Today, Explained Review

This is my 54th podcast. It is currently ranked number 42. The episode I listened to was titled, "The Secret Soundtrack to your Life." The episode aired April 17. This episode was about a type of music called Sync Music. It started with the famous music that is shown with Curb Your Enthusiasm. This music is famous enough that I know it is from Curb Your Enthusiasm even though I haven't seen a single episode. It is played to make a video funny when someone is doing something awkward. The origin of this music is an Italian film called La Bellissima Estate or The Beautiful Summer. It is called Frolic. Later it was on some commercials, Larry David heard it in a commercial and made it the theme song for Curb Your Enthusiasm. So Sync Music is music that is in the background of video. It is made for video. It often spreads around and is used many times. The host interviewed a maker of sync music. He asked him if he was worried about AI taking his job as it got better at making music. The guy said he wasn't worried. He thought AI would just make people need to do their jobs better. He said AI can only take what has already been created but it cannot make anything new like an artist can. He said he isn't a defender of AI but he isn't scared of it. I like his attitude regarding AI. Instead of being scared of it and crying about it like so many do, he accepts the reality of the situation and understand how he can contribute in a way a machine can't to help keep himself in his business. I thought this was an interesting listen. I give it a 5/5.

Breaking News from Pod Saves America Review

This is my 53rd podcast. It is currently ranked number 37. The episode I listened to is titled, "Trump Claims Strait Open in MAJOR Update on War with Iran." This episode was released April 17. I thought they made some good points about how Trump causes problems and then gets credit from many for solving the problems that he caused. Everything is worse in Iran than before. A younger radical leader took over for the older radical leader, no progress made on stopping Iran's nuclear program, many people died, and U.S. is in a weaker position than before. It's definitely true that the United State's ability to deter Iran is weaker than before as all we did was demonstrate to Iran that they do have the ability to shut down much of the world's oil supply and there isn't much we can do about it. Iran knows we are less likely to respond militarily than before once this is over. The hosts of this podcast were acting like the war in Iran was over with this deal but the next day after this podcast was released Iran had already closed the Strait of Hormuz again. The hosts also addressed how Trump has been manipulating the stock market over and over again with his statements to help himself, his family, and friends make billions of dollars with some insider trading. I give this podcast 4/5. Minus one point for some cursing.

Therapuss with Jake Shane Review

This is my 52nd podcast. It is currently ranked 35. The episode I listened to was titled, "Session 116: Adela." The episode was released April 16. The name of Jake Shane's podcast comes from Thera- because he gives advice to his guests and puss- because apparently he gained his fame by going viral for reviewing octupuses. This podcast started slow and boring. They talked about going to Coachella, which seems like the worst. They talked about the power going out and them not being able to charge their phones with the tone of people who were facing a zombie appocalypse or a nuclear holocaust. I thought it was annoying what a big deal they made of it though to be fair this could have been some self-deprecating humor but I just didn't see any clear jokes in there so it was just annoying to me. I did think the conversation with the singer Adela was interesting. This is one thing I like about how I am doing podcasts right now. I am going through listening to the most recent episode of the highest rated podcast without considering whether I would be interested in the podcast. I want to learn what other people are listening to and also to learn about things I would not normally learn about and expand beyond my interests. Before this podcast experiment I would have never listened to this guy Jake Shane interview a singer Adela because I would not have been interested in the host or the singer but in listening I found it an intersting conversation even though I still would have no interest in listening to the podcast host or listening to Adela's music in the future. Adela was born in Slovokia. She said she grew up watching Hannah Montana and was a fan of that character and thought that Miley Cyrus was Slovokian because the show was dubbed into her language. When she found out Miley Cyrus was an American who spoke English she decided that she needed to learn how to speak English. She taught herself English first by watching Hannah Montana in English with subtitles. Then she said one day she understood it and realized she didn't need subtitles anymore. She says Duolingo is fake news and the real way to learn languages is to immerse yourself. She says it is better to watch TV in the language than to use these language learning programs. She might know something about this because I think she sounds like an American. But she also had moved to London and has spent some time in English speaking countries to help her improve her English. I think she is probably too harsh on Duolingo though she is right that immersion is the better method but Duolingo I think could be good for people who can't commit the time to that. Listening to her I was disappointed to hear that she sexualizes her songs but this makes since if she is a fan of Miley Cyrus. It's a shame that singers feel they have to do this and they can't just stand on their talent because she is obviously smart and talented. It's too bad these singers who are inspired by terrible examples become terrible examples to their young fans. There is no sense of responsibility to be a good influence. I am giving this podcast 2/5. Minus one point for profanity, minus a point for the annoying moments, and minus a point for the terrible example. Two points for the background on Adela's story. You got to respect the determination and ambition to achieve her goals even though I am disappointed in society in general for creating perverse incentives for female artists to sexualize their songs.

Spotify for Creators Review

This is my 51st podcast. It is currently ranked number 20. The episode I listened to is titled, "Creator Convo with Artist Friendly." This aired on April 7. This was only seven minutes long. The entire podcast seemed like it was an ad for another podcast called Artist Friendly. It seemed directed specifically towards artists and creators. I am going to put this right in the middle and give it a 3/5. It may not be fair for me to rank it because I am not the target audience and there may be some who find it useful. But for me I didn't find it interesting.

Creepcast Review

This is my 50th podcast. It is currently ranked 39. The title of the episode is "Whitefall." It was released April 5. The hosts names are Hunter Hancock and Isaiah Priestly. They read and comment on horror stories. In this episode they read a book titled Whitefall, written by CK Walker. This episode is like listening to an audiobook with some pauses that add commentary. I thought the book was interesting. It did have some flaws in it thatIf you ever plan on reading Whitefall I recommend you read that first before reading this post. After that spoiler alert I will continue. Whitefall is about this guy riding on a bus. Many colorful characters are introduced. The story is told first person by the protaganist. He is obsessing over his girlfriend on the bus drive because he just found out she is pregnant. He was going to leave her for another city but after this news he is going to pay for her to come after her. The bus stops in a place called Whitefall. He is stranded there with other passangers at a big bus station due to a hurricane. They are there for weeks. They don't know where the workers are. Different buses break into tribes and there starts to be murders and cannibalism. They are there for weeks. The storytellers of this book kept interrupting to comment about how they broke into tribes too quickly to be realistic. Also, they interrupted to laugh about how one of the narrators was doing one of the characters voices to sound like Kermit the Frog. Many jokes were told. The bus came right after the protagonist finally succumbed to canniblism. Unlike the villains of the story, the protagonist didn't murder his food but ate a person who died naturally. After the trip, he found out he hadn't been gone weeks but it was only a day and that there was no place called Whitefall. But the guy who he was travelling with on the bus was really dead. The book doesn't explain what exactly happened. A funny scene was when one of the villains of the story who had been murdering and eating people had saved two uneaten candy bars that he started eating on the bus ride out. The hosts had some theories of different metaphors the book was telling. I liked the book overall and liked the hosts of the podcast and thought they had some funny commentary. I think I would rate the book a little lower than the podcast itself. Probably a 3/5 but still an enjoyable read. The book at some profanity and the hosts added their own so it gets the minus point for profanity. I give this podcast 4/5.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg Review

This is the 49th podcast. It is ranked number 39. The title of the episode is, "Anthropic's Generational Run, OpenAI Panics, AI Moats, Meta Loses Lawsuits." It was released March 27. This podcast they talked about a bunch of AI stuff and how they thought AI would shape the future. One of the hosts, David Sacks works for the Trump administration. Of course, Sacks will tow the company line as required by anyone in the Trump administration. He talked about the conflict between Trump and Anthropic and said criticizing Antrhopic, "if you as a company don't want your products to be used in war, don't sell to the Department of War. It's in the name. But if you do, if you do decide to sell to the Department of War, you should expect it to be used for all lawful uses." So many dumb things about this. First of all, it's not in the name because the Department of War doesn't exist, it's the Department of Defense by statute and the name can only be changed by statute. Secondly, Antrhopic didn't want their product to be used in domestic surveillance, which has nothing to do with war. The other dumb thing is the one sided criticism of Anthropic while having no criticism of Trump. It is the Trump administration that is illegally retaliating against a private company because the company opposed using its product for domestic surveillance. A normal reaction for the government if they didn't like the constraints a company put on their product would be to not do business with that company. But instead Team Trump attempts to put Anthropic out of business by blacklisting them and labeling them a "supply chain risk." Here they tell every business that does business with the Department of Defense that they can't do business with Anthropic. Then Sacks goes on and does a classic MAGA move of accusing others of doing what they themselves are doing. He says Anthropic is cynically being anti-Trump because they are trying to recruit a bunch of PhDs who are left leaning. Meanwhile, Sacks is making a bucketload of money being pro-Trump. If you listen to Sacks, you wouldn't even understand the unlawful retaliation against Anthropic and you would have it dead wrong what Antrhopic was refusing for their product to do. Sacks cannot comprehend that in the world there are people who do things because they believe them. He cannot comprehend people not cynically lying about their positions for profit because that is who he is. I have started using Claude more due to Anthropic standing up to Trump while OpenAI submits their will to Trump. I was pretty much just using ChatGPT and Google for AI, but now I have added Claude to the mix. I haven't abandoned the others. I have found Claude useful in helping me troubleshoot an issue we are having with our water at our house. But when I was planning some baseball practices, I put a little competition between AIs and used Claude, ChatGPT, Google, and Grok. I explained what I was looking for and asked it to come up with a baseball practice. I didn't go with everything on any of them but I did use mostly ChatGPT and have used it more for practices later. The reason I used ChatGPT more for practices was that it explained things more simply and it was easier to implement. Anywho, point being, I still use ChatGPT but I have opened the door to Claude on some things due to their stand. I had never used them before. If AI ever goes evil and tries to destroy humanity like in the Dune universe, I suspect it would be from OpenAI and Elon Musk's Grok. I think Anthropic is much more responsible. That was kind of a sidetrack on the review but that's what I do. I give this podcast 0/5 for classic MAGA intellectual dishonesty. I think someone who relies on this podcast for reliable information would be better off not trying to listen to news related content and just focus their time on entertainment.

Crime, Conspiracy, Cults, and Murder Review

This is my 48th podcast. It is currently ranked number 43. The episode I listened to is titled, "The Plot Twist Murders That Shocked The Country. Banfield Ryan Murders." It was released April 1. The podcast is hosted by Kris Collins. This episode was about a guy named Brendon Banfield who murdered his wife and another man in Herndon, Virginia on February 24, 2023. She went over the crime scene, plotting the crime, and the investigation. Brendon had an affair with an au pair who was living with them from Brazil. He plotted with her to kill his wife. He decided to stage a home invasion. He impersonated his wife online and got a guy to come to their house. He made the guy think his wife had some weird sexual fantasy about being attacked in her sleep. He told him to bring a knife and zip ties. When the guy came over his au pair shot the guy and then Brendon stabbed his wife multiple times. He tried to stage the crime scene to make it look like the guy killed his wife and that he killed the guy. He transfered his wives blood from his wife to the guy's hands. Investigators could tell it was staged based on how the blood was on the guy's hands. They could tell it was put there by fingers. Another thing that gave Brendon away was how he was using his wife's computer to contact the guy. He made sure he used his wife's computer so the investigation would show it coming from her device. But they found the account posing as his wife was active when he was home and not used at all when he went out of town. Which is the opposite of what you'd expect if it were her. The au pair was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Brendon gets sentenced next month. I liked the host of this podcast. She was a good storyteller, she was appropriately angry at Brendon and his au pair during the story. I liked that she cared. I do need to take one point off for profanity as per the rules and I give this podcast 4/5.