Judge John Hodgman and other old-school podcasters
Five entertaining podcasts, ahead of the voting deadline for the PodCast Awards.
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- JUDGE JOHN HODGMAN??
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??Today’s the deadline for voting in the PodCast Awards, through Sep. 30. (Do they call them the Poddies? Please tell me they call them the Poddies.) The Seventh Annual award recognizes excellence in 22 different podcasting categories, from “Best Podcast” to such categories as Business, Entertainment, Comedy, GLBT and “Mature.” Most of my votes in relevant will go to the bad movie podcast The Flop House, a bad movie podcast hosted by two “Daily Show” writers. which I’ve discussed earlier. Ahead of the vote I’ve been listening to many podcasts lately, so I thought I’d shout out to some of my favorites (feel free to mention others in the comments):?? ?
? Judge John Hodgman: The author, character actor and formr “resident expert” of “The Daily Show” takes a page from Judge Wapner in this “People’s Court”-style broadcast. Exaggerating his tweedy hauteur, Hodgman mediates personal disputes that can involve hilariously arcane subjects like whether or not machine guns qualify as robots, or if a couple should remove a pair of Mulder and Scully action figures from their original packaging. The latest installment involves the outcome of a game of “Beard Chicken:” “Bilder accumulated the most days unshaven, but McElroy claims he is the winner, with the most consecutive bearded days.” Hodgman not only draws out the maximum amount of whimsy from the “court cases,” he often reaches genuinely wise rulings.?
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Skeptics With a K: Like The Flop House, this podcast from the Merseyside Skeptics Society features lively, fast-paced conversation from a group of guys who clearly enjoy each other’s company. Mike Hall, Colin Harris and Michael “Marsh” Marshall lead freewheeling discussions ranging from holes in various Sept. 11 conspiracy theories to conflicting Gospel accounts of the Easter story to examples of biased marketing passed along as legitimate science in journalism. Even if you don’t share their passions, you can’t help but enjoy their talk.?? ?
? The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd: This family-friendly spoof of an old-fashioned radio serial unfolds in short chapters in which brilliant inventor Dr. Floyd pursues the scheming Dr. Steve through history. Dr. Floyd features a smidgen of educational value as the characters encounter such historical figures as The Wright Brothers and Molly Pitcher, with Dr. Steve attempting each week to steal a famous artifact, like the “Dewey Defeats Truman” newspapers, which can sell for a fortune on eBay. Mostly it’s a snappy, silly comedy that offers a great way to introduce kids to the appeal of radio-based storytelling. Dr. Floyd also takes a creative approach to holidays, building a Christmas Carol-type plot around National Learning Day and recording multiple songs, including a parody of Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant,” around Thanksgiving.
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? Stuff You Missed in History Class. Speaking of history, this podcast from the Atlanta-based HowStuffWorks.com family of audio shows makes bygone anecdotes feel fresh and accessible. Current hosts Sarah Dowdey and Deblina Chakraborty take on such intriguing topics as historical hoaxes, the Freedom Rides, chocolate and more. I must point out that any radio broadcast hosted by two perky, soft-spoken women inevitably evokes the “Schweddy Balls” sketch from “Saturday Night Live.”
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? The Pod F. Tompkast. Comedian Paul F. Tompkins seems to occupy a central position in contemporary alt-comedy and has been an early adopter of new media. As “master of ceremonies” of Pod. F. Tompkast, he adopts a slightly fussy, antiquated persona comparable to John Hodgman, and between sketches and live routines, he rambles stream-of-consciousness style. The seventh episode begins with a particularly amusing digression about coonskin hats: “I guess the rule was, cut off the head so it’s not confusing. so there’s only one head at a time. So when people address you, they don’t wonder ‘Who do I look at? You or that racoon? Look, I don’t know who’s boss.’” A cute recurring segment, Google Voice Theatre, reenacts famous movie scenes (like the Star Wars cantina) as translated by the Google Voice program. Supposedly the show’s second season is about to begin.?
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