I’ve become slightly addicted to podcasts. I’m also not sorry.

I’m a podcast junkie. It began in 2013. I’d just gotten a divorce and I was left with a truly weird pile of garbage from that dumpster fire of a relationship. Things that I loved before became intolerable for a hot minute. For example, prior to getting involved with him, I was an absolute slut for music. All sorts of genres included, my tastes were/are all over the map. When the divorce was over, I didn’t listen to music for more than a year. Every song would trigger a memory, flip a switch in my brain, and it would just piss me off. So I took a break. A break that lasted a couple of years (no joke). 

However, as we’ve discussed before, your girl is an ADHD case that chooses to live life unmedicated (doable because I’m hittin’ it heavy with far more of the ADD than the H). Over the years, I learned tips and tricks that help me manage my mental landscape without drowning my brain in Adderall. I don’t work in silence. Ever. So, losing interest in listening to music was… problematic. Without something to occupy my brain, I can’t concentrate. And yes, I realize how ridiculous that sounds to normies. 

Enter the Slacker app. It began with the explicit stand up comedy channel, and at some point, I stumbled upon the Hollywood Babble-On podcast. I had heard of podcasts at that point, but had not listened to any. The term podcast comes from iPod + broadcast so I was under the mistaken assumption that you had to listen to them through iTunes. Assumption corrected, I binged. Hollywood Babble-On is Kevin Smith + Ralph Garman live in front of an audience with weekly segments outlined as their content guide for the episode. And the segments were some of the best parts of the show. They had one where they guessed which strain of weed Kevin was smoking before the show. Another where they look at toys that should never have been invested (because they’re entirely too dirty for children). And the best of all, Liam Neeson’s Cock, a segment dedicated to cracking jokes about the man’s infamously large luggage (listeners wrote the jokes and submitted them via the show’s LNC Tumblr account). There are some beautiful moments on that show as well. Kevin is a gummy bear and it shines on that show at times. I listened to every episode of Hollywood Babble-On until it stopped being released weekly.

Then I discovered the Nerdist network and omg, you guys. The obsession that triggered….

The Nerdist podcast was an epic find (changed to the ID10T podcast, now defunct). The hosts were comedian/tv host Chris Hardwick, writer/comedian Matt Mira, and comedian/writer Jonah Ray. Their format was an unscripted conversation, some of which ran two to three hours long. Some of the best conversations I’ve ever heard came out of that podcast. Some of the worst as well. The Harrison Ford episode was such an excruciatingly dull conversation that the intro was an apology from Hardwick to listeners because, for a podcast hosted by three hardcore Star Wars nerds, getting Harrison Ford as a guest while he was promoting a Star Wars film should have been a layup. Instead, the man clearly had no interest in talking about anything to do with the Star Wars universe or Han Solo ever again. Sooooo painful. 

HB-O led to Nerdist. Nerdist led to You Made It Weird, hosted by comedian and absolute uberhippy Pete Holmes. Pete is a delightful human being and he has a great mix of interesting guests. Sometimes they’re comedians. Sometimes they are world famous spiritual guides. My favorite guests are the ones you can tell Pete naturally clicks with. Andrew Santino, Sal Vulcano, and Jo Koy were all great episodes.  

Being a Weirdo (that’s how Pete addresses his audience) somehow led me over to The Joe Rogan Experience circa comedians and aliens being his main content. I quit listening to his pod once I realized how entirely full of shit he has become. His opinions on real world issues are completely dependent upon who his guest is and what their opinions are. Remember that stupid political-motivated rumor about litter boxes in classrooms because of kids “identifying” as cats??? So, on one episode of JRE, Joe flat out claims that he knows it’s true because the wife of one of his close friends is one of the teachers who had to put the box in their classroom. A few episodes later, he makes a quick mention that the story turned out to be a bullshit internet thing to attack the trans community but he never once mentions how he lied about personally knowing the teacher to give the story false credibility. Plus, there is the finding facts to fit his narrative problem. “Young Jamie” is his production guy on the pod. Jamie is on the keyboard through the whole podcast searching the internet to fact-check or get more info on whatever they’re talking about. Joe and Jamie have a bad habit of searching DEEP into the internet to find scraps of information that can be used as proof to back up some of their bullshit. On one episode, they didn’t edit it out and man, he Googled his ass off for a solid ten minutes trying to back up one of Joe’s bullshit claims. It was secondhand embarrassing to watch. Anyway, the day I caught on that he lied about the litterboxes thing was the day he lost me as a weekly listener. I didn’t even finish that episode before clicking unsubscribe. 

I have gone back to watch episodes since then, such as when he has a guest that I really love but even that ended when I watched him tell comedian Chris Destefano that he simply needed a workout routine to solve the man’s life-ruining anxiety issues. Or when he told Theo Von that his depression would be cured simply by hanging out with friends. Only someone who doesn’t struggle with anxiety or depression would think that dumb shit was true, and speaking to his “friends” as though he’s got the cure for their mental health struggles?? Really?? You mean the therapy they’ve both been in for years just missed it???? Thank Odin you were here! (*looking-at the-back-of-my-skull-from-the-inside kind of deep eyeroll*)  You stupid fuck. Anyway, unsubscribed. 

I listened to 2 Bears, 1 Cave for a while but found that, although I think he’s a sweetheart, I can’t listen to Bert’s tangents anymore. I much prefer the episodes when he’s on the road and it’s Tom Segura + a guest to fill in, or when they have guest hosts take over the whole show. 

The types of podcasts I listen to regularly have changed quite a bit from all those shows that initially caught my ear. Here are some of my weekly regulars:

If you’re into talking about mental health, the Blocks Podcast With Neal Brennan is fantastic. Blocks was the name of one of Neal’s standup specials on Netflix and in that special, he discusses the things that make him feel like something is wrong with him. I loved the special so much, I talked about it on my blog back when it came out. After the special, comedian Jimmy Carr suggested that he make it a show where he talks to people about their own blocks. Poof! We have a podcast! New episodes drop each week where he talks to a guest about their fuckedupedness. It makes for some truly excellent conversations. I will warn you, Neal has a touch of the ‘Tism combined with the narcissistic tendencies that lead one to be an entertainer. As a result, he’ll often ask his guest a question and then talk right over the guest trying to answer by re-explaining the question or saying what he thinks the answer will be. However, Howard Stern has done the same thing for twenty-plus years and it didn’t hinder him any so there is that.

Some of my favorite guests are comedian Beth Stelling, comedy writer Simon Rich, Sal Vulcano who has soooooo many blocks that they had to give him a Part 1 and Part 2, comedian/actor Nick Kroll, Queens of the Stone Age front man Josh Homme (holy shit what a great one this is!), comedian and late night host Seth Meyers, comedian and actor Adam Devine, former NFL player and actor Terry Crews (this one will break your fucking heart), comedian and podcast host Dan Soder, comedian Jim Jeffries, and a Freaky Friday episode where Neal is interviewed by Jimmy Carr, the comedian who suggested he begin the show. Ugh, I could go on and on. I’ve been watching since the first episode and have seen every single one since. There are too many great conversations to pick a short list of favorites.

Some of the other shows I listen to pretty regularly are:

• Breaking Bread with Tom Papa
• Pod Save America
• Honeydew With Ryan Sickler
• The Way Back With Ryan Sickler
• Stavvy’s World
• Soder Podcast
• Mike Birbiglia’s Working It Out
• We Might Be Drunk
• Hot Ones by First We Feast
• Armchair Expert
• Tigerbelly

Are you a podcast person?

What shows do you listen to regularly?

Drop a comment below!

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