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The Your Favorite Band Sucks podcast did a four part series on Eminem last month. Check it out here.
Great show. They know a lot about music. Get over yourself, they’re mostly playing characters rather than villains, but I do think they hate Eminem.
I tried listening to it but can't stand the meandering style that is common in podcasts for some reason.
"We're going to do multiple episodes on Eminem because there's way too much to talk about."
30 sec prior:
"Take me to a Mexican restaurant and 90% of the time I'm going to spill cheese sauce on myself"
🤦
A lot of podcasts are basically just a surrogate for hanging out with friends and talking, rather than an informational presentation.
Some are a lot scummier about it and actively encourage para social relationships, but most I've encountered are best approached as a recording of a group of friends talking about a shared interest, and one brought a PowerPoint.
Needless to say, it's not the format for everyone.
That actually makes sense, and explains why the format is popular despite frustrating me.
There are podcasts out there that are more to the point. Honestly it's like old radio. Talk shows are just going to be more popular cause like said it feels more like hanging out with friends.
If you don't like that format though look for podcasts with only one person on the cast (or if they have another person it's someone they're interviewing). There's a lot of great history podcasts that are one person presenting, they have a script, they get through it in 20 minutes. You don't have to listen to ten minutes of shooting the shit and "personalities" first, they just get straight to it and edit to keep it tight. Fiction story and play podcasts (ttrpg) also have a good representation in this category too (though they also have plenty of round table discussion ones so you'll have to vet).
Going to add some suggestions here for people who might not like the radio personalities setup a lot of podcasts have, but don't have a place to start. Would appreciate anyone with suggestions adding on as I listen to audiobooks more than podcasts!
- Parcast Network podcasts — they have several presenters covering a variety of topics (mainly true crime, disasters, cults, myths/legends/fairytales). This is the blandest, no shooting the shit, no radio personalities, formulaic as you can get. Their presenters are all mild mannered toned and the shows generally follow a format with a few variations (ie some of them give some random bullshit pulled out medical diagnosises to criminals, some are more sensationalized "could the killer have possibly been thinking this?", etc). If you don't like how one set of narrators present an event you can absolutely find a presenter you prefer on the network as the shows cannibalize the same stories between each other. Not the most factual podcasts and in-depth is anathema to them, but if you're just looking for something inoffensive on in the background while you do the dishes they work.
- The Other Half — one presenter, short episodes, well-researched women through the ages. This is a sort of sequel to the Queens of England podcast by the same podcaster. Each season focuses on a specific type of historical woman (current season is royal/political mistresses). The episodes are short, focus on the history, there is some modern contextualizing (in the vein of now that it's not 1304 we can recognize getting up three days after giving birth to go tell an invading army to fuck off was a lot of work lol). Mostly though it's just the history.
- Dan Carlin's Hardcore History — another good history podcast that covers a large variety of topics, but the episodes are long. Doesn't make it a bad podcast, but six hours in length isn't rare. Lot of straight history, but also modern contextualizing (like the Romans didn't see executing criminals in the colliseum for entertainment as bad, but in modern times we would view that as very fucked up) and philosophizing (not sure I'd say getting up on a soapbox so much as this was the Roman's philosophy about this, let's follow their schools of thought).
- The Magnus Archives — horror anthology with an overarching story. Very good production values and even if you're not interested in the broader story there's a ton of great creepypasta type stories.
- Tales from the Stinky Dragon — DND play podcast with great production values and relatively short episodes (think they're like 30min?). This is heavily edited to cut out a lot of the parts of DND that drag as a listener (multiple rounds of that's a nat1, going back and forth on plans, etc) so though there's some discussion between the players/DM it's generally pretty snappy and most of the run time is just straight story. That said sometimes they do include tangents where the players meta joke with each other (this is probably the least offender I've heard for this though, if a tangent happens it's usually five minutes at worst).
- We're Alive — zombie apocalypse story podcast. Has multiple shows, several completed, with great production values (probably one of the best I've heard for sound production). This is a radio play style podcast so cliffhangers abound. Being a zombie "story of survivors" many of the characters are probably going to ping obnoxious at first as part of the genre is survivors learning to work together.
- Ruby the Galactic Gumshoe — so this actually was a radio play back in the day, the company has just updated to the present. These are trippy whimsical stories about Ruby, the interstellar detective. It started in the 80s iirc so expect to hear a ton of synth. The stories themselves run on a ton of puns, a quirky crew of heist characters, abstract philosophizing (in a what do robots dream of and colors taste like way) and trippy music to listen to when you're high.
- Myths and Legends — myths and Legends to lofi beats. Super chill, nothing more going on here, does have a lot of ads read by the narrator hard coded into the podcast so even if you pay for your podcasting service you do have to sit through them (not usually an issue since you can fast forward unless you're driving ime).
- Myths Your Teacher Hated — myths and legends, but told in a Badass of the Week style. Episodes are usually one myth/legend and one legendary/folktale creature. Unlike everything else on this list the narrator isn't really a mellow soothing tone type so if you don't like loud voices not a fit.
- Let's Talk About Myths, Baby! — in-depth podcast on myths with a lot of research and modern contextualizing, big feminist bent. The host does soapbox. Mainly listing this because it's the only "I want opinion discussion, but I don't want to hear five people discussing it between talking about what they ordered from Wendy's" podcast I listen to. That said she talks a lot about her research and goes into the various sources she's drawing from and their differences, so if you're looking for in-depth she's a great stop.
- Batman: The Audio Adventures — honestly way better than it has any right to be, kind of an offshoot of 60s Batman and 90s animated Batman. Does the radio play style intentionally and very well. Even if you're not into Batman you might enjoy it as a noir comedy.
I can't get into those types of podcasts either so I've been looking for a list like this. Thank you for sharing and extra thanks for the helpful descriptors
Thank you for this!
also
- Casefile — Extremely dry Australian host tells wonderfully well-written, descriptive recounts of horrific crimes that have happened all over the world.
Oh wow! That's a title that I've not heard in a long time. Where are you finding Ruby the Galactic Gumshoe?
It's actually on spotify, but you can also find some of them on YouTube, meat fulton's site and audible/general audiobook retailers!
I've found that I'm more okay with that flavor of podcast when I'm doing a particular type of not quite mindless but not quite focused task, like driving for a while or doing yardwork. My attention is on what I'm doing, but it's not really using much mental capacity. I've found that the more conversational podcast keeps my mind a little more active without distracting me from what I'm doing. Like a watered down version of chatting with the driver to keep them awake, or having a dumb conversation while cleaning to make the time go faster.
"While There's Your Problem" is my go-to. They're a podcast about engineering disasters, and they stay on topic enough, so their tangents tend to be related to the topic at least, and there's not really a focus on them as characters beyond a couple recurring jokes or things that make one of them get ranty. It helps that about once a month I make a drive that's roughly the length of one of their episodes, so it lines up pretty nice.
Yeah I get very picky about podcasts myself. This sounds like an interesting premise but one I might skip based on your comment.
Sometimes though, I’ll start a new one and even though the hosts and dynamic can be grating at times, I eventually get used to their personalities and schtick. Guess it just depends.
Those guys are insufferable cunts. They spend a lot of time self-fellating. Trying to convince everyone that their opinion is more correct than your opinion. It's still just an opinion. dumbasses.