Recent Podcastery

I have actually been listening to less Podcasts of late, though that’s really just because I’ve finally taken the plunge into the rough and tumble world of Audiobooks, most of which are roughly the length of, like 10-20 regular podcasts or something. That being said, I still listen to a fair amount of podcasts. Some of the second string podcasts are getting sidelined to make room, but that’s ultimately not a bad thing. Anywho, here are four podcasts I’ve glommed onto recently and have been enjoying.

  • The X-Files Files – Longtime readers know that I love the X-Files, so this podcast is right up my alley. It’s hosted by comedian Kumail Nanjiani, who injects the perfect combination of humor and serious love for the material into the podcast. We’re only a few episodes in, but he’s had fantastic guests as well, including Devin Faraci (critic from Badass Digest), DC Pierson (comedian), and Dan Harmon (show runner for Community). Great discussions, and a chance to revisit one of my favorite shows. I’ve always preferred the monster-of-the-week episodes to the continuity/conspiracy episodes, but I’ll be taking this opportunity to rewatch the conspiracy episodes. I basically gave up on those things in season 2 during the original airing. I mean, I would occasionally watch one later on, but I never knew what the hell was going on, and I really didn’t care. I kinda caught up around the time the first X-Files movie came out, but that was basically because of that hidden track thing on the soundtrack for the movie where Chris Carter basically just explains the whole thing. I’m not a big fan of conspiracy theories and the like, so I’m not expecting to love these episodes, but I do so enjoy spending time with Mulder and Scully, so I’m looking forward to it. And it’s funny how much the first season episodes played up the conspiracy angle, even in the standalone freak-of-the-week episodes. Anyway, if you’re a fan of the show or even if you never watched it before and are looking for a way to catch up, this podcast is a nice supplement.
  • The Badass Digest Podcast (aka the Badasscast, aka The Badass Padcast Podcast) – This is basically just two interesting dudes vamping about movies for about an hour. The aforementioned Devin Faraci and the hilarious Evan Saathoff (aka Sam Strange) work well together, despite the fact that there appears to be little or no thought put into the format of the show. But it works, and it’s worth listening to. The only real complaint is the irregularity of the updates, which are somewhat sporadic (they average 2-3 per month, but they’re unpredictable).
  • A Cast of Kings – A Game of Thrones Podcast – Back in the day, before there were a gazillion great podcasts to listen to, it used to actually be hard to find good movie podcasts. I would search around for some good ones, and I would always see these weird podcasts dedicated to, for example, Firefly. This made no sense to me, because even though I love that show as much as anyone else, what the hell is there to talk about once you review all the episodes? These things literally went on for, like, 5 years, with weekly updates and everything. But I’m coming around to the idea when it comes to big shows (like The X-Files, which has 8 seasons and hundreds of episodes to work with) or to a show that’s airing now. But then, there’s only one show that I watch live, and that’s A Game of Thrones, so when I remembered that Dave Chen of the /Filmcast also does this Game of Thrones podcast, I was on board, and started following it during this season. If you watch the show, it’s great fun dissecting the episodes.
  • Comic Tango – The Echo Rift guys tackle a sorta meta-commentary on comic books, things like pricing, number 1 issues, creators mouthing off on twitter, and so on. I’m not a huge comic reader, but this stuff is still interesting to me somehow. Worth the listen for comic fans, but even if you’re not, some of these episodes might be for you (or just check out the regular Echo Rift podcast)…

And that’s all for now. On Sunday, we return to the Hugo Awards for a look at the Novelette slate. See you then.

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