Was 2016 the year of the podcast? Or was that 2015? Honestly,
I’ve lost track. Still, I’ve listened to a lot of podcasts this year, many of
which are wonderful and enrich my life on a daily basis. Here are some of my
thoughts!
Podcasts I started
listening to:
Alice Isn’t Dead – Everything I hoped for out of a new Night
Vale podcast. Creepy, vivid, and gorgeous. Jasika Nicole’s narration is
impeccable and the story is great. Can’t wait for season two!
My Dad Wrote a Porno – Hands down the funniest thing I have
listened to this year. I have had to stop listening in public since it so
frequently makes me break down with laughter. It can get a bit repetitive,
especially into season two, but I tend to space the episodes out over quite a
while to mitigate the effect, and there’s nothing funnier.
Homecoming – When Gimlet announced their new fall lineup, I
was skeptical of all of their offerings, but waded in all the same. Homecoming
was the biggest surprise of all of them, and may even be my favourite. The
story is fascinating, and would probably benefit from a second listen to catch
the layers of hints and foreshadowing. I’ve been enjoying it more and more as the
season carries on.
Undone – Undone was the only one of Gimlet’s new shows that
even piqued my interest, and it followed through on the promise. It’s an
interesting look at pieces of (recent) history I had largely never heard of
before, and it’s been really educational on all manner of topics.
Podcasts I stopped
listening to:
Lore – sorry Aaron Mahnke, I just couldn’t handle your
delivery anymore.
Sampler – It turns out I don’t like audio samples as much as
self-contained stories, and I already listen to so many podcasts that I had often
already heard at least one of the clips being featured. It took me a long time
to stop, since I really liked Brittany Luse and enjoyed the themes of each
episode, but eventually I had to leave it behind.
Within the Wires – I really couldn't get into this, and I think one of its problems was that it was a little too good at the “relaxation tape”
presentation, so I would tune it out and lose focus on the story that was
actually happening. I’m sure there was a good story hidden in there, but
every time I finished an episode I found myself asking “what just happened?”, and
not in the Night Vale kind of way.
The Orbiting Human Circus (of the Air) – I’m not sure if
this one counts as a podcast I stopped listening to, so much as a podcast I
never really signed up for but listened to while it was being pushed to the Night
Vale feed. Still, I tried the first three episodes and never wanted more. The
story was too disjointed and jerky, not to mention confusing.
Crimetown – the second Gimlet media podcast I dropped; this
one just never really caught my attention.
Perennial Delights: Pop
Culture Happy Hour, Judge John Hodgman, Daft Souls, the Bugle, Reply All
Week after week, these shows are great little bits of
entertainment to liven up my life. I have trouble saying much about any of them
beyond “they’re soooooo good you should try them you really should” so there’s
not much I can put here.
A Loose Ranking:
1.
Pop Culture Happy Hour
2.
Reply All
3.
Judge John Hodgman
4.
Daft Souls
5.
My Dad Wrote a Porno
6.
Planet Money
7.
The Bugle
8.
The Allusionist
9.
How I Built This
10.
99PI
11.
The Sporkful
12.
Startup
13.
Hidden Brain
14.
Radiolab
15.
Invisibilia
16.
Undone
17.
Welcome to Night Vale
18.
Homecoming
19.
Alice Isn’t Dead
20.
Song Exploder
21.
All Songs Considered
22.
Code Switch
23.
Bad with Money
24.
Dead Pilots Society
25.
Savage Lovecast
26.
Stuff you Missed in History Class
27.
Memory Palace
28.
You Must Remember This
29.
Matt & Doree’s Eggcellent Adventure
30.
Shut Up & Sit Down
31.
No Such Thing as a Fish
32.
Sawbones
33.
Serial
34.
Criminal
35.
Serious Eats
36.
Nerdist
37.
Freakonomics Radio
38.
Love & Radio
39.
Surprisingly Awesome
40.
Heavyweight
41.
Science VS
Not Ranked on Account
of Not Producing New Episodes:
Getting on with James Urbaniak
The Indoor Kids
Mystery Show
Books on the Nightstand
Thrilling Adventure Hour
TLDR
Not Ranked on Account
of Being Too New (to me) to Have an Opinion:
Backlisted
The Adventure Zone
Not Ranked on Account
of Being Language-Enrichment Podcasts:
Radio ambulante
Aujourd’hui l’histoire
Not Ranked on Account
of Being (mostly) Serious News & Media Podcasts:
Canadaland
Canadaland Commons
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