I don’t listen to podcasts as often as I used to because all these audiobooks aren’t gooing to listen to themselves, but after a few of my old standbys went dark lately, I decided to look for some new ones, and what do you know, a few of them fell into my lap. I’m sure there are plenty of others I should be listening to, but these are the ones that struck a chord recently:
- The Style Guide – Two guys talking about a given (usually movie focused) topic for about an hour, and it’s pretty solid stuff, especially if you like to parse out what defines a genre, and what the outliers are. I just discovered this one and it’s a pretty young podcast, but they seem to be off to a great start and am looking forward to devouring their (small) backlog and keeping up with new eps…
- The Canon – The premise is a pretty standard one. Every week, they choose a new movie and evaluate whether or not it belongs in the Canon of great movies or somesuch. The “or somesuch” piece is because the actual definition of the Canon is pretty loose and they engage in arbitrary limiting exercises like versus episodes where they, for example, say that Alien or Aliens can make the Canon, but not both. The hosts have a weird chemistry too. They have strong opinions, bicker a lot, and often talk over each other. It’s probably not for everyone, and if I were to make a podcast, it would not be like this at all, but that’s kinda what I like about it, I guess. They do make a lot of good points though, and the annoyance factor isn’t quite as bad as the initial episodes these days. Worth checking out. Bonus points for their Cannon-like logo.
- I Was There Too – What a fabulous idea for a podcast. A guy interviews people who played bit parts in big movies, like the guy who played Nicholson’s secretary in A Few Good Men (two lines, but memorable) or the guy who played the Apple store employee in Captain America 2 (also a tiny yet memorable part). Some are more substantial, like Jenette Goldstein, who is probably most famous for playing Vasquez in Aliens, but also had bit parts in a bunch of other James Cameron movies. Like most “interview” based shows, this one depends greatly on the guest, but so far, they’ve been pretty great. Not frequently updated, but that’s quite alright by me!
- Birthcast, Moviecast, Deathcast, Padcast Podcast – I think I may have mentioned this before, back when they were the Badass Digest Padcast Podcast, but that one was always very inconsistently updated. A while later and their site has rebranded, and the host situation solidified and they started updating more frequently. It’s still a bit on the rambly side and it comes from a goofy perspective that might not appeal to everyone, but I enjoy it. They’ve been watching a bunch of “Future Cop” movies recently, which has been fun.
And that’s all for now. Go forth and listen to yonder podcasts.