Basically you used to have a podcast you loved or at least were a constant listener to then you stopped listening to actively because of something that happened to it, either change of format, change of host, or it simply got too monotonous. It can’t be something you just stopped listening too for no particular reason or a reason you can’t remember but something that made you instantly go “Well I’m not listening to this anymore” after it happened.
How Did This Get Made? used to be my favorite podcast and I still think all three hosts are hilarious, but the format changed has severely hurt it. Instead of being a studio podcast almost every single episode is a “Live” episode now which severely hurts the format. I think a live episode on occasion is great as a change of pace but when 9 out of the last 10 episodes have been “Live” shows it really hurts because Live shows at least for them tend to be super visual or pre-show reference heavy and they do very little to clue you in on what’s actually happening on-stage. In addition the comedians they get for their live shows now just tend to be in a rush to talk over each other to tell the best joke to the crowd as opposed to the more orderly (and better edited) pace of the studio shows. I gave up about a year ago when we got 5 straight live shows in a row and apparently the pace hasn’t changed since.
That was the one I came to mention. That and the Cracked podcast, but I think that one’s now kaput.
If we bend the criteria, I could also throw in Kevin Pollack’s Chat Show, which I used to adore but got tired of. It might as well have been a podcast for how the format worked.
I also dropped all the Channel Awesome podcasts, as the only one I really enjoyed (Word Funk) is no longer there. But I do check them out from time to time.
Related to the live show issue, but not really on topic otherwise, a podcast I really love is the Beef and Dairy Network Podcast. At its best it is a sublime surrealist joy, but it relies heavily on playing it completely straight and pretending it is completely serious (along with high production values). They’ll occasionally do a live show and the performances are still played straight but you can hear the audience laughing. It completely ruins the show, and I find them unlistenable. Luckily they’re fairly rare.
The Canon is one that is the opposite, I like new episodes and find the older ones unlistenable. It started with two hosts, Amy and Devin, and they really were terrible together. Their so called debate frequently became tedious, childish, aggressive bickering. The new ones seem to be just Amy and a different guest every time, and the conversations are a lot more civil and more interesting.
I’ve dumped a number of podcasts, almost always because they became undisciplined about their format. Meaning, they get all chatty and spend too much time BS-ing instead of doing content on their topic.
I’m a big fan of Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Not just because she’s a great interviewer, but there’s very little wasted time. When the show begins she says, “This is Fresh Air, I’m Terry Gross”, and then gets on with the interview of the day. I wish more podcasts would adopt this style. If I wanted to listen to a morning zoo show I’d… well, actually I’d never want to do that.
I used to listen to a handful of the How Stuff Works podcasts but hosts kept changing and I got tired of it. I actually still listen to Tech Stuff from time to time because it still has the same host.
The main How Stuff Works podcast was a horrible offender of “got too chatty.” The podcast got pretty popular and I think people began being interested in the hosts as personalities and episodes began dragging on and getting longer with more chit chat and less substance.
Sword and Scale has tedious stretches of 911 calls and other recordings. The audio is often poor, and they seem to be just padding. Wearing thin for me.
Same for all the How Stuff Works podcasts. Stuff You Should Know suffers from a serious case of “The hosts think they’re WAY funnier than they actually are” where they’re constantly cracking the worst jokes you ever heard while Stuff You Missed in History Class suffers from “The hosts think they’re WAY more interesting than they actually are” in terms of all the weird asides and tangents they go off on during episodes that don’t mean anything. Yes, the atomic bombings were horrible you don’t have to say “Chilling” or a variation on that after every single passage.
Also Stuff You Should Know is routinely wrong, “No movie has ever been rated X/NC-17 solely for violence” my ass.
Heh. The Complete Guide To Everything has a topic each week. This week it was snakes. But the hosts always start off just chatting about whatever. Some of the best podcasts are the ones where they run out of time without ever discussing that weeks topic, then carry over the topic to the next show.
I am a bit more selective with Marc Maron’s WTF. If he’s pimping a book, or GLOW, or is spending a lot of time on a “testimony email,” I mosey along. If he’s talking with a smart, aware conversationalist, like his interview with Lorde, it’s great, but when he has to attempt Freudian questions to pick someone’s locks - meh at best.
My Favorite Murder…I listened to a bunch of episodes and was enjoying it thinking the hosts were playing slightly dumb and ditzy…then it became clear it wasn’t an act.
Oh, is it still going? I presumed it would die with the mass exit of all the main staff at Cracked. I was told they were no longer doing videos, so I presumed no more podcasts, either.
I completely stopped listening when Jack left, and had only sporadically listened before then. So I’ve not been keeping up.
They seem to have stopped most of (all?) the spin off ones but the main one is still posted every Monday. It might just be them running through their backlog.
Yeah, I can go with that but…
I can’t think of an actual example but they will already be fully into the topic when they then break off onto 10 minutes of completely irrelevant minutia. Over and over again.
Not quite yet, but I might stop listening to NPR’s On Point with Tom Ashbrook. He is my favorite radio interviewer, and has been suspended pending an investigation about his off-air behavior. The substitutes that they have brought in for him over the years when he was out for vacation or medical reasons have been sub-par, and I don’t think they are going to find anybody that I like and respect nearly as much.
Best case scenario, the investigation reveals that he isn’t a jerk and he comes back to work. But I do wonder if the magic will still be there. A lot of the accusations against him are based on him being nasty to staff/producers in the newsroom. In a pressure-cooker environment where they are putting out two hours of new content every weekday, I wonder if the quality of the show can possibly stay high without a strong guiding hand. If he does come back, he will probably be hesitant to lead.
Worst case scenario, everything I thought about him was wrong and I am a *terrible *judge of character.
ESPN Fantasy Focus Football podcast. Now, it’s always had moments when there was a lot of filler mid week, because often there isn’t enough actual news to cover 30 minutes. But, over the years, it has become unlistenable with way too many inside jokes and snark.
I liked NPR’s “Hidden Brain” podcast when it started because it discussed a variety of short quirky psychological experiments. But then it got into discussing a single morose topic in most episodes, so I lost interest.
I listened to Night Vale for quite a while before dropping it this year. It just seemed pointless. Give them credit for coming up with an original concept, though.
I had to drop Hollywood Babble-On when they turned to Trump “humor” after the election. By that time, I was fast-forwarding through the viewer emails, and the anal sex jokes were stale, so it was circling the drain anyway.
The Nerdist devolved into one big promotion after another, and I got tired of Chris Hardwick’s paranoia about any kind of criticism. Yes, it’s tough being criticized; get over it.
I’m still listening to Gilbert Gottfried, How Did This Get Made, the bowery Boys, Richard Herring, and a bunch of book marketing podcasts (esp. The Author Biz, one of the best).