I’m gonna talk about podcasts for a minute.
I like podcasts. Like, a ton. Most of my spare time that isn’t spent fucking around online is spent playing a game on mute while listening to various podcasts. I’m a regular listener of over a dozen of them, and I just feel like extolling their virtues for a minute.
Bunker Buddies - Travis McElroy (who I think is just great in everything he does) and Andie Bolt get together once a week to discuss the apocalypse. They go over emergency preparedness, various scenarios ranging from the possible to the fantastic, and generally make a bunch of jokes about everything.
Can I Pet Your Dog? - Allegra Ringo (a dog owner) and Renee Culvert (a dog wanter), along with their producer Travis McElroy (yes, again- he appears several times on this list, I love him so much) have a weekly show about how much they all like dogs. Includes sections about dogs they met since the last podcast, trivia about different breeds, and news related to dogs. it’s unbearably cute.
How Did This Get Made? - A bad movie podcast- hardly a unique idea in thiese times, but it’s done very well. June Diane Raphael, Paul Scheer and Jason Mantzoukas watch a bad movie and mercilessly make fun of it. It’s not exactly original but it’s fucking hilarious.
I Was There Too - Matt Gourley brings on a guest who was an extra or a minor role in a famous movie and talks about all kinds of stories and trivia about what happened behind the scenes of famous films. Super interesting.
International Waters - Dave Holmes hosts a show where two American comedians and two British comedians compete head to head in a sort of half-assed comedic quiz show where the points don’t matter and nothing is at stake. It’s one of most consistently funny things I’ve ever listened to.
My Brother, My Brother and Me - The show that got me into podcasts in the first place. Justin, Travis, and Griffin McElroy (the titular brothers) host “an advice show for the modren era”- they take both real questions that people send to them via email or Twitter as well as links to bizarre Yahoo! Answers inquiries and relentlessly make fun of them. Contains copious amounts of talk about Quantum Leap, killing horses, and repeated use of the word “goof.”
No Such Thing as a Fish - The QI Elves- that is to say, the research team behind all the weird facts that appear on my absolute favorite TV show ever, QI (Quite Interesting) host a podcast where they just bring up random interesting facts and talk about them in a light-hearted manner.
Oh No, Ross and Carrie! - Ross Blocher and Carrie Poppy investigate fringe science, spirituality and claims of the paranormal. They’ve done everything from go to meetings of 9/11 truthers and Raelians to trying cryotherapy and sensory deprivation, and then they talk about their experiences, joke around and give an honest evaluation of what they thought of it all.
Sawbones - Justin McElroy and his wife Dr. Sydnee McElroy (yes, the McElroys as a whole feature very strongly in this list) talk about medical history. Everything from the history of nursing to diseases you can get from cats to how people used to treat gunshot wounds. There’s a perfect balance between Sydnee, who’s a doctor, and Justin, who knows next to nothing about medicine.
The Adventure Zone - Justin, Travis, Griffin, and Clint McElroy (Clint being the father of the other 3) play D&D every other week. Started as a basic module-style adventure taken from the D&D 5e. DMG and has since evolved into a quest to collect powerful magical artifacts at the behest of a secret organization that operates from a moonbase. There’s way more focus on comedy and interactions between characters tnan there is on hard and fast rule crunching, and that, in this case, is most definitely a good thing. Griffin DMs this and knocks it out of the fucking park, every single story arc is several notches in quality above the last. Seriously. If you like D&D or fantasy or comedy or entertainment of any sort, do yourself a favor and listen to it. I legit cannot recommend this enough.
The Canon - Devin Faraci and Amy Nicholson, two film critics, sit down every week and discuss a movie, and try to decide whether it belongs in “the canon” or not- that is, the list of the greatest and most influential films of all time. Most episodes swing between intelligent and really interesting analysis of the films, and Amy and Devin bickering back and forth about why the other’s opinions are wrong and dumb. Never has two grown people insulting each other been so amusing.
The Flop House - Elliott Kalan, Dan McCoy and Stuart Wellington host what’s probably the best bad movie podcast online- it’s less a movie podcast and more a comedy podcast where most of the jokes are based in something stupid that happened in a shitty movie they watched. Three super funny people get together and just riff endlessly on things they don’t like, and it’s magical.
We Got This - Mark Gagliardi and Hal Lublin debate a super-important and come to a final decision. And by “super-important” I mean that they do things like “what’s the best Halloween candy?” or “who’s the best James Bond?” or “should you put ketchup on a hot dog?” They go onto long, winding tangents about things that end up having nothing to do with anything but it’s always super entertaining to watch them try to decide things.
This isn’t even a complete list. There’s other that I listen to at least occasionally (Throwing Shade, Nerd Poker, Jordan, Jesse, Go!, and a bunch more) but these are the ones I like the most. Podcasting as a medium is something I’m a huge fan of, and if you’re a podcast listener or just someone who needs something to occupy their time, I wholeheartedly recommend every single show on this list.
