Smosh Reads Reddit Stories Review

This is my 21st podcast and was ranked 21 when I finished it. It is currently ranked number 19. The title of the episode was, "Reddit is the Best Medicine." The podcast was recorded on January 31st. They read stories from Reddit, discuss them, decide who they think is right in different situations, and tell jokes about them. They discussed six stories. Stories included some bathroom humor, embarrassing moments with the doctor, a woman wanting her medical bills paid for from a dog owner because she tripped over a dog, and a sister being mad at her sister for revusing to remove diabetes equipment from her arm for a wedding photo, and surgeons making fun of a patient who they think is unconscious. I am kind of disappointed in myself here because I know there were a few funny jokes but I can't remember them at the moment. The humor was based on the conversations reacting to the stories. It was more funny towards the beginning of the episode and less funny toward the end. I give this podcat 3 out of 5. It gets points because it was amusing and somewhat funny at times. Minus one point for some profanity and minus one point for being less funny toward the end.

Directed By Review

This is my 20th podcast listened to on the year. It was recorded on January 26 and I listened February 2nd. Like the Billions Club, this is a podcast that is produced by Spotify and got a temporary boost due to Spotify promotion. It was ranked number 7 when I listened to it. The title of the podcast was "Inside Maisie Peters 'Audrey Hepburn' & 'You, You, You' Videos." This was the first and so far only episode of this podcast. It is no longer in the top 100. They talked about the making of two music videos performed by Maise Peters. I had never heard of Maise Peters. I'll give this 4/5. Four points for obviously being talented. Minus one point for not exactly being my cup of tea. I watched the music videos after because after the making of podcast I wanted to see what was made. Here is the end result of her two videos:

Morbid Review

This is my 19th podcast. As of this writing it is ranked number 17. The title of the podcast is "Listener Tale 106: Comfy Queens." This episode was released January 29th. This podcast is about ghost stories and this episode was about listener submitted ghost stories. They read and commented on them. Ghost stories aren't my favorite topic. I think the most interesting one was about a kid who died when he was four years old. He was said to live and play in a house as a ghost after he died for years. He did this all the way until his Dad's funeral. Obviously, my summary doesn't capture the presentation of the story. I give this 3/5.

NPR News Now Review

This was my 18th podcast listening to this year. The episode name is "1-29-26 2 AM EST." NPR News Now is ranked 20th as of this writing. This is a podcast released every hour and has five minutes of news. They reported the officers who shot Alex Pretti were placed on administrative leave. I was not a fan that they reported this as a fact when I think you should report it as what the government sources are saying in the context of lying about so many things. The government lied about Alex Pretti being there to kill as many ICE officers as he could when video showed that he was gunned down as he was videoing with his cell phone and trying to help a woman who was being pushed to the ground by ICE. I'm not saying the reporting was wrong, just that I don't like how it was presented. It is always important to provide context in reporting. Several publications have reported they are on leave. I give them 3/5. Three points for telling me about the report of the officers being on leave and minus two points for uncritically reporting untrustworthy sources.

Call Her Daddy Podcast

This was my 17th podcast of the year. It is now ranked 24th. The title of the podcast was, "Anna Kendrick: Pitch Perfect, Twilight, and Relationships." I was kind of nervous going into this one because of the title. I thought it might be some weird sexual podcast, but they didn't even talk about sex except for during the commercials. I am sure this varies by episode. This episode is directed to women but I still found some of it interesting, particularly Kendrick's backstory. She talked about going to New York City when she was 12 years old with her brother who was 14 years old. Her parents let her go to audition but they didn't want to have to go themselves. She went on a bus with her brother. She ended up staying two nights. She booked a hotel, her parents called and gave the credit card to the hotel and she acted as if her parents would be there later. Then she talked about her dating life. She said she isn't dating anyone right now but if she were to date she would only date someone who would immediately agree to go to couple's therapy with her. Personally, I would hate that idea. They talked some about how much the Pitch Perfect cast likes each other. I have seen parts of this movie while donating plasma in Utah before we moved. The one movie that I really liked that she was in they didn't even talk about. That was Trolls. She plays Poppy in trolls. I give this podcast 3/5. It gets some points for interesting conversation. A minus point for profanity. Another minus point for the name of the podcast. Here is my favorite Trolls song. Anna Kendrick sings this:

Billions Club: The Series Review

My 16th podcast of the year was Billions Club: The Series. This episode was titled: "Billions Club Live with Ed Sheeran: A concert film." As of writing this, the podcast is now ranked 71st. Spotify gives its own series a boost by promoting it which can make some things move up for a short time. This podcast series is Spotify getting people who have songs with more than a billion downloands to do a concert where they can only perform songs with more than a billion downloads and they talk about it. I didn't know anything of Ed Sheeran before this. He performed: Shape of You, Thinking Out Loud, Galway Girl, Perfect, Azizam, and Parting Glass. I am definitely the last person a person who likes music would want to listen to about music. I don't go out of my way to listen to music, I have never been big into it. I do like music sometimes. But when I wanted to listen to something in the past I used to listen to talk radio of politics or sometimes sports. More recently, I have been listening to books for the last few years. This year I have been listening to podcasts. I did like the tune of his music and I liked how I could understand the words. I always like music better when I can understand the words. There was too much meeting in a bar that I could not relate to. I will give this a 4 out of 5. Anne had heard of Ed Sheeran and his song Perfect. I thought it was a pretty good song:

The Journal Review

The Journal was my 15th podcast of the year. The episode I listed to was released January 26th and titled, "Are We at a Turning Point in Minneapolis?" As of writing this post, The Journal is ranked 13th. Don't tell Rupert Murdoch but this was actually a good podcast. There were some interesting tiddits. They mentioned how there were 300 to 600 agents sent to Chicago which is a population of 2.5 million people compared to 3000 sent to Minneapolis which is a population of 450,000. They talked of the massive welfare fraud that had taken place in Minneapolis and how MAGA used the fact that some of the perpetrators were Somoli to demonize the entire population. They talked about how ICE quotas were made by working backward from a statement made by Trump that he would deport a million people in the first year. Because of this they have a quota to arrest 3000 people a day. They never have come close to achieving their goal. Their performance evaluations are based on how many arrests that are made. Even if a person is later let go, it counts as an arrest so they are incentivized to make arrests even wrongful ones. They don't even wait before smashing a window. They do profiling. In the past, ICE would have been looking at specific people to arrest, but now they are just on the streets looking for people to arrest without having an idea who. I give this podcast 5/5 for being informative and helping me to learn new information about how our corrupt government functions.