Podsmack

With my long commutes twice a week, I've started listening to podcasts to fill the time. So every so often I'm gonna do an update of what I listen to and a bit of critique of them.

Comedy Bang! Bang!

This is the first podcast I really tried and...I can't say enough good things about it. I could gush for hours on end about how funny it is. The premise is simply that Scott Aukerman hosts a podcast, regularly having B-list celebrities come in to talk and have fun, but often a cast of wacky characters barges in and interrupts the podcast. It's full character improv at that point with Scott and the guest dealing with the character and the show spiraling off into bizarre areas. It is, almost without exception, absurdly hilarious. And, thanks to Scott's sensibilities in trying to be the straight man and keep the show on course without becoming vulgar or terrible, it very rarely strays into problematic areas or, at the very least, rarely strays unchecked. I always love it. It's always great.

Nerd Poker

And then on the other end, we have Nerd Poker.  I was pretty interested in it. Comedians? Playing D&D? In convenient podcast form? Yes please! The first episode was mildly annoying, with constantly having to stop and explain the rules, but it had some good laughs. The (lone) female member of the podcast kept getting talked over but...but maybe it gets better?

Nope. Second episode. There was like pretty much a solid 10 minutes of rape jokes. Nope. NOPE. Unlistenable. Even setting that aside(which is, uh, not really good to set aside) it's just not worth the effort. There are better ways I can use my driving time. Like counting roadkill.

The Alton Browncast

Oh my god. Alton Brown started doing a podcast. I'm so excited. And I just can't hide it. And you know? You know. I think I like it.

I went ahead and skipped to episode 4 so I could hopefully move past the awkward getting used to doing a podcast phase. The guest? Alex Guarnaschelli. I love Alex Guarnaschelli. She's one of my favorite Food Network personalities. Alton starts off with food world news, which is interesting and he comes off as way more opinionated than I'm used to, but I like it. I like having his opinions out there. He talks a little too fast, but I imagine he'll even it out. Then Guarnaschelli comes on and it's just an interesting interview about food and cooking and her aspirations and doing the Iron Chef thing and it's really nice to listen to. I'm not sure there's anywhere else that has good, honest sit-down conversations with the people who do food shows and Alex and Alton have such a great passion for it that I want to listen forever. So happy Alton decided to start doing a podcast. Gonna listen to so much more.