Just coming in to say that, because of all the accolades in this thread, I’ve given “Behind the Bastards” another chance, and I’m glad. I just finished a six-parter on Oprah Winfrey, and am now most of the way through the first episode about Scott Adams. Enjoying it all - will do G. Gordon Liddy next!
I’m still not a huge fan of the “banter” style of podcasting, but at least everyone who talks during BtB is smart and humble, and they have good guest hosts with relevant background (for example, a couple of Black women contributed to the Oprah discussion, and their observations enriched the podcast).
I found the Oprah one to be really interesting, because she has such a complex legacy.
I enjoy podcast banter. I’m only getting half of the conversation anyway because my mind is usually all over the place, so jumping from topic to topic makes perfect sense to me.
It only works when you have the right people doing it, and have something relevant and interesting to banter about. A lot of podcasts get it wrong. I do not like those podcasts.
Behing the Bastards is good though. I rarely listen to podcasts as long as theirs, but in their case I have found it’s worth it. I particularly liked the Scott Adams one.
As am I. This is currently played on my car radio every day, and it is always interesting. I started at the beginning (back in 2018!) and am working my way through.
I just started listening to this today, based on your recommendation. Those guys are a hoot. Now I want to go back and watch Firefly, which I haven’t seen in years.
In the latest “Once We Were Spacemen” episode, they mentioned that they were guests on another podcast “Dropping Names with Brent and Jonny”. Brent being Brent Spiner and Jonny being Jonathan Frakes. So now I’ve started listening to their podcast.
“Dropping Names with Brent and Jonny” is also on YouTube, which is where I’ve been following it. They have a very nice set.
Brent and Jonny said they were jealous of the name “Once We Were Spacemen,” noting that it would have been the perfect title for them to use, if only they’d thought of it first.
I found a relatively new one I am enjoying called The Rest is Science by Michael from VSauce and Hannah Fry (who I didn’t know before this but have started to watch her YouTube channel also).
Most of my podcast time is spent listening to podcasts about shows I watch (and by that I mean trashy reality, but also Sherlock Holmes), but I want to give a plug for Good Hang with Amy Poehler.
Usually I don’t give a fig about famous people talking to famous people but I love Amy and the show has a good vibe. The speech patterns are mellow, there’s a lot of laughs, and it’s somehow both conversational and tight. Not much useless banter. Most of the guest she’s had are people she knows personally so that’s fun, but she does a great job interviewing and getting people to talk. The episode with Carol Burnett was amazing. The Paula Pell one was also very good, she’s a good person to get to know.
I also really like Off Menu from the UK. It’s a ridiculous premise - two Millennial comedians having a chat with someone, pretending they are in their dream restaurant and can have any food and drink they want. They spend an hour talking about food and good memories, and this translates into some really good stories. I don’t even like most of the food they talk about but it’s still very interesting and, turns out, a great way to get to know people. The podcast has gotten pretty popular so they have some big names like Robert DiNiro. Most of us probably wouldn’t be interested in the smaller names (a lot of British comedians, which is what I show up for) but there’s a load of episodes to choose from. If you scan the list of episodes you might find a few folks you’d be interested to know more about!
Definitely check out her Good Hang episode. You’ll learn about how she was a musical theater geek who loves to sing and act. She got the call from SNL and scurried to NYC, only to be cordoned off in the writer’s room. Lucky for us, because she wrote some of the best sketches in the past 30 years. But she really does love to act. Now she’s on screen and she does indeed kill it in every role!