I’ve been very busy recently and have been guilty of not paying enough attention to this blog. Since I’ve now handed in my first round of essays (I’m a student now, I’ll talk about that later), so I’m getting right back to it!
Since I’m back to being a student (more on that later), I have been travelling around more (and just generally not been trapped in small rooms for indeterminate periods of time) so I've had more time to listen to podcasts. Another thing that happened was that my phone completely broke, taking with it my established podcast library so… I’ve been recovering, I’ve been rebuilding…
…And I’ve been going DEEP. I’ve actually been watching less TV to get the podcast in (a girl’s got to write her essays). There are actually so many that I’m splitting them up into a couple of posts (DISCLAIMER: I love my pods relatively equally so, this is in no particular order). I’ll do them 5 at a time. Why? You ask. To quote myself this morning in class: I don’t know, I give up.
So here we go, my suggestions for podcasts (not) Christmas edition.
Don't worry, you won't get the chance
My newest obsession. We all know that I take emotional refuge in what I personally like to call The Art of Feminism (spoiler alert: it’s just feminism). So when I FINALLY heard about this podcast, I was excited. For those of you who don't know, the Bechdel test is used as a way (it’s not perfect) to gauge how women are portrayed in films. A film passes if: 1) there are two named female characters; (2) they speak to each other; and (3) they are talking about something OTHER THAN A MAN. You will be SHOCKED at the films which fail this test. (You will also be shocked at some of the films which pass). It’s not all bra burning (not a real thing) and man-hating (a legitimate reaction to the world, lol, jk) though, it’s really just funny people talking about films. Aka THE DREAM.
Start with: Nicole Byer and Ghost. It’s VERY funny. Sam Wheat!
I am one of those people who sits right in the middle of people who go to the cinema regularly and people who refer to films as cinema. C’est à dire I love films and have a lot of deep cuts at my fingertips but I know basically nothing about dolly zooms (lol, jk, I see you Irmin Roberts). The Cracked Movie Podcast is more on the side of the aspiring auteurs but it also is dumbed down to the point that even I understand it (seriously, you guys, if you haven’t already go and see Vertigo - problematic directors are like furs, still not great, but less soul-crushingly horrible 50 years after the fact). ANYHOO. The conceit of this pod is that the film experts over at cracked pick a different director every couple of episodes to focus on and examine some of their key films. They go into both the on-screen and behind-the-scenes elements of the films so if you were the kind of person who actually watched the special features, this one’s for you.
Start with: The episode on Halloween - all very interesting. Also MURDER.
I've seen Bojack, no... it won't...
I will have to do a separate post about the dark perfection that is Vanderpump Rules (it’s seriously a perfect show) and outside the show, one of the true joys of my life has been the (sometimes more dramatic) journey of the number 1 (in my opinion and probably in actual fact, but I don’t have the numbers) podcast dedicated to living, laughing and loving and, more importantly, trolling the f*ck out of VPR. This podcast is hosted by Lara Marie Schaenhoels (of White Girl Problems) and Ryan O’Connell (an unwilling cohost, power having been very much thrust upon him). It really is almost too rich a tapestry to explain to you second hand. And if you are too emotionally stable to be a Vanderpump Rules Fan (Mazel Tov!) don’t worry - lots of people who listen have never seen an episode. Be warned though, listening to this podcast has radically changed how I speak. I’m not kidding, babe.
Start with: Literally any episode. It’s all very amusing.
Bonus Points: Go back to the old Pumped Podcast and listen to our Lara getting drunk (and kind of falling in love) with Kristin, chilling with a Scissor Sister and ultimately suffering a classic VPR friendship explosion out of which she is currently Phoenixing.
Seriously... whyyyyyy????
Nicole Byer has a question. It’s a simple question, but she’s bloody well going after an answer. Each week Nicole interviews friends/ exes/ randoms she’s hooked up with to answer the question we’ve all asked ourselves “Why Won’t you Date Me?”. It’s funnier than it sounds and it sounds pretty funny.
There’s only been one episode so far… so start with that!
Bonus points: Go onto facebook and watch all of Loosely Exactly Nicole. It’s very funny. You’ll thank me.
There’s no way around this, Darkest Night is a weird podcast. As someone who is FAMOUSLY dead inside and who's been watching horror movies to calm down since early childhood (nothing worrying about that), it’s very rare for me to find anything unsettling. This, I found unsettling.
I can’t really go into the full plot here (you don't want it spoiled) but I can give you the conceit: a lowly intern gets a job at a mysterious lab in an even more mysterious company (“The Roth Lobdow Centre”, if you’re interested) and finds her job is scooping out optic nerves and using that beautiful optic nerve juice (my words) to watch the last moments of people’s lives. Darkest night indeed. It benefits from having both an overarching storyline covering the two series of the podcast and working in a series of vignettes. They also start each episode with a fresh head which… never mind.
Start with: the first and watch them all in order. There’s method to this madness.
Favourite episode: Chapter 10: Hostile Takeover. Connect those dots y’all!
Well, at least these podcasts...
Ok, so that’s it for now. Trust me… there’s lots more coming! And if you're one of the people who are going to come complaining to me in a couple of weeks because you've spent all the time you should have been working listening to these podcasts, just remember:
