Life has been derailed by the World Cup, as evidenced by the above and below posts. As the World Cup has infested all my waking hours (not spent job hunting). Podcasts have continued with periodic certainty and somehow made me feel slightly better about life.
This is an attempt to sneak in some more content and also to catch up on what were well placed intentions – trying to critically appraise what I’ve been consuming over the past few months. This one focuses on the medium of Podcasts.

You’d be right in thinking that there is perhaps nothing more boring than the podcast opinions of an anonymous, anonymous. I’m not even known for being anonymous.
But this isn’t for you, this is my attempt to square off podcasts and their worth to me. Read on if you so desire.

The beauty of podcasts is two-fold; they are created autonomously and they are consumed autonomously. The creators can say or do what they want and if people like it or are interested they will consume. It sounds like the perfect system. The podcasts I listen to depend on what I like to listen to. And I can listen to them when I do other stuff – unlike reading or watching or writing similar garbage.

Enough of the waffle.

My podcast tastes tend to focus on characters and issues which I am interested in. I stumbled upon Podcasts through listening to and frequently missing episodes of Jarvis Cocker’s Sunday Service. This now defunct BBC R6 show whetted my appetite for the medium. Jarvis also created the Wireless Nights series’ which are essential listening – 5/5.

The next podcast gold strike didn’t happen for many years, this fallow period left me with a sense that perhaps there was something missing. I have spent years of my life driving to good radio so the absence of radio or a similar medium did leave a hole un-stimulated. Namely my ear hole.

Apparently I wasn’t the only one who felt this absence as suddenly podcasting became a big thing again. The renewed global interest came from the most obvious of places – Joe Rogan. I’ve rarely listened to Joe Rogan’s podcast so I won’t comment on it but I can say that he is somehow solely responsible for the great Podcast revival. The format of unadulterated creative or political thought appealed to me and I suppose to many others, moreover anyone who had a voice could now have a podcast. In this sudden tsunami of podcasts emerged some big names which caught my ear – Russell Brand and Ed Milliband to name but a few. Some stalwarts also emerged from the woodwork, flaunting their well established podcast on episode one thousand and something – Adam Buxton, Sam Harris for example.

Below is a run through of some podcasts and what I think of them, it isn’t particularly thorough and might even be inaccurate in places.

Russell Brand’s Under the Skin – Russell Brand’s soul searching has led him to creating the Under the Skin podcast. His range of generally academic guests discuss the issues of the day only to be interrupted by Brand’s pressured speech which either come off as prophetic or idiotic and also serve to give credence to his claims of pure egotism. Thankfully the caliber of the guests is high enough to salvage the moments when we have to swallow the length of Russell’s lengthy spirituality and his love of love. I’m being critical here and I do enjoy this podcast. 4.75/5

Reasons to be Cheerful feat. Ed Milliband and Geoff Lloyd  – Once again, Ed Milliband is listed after Russell Brand, this time they are unrelated however. Ed Milliband leads the charges of political figures who have reinvented themselves here. Alongside his co-host Geoff, we’re served up Reasons to be Cheerful about the current political climate bUnfilteredy experts and guests in the know. Generally pretty interesting and topical, often amusing. Ed Milliband is likable and would have made a great chat show host. And probably a better PM than David Cameron. Highlights include Ed’s aide doing a spot on impression of Ed saying “Inequalityyyy.” 4/5

James O’Brien’s Unfiltered – Unlike the previous two podcasts, this show is hit and miss.  James O’brien’s attempt to reinvent himself as a working class chat-show host seems to undermine the excellent  character and space he’s created on LBC. The guests vary from hugely interesting to dull and in actual fact represent a treadmill of self-interested book hawkers. The format is often untidy and doesn’t suit the podcast genre, at once attempting to be too polished and honed and then verging into the rambling conversations of other podcasts. The Joe branding and sponsorship is equally suspicious – James o’brien would appear to be the woke-ish presenter available who also wanted a podcast. Often he reveals things about himself which we could guess at and are uncomfortable to listen to – especially things about his socio-economic status which he himself seems uncomfortable with – still. I’ve resorted to playing a bingo where if James O’Brien says one of his tag lines I eat normally for the rest of the week. Examples include- look at me gene, impostor syndrome, you are the most * guest we’ve had on unfiltered. (I’m sure I have a full list of these slightly irksome phrases somewhere, I’ll attempt to update this for you, Mum. Just so you know I’m actually telling the truth.) Often I get the feeling that James O’brien is projecting his own class insecurities onto the guest and occasionally I’m shocked to hear him defend or reveal his own privilege in situations where it would appear he hasn’t yet critiqued it. Basically I don’t think that James O’Brien should be doing a podcast like this, I don’t think that the overly honed production suits the podcast format and I think the tie up that Joe must have with a publishing house rubbishes the whole idea of what could have been a good podcast. 3/5

Adam Buxton’s podcast – 5/5 – straight up fire. Good guests from a range of creative outlets, spontaneously and sporadically posted, creatively edited, funny and sincere. This is podcasting, strap in, tune out, tune back in, download and up cycle your enjoyment glands – Bingo – you’ve hit the head Nail-man. Highlights include Bob Mortimer and the Radiohead ladz.

Athletico Mince – 5/5 – One Peter Beardsley, There’s only one Peter Beardsley. Amazing, seminal, wonderful. Funny, he he. It’s football, it’s white guys discussing their insecurities, it’s funny.

The Intercepted – 4/5 – Good shit you know… A nice left wing window into American politics, often features informative and highly positioned guests who want to drop some mic.

Deconstructed – 3/5 – A spin off from the above featuring Mehdi Hassan. Seems like the James O’brien one but sticks to politics. Hasn’t hit the ground running.

Sam Harris – 2/5 Sometimes when you feel intrigued it can be a good thing. Generally its a little pompous and heady. Depends on the guest and the topic at hand but I can safely say I don’t really care about Sam Harris’s position on free will or the argument he’s seemingly having with that guy anymore.

I’m not such a fan of the true crime stuff. I listened to Serial in it’s first season and was interested. This genre seems to lack the moving image where other shows profit from its absence.
Serial Season 1 – 4/5. – Quite a gripping premise, immediately less so in season 2.
The producers of this show were then responsible for S-Town which ran along a similar vein but lacked the end-goal of solving a murder. Conceptually, quite a nice listen and intriguing but also a load of old cobblers. If you really want to meet intriguing people you probably won’t find them on a podcast. Not to take away from the definite intriguing and eccentric John B. S-Town – 3/5.

This is even starting to bore me but at least its out of the way now. Lets pretend it didn’t ever happen. Back to the football tonight.

Cheers the now.
Mr Hummels

X

P.S – I am aware that the above list features a list of almost exclusively straight white male hosts. I’d love to hear any suggestions of more diverse podcasts I could get into.

P.P.S Here I would like to take a quick detour to mention the Netflix series Evil Genius- a show which should have been a podcast. Truly awful. 0.5/5 This was recommended by Bob Mortimer so sneaks into this review as it is almost relevant. He may be all the things I said earlier but he can’t recommend a tele show for the life of him.