Time to go back through my playlist and take stock of the entertainment-related podcasts that I've been listening to. Below are a couple of new and new-to-me offerings that I've started following in the past eighteen-ish months since my last podcast post.
Disniyversity - This has quickly become my favorite Disney podcast, to the extent that I'm hoarding the remaining episodes that I haven't listened to. Film journalist Ben Travis and academic Dr. Sam Summers go through the Disney animated feature canon, film by film, starting from "Snow White" and working their way toward the present day. Each episode is nicely structured, adding plenty of context and history, highlighting individual animators, and closing out with discussions of each film's cultural legacy. I like that the hosts are both very familiar with Disney output, but are only watching some of these films for the first time, and can offer some fresh reactions. I like that they're both utter nerds, and have instituted a pantheon of "Disniyversity Legends" for overlooked characters that include Lady Cluck from "Robin Hood" and Bill the Lizard. My only, very mild complaint, is that the episodes are currently only being released monthly, and I'm getting through the backlog much too quickly.
The Kingcast - Film writers and horror fanatics Eric Vespe and Scott Wampler host a podcast devoted to all things Stephen King, but primarily the media that has been adapted from his work. Unlike Disniversity, this podcast is not trying to be comprehensive. Aside from a few specific installments devoted to certain topics, each guest gets to pick what they want to talk about, so many films and stories are discussed multiple times. "The Shining" and "IT" are the most popular choices by far. The variety of guests has been great, and includes actors, filmmakers, other writers, and even Stephen King himself in one very special interview. My favorites to date have been the two episodes featuring German comedian Flula Borg, who is much less familiar with Stephen King than most of the other guests. Vespe and Wampler are always enthusiastic and entertaining, and I hope that they get their "Revival" movie someday.
The Ringer-verse - This is actually a group of different podcasts, including "The Midnight Boys," "The House of R" and "The Prestige TV Podcast." I primarily listen to "The House of R," hosted by Johanna Robinson and Mallory Rubin because Robinson has been one of my favorite podcasters for ages, but I check in on the others occasionally, usually depending on what they're covering in specific episodes. These are all essentially pop culture discussion shows, focusing on the current series or movie or big geek announcement of the day. "The Midnight Boys" and "The House of R" focus on genre fare like superhero and fantasy media, while "The Prestige TV Podcast" offers takes on more highbrow shows like "Succession" and "The White Lotus." This is sort of working for me as a "Firewall and Iceberg" substitute, though I wish the coverage were more broad. "Ringer-verse" only looks at the biggest titles and franchises in the pop culture conversation, which is perfectly fine. They've produced some great, in-depth, nerdy rambles that I have enjoyed thoroughly.
The Problem With Jon Stewart - Finally, I haven't been keeping up with Jon Stewart's new Apple TV+ show, but I find myself tuning in to the accompanying weekly podcast more and more often. This one snuck in via Youtube clips, which I often mistook for segments from the show. I prefer Stewart in this format, just talking about the news of the day with his incredibly well-informed staff, or going more in depth on subjects that are Too Big for TV. I rarely listen to the whole show, usually skipping the interviews, but I did the same thing with "The Daily Show" back when he was host.
---
No comments:
Post a Comment