The year 2019 might reasonably be described as one in which the whole family was now listening to podcasts. Between the iPhone’s most user-friendly podcast interface to date, Spotify’s acquisition of audio powerhouse Gimlet Media, the continued proliferation of TV shows adapted from successful podcast series (Limetown on Facebook Watch), and successful podcast series adapted from successful TV shows (Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend), anyone who claims not to have a passing knowledge of at least a few podcasts is probably just listening to ones they don’t want you to know about.
But now that everyone has arrived at the party, there’s more pressure to set out a fabulous spread. As independent fiction series boomed this year in both quantity and production quality (Moonface, Blackout, Earth Break), there was also increased scrutiny on the nonfiction shows across the aisle, as true crime and history “chatter shows” were brought to task for alleged plagiarism. Basically, everyone has spent the year stepping up their game—and it’s the listeners who reap the benefits. Here are The A.V. Club’s podcast superlatives that cover the best and most representative series from across this year.
Since parting ways with Cracked, Michael Swaim and Abe Epperson, former directors, producers, actors, and writers of the publication’s YouTube series After Hours, have been busy building their own podcast and comedy empire. Once they were no longer confined by the editorial powers that be, Swaim and Epperson sought to provide a ton of bang for little to no buck, launching a Patreon to support the creation of their own pop-talk network. Today, the Small Beans network has churned out hundreds of quality podcasts at a consistent pace, all located on a single feed. And similar to pop culture as a whole, Small Beans has variety. There are film podcasts Frame Rate, The Coen Brothers Brothers, and Directorpiece Theatre; intense video game debates on 1Upsmanship; depression talk with Tales From The Pit; embarrassing stories of the youth with Rough Stuff; sci-fi and sci-fi-adjacent talk on Pop Culture Petri Dish; dinosaur discussion with What Dinosaur Real Good?; a show about race and justice in America with BOLD; and so many others. What’s as impressive as the amount of podcasts Small Beans pumps out is the quality it maintains: each is insightful, fun, hilarious, and a breeze to listen to. With so many great shows, it’s a no-brainer to subscribe to just one feed that has it all. [Kevin Cortez]
What started as a satire of investigative journalism and conspiracy theorists in 2016 has spiraled into its own far-reaching universe of hilarious absurdity. Whatever Happened To Pizza At McDonald’s? is an investigative journalism program (IJP) hosted by journalist Brian Thompson in which he cold-calls various people over the course of 140+ episodes to ask: What happened to pizza at McDonald’s? Although the polite and frankly spoken Thompson receives an official answer to his question within the podcast’s first few episodes, his show still continues diving into different avenues of McDonald’s-related conspiracies. Somehow, through the journey of chasing some sort of entity who can bring back McDonald’s pizza in 2019, Thompson has: attempted to find whoever stole a copy of Willow on DVD from the Burbank Public Library; tried attaining a license to become a private investigator; called both Netflix and the FBI to speak with a profiler; sent a pizza to McDonald’s Chicago headquarters from Domino’s in an attempt to get McDonald’s to purchase the pizza chain; written a sequel to Willow; and published a board game based on his podcast. After three years of hard work, Thompson shows no signs of halting his quest to discover the ultimate answer of what happened to McDonald’s pizza. [Kevin Cortez]
In a medium tailor-made for people to geek out about their obsessions, Second Decade, climate historian Sean Munger’s podcast about the weather during the years 1810 to 1820, must rank among the most niche offerings. Drawn to the period because it contains the “year without summer,” Munger channels equal parts Ken Burns and Al Roker to narrate vivid scenes of humanity amid climate disruption. In 1814, London held its final frost fair, a Midsommar-like nature spectacle occurring whenever the River Thames froze over. Two years later, a cash-strapped Thomas Jefferson fretted in retirement as crop failures pushed him deeper into debt, while in Switzerland, Mary Shelley and her posse of privileged pretty poets sulked in the midst of a rained-out summer vacation that forced them to stay inside telling ghost stories. The cooling crisis was set off by the eruption of an Indonesian volcano, and, Munger argues, a second volcano unknown to the West at that time. Not every episode deals with climate, though. This is the decade of Jane Austen and Napoleon’s Hundred Days, among other events, and such stories are recounted with little commentary on the elements. But weather is never far from imposing on these people’s lives, and its extremes are at the heart of the series, which Munger uses to freely draw parallels to today. [Zach Brooke]
In a short amount of time, actual play podcasts (also known as tabletop role-playing podcasts) have developed into one of the fastest-growing subgenres in podcasting. So much so that every time a new one premieres, a chorus of “Another D&D podcast???” can be heard from the collective listenership. It’s almost impossible to imagine anyone bringing something new to this overcrowded field, snd yet, in fewer than 10 episodes, the crew behind Rude Tales Of Magic has established its own unique voice and kicked off an entertaining adventure to boot. Rude Tales sets itself apart with its balanced tone—equal parts whimsy, dark absurdity, and straight-up bathroom humor—and its cast’s unflinching commitment to staying in character, making the silliest of choices feel real. Because of this, you’re immediately invested in the heroes, including the sensitive but tough anthropomorphic deer, Albee (Carly Monardo); the skeletal aristocrat, Frederick de Bonesby (Christopher Hastings); and the bootlicking perennial sidekick of the gang, Stir-Fry (Tim Platt). Add to that DM Branson Reese’s menagerie of foul-mouthed creations and some excellent sound design, and you’ve got something really special. Yes, it’s another D&D podcast. But it’s one that’s well worth your time. [Dan Neilan]
Moonface has been a quiet triumph, leaving an immediate, lasting mark on every listener since its October debut. First-generation Korean American Paul (Joel Kim Booster) is a gay man, a creator of weird and wonderful audio, and a conflicted young person trying to sort out his future. He lives in Downey with his mother (Esther Moon), waiting tables and attempting to learn Korean the way he didn’t when he was younger in order to communicate on a deeper and more personal level with her. Booster and Moon are incredibly cast within this stilted, still-evolving relationship between mother and son, and they portray the complex realities of a family that doesn’t speak the same language. Moonface is the kind of story that can resonate with a little piece of everyone: those who are closeted; those unable to bridge cultural and linguistic gaps with the ones they love; and anyone stymied by racism and white supremacy, two forces that can keep even your own heritage from you. Paul’s story collides with his mother’s story and his friends’ stories in genuine and authentic ways, drawing the listener in closer through raw, tender sound design. [Elena Fernández Collins]
Mystery writing ain’t what it used to be. What once took Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot an entire novel to suss out can now be pieced together with a couple of hours on social media and a DNA swab. But mystery fandom has hardly waned even as society and tastes have evolved. With a loving yet critical eye, Shedunnit host Caroline Crampton restores the golden age of detective fiction to its former glory one episode at a time. From the expectations placed on authors to bygone social norms to recurring plot devices, Crampton’s incisive observations tease out so much more than the key clues to finding the killers. Her penchant for rooting out patterns among fan favorites doesn’t blind her to instances of inspired experimentation from a slew of authors who largely fell into painting by numbers. If the series skews toward women’s contributions, well, that’s only natural, given who’s responsible for the most enduring golden-age novels and who to this day consumes the most true crime content. A must-listen for murder junkies of all stripes. [Zach Brooke]
There’s been plenty of writing about how sports can be a sort of religion, this great uniter of community, this symbolic narrative of hope and triumph—but sports are also kind of hilarious, especially when it comes to the culture of the NBA. Enter Multitude’s HORSE, hosted by Eric Silver (Join The Party) and Mike Schubert (Potterless). HORSE is a basketball podcast that’s really about everything but the sport itself. Each week, the hosts talk about a different aspect of NBA culture in different segments, using their best-of lists to discuss things like jerseys and nicknames instead of statistically successful players. In fact, the show is so intent on being goofy and accessible to non-fans that Silver and Schubert gamify their rules: If they bring up numbers at all, they have to do math problems as quickly as they can. If they trash-talk a young player, they have to share a truly embarrassing college story. HORSE takes the borderline-holy world of sports culture and turns it on its head, focusing on jokes, kindness, and accessibility instead of numbers, criticisms, or the nitty-gritty. [Wil Williams]
Luminary, a subscription-based podcast platform, debuted this year to some strange and rocky results. The most prominent criticism of Luminary is the monthly fee to access its exclusive podcasts: It costs about $8 per month, which (when compiled with other media subscriptions) can feel like a lot, especially given Luminary’s lack of cohesion or mindful curation in its offerings. If you’re a fan of fiction, though, there’s one clear reason Luminary is worth its cost, and that’s The AM Archives. A sequel to breakout fiction hit The Bright Sessions, The AM Archives is what happens when you give some of the best indie creators the budget they deserve. The story follows the heads of an organization that works with people who have superhuman abilities and confronts the ethics of power, control, and agency. At this point in her career, creator Lauren Shippen has taken her prowess in character writing and compounded it with a sharp eye for raising the stakes. Sound designer Mischa Stanton’s work sounds cinematic without seeming artificial. For fans of The Bright Sessions, it can’t be missed; for those who haven’t listened to fiction podcasts yet, it’s a great place to start. [Wil Williams]
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Best Show. It’s right there in the title!
I was JUST about to say the Best Show. Always and forever, but especially this year. Lots of travel, lots of time out of the studio – the train could have easily come off the tracks, but everyone associated with the Best Show is dedicated, talented, and all-around fahntastic. Books will be written about Tom, Jon, Mike, Jason and Pat (with one of them coming out this year from Kid Jersey himself, maybe?), as well they should.Tom makes, Podmass ignores, the world takes, Podmass commends the takers… but the real heads know. Another year of steamrolling chumps on the immediate horizon – get on board now, vapetrilloquismdummies.
1A. Your Mom’s House Podcast1B. TigerBelly
Your Mom’s House is fucking great. Kristina P is absolutely hilarious on that podcast.
If you like those, The Bodega Boys will be right up your alley.
Love Tiger Belly, Bobby is a lucky man.
Ever since Conan O’Brien invented podcasting, the Flagrant Ones and Hollywood Handbook the Pro Version have been the best things to ever happen to the medium. Why anyone would ever not exclusively listen to only those two is beyond me, but hey, the world is full of sickos.
This isn’t a dig or me being obtuse on purpose or anything, because I’d genuinely like to know: what is it about The Boys that folks like so much? I’ve given em so many tries but I’ve never been able to get into HH. The closest I’ve come was the pair of Masked Singer episodes at the recommendations of others, and they were great, but outside of that unusual format I just don’t think Sean and Hayes are that funny.So I guess I’m not trying to be convinced, because comedy is subjective and all that, but I’d like to see what the appeal is for other people. (This isn’t an argument I’m not gonna try to make the case for them being unfunny I just want to learn!)
I’ve heard a lot of good things about Hollywood Handbook over the years, just never got it the few times I gave it a shot. Then Jesse Farrar was on and I gave it another shot just because I’m a big YKS fan.That episode made it click, I got what they were going for and I haven’t stopped listening since the summer, even got Stitcher Premium for the Pro version.So I’d say, check out an episode with someone you really like, hopefully they get the show also and are able to play along. Either that or check out episode 300 with Moshe Kasher. That is not only a hilarious episode, but also gives you a great idea of what the show is.
YKS!!!That is all.
They are dripping with sarcasm and the smug little comments and digs that they throw in are hilarious in my opinion. But like you said, not for everyone. My wife tried to listen a couple times and she gets straight angry within a few minutes each time.
Interesting. I don’t get angry at least, I just don’t find it humorous. Like, I don’t actively dislike the show, it just does nothing for me. Thanks for the take, though!
I don’t get HH either. They get good guests, but it’s like almost shock jock nonsense without the interview skills of Howard Stern. The few I’ve listened to most people seem annoyed to be there and not really in a funny way.
“shock jock”…wow, that’s maybe the last descriptor I’d every expect to hear applied to those two weirdos.
Intelligence level and their ability to listen and respond to what guests are actually saying.
I really think they’re similar to like The Smiths or the Talking Heads where if it doesn’t grip you at some point early, it just never really will. I could point out what I find really funny about them (just the way Hayes talks, Sean’s tendency to get super aggressive, their incredibly stupid ideas and word mispronunciations, their absolute disdain for Earwolf) but if that stuff doesn’t connect with you then I just don’t think they’re for you. It’s like Sean says: “you gotta listen to like 15 episodes in a row, and even then you may just go ‘eh, I don’t really like this.’”I think they’re kind of refreshing in the landscape because they’re not really crass or vulgar, but they’re not intellectual either, and their friendship is very genuine. They’re not as bombastic as other earwolf hosts but they also don’t seem holier-than-thou. Also just the fact that the show itself genuinely escapes description. I don’t know anyone who can succinctly explain what Hollywood Handbook is actually about. All that will either click for you, or it just won’t. And that’s totally ok, because comedy is absolutely subjective.
It’s just so absurd. If you don’t have mindset, it’s just jibberish. But I love it.
Everytime I hear them on CBB I find them uproariously funny, and when that appearance translates into me dipping into their podcast, I get very, very bored. I keep meaning to dip back in and try again, cause I really do like them and people who like them share my tastes in a lot of comedic offerings, so I feel like it SHOULD be up my alley, it just hasn’t vied with me yet for whatever reason.
I like The Boys for the same reasons I like On Cinema, another series likely to drive off most new comers, ie., all the weird mythos, character quirks, the seeming disregard for guests/audience, etc. I hated HH the first few times I listened, then at some point I gave it another chance and it clicked. As they often self-deprecatingly note in the show when navel-gazing/hating on competing podcasts, they’re somewhat limited by the fact that it takes a dozen or so listens for people to appreciate what the show.
I did this a few weeks back, but since we’re into the two weeks where a lot of podcasts go dark for the holidays, here’s a sampler of my podcast feed. A lot of these are one-offs that you can digest over the break and go back to your regular listening.- Talking Simpsons – Free feed is fantastic, $5 patreon feed is phenomenal considering how many back episodes they have (they’re neck deep in season 10 right now). Also the companion What A Cartoon podcast is a good listen.- Giant Bombcast – I’m specifically throwing this one in here because today is the start of their Game of the Year podcasts. They record their deliberations on a bunch of categories and it’s a good review of the year that was in games. It can get chaotic, and this year’s episodes weigh in at around 22 hours … which is less than usual. – The Dream – First season was a fantastic breakdown of MLMs. Second season just got started on wellness (still 50/50 on how it’s going to go).- The Uncertain Hour – Three seasons focus on three fascinating topics – Welfare “reform”, Bureaucracy and red tape, and the opioid crisis. Their logic for hitting these topics: “the things we fight the most about are the things we know the least about.”- David Tennant Does a Podcast With … – Just an odd promotional vehicle ahead of Good Omens that brought in a fascinating list of guests from Tina Fey to Ian McKellen to Gordon Brown (yes, that Gordon Brown).
– Aftereffect – A look at the fallout from the shooting of a caretaker of an autistic man by cops, simply because the cops thought a toy truck was a gun. Really shines a light on how fucked the mental health system is.- American Fiasco – How the U.S. bungled the success from the 1994 World Cup into a disastrous showing in 1998.- Breach – Remember the Yahoo data breach? The Equifax data breach? Yeah, those probably aren’t exactly top of mind right now, but considering how big they were, you better pay attention.- The Late Show Podcast – Just something odd that came from just before Colbert took over The Late Show. Bonus: Several mini “reviews” of GoT episodes (not going to spoil what happens in either).
Blank Check is probably already popular here, but their 5 buck a month patreon feed kicked off this year and it is great. Commentaries on franchise movies (this year they did Marvel) and random shit like a walk across Manhattan talking about the history of movies with weird frame rates. If you haven’t checked out the pod, it’s an actor/comedian and a film critic covering a directors filmography one movie at a time. It’s funny, weird, insightful and just chaaaaaaarrrrrming.
Even if it’s not one of the “most notable” podcasts, The Neighborhood Listen was a delight this year. Granted, I could listen to Paul F. Tompkins and Nicole Parker reading a phonebook, but it’s still a treat.
It’s no Spontaneanation, but it is nice. It works surprisingly well given how weak the core “make fun of people for posting on a neighborhood app” gimmick is.
So this Small Beans show is only on Stitcher and they put all their different shows in the same feed? What kind of madness is that?
Funnily enough when the AVclub had their variety of podcasts that’s exactly how they had it set up (or maybe that’s the joke you’re making and my eagerness to point out irony let it go over my head).
No, I didn’t know that. I don’t think I was a regular of avclub then or at least wasn’t aware of the podcasts. It is still dumb
Request: I have an upcoming 4-month work stint that will turn my 15-minute commute into 60-minutes. Looking for podcast recommendations for the traffic-y drive. Currently my core podcasts include The Bugle, CBB, 2oK Hertz, and 99% Invisible.
The Bugle ..I have nothing to add other than you have good taste!
The Daily has some amazing investigative reporting. I highly recommend checking out their episodes from last week (or a few weeks ago, I think) detailing the Uighur detention camps in China. It’s some deep reporting and no longer than 30 minutes.
Otherwise, I think The Dave Chang Show is great! Lots of interesting episodes in his backlog.
Thanks. I hadn’t heard of either of those but both look interesting. Other than satire clips, I’ve not really been seeking out news since everything’s a shitshow these days. However there are several topics on The Daily that look more thoughtful than depressing.
Pardon My Take is the best damn sports podcast on the planet – only thing I’ll listen to on a long drive.
I find Michael Barbaro’s mannered delivery borderline-insufferable – like a woke William Shatner, if one can imagine such a thing – but The Daily’s recent three-part ‘Jungle King of Delhi’ story was as good as anything I’ve seen or heard this year.
For politics:Deconstructed with Mehdi Hasan, Intercepted with Jeremy Scahill, Chapo Trap House (maybe)True Crime:
In the Dark is my personal favorite. Atlanta Monster is my #2.
If you like 20k Hertz and 99pi, you might like Song Exploder. It’s musicians doing a short 15-20 explanation of the recording process. It can be a bit hit or miss. But the good ones are so, so good.
I have a longer sub list that I can keep up with, so I’ll just drop the ones you didn’t name here in alphabetic order (highlighting several less well-known ones that I consider essential listening):A Shot of Torah, Adventures in Jewish Studies, Afropop Worldwide (which, if you’re not familiar, is a mix of current music, reporting on the music industry of various regions, and deep dives into music history), All Songs Considered, American Rabbi Project, Asimov’s Science Fiction (dictation of one story from each issue of the magazine as it’s released), Bubble (sci-fi comedy, currently between seasons), Car Talk (reruns), Centennial Songs (presents a century-old song/recording with a brief contextual intro, making it good for small doses of history that are random rather than curated for a worldview), Code Switch, Educate (a slightly more obscure APM podcast, largely does longform research journalism into education and education policy with high standards of objectivity, as demonstrated i), Embedded, Friendly Fire (newer podcast to me, still getting a feel of whether I like it), Gastropod, Here&Now, How Did This Get Made (unfortunately only mocks bad movies rather than doing an investigation into their production), Israel Stories (like This American Life, but I think with a better choice in interesting stories that give a wider look at history and society), Jay & Miles XPlain the XMen (in which two nerds read through all of X-Men comics and present them with commentary, both comedic and industrial), Jewish History Matters (presents current matters in Jewish history research), JTS Library Book Talks, Judge John Hodgeman (actually thinking of cutting this one), Lightspeed Magazine (one story from the sci-fi magazine a week), More or Less: Behind the Statistics (checks the numbers mentioned in the news and media, particularly British because BBC, kind of mandatory is you want to be a well-informed consumer of news), Music from 100 Years Ago (recordings from the early part of the 20th century with commentary, can vary from showing what a weird time the early 1950’s were for music due to the vacuum left by big bands dying to music of the ASCAP Boycott and why it was important), On Point, On the Media, Only a Game (journalists talking about sports, often focusing on deeper stuff off the field), Oz 9 (comedy sci-fi serial), Pardes from Jerusalem (d’varim), Paternal (although I think this one might be shuttered), Planet Money, Plumbing the Death Star (the single funniest podcast I’ve ever heard, is several Australian idiots trying to answer dumb questions), Pop Culture Happy Hour, Radio Atlantic (longform journalism, often trying to avoid chasing whatever happens to be dominating headlines a given week), Ragtime America (a ragtime music program), Relic Radio Science Fiction (the sci-fi arm of a network airing old radio episodes as podcast episodes), Responsa Radio (responsa, but as a podcast), Reveal (deep-research investigative journo-history), Rooster Teeth Podcast, Rough Translation, Sawbones (medical history), Seminary (science fiction series with short stories housed in a serial framing narrative), Stuff You Should Know, Swing Shift (swing radio program), the AskHistorians podcast (real, working historians talk about their topic of research, with occasional episodes just having answers from r/askhistorians), The Daily, The Greatest Generation (Two non-Trekies working their way through every episode of Trek), The Indicator from Planet Money (a current events spinoff), The Jewish History Podcast, The Joy of Text (an Orthodox Jewish sex advice podcast, featuring a mix of halakhic questions and question you’d get elsewhere but usually from Orthodox listeners for Orthodox advisors, probably the best sex advice podcast out there because the advising panel is all highly qualified and has a good balance of deference and independence on issues that fall in one member’s specialty), The New Yorker Radio Hour (I frequently confuse it with The Atlantic episodes), The Promised Podcast (Israel current event/politics podcast, very left wing), The Sporkful (food podcast, somewhat inconsistent in quality and depth), Up First, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, and Night Vale.
Making Sense (with Sam Harris) and The Portal (with Eric Weinstein) are my personal favorites.
I listen to mainly comedy ones like Theo Von’s This Past Weekend, Bert Kreischer’s Bertcast, Bill Burr’s Monday Morning Podcast, Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You, Dax Shephard’s Armchair Expert, The Fighter and the Kid with Bryan Callen and Brendan Schaub and of course Conan O’Brien needs a friend.
Bed, Bath, and B(eyblade, formerly Bionicle) is one of my podcasts of the year. It pivots on a great premise (host #1 wakes the other host up at 7 am every week to explain Bionicle characters and lore to them), but in its second season (as they ran out of Bionicle material) it becomes an absolutely transcendent piece of interactive performance art about what happens when you commit to a bit for so long that, by the time you want to escape it, it’s holding you hostage.
Really surprised they didn’t find a way to shove that stupid Richard Simmons podcast on here again.
The podcasts I never miss are:The Dork Forest with Jackie Kashian, where she interviews people about their obsessions, and makes it entertaining.Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast, where he and Frank Santopadre Interview actors, writers, musicians and directors from and about Old Hollywood.The Jackie and Laurie Show, where every week Jackie Kashian and Laurie Kilmartin answer the question “what is it like to be a woman comedian?”. They have a long running bit where one of them will trash an unnamed comic for some sort of bad behavior and write the name down on a piece of paper for the other one, while us listeners try to figure out who they are talking about. (at live shows they pass the sheet of paper around the audience)
The two I love currently are Mobituaries with Mo Rocca. Subjects from Laura Branigan to the first African American congressmen to Audrey Hepburn to the CBS rural sitcoms of the 60s. Then there is The Good Place The Podcast. Deep dive into every episode plus a few specials with panels from conventions. Trying to find good casts about different old shows like Buffy, Parks & Rec and 30 Rock but so far the ones have found have been positively dreadful and amateurish.
For Buffy I HIGHLY recommend Buffering the Vampire Slayer. Episode by episode, spoiler free and they write a song for every one. It’s pretty great.
Mary Shelley and her posse of privileged pretty poetslmfao harsh but true. Now, who was the prettiest: Byron, Percy, or Mary? I say Percy.
Lots of good stuff here, but hell yeah: Rude Tales of Magic is my favorite play podcast of 2019. It’s so confident, so funny, so clever, and so, so rude. I nearly died once because I listened to it while lifting weights and I started laughing so hard I fell over. Stupid move, but it’s really good, y’all.
Rude Tales Of Magic fucking rocks, it’s my favourite new podcast by far. I do find it odd that this writeup mentions 3 out of 5 of the cast, leaving out Ali Fisher and Joe Lepore. Seems like the kind of thing you’d have to do on purpose.
anyone who claims not to have a passing knowledge of at least a few podcasts is probably just listening to ones they don’t want you to know about.Have to be entirely honest here — I’m pretty sure my parents still don’t know what a podcast even is.
We Hate Movies are coming up on their tenth anniversary this coming year, and they’re going strong. The year past is the first time I’ve been following along with them on a weekly basis, and it’s been worth it. This year alone they’ve done great episodes on Pet Sematary, The Super, Deep Rising and Gone in Sixty Seconds. Can’t recommend them enough.And apparently those two glasses of pre-Christmas wine I’ve had tonight have unlocked some kind of advertising bot in my brain, because yikes. That last paragraph sounds like what the result would be if the Borg Queen assimilated Don Draper.
They have been on fire this year! I’ve also loved the We Love Movies patreon episodes.
We never got Pizza at McDonalds in Scotland. They got it down in London but never got to try it.
How Did This Get Played might be my favorite new podcast this year. It might not be particularly notable in any way, but it’s a lot of fun.
I agree completely. Been having a BLAST with that show. Particularly the Duke Nukem Forever and Sonic 06 episodes. And MAN that Custer’s Revenge episode was a wild ride.
Here’s hoping Nick read my e-mail and will eventually get around to my favorite weird game of all time: Boogerman!
Podcast to look out for in 2020:FACE JAMaka“The Michael Jordan Podcast”A podcast where two dudes from Austin (who also happen to be notable talent for Rooster Teeth) review new, fast food items. They’ve had 6 episodes already and each one is hilarious.
I may go too old school,but Never Not Funny, Doug Loves Movies and Comedy Bang Bang! Have all been great this year. Also R.I.P. Harmontown.
A Chapo Trap House guest spot by Brace Belden led me to his and journalist Liz Franczak’s new podcast TrueAnon, and it’s incredible. The only non-paedophile podcast on the internet.
I’m surprised that Comedy Bang! Bang! didn’t get a mention. They celebrated their 10th anniversary this year with a 10-hour episode/celebration. But I guess this happened before Conan O’Brien invented podcasting so it doesn’t count.
Uh Heynong Man!
Why is Best REM Podcast not a category? I feel like this is a deliberate snipe to deprive Scott & Scott of their well-earned accolades. You have all brought shame upon yourselves.
As someone who used to really, really dig After Hours on youtube, I’m embarrassed to only now just be finding out about Small Beans. Subscribed!