Hi all,
Let’s review a couple more extra thoughts from my 2018 podcast review.
The loser’s bracket
I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge some podcasts that I listened to this year that did not quite make the final cut.
-Malcolm Gladwell got involved in Broken Record, a music podcast that I never quite got into in the same way I’ve enjoyed his other work.
-Pardon My Take is well regarded by its many fans but for me the show isn’t good enough to crack an already crowded list of sports-centric shows.
-Economics With Subtitles was an entertaining and informative show that I might recommend to the subject’s beginners but concluded was too simplistic for me (and my undergraduate degree) to get excited over.
-Quack Attack seems right down my alley but I don’t have the energy at the moment to listen to a show with 250+ episodes in its backlog, even if those are all related to the greatest movie trilogy of all time - The Mighty Ducks.
Is this a memory palace?
I realized as I was going through the list that Against All Odds was like a 2.0 version of an ESPN gambling show I used to listen to, Behind The Bets. Both shows dug into the details of sports betting but Against All Odds is an improvement because it brings the right level of humor to justify listening to a show that is about what I don’t consider a very serious pursuit.
In a similar way, Revisionist History has some traces of one-time favorite The Memory Palace. Both podcasts dig a little further past the surface to uncover interesting stories that are in danger of being lost to the ever-receding tide of history. The difference in the podcasts is relevance – Revisionist History covers stories that impact today's world while The Memory Palace was always a show more interested in simply telling a great story.
Next year?
I recently went back into the Song Exploder archives to see if any new artists or songs have popped up. I’ll likely add this show to my regular rotation because good music podcasts are difficult to find and this program that dissects how artists create songs is among the very best.
The Japan Times recently started a new show about various topics related to living in Japan. Newspapers rarely produce great podcasts but I think the topic will keep me involved for a little while. I'm as of yet unable to download this but as soon as I get a few episodes into the show I'll chime in with an update.
Finally, I was asked about current events podcasts at the start of 2019 and realized that Dan Carlin's recent hiatus for Common Sense had left a big hole in my regular podcast rotation. By this time next year, I'm sure I'll have at least one solid replacement in place.
And now that I think about it, I should see what The Memory Palace is up to – I miss that show. I’m not sure why I stopped listening to it in the first place. Maybe The Moth, too, now that I’m a good ten feet down memory lane…
