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.

Anything Goes with Emma Chamberlain Review

This is the 47th podcast. It is currently ranked number 46. The episode is titled, "friendship breakups and boundaries, advice session." It was released on March 26. This episode Emma Chamberlain talks about friendships breaking up. I really got the sense that she didn't know what she was talking about. I am definitely not the target audience for this. I think it is directed to single women in their 20s. As she was talking I just thought the women thinking about friendship this way are being way too dramatic. Friendship shouldn't be so serious and you don't need to have a big talk to stop being friends. People can just stop doing things with each other. Happens all the time. She responded to questions. One of the people asked her about what she should do with a friend who has sensitive information about her that she wants to stop being friends with. She went on and on on this. I don't want to get too much into this. It wasn't my cup of tea. It's possible some people might have found some advice she gave useful. I give this podcast 2/5. I would give it a 3 due to me thinking it wasn't useful advice but maybe some people would think it was useful and then minus one point for profanity.

Mr. Ballen Podcast Review

This is my 46th podcast. It is currently ranked number 40. The episode title is, "As Seen on TV." It was released on March 30. This was an interesting telling of a crime told in story mode. A guy named Patrick Isoird in France was lured to a cave by a woman who was acting romantically interested in him but was really just wanting to get him murdered by this other guy. The murder was a revenge murder becaus Patrick got involved with another guys wife and when he found out she killed herself. The case remained unsolved though both of the murderers were suspects, but they were not suspected of acting together. The case was finally solved when the woman who lured him into the cave watched Patrick's brother plead for help on TV and she felt bad. This had good storytelling of this crime and I rate this podcast 5/5.

House Guest Review

This is my 45th podcast. This podcast is currently ranked 74. The episode was titled, "Kyla Pratt Shows Why She's Everyone's Favorite Cousin." The episode aired March 21. I didn't know who Kyla Pratt was before listening to this. She used to be a child actress. She was in Doctor Doolittle with Eddie Murphy. I never watched Doctor Doolittle movies. The one Eddie Murphy movie I really liked back in the day was Bowfinger. Highly recommend to watch Bowfinger. This is the most memorable scene for me in that movie:

She talked about how she learned how to act on set with him. She said he would be fun but when it was time to be serious, he would be serious. She says she tries to be the same way to have fun but be serious at the right times. They talked some about a show she is in now called, "Animal Control." I wondered if I should check this show out as it has Joel McHale in it who I found funny back in the day. Kyla mentioned a Gwenyth Paltrow quote where she said, "I wish you well" after winning a lawsuit against her in a Park City skiing accident. I remember following this story because it was in Park City. I liked how Paltrow didn't just pay off the guy so she didn't have to deal with it but stood up for herself. Overall, I thought this podcast had some interesting moments and some moments not as interesting. I give it 3/5. One point off for profanity and one point off for the not interesting moments.

Kill Tony Review

This is my 44th podcast. It is currently ranked number 36. This was the most horrendous podcast. This podcast was an alleged comedy show in front of an audience. It was crude and not funny at all. "Comedians" would have sixty seconds to tell their unfunny jokes and then it would be followed by an unfunny interview with the unfunny hosts. The audience would have to be drunk to find this entertaining. It reminded me of the Army experiencing how unfunny drunk people are as they tell each other their unfunny jokes. 0/5.

Rotten Mango Review

This is my 43rd podcast. It is currently ranked number 34. The title of this episode was, "Everything Bill & Hillary Said in 8 Hour Long Epstein Deposition Tape." This episode was recorded March 22. This podcast had so much stuff. I was very interested the entire time and thought the host Stephanie Soo was very good at telling a massive amount of information in an engaging way. Mark Middleton, who worked for Bill Clinton allegedly killed himself in 2022 by shooting himself in the chest and hanging himself. The shotgun was found about 30 feet away from him. Pretty suspicious. Middleton dealt with Clinton's donors including Epstein. Epstein's prison guard Googled his name shortly before his death and she had some deposits to her bank account flagged for being suspicious. Soo mentions that Hillary keeps telling them to ask Bill with the questions about Epstein. Bill Clinton was asked if he had ever lied under oath during a deposition and he said no even though it is well documented that he lied under oath about Monica Lewinsky. Bill said he met Epstein through Larry Summers who told him Epstein gave Harvard $10 million toward brain research and Clinton was trying to raise money for the Clinton Foundation. Trump's Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick publicly stated that he had cut of Epstein in 2015 for being creepy but then the Epstein files show them meeting together after that. Soo criticizes Clinton for saying that he thought the young girls on Epstein's plane were flight attendants. Soo did not find that believable. Virginia Dufres, an Epstein victim who has since committed suicide wrote in her diary Bill Clinton was on the island two times with two girls. Bill Clinton denied this and asked if she said that in her book. The questioner didn't know about the book. Clinton said I think she ultimately reached a different conclusion although I had no contact with her. Soo thought this was suspicious and I agree. Saying he had no contact with her out of nowhere makes it sound like he really did and got her to change what she said in her diary to what she said in her book. She could easily have been threatened with lawsuits about her book. Virginia Dufres also said Bill Clinton told Vanity Fair not to write articles about his good friend Jeffrey Epstein. Soo then talks about Trump in the Epstein files. A 13 year old accused Donald Trump of rape. She goes over some other rape allegations against Trump. The FBI illegally withheld FBI interviews with a Trump accuser. I listened to this podcast a week ago while driving a car so my summary is rough. But I do know I really liked this podcast because it was very informative, entertaining, and this is an important issue. Soo did an excellent job. In all the podcasts I have listened to this year I don't think I have heard someone give so much information in an understandable way. She does use some profanity, so unfortunately per my rules I do have to minus one point for that. I give this podcast 4/5 though if there were a time I regret making me minus points for profanity it would be this one as this podcast was really good.

The Toast Review

This is my 42nd podcast. It is currently ranked number 27. The episode I listened to was titled, "Dishin' With Lish with Ben Soffer." It was recorded March 23. One of the hosts here was the husband of the regular host because she was out sick. They talked about Justin Timberlake's video of him getting a DWI. I am not a fan of hearing about all the bad stuff celebrities do. If someone is running for office or is in office, I think it is important, but for a celebrity, it's none of my business. That being said, these guys were way too soft on Justin Timberlake and made it sound like a DWI is not a big deal. The guy said something about how Justin Timberlake had no excuse because he has the money to get a driver, but a regular person may be stranded and need to drive to get home. Horrible thing to say on a podcast. First of all drinking is dumb, but if you do drink, you should have a plan to get home. You don't just get magically stranded. I get that Justin Timberlake has more of a means to easily get a driver, but it is dangerous to tell a large number of listeners that it's not that big of a deal if you drive drunk if you need to get home. Other thing that was annoying was just talking about the "Mormon Wives" show as that show bothers me even though I have never seen it. I am going to give this podcast 1/5. Low score for talking too much boring celebrity gossip and the bad takes on DWIs.