Podcast Central

[YOhio]

The Jocko podcast is awesome. Jocko Willink is a retired Navy Seal and author of the excellent book "Extreme Ownership." Jocko is incredibly profound in his simple approach to life. It definitely won't appeal to everyone, but it should.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

The Jocko podcast is awesome. Jocko Willink is a retired Navy Seal and author of the excellent book "Extreme Ownership." Jocko is incredibly profound in his simple approach to life. It definitely won't appeal to everyone, but it should.

That's cool, I heard him on The Joe Rogan Experience in early December and Joe was telling him he would be awesome at podcasting, I didn't realize he'd started one.

[Parrot Head]

Probably is mostly to do with me being a cold, hard-hearted cynic, and you being a nice guy, but other than that, I would list the reasons as follows. I will say that some of my dislike was based on assumptions and guesses that may be wrong on my part.

1. This may sound weird coming from an active Mormon, but I really disliked a lot of the religious aspects. I think that religion can be a great comfort when facing mortality, but everything about their religious experience seemed to me the opposite. From the woman at their church who "prophesied" that their son had great things to do in his life, to the prayer meeting they had, to their belief that their son would be raised from the dead. All of it seemed to be based on denial and the supernatural than in trying to understand life and death. The mother even admitted that a lot of this stuff left them unprepared for his death. In the end, I really had a SeattleUte-type of reaction to their church. I will return to this point a couple of times.

2. When he first started talking about the video game, it was around "what if you created a game where all of your choices are bad". I thought that was interesting initial concept that could be explored. What if you did create a game with no right answers? But he didn't really explore that. He just basically told the story of his son's battle with cancer. I think he had an interesting concept that he failed to explore.

3. The speech he made at the video game show was just way too evangelical Christian for me

4. As Falafel said, the more they talked about the game, the more I thought "Who would possibly want to play this?"

5. I admit that I am totally guessing on this one, but the podcast talked about the investors in the game, and how they thought this was some sort of bold new frontier. My hunch throughout hearing about it was that the investors are from some sort of faith-based organization, and their investment is more about proselyting than it is about pushing the boundaries of video games. Feel free to tell me I am full of crap on this one if that is not the case.

6. I was kind of annoyed when I heard Jad and Rob gush about the detail, the graphics, and the visual beauty of the game. Again, this was a guess, but I was thinking that while I was not much of a gamer, I would bet that Jad and Rob have not played video games since their Atari days, and wouldn't know good graphics from terrible ones. I did go and look at the video on the developer's site, and from what I can see it looks like graphics from 5 years ago, nothing special at all.

7. I dislike forced sentimentality, and the scenes from the game they played seemed full of it.

I could probably come up with a few more things, but I probably already sound like an unfeeling curmudgeon. I did have a lot of sympathy for the family, but that didn't stop me from disliking the story.

Yet you cry whenever "The Christmas Shoes" comes on?

[Northwestcoug]

Anyone still listening to Serial?

I thought the 'thorny politics' epidsode was pretty sobering. As in, what a huge, probably unexpected shitstorm Bergdahl caused. I didn't know how much politics were involved once he was released. I also remember the insinuation that he had converted to Islam, which apparently was completely false.

I was also impressed by how fair Koenig was with this one. She criticized both political parties, rightly so IMO.

[Sullyute]

Anyone still listening to Serial?

I thought the 'thorny politics' epidsode was pretty sobering. As in, what a huge, probably unexpected shitstorm Bergdahl caused. I didn't know how much politics were involved once he was released. I also remember the insinuation that he had converted to Islam, which apparently was completely false.

I was also impressed by how fair Koenig was with this one. She criticized both political parties, rightly so IMO.

It was the best episode so far. This is what the first season gave us. Adding behind the scenes info, clearing up confusion in one place and instilling doubts in others. Interesting that the Whitehouse PR stunt with the parents was not planned and just fell into place on several coincidences and then backfired completely. I hope that the rest of the episodes are this good.

[Northwestcoug]

It was the best episode so far. This is what the first season gave us. Adding behind the scenes info, clearing up confusion in one place and instilling doubts in others. Interesting that the Whitehouse PR stunt with the parents was not planned and just fell into place on several coincidences and then backfired completely. I hope that the rest of the episodes are this good.

I agree. She does a great job telling a coherent story. I would trust her with any news.

[falafel]

Anyone still listening to Serial?

I thought the 'thorny politics' epidsode was pretty sobering. As in, what a huge, probably unexpected shitstorm Bergdahl caused. I didn't know how much politics were involved once he was released. I also remember the insinuation that he had converted to Islam, which apparently was completely false.

I was also impressed by how fair Koenig was with this one. She criticized both political parties, rightly so IMO.

I listened to the first 5 or so (all that had been released to that point) and liked it. I'd rather binge-listen, so I've taken a break until it is finished.

[old_gregg]

it was way too boring.

[Northwestcoug]

Caustic Soda podcast is ending, after a 6 year run. This really sucks.

Anyone know of another funny podcast run by Canadian nerds who spend too much time reading comics? Because I'm going to go into withdrawal soon.

[Green Monstah]

Anyone still listening to Serial?

I thought the 'thorny politics' epidsode was pretty sobering. As in, what a huge, probably unexpected shitstorm Bergdahl caused. I didn't know how much politics were involved once he was released. I also remember the insinuation that he had converted to Islam, which apparently was completely false.

I was also impressed by how fair Koenig was with this one. She criticized both political parties, rightly so IMO.

Yeah, I listen. I agree that it was a good episode. Part of what made Season 1 great is that most people had never heard of Adnan's case. Most of us have heard the basics of the Bergdahl story, so it isn't nearly as interesting on the surface. Season 1 was a classic "whodunit?". In Season 2, I think we have to grapple with (a) whether Bergdahl's justification excuses his behavior, and (b) whether it's moral to convict and imprison a 5-year POW. I'm hopeful for the trajectory of the remainder of the season.

[falafel]

The recent spotify update brought podcasts the app, which is really all that it was missing for me. Hooray! Because of that, I've been listening to more podcasts.

I've been listening to The Black Tapes podcast recently. Its a scripted podcast (I didn't realize this at first) that focuses on the paranormal and follows a paranormal researcher named Dr. Richard Strand. Strand, however, is actually out to disprove all of the paranormal instances discussed in the show. I'm only 4 or 5 episodes in, but its been pretty entertaining so far. The "acting" isn't great -- this is actually how I realized in the first episode that it was scripted -- but these aren't professional actors or anything. Each episode discusses one of Strand's "Black Tapes," which are the very few cases which he hasn't been able to debunk - "yet." Strand also has some mysteries in his past, such as the sudden and unexplained disappearance of his wife a number of years ago.

Another podcast I've been listening to is called Criminal. This one has short 15-20 minute episodes about small stories that are in some way involved with crimes or the criminal justice system. Some episodes are quite good, while others leave me wondering why they chose to spend anytime on such a story.

The first episode is about a woman who was killed in her home, ostensibly by blunt force trauma. Her husband was outside in the hot tub when she died, and came inside to find her at the bottom of the stairs, dead in a pool of blood from her head. The husband claimed innocence, but he was convicted. A local non-criminal attorney became interested in (and then obsessed with) the case and came up with an alternate theory. One of the forensic teams found microscopic owl feathers in the wound on the woman's head. Apparently owls' talons are covered by these feathers which can't really be seen by the naked eye. The attorney believes the woman was attacked by an owl on her way in from the house, where she later collapsed and bled to death. He found other instances of owl attacks very near to her house.

[falafel]

I've been listening to The Black Tapes podcast recently. Its a scripted podcast (I didn't realize this at first) that focuses on the paranormal and follows a paranormal researcher named Dr. Richard Strand. Strand, however, is actually out to disprove all of the paranormal instances discussed in the show. I'm only 4 or 5 episodes in, but its been pretty entertaining so far. The "acting" isn't great -- this is actually how I realized in the first episode that it was scripted -- but these aren't professional actors or anything. Each episode discusses one of Strand's "Black Tapes," which are the very few cases which he hasn't been able to debunk - "yet." Strand also has some mysteries in his past, such as the sudden and unexplained disappearance of his wife a number of years ago.

So the Black Tapes has become quite interested. I'm all caught up now - somewhere in the middle of season two - so I'll have to wait for new episodes to be released. Highly recommend it.

[Northwestcoug]

Listened to the first two episodes of Radiolab's spinoff 'More Perfect'. As a non-lawyer, I've found it very interesting. I assume pretty much every episode will be centered around constitutional law. The first episode had some pretty interesting behind the scenes facts about the recent death penalty cases.

Give it a whirl:

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolabmoreperfect/

[eldiente]

Malcolm Gladwell has a new podcast http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/e...hile/85904822/


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Clark Addison]

Listened to the first two episodes of Radiolab's spinoff 'More Perfect'. As a non-lawyer, I've found it very interesting. I assume pretty much every episode will be centered around constitutional law. The first episode had some pretty interesting behind the scenes facts about the recent death penalty cases.

Give it a whirl:

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolabmoreperfect/

I just listened to episode 2, on Baker v. Carr, and really liked it. It further cemented my already stated opinion that the Radiolab guys are great at producing podcasts, and lousy at recommending others.

Only one episode in, but I think it had some of the same strengths and weaknesses as a Radiolab episode. I always enjoy their ability to take scientific, political, or other issues and make them accessible and entertaining. They do a great job of showing both sides of issues. I may have mentioned this earlier, in talking about one of their recommended podcasts that I didn't like, but one thing they and This American Life both do well at times is lead you down a path, to the point where you say "Yes, I agree with this. This is obviously the correct viewpoint", and then in the next 15 minutes they turn it completely around to where you see the other side of the argument (as a tangent, one of the areas that I think TAL has been getting worse on the last couple of years is exactly this. They seem to be more into "causes" now, and less into seeing all sides of a story). This episode definitely does well in showing both sides, relates Baker v. Carr to our current state of affairs, and tells an interesting story while doing so.

On the negative side, sometimes I think they play the "Help a dumb guy understand this" a little too much. I suspect that the lawyers on the board may not like this podcast as much as I do. For someone like me, who was not familiar with Baker v. Carr, it was very interesting, but even for me a couple of times I was like "Yes, I get it, move on". Examples of this were Jad "not being familiar with" the Miranda decision, and taking an inordinately long time to understand the impact of having a 23 to 1 ration in rural vs. urban legislative districts.

Overall, though, I liked it, and am interested to see where they go with it (though I also wonder if the story well will run dry relatively quickly).