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I'm Against Podcasts

washingtonpost.com

221–230 of 300 posts

Re: I'm Against Podcasts

#221
post #177

It's pretty clear what's happening here: the author prefers music to podcasts, and then tries his best to make some sort of argument to justify this. His arguments are at best nonsensical and at worst completely contradictory. I was considering writing out a response to each of his points but it's honestly not worth my time. A lot of what the author says is a blatant slap in the face to podcasters that spend so many…

His half explained defence of music being less listened to was pretty strange. Who cares if people listen to less music? Most people were listening to recycled top 40 trash on radio before podcasts became accessible in cars and on smartphones. I’d personally rather people learn stuff or hear about interesting topics while they drive than hear the same song for the 30th time. A lot of crap passes for podcasts but so d…

> Who cares if people listen to less music?

The writer here is a pop music critic, so his paycheck comes from people listening to and being interested in music.

Re: I'm Against Podcasts

#222
They're also another avenue for those who want to feel the comfort of having a social experience without having to put forth any effort.

The amateur aspect of them helps a listener feel as if it's an inclusive conversation they could be a part of.

Re: I'm Against Podcasts

#223
post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks like their defense is that they make it clear they're reading what someone else wrote and making jokes. That wasn't clear, but I do understand where they're coming from. I listen for the jokes, not the history. They should be more upfront about their sources. It's similar to MBMBaM reading Yahoo Answers questions word for word while being silly about it. Except they do make the source clear. I do agree with…

Well, if they had been reading one single article they found online, and just reading it aloud and making jokes about it, I might accept (though still be annoyed by) the "oops we forgot to attribute" defense. But if you look at what The Dollop actually did, they took 5-6 paragraphs from one article, 7-8 paragraphs from another article, a few solitary paragraphs from others, and just glued it all together and never sa…

I don't now what The Dollop was like four years ago when this happened. What I do know is they list all their sources now, and I can't find any issue with the ratio of quoted material to original.

You obviously put a lot of work into your project. It's not to my taste, but there's a place for a plain telling of history. It's unfortunate The Dollop's early missteps still affect you all these years later. I know what it's like to get hung up on something for long enough that everyone else thinks you should have moved on.

Re: I'm Against Podcasts

#224

Weird article. I personally can't listen to podcasts for another reason though: I find them so frustratingly slow. E.g. when I read the New Yorker, I can read 5x faster, and more importantly skip over sections I'm less interested in. (So even listening at 2x speed still doesn't fix it, and you just can't "scan" a podcast the way your eyes can scan a page.) When I listen to a podcast, I feel so stuck at the pace of th…

Do you have this problem with speaking to people in real life too? Podcasts aren't meant to be an information dump, it's about the interactions between the hosts.

And about nuance which can't be expressed as well in writing

Re: I'm Against Podcasts

#225
I mostly agree with the author. Maybe not on the specifics, but I've yet to find a podcast that I don't mind listening to. I've enjoyed a little bit of MBMBaM and Ear Biscuits, but they're so long! After a certain amount of time, I just zone out and I can't listen anymore. It just becomes noise.

But just wait until the author learns about AM radio! People apparently actually listen to it.

Re: I'm Against Podcasts

#226
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hell, I can deal with shitty microphones, I just wish people would figure out that you need to record all speakers' audio independently and not rely on Skype or Discord or whatever relaying it to a single location. Robovoice is the worst.

You don't need to necessarily have independent audio streams to have good audio, just independent sources. I did a podcast up until January, and as the person doing the editing, I found zero benefit to having one input stream per microphone, and ultimately I eventually just started outputting the multiple inputs as a single dual channel stream. Podcasts that aren't in person are rough to listen to though, for sure. T…

I think you missed the parent's point. Remote participants should be recorded locally. It's not about having multiple streams for flexibility in editing, it's about having high-quality sound instead of the compressed garbage that comes through a Skype feed.

I recently learned one of my favorite podcasts hires a local audio engineer to mic and record all their remote interviewees, which seems like insane overkill but obviously is one way to do it. Is there really not a product that's a dead-simple USB audio recorder you can ship out to your guests, have them plug it into their laptop, and lets them Skype/whatever you while simultaneously recording their audio locally and sending it out to your editor after the fact?

Re: I'm Against Podcasts

#227
post #207

What an edgy, contrarian critique. Watch as the author translates his criticisms of some podcasts that he doesn't like into a global criticism of all podcasts. I wonder if this guy still insists on listening _exclusively_ to LPs and lossless audio formats. Here are some things about podcasts that I love: * some podcasts are true gems -- extremely high quality content * free * no ads or ads are trivial to avoid * blat…

Can you point me to some high quality podcasts? Most I have listened to have so much fluff and unnecessary banter that I subconsciously tune out. I have been trying to get on the podcast bandwagon but having a hard time finding something to like.

99% Invisible

Making Sense

This American Life

Serial

Heavyweight

Imaginary Worlds

Reply All

More Perfect

Intelligence Squared US

Re: I'm Against Podcasts

#228

After skimming through the comments, I refuse to click this link as a matter of principle.

As soon as I noticed that this particular post had more comments than upvotes I couldn't wait to jump in and read both the article and the comments.
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