The Adam Friedland Show Review

This is my 29th podcast. It is currently ranked number 32. I listened to an episode from February 11 titled, "MJ Lenderman Calls Out Cameron Winter." I was listening to this on a long drive and I am reviewing it about a week later. I can't remember a lot of the podcast. The main thing is that they were talking about a lot of nonsense. I wasn't finding it funny again. There was profanity as per usual and they were laughing a lot. I am sure this review is very helpful for my many readers. I am just going to give this 3/5.

Distractible Review

This is my 28th podcast. Distractible is currently ranked number 28. The episode I listened to was titled "Fortunately, Unfortunately." It was from February 16. They played a game on this where they tell a story. A prompt is given, then one person says fortunately something happened, the next person says unfortunately happened. There was a lot of laughter, so I am sure this was all supposed to be funny. I didn't find it funny, but obviously a lot of other people feel differently considering it is ranked number 28. I started thinking if my sense of humor is broken or something. Maybe I am too serious in my old age. I wondered if I would find this funny when I was younger. I don't know. Improv is challenging and they did tell some crazy stories. There was a point system where one of the guys would give points out throughout the episode and whoever won would host the next podcast and give out the points next time. I am taking one point off for profanity and one point off for me not laughing. I give this podcast a 3/5.

Horror Stories Review

My 27th podcast was Horror Stories. Horror Stories is currently ranked number 15. The title of the episode was "3 True Disturbing Home Alone Horror Stories." This episode was released February 16. Before listening I saw a comment someone posted in the Horror Stories comment section on Spotify saying how this podcast helped them go to sleep. I thought that this person was joking and that it would be crazy to listen to Horror Stories as you go to bed. But I started listening to this in the car and it did make me very sleepy. I thought this topic would be something to help me stay awake. But the music and the voice of these stories seem designed to put one to sleep. I am not really into horror stories, these were kind of strange. There was one about a demon haunting this kid until the kid gave the demon a pillow and then it left him alone afterward. I am giving this podcast 3/5.

The Tim Dillon Show Review

This is my 26th podcast. I listened to Episode 482 titled, "Epstein Files & A Head In the Fryer." This episode was released February 7. I started it a few days ago and finished it yesterday the February 16th in the car. The Tim Dillon Show is currently ranked number 19. Tim Dillon was the only one speaking in this episode. He played a clip of FBI Director Kash Patel saying there was no credible evidence that Epstein trafficked girls. Dillon correctly called Patel out for being a liar as some of the Epstein files have been released show that there is plenty of evidence of this. Also, it is clear that the U.S. government is protecting pedophiles as it blacks their names out in the Epstein files. Dillon used an analogy of an Olive Garden employee who killed himself by putting his head in the fryer as what he believes Hillary and Bill Clinton are going to do. He thinks Hillary and Bill Clinton are going to destroy their own reputations in order to destroy Trump. They will confess of their own crimes with Epstein in order to also expose Trump's crimes with Epstein. Dillon think the Clinton's have nothing to lose because they are not in power and they are toward the end of their lives. He thinks Trump is scared of the Clinton's because Trump knows the Clinton's can destroy him. I doubt they would do this if they could because I believe they would still care about their own reputations and legacy. Dillon talked for a good portion of the show about how the Clinton's will destroy Trump with some Epstein revelations at the hearing. The hearing is scheduled for February 27, 2026. Dillon did some rapid fire conspiracy theories in the show. He did not seem particularly interested in evidence. I am giving The Tim Dillon Show a 2/5. He gets two points for calling out Kash Patel and Donald Trump. He does not get more points because of his conspiracy theories that I believe don't have merit. Also, a big portion of the show was talking about a future event of Hillary and Bill Clinton destroying themselves and destroying Trump in the process. I did not agree with the chain of logic that came to this conclusion. If he is right, I will change his podcast score to 5/5 for getting an amazing prediction right. Stay tuned for Feburary 27.

Dateline NBC Review

This is my 25th podcast. It is currently ranked 24. The episode I listened to aired February 11th. This means I am finally catching up as this is the last podcast I have listened to. I want to write about these soon after I listen to them so I don't get a backlog. The title of the episode is, "Talking Dateline: The Thing About Helen & Olga." Lester Holt interviewed Keith Morrison and Susan Leibowitz who have been working on reporting about this Helen and Olga case. Dateline NBC had just released the day before six episodes about the crimes of Helen and Olga. This episode is an interview with the people who made these podcasts and who have spent a long time investigating these crimes. Helen and Olga are two old ladies who act as if they are volunteering to help homeless people but they are really just doing life insurance fraud and do years long plots to kill the homeless people and get on their life insurance. They do this multiple times. They also do some lawsuit fraud by faking incindents to sue companies. They are currently in prison. Morrison and Leibowitz were interviewed about their experiences making this. One part made me laugh. That was when Susan Leibowitz talked about going to the church to work on this case, this church is where Helen and Olga found homeless people for their plot. While there someone told her about the preschool there and said she put her kids there. Initially, she said no way she would put her kids in the preschool at the church where Helen and Olga were finding homeless people to kill but then it was just perfect so she did. Even though this podcast was really about the making of these other podcasts, I still got a good idea of the gist of what Helen and Olga were doing. I thought it was an interesting podcast and crime story. I give this a 5/5. I am officially all caught up. I will plan on writing about the podcasts in the future soon after I listen to them.

Unseen Review

This is my 24th podcast of the year. It is currently ranked number 25. The title of the episode I listened to was "Escape from the Schoolgirl Snatcher: How 2 Best Friends Survived the Unthinkable. the Case of Charlene & Lisa." This episode was released February 2nd. Charlene and Lisa were two best friends who lived in a seaside town in the UK. They were ten years old, it was January 19, 1999. They were abducted as they walked to school together. They were kidnapped by a man named Alan Hopkinson. He sexually abused them. He drove them to a seaside cliff and held Charlene off the edge. She thought she was going to die but he said he wanted her for one more day. Meanwhile, this was a big story in the press and there were a lot of people searching for these girls. The next day, a police officer came to Hopkinson's apartment. He was there to question him regarding reports that he was stalking children as they walked to school. The police officer was going to take him for questioning but before they took him he told the police officer that he had Charlene and Lisa in the apartment. They were reunited with their families. The episode first showed the search attempts for the girls and then went to the girls' point of view. Charlene was interviewed in the episode but Lisa was not. Charlene and Lisa have remained friends and have written a book together. The title of their book is, "Abducted: Taken Tortured Terrified." There is also a documentary about this from a TV series "Cutting Edge." The documentary was season 29 episode 6 of this series and is titled, "The Girls Who Were Found Alive." I thought this was a good podcast. It gave good background on the story and I think that it is good for stories like this to be told. It is very sad. This episode is a good way to hear the story in a more toned down version as I understand the book is graphic and would be difficult to read. Charlene and Lisa seemed to act bravely and were able to keep their heads clear in a tramautic situation. I give this podcast 5/5 for telling a story that should be told and giving a voice to these victims.

The Bill Simmons Podcast Review

The Bill Simmons Podcast is my 23rd podcast of the year. This podcast is currently ranked number 15. The title of the episode is "Seattle Spanks the Patriots, Drake Maye's Mystery Stinker, and Parent Corner With Cousin Sal." This episode was released on February 8, Super Bowl Sunday right after the Super Bowl. This podcast was released on Netflix. Bill Simmons is the host and Cousin Sal is the guy talking to him. The show began with Cousin Sal taunting Bill Simmons about the Patriots losing. Apparently, Bill Simmons is a big Patriots fan. They talked about Drake Maye's poor performance. They talked a lot about gambling. He gambles on everything including the length of the national anthem, the coin toss, and how often celebrities are shown on television. I am really against this culture of gambling on everything. I think it is bad and it is harmful to sports. Gambling has a corrupting influence on sports and as more and more people do it and it is more and more mainstream, the corrupting influence will just be larger. The sports leagues acceptance of gambling just invites scandal. They have had plenty of scandals so far in sports and I suspect the scandal is just beginning. The gambling on everything invites more scandal. If people are just gambling on wins and losses there would be less corruption. But as they gamble on everything, everything is suspect. Players will feel like they can do small things that don't harm their team to make some gambling money. This already has happened with baseball players who pitch certain pitches at the beginning of the count in coordination with gamblers. A lot of the podcast seemed liked it was more a podcast for gambling addicts than sports fans. One thing I did agree with was towards the end of the podcast they had parents corner. Here they talked about some experiences as parents. One of them mentioned sports pictures and how it is just a money grab. Which is a funny thing to complain about when you are gambling about how long the national anthem is before the Super Bowl. But I did agree. He said instead of going on a different day and driving way out of your way to get a team picture, they should just take a few minutes before a game and have people take pictures with the team with their phones. I say this same thing every time we have team pictures. It is hard to do when nobody else even thinks about it and just wants to pay money to a photographer. Phones are pretty high quality now and I think it is such a waste of money. I give this podcast 1/5. I give it low points mostly due to the gambling content that I think is very harmful not only to individuls lives, but to the integrity of sports. They also had some profanity that I am not a fan of. They get one point for the comment about team pictures.