Louis Theroux Podcast Review

This is my 56th podcast. I am slow on writing about this after I listened and this podcast is currently out of Spotify's top 100. I listened to an episode titled, "Yorgos Lanthimos discusses working with Emma Sone, suffering for his art, and directing a Bourne movie." The episode was released on April 20. Reading the comments on this podcast a lot of his listeners complained about Theroux interrupting the guest too much. Theroux responded in the comments and said he tries to keep the energy high, unpredictable, and give context to listeners who don't know the guest. He said the podcast would come back in a few months. So I guess he is taking a break, which is maybe why the podcast fell out of the top 100. It was possibly annoying to the guest, but I didn't have a problem with the interruptions because I think it worked with his style of trying to get quick answers and keeping it lively. Yorgos talked about a movie he directed called Dogtooth. I thought it sounded like an interesting story and it was cool hearing how they were able to make it with a low budget. I thought maybe I would watch it but I looked into it a bit and read that there is some pornography in it so I got to skip it. Yorgos talked about how when he directs he does not like to tell the actors what to do too much. He likes them to have their lines and the story but not tell them exactly how to say the lines and not to explain to the actors the motivations of the characters. He says he does this so the actors are free to come up with interpretations of their characters, he believes it can benefit the films by allowing the actors to use their own creativity. He will step in and say for them to do it differently if he thinks it is not good for the film. I thought that was an interesting approach. With Emma Stone he directed a movie titled, "Bugonia." Perhaps I would watch it some day. Theroux asked Yorgos if he liked to watch Marvel movies. I thought this was a funny question to ask a movie snob. Yorgos said if something caught his interest, but then he couldn't think of any Marvel movies he saw. Theroux broadened the topic and asked if he liked any super hero movies. Yorgos said to name some but he hadn't seen any that were named. I was surprised that when they were talking about Marvel movies that neither of them mentioned Emma Stone playing Peter Parker's love interest Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider Man and The Amazing Spider Man 2 considering that they were talking about Emma Stone just before this. Overall, I thought this podcast was an interesting listen. I got to dock it a point for the unnecessary profanity and give it a 4/5.

Modern Wisdom Review

This is my 55th podcast. It is currently ranked number 40. The episode I listened to is titled, "The Rise of History's Greatest Emperor: An Untold Story." Chris Williamson hosts the show, his guest was Alex Petkas. Petkas has a podcast titled, "Cost of Glory." In this episode Williamson interviewed Petkas about the life of Julius Caesar. Williamson asked a few questions, but Petkas was speaking most of the time without questions telling about the life of Caesar. I don't know much about Caesar's life so I thought it was interesting to learn about. Some interesting tidbits of Caesar's life include how when he was captured by pirates and convinced the pirates to raise his ransom. Petkas said he wanted his ransom raised to make his worth in the eyes of the Romans to be higher. He promised the pirates he would execute them and he did. Petkas went through Caesar's life all the way until his assassination. Petkas seemed like he really liked Caesar. It seems he thinks he is a model of leadership. I thought Petkas seemed too positive toward Caesar but with my limited knowledge on the subject it was difficult to say too much. Petkas says one of Caesar's mistakes was being too kind to his enemies and pardoning them because they were the ones who would assassinate him later. Personally, I think his mistake would be declaring himself dictator for life and trying to get absolute power. I think Petkas treats Caesar's ambition as a recipe for greatness. I don't really like when people treat war like people and people who seek power as great. I just don't like the terminology because even if it is not intended that way, it makes it seem like a positive thing to accumulate power at all costs. Just a quick side note, I did think it was kind of weird when Petkas was rating Cleopatra saying she probably wasn't a 10 but maybe an 8. Just weird when people rate women like that. Williamson did not talk much so a lot of the rating of the podcast necessarily has to go on the guest. Even though Williamson did not talk much, he did find some time to insert some profanity into the podcast. I am giving this podcast a 3/5. Minus one for profanity. I will minus one more point because I don't like the way he was making it seem like I should admire Caesar. It gets three points for being interesting and educational value.

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.