Whoever said that podcasts didn't contain food for thought are very much incorrect. In fact, there are some podcasts that are so thought-provoking, that they have the potential to even change your viewpoint about the world around you.
Enter Current TV's Peabody award-winning (and Emmy-nominated) documentary series Vanguard. They'll take you to places both familiar and exotic, and cover relevant topics that cover social, economic and political levels of civilization.
You'll see different points of view regarding the porn industry and its piracy problem, China's e-waste and pollution problems, and in the coming months, teen rape, North Korea (since this is the show whose once-trapped producers Euna Lee and Laura Ling work for), and Africa's Anti-Gay Law (which spells death for homosexuals living there).
It's all done professionally and, as much as possible, without bias. It's no non-sense, no-holds-barred journalism that you'll rarely see anywhere else, and it's a great show to be informed and entertained. Some shows may last longer than others, but whatever the case, the amount of things you learn is priceless and worth the time downloading.
Rudimentary iTunes Link is here, YouTube episodes here.
Music is a wonderful thing, but let's be honest: there's also much garbage to sift through before you get to the good stuff. While not talking to all musical tastes, Apple's own iTunes Essentials staff want to tell you that there's actually quite a bit of music that direly needs a little loving and a little listening. This is where the dead singles and overlooked album tracks come to life; this is The iTunes Weekly Rewind.
With 82 episodes under its belt, it's obvious that the several people running the show have a lot of musical knowledge under their belts, and that's because the episodes tend to lean more on older artists than they really do new ones. I mean, yes, they do cover a lot of new artists, but they constantly add older ones into the mix- and sometimes in just one unprecedented sentence- and you can really hear just how passionate they want you to listen to this/these artist(s), and how you'll definitely come to appreciate a lot of the music being featured.
The unfortunate thing is that despite several months of listening in on the conversation, I still can't quite remember much of the names of the podcasters, and that's a bit of a shame. It's not that their talk isn't interesting, hell, far from it, but it's just that I can't really get myself to remember their names, except for the sole female voice that is Tanyer Tomas (sorry if I butchered the spelling) who usually starts and ends the show.
No matter what music you like though, the team always talks about various artists, happenings and topics that let them really analyze the musical identities and history that comes with each. They don't really take a definitive stance on anything (which feigns a feeling of neutrality), and you'll be surprised at just how well their Genius feature works (why can't I get my Genius feature to work as good as theirs?!) and that's because in every episode they'll also process a certain song by a certain artist through iTunes' Genius feature and talk about the resulting playlist.
Music fans will find it easy to geek out with these clearly passionate people, and the potential for discovering a new artist or an old, overlooked song is always absolute.
I highly recommend listening to this 30-40 minute podcast, because every episode manages to pack a lot of information and music samples in a coherent package. Heck, this is the podcast that had me convinced that Lady Gaga is a legitimate artist, so you'll be surprised at some of the things they'll say that you'll somehow agree to.
Stephen Tobolowsky. You may have seen him, but you probably haven't heard of him, and how can I blame you? He's usually playing some role that only serves as background, or maybe he's just one of the supporting characters. Prominently though, he's one of those teachers in Glee, and found much fame in Groundhog Day and Memento. You could say he's a bit of a high-profile star, but I rarely hear anyone say, "Oh, actor X should be like Stephen Tobolowsky!" or "The prowess of Stephen Tobolowsky must be put into action!". So no, I guess you can't say he's that high-profile, but at least you could say he's ubiquitous. Look around, he's everywhere!
Held with respect by his peers nonetheless, Stephen Tobolowsky is still a figure with a surprisingly colorful life, and using a smartly crafted arching topic, he talks about his experiences in life; with love, heartbreak, the entertainment industry, and almost everything under the sun in this podcast: The Tobolowsky Files.
Now, I'm not one to usually diverge from my usual style of picking podcasts for this feature- I usually put 2-3 months of listening time to a podcast before I find it fit for judgment- but this podcast was just such a good listen for the 5-6 episodes I've had with it, that I couldn't hold the recommendation off.
Every story he tells is supported by a theme, and each story is usually associated with his own life. While it could seem narcissistic and biased to only his own perspective, he just crafts his stories in such a way that you just keep yourself glued to his every word. He's a sublime storyteller, and he handles a lot of the topics he deals with very well.
It could be about his fear of dying from altitude sickness during the shooting of Wild Hogs, or it could be about his broken heart after a messy divorce with a girl called Beth. Whatever story he tells, it's hard not to just shake the man off and turn a deaf ear as some of the episodes actually become rather profound and thought-provoking.
From time to time though, /Film's David Chen interrupts the story and does a bit of banter with the actor. True, Tobolowsky is the star of the show, but Chen is actually the moderator of the podcast (not to mention the editor). It's not that he breaks the podcast, but Tobolowsky tends to be a bit hypnotizing so... it's kind of weird to hear another voice, to be frank.
Whatever the case, you must download this podcast and start from episode 1. Now.
Current is a pretty awesome TV station, not only because of their great shows, but also because they give episodes away FOR FREE on iTunes.
Now, I'm gonna cover a few of them through the months, but be assured: they're all quite funny/entertaining/informative.
One of the funniest Current shows on offer in the Podcast directory will definitely have to be Infomania.
A mix of The Daily Show and The Soup, Infomania is a "news" show in the sense that there is an anchor, and there are several "reporters" that go on duty each week to tell a message or comment on a story. Well actually, Infomania is more of a brief digest of the latest news and happenings on the media, and they compile and re-edit those clips to hilarious effect.
Hosted by Conor Knighton, the show offers a consistent blend of grassroots humor and intelligent sarcasm that gets me pumped for the next episode. Its regulars include an ensemble of 5 people: Brett Erlich who covers random topics that people like to post on YouTube in Viral Video Film School, Ben Hoffman who either covers the latest tech (aka, 3D porn) in the Tech Report, sarcastically comments on a certain topic (say, the Conan-Leno war) with the Infomania Editorial, interviews (and exposes the stupidity, in some cases) of web celebs through Interview with a Cewebrity or he just plain covers news and events like the Cougar festival, Sarah Haskins who comments on commercials geared towards women in Target Women, Sergio Cili who does a roundup of the Top 5 music (in a certain outlet, usually iTunes) in Sergio's White Hot Top 5, and Bryan Safi who covers random topics that concern gay people in That's Gay. Aside from that, Conor himself does a segment called We've Got You Covered which pretty much covers newly released magazines, and presents a bizarre magazine submitted by viewers ("How the *&^# is this a Magazine?") each week.
I can't think of anything really negative to say about the show, probably except for the relatively large 200MB file size that supplements the 20-something minutes of fun to be had. Actually, the more pressing issue is that Current does not allow people to resume downloads even after you stop them, so if you're pressed for time and you want to download infoMania, it's either leave the computer running or download it when you get home. Still, you can also watch this show on YouTube, Hulu, Facebook, or even the Current.com site. The site promises it won't geofilter your ass out.
Still, it's worth the 0 dollars you paid for the content, which is consistently good. I can't imagine how many people are at work with this show, since it includes so many clips from so many commercials and reality shows and news headlines, hell, even magazines too.
But to end this post, I'll just give you one example of the usual trends that get caught in this show's eyes: celebrity hypocrisy and irony. (Also includes: the reason why Martha was jailed, the first umpteenth 'referendum', and more)
Before I get into just what "Scene Unseen Movie Reviews" is, let me make a brief introduction to the monthly post "Plugged!". "Plugged!" is a post that features a podcast that you simply must subscribe to through the iTunes (or Zune, if available) podcast directory. These podcasts are free and don't require an iTunes account, so no registration, no country changing.
So yeah, for the maiden flight of this Boeing, I'm picking an iTunes staff favorite: Scene Unseen Movie Reviews.
With a three year run and a massive international fanbase, Scene Unseen's unique take on the movie review certainly has an audience. The format is just right there on the tagline: "One of us sees the film... the other one doesn't". This may turn off some audiences since in order for two people to talk about a specific film at a time, they must both be able to watch the movie so they can actually make accurate, objective, and non-judgmental observations and comments on it, but this podcast still has all of that, but it's much more fun because you'll want to see whether Jimmy is convinced by Chris' love or hate for a certain film.
Aside from that though, most of the podcast's relatively long running time can be attributed more to the fact that they pick DVD's that match a certain topic, as well as read out the picks of the fans. The two also occasionally invite some guests over to review with them, and there are also times when they interview some very interesting people from the 'biz, since they themselves are actually in the movie industry.
But this association with the movie industry is the thing that is making them cut the actual show. Actually, they just released their last review a week ago, and a final episode is on the way. Still, that shouldn't stop you from downloading all the other past episodes in their massive backlog, because they are a doozy. So maybe some of their comments become a bit dated since they also talk about some of the lesser mentioned facts like the effect of a film's marketing on a viewer's willingness to watch it, or Tiger Woods, but the straight-shooting dialogue between the two passionate cinema lovers is worth your time. And really, that's what counts.
If you're turned off by expletives though, I highly recommend that you stay away from the podcast. Now, the two don't really swear liberally, heck, there are even episodes that feature zero swear words, but some of the stuff they talk about can get rather heated, thus necessitating them to blow off some steam.
It's a fine podcast that, while sadly ending, is a trip worth going back in time for. It may just be a conversation between two people- no, great buddies- about a film, but it's a great conversation that you can listen in on, if not participate.
Enter Current TV's Peabody award-winning (and Emmy-nominated) documentary series Vanguard. They'll take you to places both familiar and exotic, and cover relevant topics that cover social, economic and political levels of civilization.
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