oligopsony (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
oligopsony) wrote2018-12-17 09:52 am
oligopsony) wrote2018-12-17 09:52 am
Entry tags:
podcasts I recommend
Podcasts are great! They're one of the few new media forms that I can say have probably made me happier for consuming them, primarily because they make exercise bearable and chores actively pleasurable. This isn't everything I listen to, just the major ones I recommend at a first pass (and could also say something interesting about why I liked them.)
Best Exercise Podcast: Chapo Trap House. CTH is actually an example of the kind of media product I think is generally bad for me, in that it's a giant dopamine hit. The banter is at least as good as the McElroy brothers, but it comes with a heavy side of "you, dear listener - who we know to be a socially maladjusted slob, don't imagine we're addressing some audience that's better than you - are a smarter and more moral and better-adjusted person than the most powerful people in the world." It's not that I think CTH is wrong in anything it says - it would be a worse delivery mechanism for this kind of thing if I didn't find it intellectually convincing - but this is probably not the most helpful thing to hear, certainly at the (what is to me) superstimulus-like dosage they're delivering it at. Pride and contempt are bad, especially when they feel good and scan as true.
So of course I'm subscribed to the extra episodes.
Anyway, the compromise that I make with virtue here is that I only allow myself to listen to CTH when I'm exercising. I often actually look forward to exercising now, which has excellent benefits for all sorts of things!
Other podcasts may serve as a similar dopamine hit for you, so consider this a recommendation for whatever that is for you.
Most intellectually interesting podcast that almost everyone would like: History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps. Like Chapo, this is popular enough that you've probably already heard of it. But it really is good!
Most intellectually interesting if you have at least a cursory understanding of and/or interest in Marxism: Swampside Chats. While the hosts are left communists, most episodes involve their taking very seriously a text that could come from almost anywhere on the political map, including from the very far right. I should also say that they have much better rapport and comedic timing than should be the case for a podcast this intellectually serious.
If you are into lefty theory or political philosophy generally, this is a no-brainer recommendation, and if you're curious about it you could do a lot worse than reading along with them. I know that a couple people on Tumblr have said I've made them curious about Marxism, so count this rec as something of a response to that (although I would be recommending it anyway.) You can also consider this the more virtuous version of Chapo.
Most intellectually interesting podcast that is a little more niche than HOPWAG, but isn't about politics: The Secret History of Western Esotericism Podcast. Putting "secret history" in the title makes this sound like it's going to be cranky, and putting "western" in the title makes it sound like the host is going to be one of those crusader avatar guys talking about Cultural Marxism. Neither is true, and if you like HOPWAG enough to be caught up on it I recommend this as mostly more of the same, thematically.
Podcast that will reveal the most about what you're actually interested in, and also best podcast for sounding like you've read a lot of books: New Books Network. Subscribe to the network as a whole (but set "download automatically" to off) to drink from the firehose. There's no way to listen to every one of these - hence it's being a good way to learn what you actually care to listen to, but also a way to listen to things that are normally outside of your bubble.
Best Actual Play Podcast: The Glass Cannon. Most other RPG podcasts either feel like they're just using the rules as a thin veneer over professional storytelling (too much polish!), or they're poorly edited and have bad sound quality and pacing (too little!) TGP at least creates the illusion that the die rolls are genuinely in charge most of the time, and the technical quality is excellent, as is the rapport/banter.
Best "Pure" Podcast: MBMBAM. I don't learn anything from this podcast, I don't think about it afterwards, they're not talking about anything I find remotely interesting as a subject. It's a Pure Podcast in the way that Mondrian is Pure Painting - just really really good inter-host rapport and banter, which you've noticed I've emphasized in most of the above - you all know the meme, and it's true. Bizarrely enough, while I can enjoy the McElroys talking about subjects I don't care about (dinner party invitation etiquette, celebrity gossip, &c.) their foray into D&D on The Adventure Zone left me cold, perhaps because I came in with dissonant expectations about what an Actual Play podcast would be (see above.)
Best Exercise Podcast: Chapo Trap House. CTH is actually an example of the kind of media product I think is generally bad for me, in that it's a giant dopamine hit. The banter is at least as good as the McElroy brothers, but it comes with a heavy side of "you, dear listener - who we know to be a socially maladjusted slob, don't imagine we're addressing some audience that's better than you - are a smarter and more moral and better-adjusted person than the most powerful people in the world." It's not that I think CTH is wrong in anything it says - it would be a worse delivery mechanism for this kind of thing if I didn't find it intellectually convincing - but this is probably not the most helpful thing to hear, certainly at the (what is to me) superstimulus-like dosage they're delivering it at. Pride and contempt are bad, especially when they feel good and scan as true.
So of course I'm subscribed to the extra episodes.
Anyway, the compromise that I make with virtue here is that I only allow myself to listen to CTH when I'm exercising. I often actually look forward to exercising now, which has excellent benefits for all sorts of things!
Other podcasts may serve as a similar dopamine hit for you, so consider this a recommendation for whatever that is for you.
Most intellectually interesting podcast that almost everyone would like: History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps. Like Chapo, this is popular enough that you've probably already heard of it. But it really is good!
Most intellectually interesting if you have at least a cursory understanding of and/or interest in Marxism: Swampside Chats. While the hosts are left communists, most episodes involve their taking very seriously a text that could come from almost anywhere on the political map, including from the very far right. I should also say that they have much better rapport and comedic timing than should be the case for a podcast this intellectually serious.
If you are into lefty theory or political philosophy generally, this is a no-brainer recommendation, and if you're curious about it you could do a lot worse than reading along with them. I know that a couple people on Tumblr have said I've made them curious about Marxism, so count this rec as something of a response to that (although I would be recommending it anyway.) You can also consider this the more virtuous version of Chapo.
Most intellectually interesting podcast that is a little more niche than HOPWAG, but isn't about politics: The Secret History of Western Esotericism Podcast. Putting "secret history" in the title makes this sound like it's going to be cranky, and putting "western" in the title makes it sound like the host is going to be one of those crusader avatar guys talking about Cultural Marxism. Neither is true, and if you like HOPWAG enough to be caught up on it I recommend this as mostly more of the same, thematically.
Podcast that will reveal the most about what you're actually interested in, and also best podcast for sounding like you've read a lot of books: New Books Network. Subscribe to the network as a whole (but set "download automatically" to off) to drink from the firehose. There's no way to listen to every one of these - hence it's being a good way to learn what you actually care to listen to, but also a way to listen to things that are normally outside of your bubble.
Best Actual Play Podcast: The Glass Cannon. Most other RPG podcasts either feel like they're just using the rules as a thin veneer over professional storytelling (too much polish!), or they're poorly edited and have bad sound quality and pacing (too little!) TGP at least creates the illusion that the die rolls are genuinely in charge most of the time, and the technical quality is excellent, as is the rapport/banter.
Best "Pure" Podcast: MBMBAM. I don't learn anything from this podcast, I don't think about it afterwards, they're not talking about anything I find remotely interesting as a subject. It's a Pure Podcast in the way that Mondrian is Pure Painting - just really really good inter-host rapport and banter, which you've noticed I've emphasized in most of the above - you all know the meme, and it's true. Bizarrely enough, while I can enjoy the McElroys talking about subjects I don't care about (dinner party invitation etiquette, celebrity gossip, &c.) their foray into D&D on The Adventure Zone left me cold, perhaps because I came in with dissonant expectations about what an Actual Play podcast would be (see above.)
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(Anonymous) 2019-01-01 04:25 am (UTC)(link)