently started listening to this. It's a simple format, Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes recorded in front of a live audience telling stories about Jason Mewes's drug addiction and his struggle to get clean the past 20 years. It's released once a week.

 

Really, really funny but with some obvious serious undertones. Kevin Smith does a great job at telling most of Mewes's escapades over the years, everything from being on the run from the law to trying to score Heroin whilst shooting/promoting their movies over the years.

 

It sounds like a bit of a bummer but it really isn't, it's all told with a lot of humour. Find myself pissing myself with laughter a lot listening to it whilst at the same time marveling how Mewes is still alive. I really recommend it.

 

Can be found off iTunes, but here's a webpage link also.

 

Jay & Silent Bob Get Old - SModcast.com

 

props to this

[Stu Monty]

If you want to laugh a lot then search for Daniel Kitson's podcast on Itunes. There's not much to it as it's just some stand-up from a few years ago but, my fuck, he's a funny man.

[Lee909]

If anyone hasnt checked out the smodcast link yet they are missing out.

The Blow Hard podcast with Malcolm Ingram is some of the funniest shit i have heard

[Welsh]

Bumping this.

[DJLJ]

I know TED talks has been recommended before, but I'll just out it out there again. This is todays podcast and the woman in it, is one of the happiest people I've ever seen. Great to see technology being able to help people like this.

 

Eythor Bender demos human exoskeletons | Video on TED.com

[Thomo123]

bump

[Sugar Ape]

Read this article before and downloaded the first one from the iTunes store before. A bit strange but some good moments. I'll listen to some more on my way to work next week.

 

 

Welcome To Night Vale, the podcast that's like a local news Twin Peaks

News updates from a fictional town have become a must-listen for a fanbase craving their fortnightly fix of alien incursions, vengeful spirits and hovering cats

 

 

Mysterious hooded figures in the town square. Inexplicable lights in the sky. Local traffic updates. Welcome To Night Vale might be one of the most popular podcasts in the world, but everything about it remains resolutely odd. It's an unsettling radio drama masquerading as a local community news programme. Imagine the overwhelming cosmic dread of HP Lovecraft, served up in a style not entirely dissimilar to BBC Look North.

 

Hypnotic and darkly funny, Welcome To Night Vale belongs to a particular strain of American gothic that encompasses The Twilight Zone, Stephen King and Twin Peaks, with a bit of Tremors thrown in. The setting is a sleepy-yet-creepy desert town where every conspiracy theory is real, but it's not really a big deal; the residents just try to get on with things amid the mayhem and horror.

 

"We didn't want to make a podcast that sounded like all the other podcasts we were listening to," explains Joseph Fink who, along with Jeffrey Cranor, has written every episode since Welcome To Night Vale launched in June 2012.

 

Fink, Cranor and narrator Cecil Baldwin met through the puckish theatre troupe the New York Neo-Futurists, and some of that anarchic spirit has seeped into Night Vale, a place where a love of the bizarre meets a love of language. "We agreed early on that we could write whatever we wanted, it could be weird and poetic, but it needed to have strict continuity," says Fink. "If we say something happened in Night Vale then it happened. Because the world needs to be believable within itself, even if it's not believable at all compared to our world." So Khoshekh, the hovering male cat that gives birth to kittens with poisonous spine ridges, becomes a beloved recurring character, and Night Vale's alarming mythology grows – throbs, even – with each fortnightly instalment.

 

After a year, this eccentric outlier suddenly scuttled to the top of the US podcast chart, shutting out populist heavyweights such as Radiolab and National Public Radio behemoth This American Life (which averages around 800,000 downloads per episode). At Night Vale HQ, they'd registered a quantum leap in downloads in July 2013 but were struggling to explain it. "We couldn't work out where this spike had come from," says Cranor. "And the spike just kept happening. Then we started seeing links to fan art on Twitter and we realised it had grown on Tumblr through word of mouth."

 

This American Life may have since reclaimed the top spot, but Welcome To Night Vale remains a top five regular, though success hasn't altered the podcast substantively; it remains free to download, and free of advertisements, thanks to donations from fans.

 

"The process hasn't changed," says Baldwin, who still records Fink and Cranor's carefully crafted scripts by himself in his New York apartment. "I don't have a sound engineer or anything that would normally be associated with well-funded audiobooks. It's really just me trying to figure out how to take these amazing words Joseph and Jeffrey have written and bring them to life."

 

Baldwin, who shares a first name and a deep, mellifluous voice with Cecil – the sole narrator and de facto embodiment of Welcome To Night Vale – has guided listeners through nightmarish scenarios for more than 40 episodes. Has dealing with alien incursions, vengeful spirits and the machinations of the Night Vale PTA altered his worldview in real life? "Oh no, I was exceptionally strange before this podcast ever started," he says. "But what I'm discovering now is that people are ready for something that isn't so cut-and-dried, that doesn't have to be wrapped up with a nice moral message."

 

The global Night Vale fan community seems to have come to the spontaneous shared conclusion that Cecil has a third eye, likes to wear purple and has elaborate sleeve tattoos, judging by the reams of fan art on Tumblr. They've also seriously got behind the ongoing relationship between Cecil and visiting scientist Carlos, to the extent that fans cosplay as both characters at comic conventions.

 

"It's so refreshing and lovely, that a gay relationship has become a big part of the project but not the definition of the project," says Baldwin. The three Night Vale conspirators are currently in the middle of a sell-out live tour of major US cities, mutating the intimate podcast into something more theatrical, with guest readers and live musical guests. "Night Vale has totally changed our lives in a way that we didn't predict it ever would," says Cranor. "It's now a full-time job, in a good way." The downloads keep trending upwards, and a novel will be published next year.

 

Fink and Cranor are also getting used to fielding questions about the uncanny secret of Welcome To Night Vale's rocketship success.

"As a place, Night Vale is terrifying," says Fink. "There are a lot of things that don't make sense and people are dying constantly. But the thing about real life is that it's terrifying and there are lots of things that don't make sense and people are dying constantly. In Night Vale, it's aliens. In real life, it's cancer… but it's still the same thing. Cecil is giving you an example of dealing with the terrifyingness of life. I think that's partly what people are connecting to."

 

Welcome To Night Vale episodes are released on the 1st and 15th of each month. The live show is touring the US until 29 Mar. Visit commonplacebooks.com for more details