Welcome To Podern Times
It feels very strange that I’m here again, especially as this is the first ever post from Podern Times, and yet it feels remarkably familiar. Like that favorite jumper you love to wear on those cold winter nights, curled up in front of the television watching Groundhog Day over and over and over, until you finally realise that you haven’t been watching Bill Murray repeat the same day ad nauseum, but you’ve actually been watching Ghostbusters. Then you realise your favorite jumper is actually a dalmatian onesie, and your owner is yelling at you to get down off the couch you “bad doggy!”
Okay, I’m starting again!
Are You Sure? Is the latest episode from Welcome To Night Vale (133), and since its launch on the weekend (September 1st) I’ve downloaded and listened to it so much it has driven me mad!
“Why?” I hear you ask, if you are not one of their regular listeners. “I know it’s good, but why would you download the same episode multiple times?” you will also say. Well it’s all due to ‘dynamic insertion’, you know, the way they put advertising on podcasts these days. It turns out those crazy cats at Night Vale have used this technology to give the episode three different endings… or have they?
These endings are added purely at random, so unfortunately I’ve had to listen to this episode all week, but to date I have only heard two different endings. This has turned me into a cold hollow shell shivering in the corner, pleading with my family to give me back my favorite jumper so that I can curl up and watch a rerun of Bill Murray as Garfield. Apparently I’m not allowed to watch this either because I “bark at the cat on the TV all night long!” And why do they not take me to the dog park anymore???
If you have listened to all three, please let me know. Please… my nerves are shot!
My condolences go out to the family and friends of Rachel Bland, host of ‘You, Me and the Big C’ who died age 40 on Wednesday.
Rachel was diagnosed with breast cancer in November of 2016, and had since worked tirelessly to raise awareness, and remove the stigma attached to cancer. She began with her blog ‘Big C. Little Me.’ documenting her journey through treatment, and then on to co-host the podcast with Deborah James and Lauren Mahon.
A tweet on her official account was posted on Wednesday morning saying: "Our beautiful, courageous Rachael died peacefully this morning surrounded by her close family. We are crushed but she would want me to thank everyone who took an interest in her story or sent messages of support. You'll never know how much they meant to her. Steve and Freddie".
The podcast deals with all the big questions you would expect, mental health, chemotherapy, alternative and complementary therapies, doctors, money, family, and death, in a frank and funny way. If you haven’t listened already, then download this amazing show now, and recommend it to everyone; especially those people who will say ‘what’s a podcast?’
After two and a half years Serial returns for season three on the 20th of September. They take a look at the criminal justice system and the litany of charges thrown at it by reformers. Where season one looked at one extraordinary case, season three spends a year in one courtroom, Cleveland Ohio, looking at many ordinary cases, and the problems they faced.
Check out the link above to hear the trailer, or follow this link for an interview with Sarah Koenig and Emmanuel Dzotsi over at Clevescene.
It's that time of year again peeps! The Audio Verse Awards are taking your nominations now! All eligible productions that have “aired” between October 1st, 2017 and September 30th, 2018 are up for consideration.
The Audio Verse Awards are an annual awards show dedicated to celebrating the best in free audio drama around the world. It started as a thread on Audio Drama Talk, ballooned to a Facebook group, then shrunk to a dedicated group who sat down and helped make the Audio Verse Awards a reality in 2013.
On Wednesday (September 5th), Turner Podcast Network announced that they would be launching their entire portfolio of over 60 shows on Spotify. This comes only a month after the Swedish music streaming giant announced a deal with the BBC for users in the UK. I have heard however that BBC podcasts have been appearing on Spotify in the US and other countries outside the UK.
This is hot off the back of them teaming up with NPR back in May, so it's safe to say that Spotify are serious about taking the scalp of iTunes. Let's hope they now take a more serious approach with the indie podcast world than they have in the past.
In other news:
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