So, interesting podcasts, then...

[ursus arctos]

So, interesting podcasts, then...

I'm strictly Ipod in my shirt or jacket pocket, so FF is easy as long as they are reasonably predictable (I haven't listened to Radiolab ads or credits in years).

I realise that I've completely lost touch with how people who rely on cars live.

[Ginger Yellow]

So, interesting podcasts, then...

Don't most people fast forward through adverts?

Not on a podcast, no, because usually they're not very long and you don't know exactly how long they're going to be. The only time I do is when they're regularly at the start of the show.

[Incandenza]

So, interesting podcasts, then...

WOM wrote: I tend to listen to them on my iPod, synced through my car stereo. FF'ing is pretty much impossible. Lately I've been using my BlackBerry through the Aux input, which means I can FF much easier through 'em. But Marc Maron does his own rip and reads, so it's tough to skip them with any kind of accuracy.

Maron's ads can be a little entertaining, but also long. 4 or 5 hits of the 15 second FF button on the iPhone screen works for me.

[Incandenza]

So, interesting podcasts, then...

Barack Obama is coming into LA today, one of his stops will be at Marc Maron's garage to appear on WTF.

[WOM]

So, interesting podcasts, then...

Are you kidding? That's fantastic. Barry at the Cat Ranch.

[Incandenza]

So, interesting podcasts, then...

I know! I hope he gives us a "Boomer lives!"

I don't usually listen to them just after they are released, but today's has Judd Apatow, who I would want to hear, and Maron is talking about the Obama interview in the opening.

[Ginger Yellow]

So, interesting podcasts, then...

New additions to my subscriptions list:

The Allusionist - Helen Zaltzman does little snippets on etymology and other lexicological subjects.

The Giant Beastcast - A spinoff from the Bombcast. Still not quite sure what's supposed to differentiate it, but I like the Bombcast crew, so more of that is fine by me.

Spontaneanation - A new improv podcast by Paul F Tompkins. Obviously it's great.

Womp It Up - Jessica St Clair and Lennon Parham take their characters from Comedy Bang Bang! and give them their own podcast, including guests (Andy Daly! Paul F!)and old favourite sidekicks like Gutterballs.

With Special Guest Lauren Lapkus - Lauren Lapkus, another fantastic CBB! alumna, hosts her own podcast, but as a guest on somebody else's podcast. If you see what I mean.

Hello From The Magic Tavern - I haven't actually started listening to this yet, but it comes highly recommended from the AV Club, in the style of Nightvale.

Probably Science - Four (actually three at the moment) comedians talk and joke about science news, usually with an expert guest.

[gavc23]

So, interesting podcasts, then...

Dragging this back up - did anyone listen to the Maron podcast with Obama as Incandenza flagged up earlier?

I'm just catching up and listened last night. As an interview it wasn't particularly revealing, but as said above as an event for the President to do a podcast interview in a garage it seemed worth spending an hour on.

Though I do hope that Obama really is a Louis CK fan and wasn't just told to say that.

The recent Nerdist with Ian MacKellan is worth a listen too, if only as he has to explain what Kendal Mint Cake is.

[hobbes]

So, interesting podcasts, then...

Disappointingly, The Bugle is going monthly.
It's not a surprise with John Oliver's show doing so well, but still a blow.

[My Name Is Ian]

So, interesting podcasts, then...

My current irritation is that Itunes doesn't register how many subscribers a podcast has, so I have no idea how many people listen to ours (as Google Drive, which hosts it, doesn't record the number of downloads, either.)

[Stumpy Pepys]

So, interesting podcasts, then...

My Name Is Ian wrote: My current irritation is that Itunes doesn't register how many subscribers a podcast has, so I have no idea how many people listen to ours (as Google Drive, which hosts it, doesn't record the number of downloads, either.)

I don't think number of subscribers is feasible or useful; downloads is a far more useful metric.

Someone clicking a Subscribe URL doesn't mean the person necessarily downloads and listens to it.

[Crusoe]

So, interesting podcasts, then...

Is downloads really more useful? My podcast app auto-downloads the most recent episode of every podcast I subscribe to. I often delete them without blinking.

I mean, I guess it's better than subscribers, but still not a foolproof measure.

[My Name Is Ian]

So, interesting podcasts, then...

Like I say, Google Drive doesn't record them either, which is, I guess, the cost of having to do it on a budget of exactly zero. (I can track the page views when it appears on the site, which amounts to a few hundred per week, but that's not reliable either, of course. Good job no sponsors or anything useful will touch us with a ten foot long barge pole.)

[WOM]

So, interesting podcasts, then...

Marc Maron has (finally) interviewed Lorne Michaels in an almost two-hour WTF. Excellent.

[Incandenza]

So, interesting podcasts, then...

I haven't listened to it yet. It's like Ahab getting his white whale. Are there any awkward moments? Lorne sounded like a complete asshole in an interview on NPR a month ago.

[Jon]

So, interesting podcasts, then...

There's a good series on Radio 4 that started on Saturday that's all about podcasts. It confirmed what I already thought about this medium - the Americans are streets ahead of anyone else when it comes to podcasting. One only has to listen to Marc Maron and then a Richard Herring podcast.

[WOM]

So, interesting podcasts, then...

Incandenza wrote: I haven't listened to it yet. It's like Ahab getting his white whale. Are there any awkward moments? Lorne sounded like a complete asshole in an interview on NPR a month ago.

No, it's very warm and generous. They get the awkward shit out of the way right of the bat and then dig down from there. They were both quite into it and Michaels was decent and honest (I felt).

[Crusoe]

So, interesting podcasts, then...

I'm quite enjoying Limetown, the Serial-like seven-parter. A bit like the X-Files or a serious Welcome To Night Vale.

[Ginger Yellow]

So, interesting podcasts, then...

Yeah, I added it to my queue recently, along with The Message, another new fictionalised radio documentary type podcast.

[ad hoc]

So, interesting podcasts, then...

Jon wrote: It confirmed what I already thought about this medium - the Americans are streets ahead of anyone else when it comes to podcasting.

Can you say more about what this means, Jon? What does it mean to be streets ahead? they are better at the technical side of it? At the format of a show? I'm sort of uncertain what it would mean to be "ahead" at podcasting

[Jon]

So, interesting podcasts, then...

"Can you say more about what this means, Jon?"

I'll try. On the radio programme, the presenter, Miranda Sawyer, and her guest shared their favourite podcasts. Most of them were American ones. This is true of most of mine too. I thought that at first that this was because I've always been a bit of an Yankophile but it appears I'm not alone.

Partly this is because the majority of British podcasts aren't real podcasts, but just BBC radio programmes packaged as such. In the US you have a lot more podcasts which are just that - podcasts. You have studios dedicated to making podcasts - Podcast One studios for example.

They also mentioned on the radio show that podcasts in the US are more geared to making money too because the American public are used to funding drives and donating to continue listening to audio that they like. I can't speak for other countries but it certainly doesn't happen in the UK, almost definitely because of the existence of the licence fee.

Obviously the US is a big country and will get the big numbers. It's interesting to see the success of Marc Maron and compare it, like I did in my previous post, with Richard Herring as they are both doing quite a similar thing but Marc Maron is a whole lot more successful at it.

Another interesting point they made was talking about how listeners emotionally invest in the presenters. In the more traditional radio model listeners usually invest in the brand of the station, less so the personality. So if Chris Evans left the breakfast show on Radio 1, you might be annoyed but, chances are, you wouldn't switch stations but just give the new guy a listen and you'd probably get used to him. This is less so with podcasts where sometimes personality to be on a par with content. I find this to be true, certainly in the case of the podcast I've listened to for the longest time - Comic Geek Speak. Just a few average joes talking about comics. While some of the episodes are not that great or insightful, it's great to hear them on a regular basis and I feel strangely close to them all, having listened to these guys for the best part of a decade. One of them died a year or so ago and that was a real shock.

[WOM]

So, interesting podcasts, then...

The first podcast I ever got into (on Page 1) is British; Philosophy Bites. But I recently tried to get into a comedy one (one about comedians) ....can't recall the name...and the recording quality was so poor I just gave up. Nerdiest, WTF and Canadaland are the only ones I subscribe to and/or listen to regularly. I listen to Fat Man on Batman pretty regularly, after going through most of Kevin Smith's others on movies and movie making.

Still don't get the appeal of Nightvale after trying three or four times.

[Ginger Yellow]

So, interesting podcasts, then...

I'd agree wholeheartedly with the general statement, although there are definitely some great British podcasts (as podcasts in their own right).

Certainly on the comedy side, if you set aside Ricky Gervais and his crew, American comics have been much quicker/better/more persistent in pursuing the podcast medium and making the most of it. They're also much better at nurturing each other - featuring each other on each other's podcasts, spinning off characters into their own podcasts, forming self-funding podcast networks, and so on. British comedy podcasts for the most part feel like self-contained islands. Great islands, in many cases, but there's no real British comedy podcast movement, whereas there absolutely is in the US.

To be fair, I think part of it is a product of the differences in standup culture and economy. It's pretty hard to make a living as a touring standup in the US, relative to the UK, mainly because of the geography, but also because live standup is just less of a thing in the US. So in order to make a career you need to have wider exposure. Traditionally this has mainly been through TV, but the same hustle for an audience is now being applied to podcasts. Whereas for most British standups, I think they see podcasts as a distraction from the day job, which is touring.

[WOM]

So, interesting podcasts, then...

I think it was The Comedian's Comedian. It sounds like it's being recorded inside a filing cabinet. One mic...lots of echo.

Education is quite good, but a little Kevin Smith can go a long way when he's playing the dopey sidekick.

[ursus arctos]

So, interesting podcasts, then...

Is it really harder to make a living doing standup in the US?

It seems very well entrenched in New York, Chicago and LA.