Podcasts!
It occurred to me I’ve never listed the podcasts I listen to anywhere… I review the movies I watch on Ambival.net, you can see what music I listen to at Last.fm, I talk about the TV I’m watching plenty on Twitter, but even there I only occasionally comment on podcasts and radio which are taking up an increasing amount of my time in the past year or so… so here’s a list… I haven’t linked everything below ‘cos it’s mostly a simple case of searching iTunes… don’t get at me if you don’t like iTunes or ask me where else you can find ‘em ‘cos I haven’t the time to help you with that lol…
Comedy
Collins and Herring: Andrew Collins I can take or leave, but coupled with Richard Herring they make a fun double act (if not quite as good as Herring’s old comedy partner Stewart Lee). This is mostly random conversation - I can often sit listening to them for an hour and remember nothing of it - but it regularly makes me laugh.
As It Occurs to Me: Richard Herring’s random improv show. It’s on a break now but I think a new series starts in May. You’d do well to catch up on previous episodes as there are many injokes - it’s one of those podcasts that improves the more you get to “know” it.
WTF: found, like so many of my recent podcast discoveries, via Kevin Smith, who guested on it doing his Red State rounds… I haven’t made this a regular listen yet but has a great guest list too.
Nerdist: Ditto as with WTF, found via Kevin Smith’s appearance on it… really just working through old episodes of this with guests I like, like Sarah Silverman, as it grows on me. It hasn’t pissed me off yet…
Steve Agee: Uhh - I’m still on the old, kinda pointless, 5-10 minuters of this but I see it has grown in length with recent episodes so I look forward to catching up to those, as even the old, kinda pointless 5-10 minuters are good background noise.
Bill Burr: I found this one via the seemingly now defunct Tom Green Show on the SModcast network and it’s odd, I can’t seem to unsubscribe. Burr’s humour is really not for everyone - more often than not it’s not even for me, lol. He’s what they call a “comedian’s comedian” which in general means he will go places that might not even be funny other than for the fact that they’re so damn unfunny and offensive lol. But there’s a place for it, for sure, and it’s a great one to listen to over morning coffee and waking up.
The Now Show / The News Quiz: These alternate about 8 episodes at a time and are the closest the UK gets to a Daily Show/Colbert Report type news satire (sorry 10 o’clock live, you have failed lol).
Adam & Joe: Back at last just this month… I used to watch these guys’ TV stuff as a teenager and loved them - I missed their whole radio presence for years until getting into podcasts a couple of years ago. Great random buffoonery and jingles. Incredibly British.
The Perfect Ten: This is on a break at the moment but they tend to pop a random one off episode out every now and then. This is Phill Jupitus and Phil Wilding answering 10 questions submitted by listeners in 30 minutes, with earpleasing announcements between each question by Stephen Fry. Laughs can vary but there’s usually at least one huge one per episode.
Utter Shambles: Robin Ince and Josie Long’s show, this isn’t running at the moment either but I’m sure there’ll be more at some stage. It’s exactly as the title implies, the recording usually picks up midway thru a conversation and cuts off half way thru wherever it leads. Very interesting guests.
Ricky Gervais: This is so dominated by adverts, trailers, and “extras” so tiny they’re not worth looking at I often forget to check it, but every now and then something good appears, like the recent “Guide to…” Comic Relief. When he’s good he’s very very good. I’ve been listening to old XFM shows from the late 90s also recently… some really funny stuff in those. There used to be a couple of online archives I could’ve linked to here but they’ve both gone down due to legal threats recently but there are torrents still.
Life, the Universe and Everything…
This American Life: this probably needs no introduction… I actually fell out of listening to recent episodes of this a year or two ago when I started finding so many other podcasts to listen to - when I used to only listen to them in a 5 hour period on Saturday nights. Now I can easily lose 4 hours a day listening to podcasts, so not such a problem. I’ve been listening to every episode of this from the beginning, though, currently up to #30 (of almost 500 now, so a long way to go!) …so many that I never listened to before, being as I started in the mid-300s and the only ones I had heard before that were the ones they picked to repeat in that time.
Radio Lab: this kind of replaced This American Life for me as the podcast I look forward most to new episodes of. It takes a similar format to This American Life, usually having a theme and several short pieces related to that theme, but with a focus on science. Don’t let that sound boring though: this is that Carl Sagan type of science, the kind that often reaches spiritual, transcendent places. It’s blown my mind often.
Waking from the American Dream: recently discovered, you guessed it, via Kevin Smith lol. This is George Carlin’s daughter Kelly talking to a variety of guests about the troubles of the world. She can get a little New Agey at times but she knows it and mostly keeps it in check. Some great, honest talk… more questions than answers but at least talk…
The Bugle: Not sure what’s happening with this lately, just as I finally got into listening to it as the episodes go live on iTunes, they seem to have dropped out of regular recording. I enjoy the banter on this one anyway. With John Oliver as co-host it’s kind of like an appendix to The Daily Show/Colbert Report.
Movies
Doug Loves Movies: Another found when Kevin Smith was doing the Red State rounds guesting on almost everything… I’ve really grown to love it. Great guests, games, movie talk, etc.
The /Filmcast: I don’t listen to this one as it drops, as they have a section called “spoilers” at the end of most episodes and I’d be useless at saving only these portions until after I’ve seen the films in question. What I do is let the episodes pile up and only listen to them after I’ve seen the movie under discussion. As a result I have quite a few of these queued up, lol. But I like their movie talk, even when I disagree with them. That’s the sign of good movie peeps :)
Mark Kermode: Probably the best film related podcast, though I disagree with Kermode almost as frequently as I do the Slash Film guys, and Simon Mayo’s habit of acting on behalf of the stupid people who might be listening often drives me up the wall. But when it’s good, it’s very very good…
Creative Screenwriting Magazine: Sadly this has stopped for the time being but I discovered it only recently and managed to download a whole bunch so currently working through them. Great discussion of the art, craft and business of screenwriting - something I’m not as ambitious about as I used to be but still carry on learning as much as I can where and when I can…
The Film Programme: a Radio 4 show, I forget why I subscribed to this one but have listened to a few good interviews on it. As with the /Filmcast I tend to pick and choose whether/when to listen depending on my level of interest/whether I’ve seen the film in question etc.
Music
Mitch Benn: Mitch Benn had one of those sort of random, babbling podcasts for a while a couple of years ago and it was a decent enough timewaster but his latest project is far more worth the effort. Half an hour a week he plays comedy songs sent to him by comedy singer-songwriters either looking for a break or cheap publicity. It’s not always good but it is always interesting.
MusicalTalk: I’ve been trying to get back into listening to this but they tend to pile up. The more I listen the more I discover I haven’t really missed anything by not going to see a musical since Wicked and Avenue Q back in 2006, lol… musical theatre really is in a bad way. But if you hold out the slightest hope (as I try to), this is as good listen as you’ll get. I should maybe make a habit of putting episodes back to back with Elaine Paige’s show to make sure I keep up…
Elaine Paige on Sunday: I made a minor resolution this year to start listening to this again and immediately kicked myself for ever stopping. When I was a kid I used to whine constantly about there being no movie or musicals stuff played on the radio, so even in this age where I can download any show or soundtrack I like in minutes this show is still a godsend. It’s also the only way I usually get any news about what’s happening in the theatre world. As with MusicalTalk, it usually just confirms to me that there’s nothing new lol, but I like to keep abreast of it all…
The SModcast Network
Damn, I can’t believe I wrote all of those and I haven’t even got to Kevin Smith yet lol. This is exactly why I wanted to make this list - sometimes you don’t realise where the time goes and making lists and logs can kind of shock you with how much you actually get through, lol.
So, the rest of the list is basically the SModcast network - next month to become S.I.R., SModcast internet radio, and set to add another 28 hours at least of listening to my week somehow LOL. I can’t sing the praises of the podcasts on this network enough but I’ll try to keep it brief.
SModcast: the original, Kevin Smith and producer of his earlier movies Scott Mosier. There’s more repetition on this one than any others - you can’t blame them approaching 200 episodes lol - but when they get on a roll with one of their improvised stories they make me laugh like no other. I can’t wait to see how this theatre of the mind develops on S.I.R. Also check out the SModimations - hilarious animations mostly of those crazy stories. I’ve only seen a few but they’re amazing.
Hollywood Babble-On: hmm, did I say Kermode’s was the best movie podcast above? Then this is a close tie at least. They don’t talk deep about cinema or anything but at it’s best this is a refreshing no BS attitude to Hollywood. Like all podcasts on the SModcast network, it’s not for everyone. If you don’t like dirty talk - and I mean really dirty talk - you should probably avoid all of these. But I urge even the biggest prudes to try and get past the low humour on these, because underneath it has been some of the best discussion I’ve heard in the past 2 years.
Plus One: probably the best podcast on the SModcast network and I can’t wait for it to expand into SMorning with Kevin and Jen. This is Smith talking with his wife and it’s alternately hilarious and shockingly moving at times.
Blow Hard: Kevin Smith’s gay friend Malcolm Ingram. This is one of my favourites. Ingram has that attitude towards sexuality that I love - the kind that will frequently offend straight and gay listeners alike. His frequent guest Marja is a tornado of a presence, and again, a woman who will offend women by, well, being herself… this is a podcast that proves that there are no stereotypes, no set rules when it comes to gay/straight/male/female, etc… it’s all about individuals, and you won’t find more honest individuals than you find in Blow Hard’s guest roster.
Puck Nuts: a sports podcast, I hear you cry? It’s strange how much I’ve grown to like this one. Perhaps it’s part completism - I’m sure as the S.I.R. project grows I’m going to have to stop listening to some of the content Smith pumps out, but to date I’ve managed to keep up with everything from the SModcast factory - but the guys from Tell ‘Em Steve-Dave are really fun to listen to, even as here when they’re talking mostly about Hockey.
Tell ‘Em Steve-Dave: this is a group of Kevin Smith’s friends who have appeared in his movies over the years and run his merchandise/comic book store etc and they’re a fun bunch of characters to kick back with. It’s one of those podcasts I can sometimes put on and not even listen to but even then their voices are nice background.
Jay & Silent Bob Get Old: the closest anything on the SModcast gets to what most people know Kevin Smith for, the Askewniverse. This began (and just occasionally continues) as an attempt to tell Jason Mewes’ story of his ongoing battle with drugs but mostly it is a barrage of low humour. Lately it’s grated on me more than any of the podcasts I listen to… but once again, when it’s good, it’s very good…
SMoviemakers/SMinterview/Starfucking: And various other extra/infrequent/one-off podcasts that come out on the SModcast network. SMoviemakers so far has been Kevin Smith interviewing Richard Kelly and Edgar Wright - both great, epic (2/3 hours) interviews about their work. SMinterview has had Mitch Albom and Jamie Walton (a talk about child abuse and sex trafficking - a little awkward and cringey but again some discussion you just wouldn’t hear anywhere else). And Starfucking was a 3 part podcast with Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer.
So… that’s what I spend the rest of my time doing if you ever wondered what I do between watching movies, TV, listening to music, dithering, and my 2% of actual productivity LOL. Loathe as I am to ask, do let me know in the comments if you think there’s a podcast I should add to the rotation - impossible though it’d be to accommodate, I am, insanely, always on the look out for more voices to inspire or entertain me, and I seem to always squeeze them in.
