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I've continued to listen to My Favorite Murder over the past year and I think it's settled into a comfortable groove for a "casual" true crime podcast, but no episode gets by without 1) Georgia advocating the abolition of some constitutional protections for the accused in order to get more suspected murderers behind bars and 2) Karen flagrantly making up some fact or statistic about psychology, sociology, or geography. Usually it's good for a laugh but sometimes (like during Georgia's multi-episode campaign against double jeopardy) it's definitely not.

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23 hours ago, Gormongous said:

I've continued to listen to My Favorite Murder over the past year and I think it's settled into a comfortable groove for a "casual" true crime podcast, but no episode gets by without 1) Georgia advocating the abolition of some constitutional protections for the accused in order to get more suspected murderers behind bars and 2) Karen flagrantly making up some fact or statistic about psychology, sociology, or geography. Usually it's good for a laugh but sometimes (like during Georgia's multi-episode campaign against double jeopardy) it's definitely not.

 

My partner listens to this one, and from what she has told me, it sounds like what started as a "casual" true crime podcast gradually turned into a comedy platform for the hosts. Which, well, sounds a bit jarring with subject matter versus content.

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45 minutes ago, Spenny said:

My partner listens to this one, and from what she has told me, it sounds like what started as a "casual" true crime podcast gradually turned into a comedy platform for the hosts. Which, well, sounds a bit jarring with subject matter versus content.

 

Yeah... There's a lot of odd stuff going on with them. Given that Karen and Georgia are both professional entertainers, they're weirdly hostile and defensive about non-flattering feedback, so the "podcast business" segment at the beginning has ballooned from a few minutes about merch and live shows to fifteen or even twenty as they crack jokes about their weeks, in total defiance of the many fans (whom they label "skippers") who've complained about it. That, combined with the incredible density of ads (thirty to ninety seconds of ads before the podcast starts, between two and three mid-episode ad breaks of thirty to ninety seconds, and a sixty-second end-of-episode ad bumper), makes it hard for me to recommend it to people, but I still have fun. I'd actually say that the central "true crime" segment has gotten more serious, as Georgia has increasingly become prone to audible distress when hearing and talking about murders, but the surrounding material is very jokey now. Your mileage may vary.

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3 minutes ago, sclpls said:

A good friend of mine wrote a piece for the New York Times about the appeal of true crime podcasts for her. It's not a podcast genre I'm familiar with but I thought it was an interesting read.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/opinion/i-survived-domestic-violence-now-i-love-true-crime-podcasts.html

 

I would not describe MFM's "Corrections Corner" as self-effacing (it's usually Karen admitting to not actually knowing a fact that she stated with certainty in a previous episode and then declaring that it doesn't matter and she was close enough to satisfy non-haters) but otherwise, yeah, that's a very good encapsulation of the appeal for me and for my ex, who got me into it.

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The Ringer network is good especially if you're into sports at all. Their video game podcast "Achievement Unlocked" is pretty decent and mostly made up of very good interviews. The HBO show was a disaster but Bill Simmons remains a pretty good podcast producer. They got off to a rough start with the NBA show especially but I think the quality has increased dramatically and a lot of the obnoxious personalities have since disappeared. "The Watch" features some good talk about Twin Peaks for fans of the Rewatch cast. 

 

Also The Lowe Post is a must subscribe for any NBA fans out there.

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Y'all seriously need to listen to Video Games Hot Dog. If you like Idle Thumbs there's a lot of reasons you'd like that too.

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I need to rep The Relentless Picnic one more time. They have been killing it with "untethered" episodes that are a deep dive into a topic other than current events. This has resulted in a truly astonishing episode about death and other incredible ones about paranormal experiences shared on Reddit, books and friendship, money, hitchhiking, Jurassic Park, and most recently the moon (and the eclipse). I can't get over how good this podcast is, please listen to it. Genuinely insightful and hilarious conversations happening here.

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17 hours ago, mondryle said:

I need to rep The Relentless Picnic one more time. They have been killing it with "untethered" episodes that are a deep dive into a topic other than current events. This has resulted in a truly astonishing episode about death and other incredible ones about paranormal experiences shared on Reddit, books and friendship, money, hitchhiking, Jurassic Park, and most recently the moon (and the eclipse). I can't get over how good this podcast is, please listen to it. Genuinely insightful and hilarious conversations happening here.

 

I second this – I know I've enthused here about that podcast before, but the recent episodes have indeed been something really special compared to some of the earlier ones that are specifically about American politics.

 

As a general thing, I also really like the fact that I know next to nothing about any of the presenters, and that the podcast is entirely free from cruft – no introductions, no framing at all, nothing addressed to the audience – not even 'hi, you're listening to...' – they just get on with it. Almost every podcast would be better starting similarly in media res, IMO. You can always put the cruft elsewhere!

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Hi! When I started my podcast Checkpoints and was trying to find an audience I shared the first few episodes in this very thread and people seemed to really dig it, especially as I've had a couple of the guys from Idle Thumbs on the show, including quite recently Ben Andac, now a Video game producer who I discovered during the interview was actually one of the original thumbs founders back on the old blog. 

 

Anyway, I've just hit episode 100 which is a milestone I'm super proud of so wanted to come back and say thanks for that early support. If you don't know the show, it's an interview show where each week a guest shares the games that shaped their life. Episode 100 is with Tim Schafer! declandineen.com/checkpoints

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Three podcasts I don't think I've recommended before:

 

Black Men Can't Jump in Hollywood - three black actors from New York (and, often, a guest) talk talk about race, acting, Hollywood, movies, casting, and sometimes everything else (they go off-topic sometimes) through the lens of one movie each week that features a lead person of color. They only focus on big studio movies, because the genesis of the podcast was the observation that Hollywood is super racist and people of color (like black men) basically never get cast as leads in big studio movies. All three hosts are super insightful and super funny, too, so it's a great mix of deep movie talk and lots of jokes. I've been listening through since the beginning and some highlights include In The Heat of the Night, where their guest is Keegan-Michael Key; Blazing Saddles, where they wrestle with the film's depiction of its lead; and Night of the Living Dead. I haven't made it that far yet, but I've heard their episodes on Remember the Titans and 42 are amazing.

 

Off Book: The Improvised Musical - the two hosts and their guest or guests improvise a musical (to live piano accompaniment). Pretty amazing just from the basic "holy shit they're making up songs off the top of their head" angle, because that's extremely hard (speaking from experience), but also they're very good at it so the results are great. Highlights include episode 11, which was done in front of a live audience and which features Griffin Newman from Blank Check, a podcast I must've recommended earlier in this thread, and episode 12, which features a dad trying to find his daughter and her friend after they become separated at an EDM festival.

 

The Director's Cut - A DGA Podcast - directors interview other directors about their films. If you like inside baseball this is really great stuff. Highlights include Martin Scorcese interviewing Steven Spielberg about Bridge of Spies; Christopher Nolan interviewing Quentin Tarantino about The Hateful Eight; Christopher Nolan interviewing Edgar Wright about Baby Driver; Rian Johnson interviewing Denis Villeneuve about Blade Runner 2049; and Spike Jonze interviewing Greta Gerwig about Lady Bird. Other interesting ones include William Friedkin interviewing Darren Aronofsky about mother!, which at one point devolves into Friedkin yelling at Aranofsky about belief in God; and Richard Donner interviewing Patty Jenkins about Wonder Woman, which is a good argument for setting up a Logan's Run sort of situation in society where we kill all men older than 45 or something like that.

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That Directors Cut one sounds very interesting, but there doesn't seem to be a way to download it outside of iTunes. Way to understand how the internet works, DGA.

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1 hour ago, Ben X said:

That Directors Cut one sounds very interesting, but there doesn't seem to be a way to download it outside of iTunes. Way to understand how the internet works, DGA.

You could install a Soundcloud download extension for your browser and grab them from Soundcloud.

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The YouTube versions are unedited, which is nice if you want more content but not as nice if you want less. It also looks like they stopped uploading 9 months ago.

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20 hours ago, TychoCelchuuu said:

 

Off Book: The Improvised Musical - the two hosts and their guest or guests improvise a musical (to live piano accompaniment). Pretty amazing just from the basic "holy shit they're making up songs off the top of their head" angle, because that's extremely hard (speaking from experience), but also they're very good at it so the results are great. Highlights include episode 11, which was done in front of a live audience and which features Griffin Newman from Blank Check, a podcast I must've recommended earlier in this thread, and episode 12, which features a dad trying to find his daughter and her friend after they become separated at an EDM festival.

 

I just want to give a +1 to this recommendation. It's very, very good. Like most Earwolf shows it kind of lives and dies by its guests, but I think they have done really well so far. There have only been two episode where the guest was a poor singer or they didn't really go for it. But it's very good! Zach and Jess were also on a recent episode of Spontaneanation with Paul F. Tompkins.

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18 hours ago, TychoCelchuuu said:

You could install a Soundcloud download extension for your browser and grab them from Soundcloud.

 

Ah, brillo, will take a look. I'd discovered that it was on Soundcloud but didn't think there'd be a way around the no-download setting (why the fuck do podcasts do that anyway?). Thanks!

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I just finished listening to the Dirty John podcast from the LA Times. It's the latest thing in the true crime reportage / documentary subgenre, and owes a great deal to Serial and S-Town and all that stuff. I don't think is quite as good as either of those but it's worth a look if you have any interest in such things.

 

It's a story about a woman who marries a man who turns out to be...a very different kind of person to who she thought he was. As the title suggests, he's not a very nice man. The story is horribly gripping, with an emphasis on 'horrible'; if you find it difficult to listen to stories of emotional abuse or domestic strife, you might want to give it a miss. The 'adult content' warning at the start of each episode is barely sufficient. Or, if you're like me, and you're quietly afraid of most people (especially men), you'll probably find it fascinating and anxiety-inducing in equal measures.

 

At times I think the production lays it on a bit thick - with the squeaky Southern Gothic music, and literary turns of phrase that make it feel like a cheap crime thriller - but I think it's the kind of story that deserves to be brought to wider attention. It's a truly shameful, galling reminder of the myriad ways in which men can be awful to women.

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A new favourite of mine is Loremen. Each episode, the two hosts pick a couple of obscure folktales to narrate. They make as much sense of them as they can, and then rate them out of five in categories like names, gore, supernatural, mispronunciation, and anything else that seems appropriate. It's a lot of spooky fun.

 

If you enjoyed Something True, I reckon you'll like this too. I burned through the first five yesterday, and there's a new episode today!

 

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On 11/28/2017 at 3:48 PM, TychoCelchuuu said:

The Director's Cut - A DGA Podcast - directors interview other directors about their films. If you like inside baseball this is really great stuff. Highlights include Martin Scorcese interviewing Steven Spielberg about Bridge of Spies; Christopher Nolan interviewing Quentin Tarantino about The Hateful Eight; Christopher Nolan interviewing Edgar Wright about Baby Driver; Rian Johnson interviewing Denis Villeneuve about Blade Runner 2049; and Spike Jonze interviewing Greta Gerwig about Lady Bird. Other interesting ones include William Friedkin interviewing Darren Aronofsky about mother!, which at one point devolves into Friedkin yelling at Aranofsky about belief in God; and Richard Donner interviewing Patty Jenkins about Wonder Woman, which is a good argument for setting up a Logan's Run sort of situation in society where we kill all men older than 45 or something like that.

 

I'm glad I got that Soundcloud download working, because this 'cast is great! Thanks for the recommendation.

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Since both of my favourite gaming podcasts, Thumbs and Besties, have stopped doing gaming stuff could anyone recommend some good gaming podcasts?

 

I've tried out The Bombcasts in their various forms and they weren't for me. The Super Bunny Hop cast is a bit awkward for my likings. Although I do love his YouTube stuff. Has anyone got anything in the vein of Thumbs or Besties?

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I enjoy the Experience Points podcast, the two hosts have a good chemistry and it's overall a nice and relaxed show, their slogan is "a serious but not humorless conversation about video games".

(They usually focus on one topic so I do often skip episodes that don't sound interesting to me.)

 

http://www.experiencepoints.net/search/label/podcast

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I'd recommend Video Games Hot Dog, they're friends with the thumbs crew and have similar sensibilities. They used to record in the same room Idle Thumbs used, I believe.

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