Podcasters’ Favorite Podcasts | Part 1 – Rebel FM

Welcome to the first installment of Podcaster’s Favorite Podcasts here at CastMedium.  This feature was born out of the idea that sometimes it’s hard to branch-out from your usual podcast mainstays.  Whether it’s due to not knowing where to start looking, or just not having time to look, it can be difficult.  Whatever podcasts we listen to, it is probably because we are interested in the commentary and opinions of the people on the shows.  This makes a podcast recommendation from these people pretty meaningful.

The guidelines of this feature is as follows:

• List your top 3 favorite podcasts (doesn’t have to be in order)
• Give a short description of why you chose each
• At least 1 should be gaming/tech related

This is a pretty straightforward feature which we hope to make a regular piece.  Each installment will feature people from a different podcast, but since we can’t always get everyone of a given podcast each time, we will return to podcasts with the remaining members if possible.

Part 1 is focused on Rebel FM and is possible due to the generous contributions from Arthur Gies (of Rebel FM) and Philip Kollar (formerly of Rebel FM).

Arthur Gies [Rebel FM | eat. sleep. game. | @aegies]

I tend to listen to podcasts when I’m running, as this is one of the few points in my day where I feel like I can pay more or less complete attention to what I’m hearing. The only problem is that I tend to favor funny podcasts, and sometimes it’s hard to run while suppressing a snort.

1)     Giant Bomb – The Giant Bombcast: This is hands down my favorite gaming podcast right now. They demonstrate all the really important aspects of a good show. The guys have great chemistry and it shows, as they know exactly how to set each other up for great inside jokes. It’s like hanging out with super well versed buddies and listening to them riff about the thing they’re most passionate about. I look forward to it every week, and it’s one of the few shows I can listen to more than once.

2)    A Life Well Wasted: What can I say that hasn’t been repeated ad infinitum since it debuted? It’s the “This American Life” of our hobby right now, and having chatted at length on a few occasions with Robert Ashley, it’s great to see him do something that at first sounds so far from his known persona (Bobito) that  really plays to his talents and intelligence.

3)     Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier – The Smodcast: It’s Kevin Smith and his best friend and Producer Scott Mosier talking about completely random topics with a stoner’s focus. If you love his movies, then I don’t know why you aren’t listening right now.

Philip Kollar [@pkollar]

Drunken Gamers Radio — These fellow Minnesota natives (currently operating from the top-secret www.robotpanic.com headquarters) are easily one of my favorite gaming podcasts alongside the mostly-gone and criminally under-appreciated Broadcast Gamer podcast. They follow the most familiar of gaming podcast formats — three buddies gather together around a mic and drink while talking about what they’ve been playing, gaming news, and new releases — but despite that, they’re kind of the anti-1UP Yours. More than any other podcast I’ve listened to, the Drunken Gamers provide the perfect “man on the street” view of gaming. Those games they’re reviewing every week? They buy them. All those classic retro systems they talk about hunting down like the crazed collectors they are? Yep, they’re paying for those out of their pockets. And all of the time they pump into the show and RobotPanic.com every week? That’s all because they are passionate about this stuff, not because they’re getting paid for it. Best of all, John, Moe, and Hilden have three distinct, interesting, and often clashing personalities. They aren’t going to feign some fake objectivity — these guys are telling you what they like and why. And they’ve been doing so for 200 episodes now. Their enthusiasm does a much better job of keeping me psyched about videogames each week than a million cookie-cutter “WORLD-EXCLUSIVE” previews. If you’ve never checked out Drunken Gamers Radio, please fix that mistake.

Movie Podcast Tie — /Filmcast and Filmspotting — Filmspotting is essentially the idealized podcast success story. Average guy hears about podcasting in passing, decides to try it out, turns out to be really fucking good, is able to make a solid donation-driven business out of it, and even gets picked up by Chicago Public Radio for monthly syndication. It doesn’t get much sweeter than that, although calling hosts Adam Kempenaar and Matty Robinson (and previous host Sam Van Hallgren) “average” may be a bit of an underestimation. Not only do these guys put on a beautifully structured show, but they have some of the most consistently intelligent audio reviews that I’ve heard from any medium. Adam and Matty can analyze a film on a shot-by-shot level or thematically, and they can do so without alienating listeners who may not be thinking about it that much or coming off as elitist intellectuals. Their general film knowledge is also a force to be reckoned with. Whether it’s pulling out an obscure movie quote for listeners to try and identify in their “Massacre Theater” segment or rattling off a list of films in a different “genre” each week for their top five lists, they clearly know what they’re talking about.

/Filmcast is a slightly newer addition, and though clearly inspired by Filmspotting, it fits more into the 1UP Yours/This Week in Tech style. Each week a group of movie bloggers, journalists, and general enthusiasts gather to discuss film and television. It’s not nearly as structured, but the discussions are always interesting, the personalities are usually entertaining, and the reviews are often controversial, Does the show’s host and my good friend David Chen really hate the Dark Knight? And how is that possible? You’ve got to listen to find out! The /Filmcast crew has also managed to pull in a lot of amazing guests, including Kevin Smith, Paul Scheer, and Stephen Tobolowsky. Oh, yes, and Adam Kempenaar from Filmspotting. Between /Filmcast and Filmspotting, you’ve got two very different but equally enjoyable shows that will greatly enhance your film and television-viewing experience.

The Sound of Young America — Fair warning: The Sound of Young America host Jesse Thorn (who also hosts a fun “off-topic” show called Jordan, Jesse GO!) doesn’t know much about videogames and sounds kind of silly to anyone who has much knowledge of the industry when he talks about them. That said, Jesse does something far more important that I’m very jealous of and that I hope I can emulate in a podcast of my own some day: He interviews a steady stream of fascinating guests from every angle of the worlds of pop and Internet culture, from Scott McCloud to Jello Biafra to Patton Oswalt to Ze Frank. I am cheating a bit here since The Sound of Young America technically began as a radio show, and that’s the reason I’m not including This American Life on the list. But I really think The Sound of Young America came into its own in podcast form. Which is to say…that’s when I discovered it. Anyway, like I was saying, The Sound of Young America is interview-based, entertaining, and excellent — everything I hope to do in the future.

Edit 4/30: Just a quick formatting update.