Just want to rant about some of my favorite podcasts’ decline. It’s getting to the point where there’s no reason to fire up iTunes…
Before you say it: yes I know, it’s all free entertainment, I have no right to complain, they’re more talented than me etc etc
The Cracked Podcast
Had some great episodes in the last year, especially some of the Jason Pargin ones, but recently it’s just a bunch of middle-class guys with poorly-researched points based on “There was this study once where…”
And the live show recordings have been really weak, uninspired riffing on plot holes or plot twists ideas.
How did this get made?
This always had terrible episodes from time to time (cough TMNT2), but they were usually sandwiched between great ones like Superman III and Death Spa.
But they’ve had a run of mediocre episodes now that I hope they can pull out of.
Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo Film Reviews
The turning point was when they reviewed SPECTRE in front of the audience about to watch the premiere, and immediately after interviewing Daniel Craig (or at least that’s the chronology on the recording). Under that pressure Mark gave a gushing review and I think a part of him died that day, as ever since his verdicts have seemed almost random to me and the humor increasingly non-existent.
I don’t know the ones you mention, but one thing I’ve noticed is that after a while, I tend to be done with a podcast. Things start to seem repetitive and no longer manage to keep me interested. This may or may not be coupled with an objective decline in quality.
(The same is true of all the “Is XXX racist?” and “What would happen if [something that would never happen]?” threads here on the Dope.)
Like so many facets of the infoverse, the technical bar to creating and distributing a podcast is so low as to effectively not exist. This is not a good thing.
Besides allowing every net user who can drag a mouse with their knuckles to step up to a national/international mike, it has the more subtle flaw of letting folks savvy at one thing (a well-written review blog, f’rex) get into other media for which they have no talent or sustaining material. Both drag down the quality across the spectrum, as the really good stuff either gets lost or tends to get lazy itself.
Ask any good, long-term radio commentator how many competitors they left in the dust, and how damned hard it is to generate a few minutes of quality, day after week after year. And those are the highly-selected pros, not someone who found the record button on their keyboard.
I have this happen. I’ll suddenly realize I’m not really enjoying the podcast, I’m just listening to it because it was automatically downloaded. At which point I unsubscribe and go to the next one. And it doesn’t have to be some nobody recording on his phone, I’ve recently dropped Stuff You Should Know, and almost dropped This American Life.
This isn’t really a bad thing. It gives me room to try some new stuff on my subscription list.
Yeah, I also haven’t listened to Cracked in ages. I just deleted three of them after not really wanting to listen to them. Nerdist has also been a bit lame for the past year. Reducing to one a week should’ve improved them, but I’ve barely listened to any in months.
Some that I still like have slowed down, taking longer breaks between episodes, so instead of a decent 45 or so each year, they’re down to 30 or fewer. It seems three years of steady output and they start to flag a bit, for myriad good reasons but it’s the beginning of the end for most of them.
Right, I agree about Cracked and How Did This Get Made, where they haven’t been as good recently, but there are so many podcasts out there, including so many great ones, I can’t get too upset. I do like How Did This Get Made, but I like the Flop House and We Hate Movies even more. And for informational/funny podcasts, I’ve recently started listening to Adam Ruins Everything, Reply All, and Science Vs.
The low bar to making a podcast does mean that there are a lot of bad ones out there, but there are also more good ones than you’ll ever have time for.
I actually think the live Cracked Episodes are better, precisely because they don’t have the poorly researched factoids. You can’t mess up when it’s about pop culture and fan theories.
It’s true I should just move on and not grumble about the ones that have withered. I guess the issue is my laziness of just leaving “Subscribe” ticked, and then time after time thinking “Oh jeez this still sucks”. But that’s on me: it’s only 1 button click. :smack:
I’ll keep Cracked updated though just because I like their music choices for the intervals, but the actual dialogue leaves me cold.
I’ve pruned my list of podcasts recently to get rid of stuff that SHOULD be good, but isn’t. Often, it’s done by an otherwise good host or group, but sounds amateurish (I’m looking at you, Kevin Pollack!). I think they need to take the format more seriously.
But there are still some really good podcasts out there that I never miss:
Penn’s Sunday School: Penn Jillette, of Penn & Teller talking with some friends. I often disagree with Penn, especially on his Libertarian views. But he’s always entertaining and funny, and to his credit he frequently gives the disclaimer that he’s probably wrong and doesn’t know what he’s talking about. At his best when he’s telling show business stories in which he is the butt of the joke.
Savage Love: Dan Savage talking about sex and taking listener calls. I see him as the modern incarnation of Ruth Westheimer. Very smart, and often funny.
Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me: The NPR quiz show, and one of the most consistently funny programs ever. Especially when Paula Poundstone is on the panel.
The Slate Political Gabfest: Roundtable of regulars discussing politics. Very smart, particularly Emily Bazelon and John Dickerson.
Fresh Air: The long-running NPR interview show hosted by Terry Gross. She’s great, the show is great, but it has lately suffered from a big increase in ad interruptions. Or rather, since it’s NPR, “sponsor acknowledgements”. Nope… they’re ads.
The Moth: Storytelling. Frequently fascinating, funny and touching.
Am I insane or was there a period where you HAD to listen to this podcast through Soundcloud? I remember I used to download a handful at a time from their back catalog to put on a USB stick and listen to in the car. Then they dropped the links from Earwolf and just had the Soundcloud widget in there. I’ve downloaded from Soundcloud before so I know I looked to do so here and there was no download button. So I stopped listening for a long time since I didn’t want to fiddle with my phone every time.
Then I just checked now and all the Soundcloud widgets have the download button on them. New(ish) change? Was I wrong about ever needing to listen through Soundcloud?
I’ve been listening to HDTGM for maybe 2 years now, and never through Soundcloud. I don’t know if what you’re saying was ever true, but if so, it’s not a recent change.
Works for me. I know there was a time where I stopped listening due to some issue with me downloading the episodes directly but I’ll readily admit that it could have been a failing on my part to noodle it out.
You might like Whistlestop, which is a podcast with John Dickerson about infamous moments in past US presidential campaigns. Very interesting and very fun.
You know, I tried it and IMHO it’s a good idea in theory, not in practice. I appreciate Dickerson’s interest in those stories, but ultimately I struggle to remain interested in them myself.
There was a funny moment on the Political Gabfest last week. At the end of the show they all present a “chatter” about a topic they find interesting. Dickerson often goes to a Whistlestop-type of factoid for this, but last week he began talking about something else entirely. The host stopped him and said, “What a minute - you mean you DON’T have some kind of story about William Henry Harrison, or something?!”
My list. Confession, I don’t listen to each and every episode except for Dan Carlin and Mission Log. And the Better Call Saul podcasts when they’re in season. It depends upon the topic and guests. Still, I always have something to listen to in the car. The first three aren’t even podcasts really, they’re established NPR shows on demand. And of course, Bill Maher’s is the audio from his HBO show.
[ul]
[li]SciFri (Science Friday)[/li][li]Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me[/li][li]Fresh Air[/li][li]Real Time with Bill Maher[/li][li]Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History & Common Sense[/li][li]Atheist Experience / Non Prophets[/li][li]TED Radio Hour[/li][li]**Cracked **[/li][li]Freakonomics[/li]
[li]Thinking Poker [/li]
[li]Mission Log: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast[/li][li]Better Call Saul / Better Call Saul Insider[/li][/ul]