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Before I begin this review, let me draw your attention to one of the most important creative creations that human kind has ever created.

HALO.

Not just any Halo, but the Haloz. You've either played through one of its many iterations, been forced to watch as other people have played it or you are merely taking a break from playing it right now to rehydrate from screaming obscenities into your headset before you go back to playing it.

Some people have taken their fervor for this game to amazing heights, going so far as to recreate Master Chief's armor. A few have permanently marred themselves to show their devotion. At least one couple even got married by Master Chief.

Some people celebrate Halo as a part of their life. Some people build an empire on it. These some people be Rooster Teeth. Then these some people made a thing, which is also a podcast, which it called that Drunk Tank.
These some sentences no work too good. Halp!

Relevant Links:
Twitter
Main Site
Store!
Podcast!

After establishing themselves as the gods of machinima (a word that Firefox is unfamiliar with) they spread their digitally rendered wings and now they're all over the place with live action shorts, a comic based on their day-to-day hijinks, and forums just to name a few of their endeavors. Good thing they made this podcast because, seriously, what a bunch of slackers.

Burnie: "Have you ever in your life, Gus, ever had to figure out what the area under a parabola is?"
Gus: "No."
Burnie: "Has that come up once?"
Gus: "No, never."
Burnie: "So they're literally teaching us things that we don't need to know.
Gus: "Nope, no need for that."
Burnie: "Volume of a cylinder? Ever come up?"
Gus: "Uh-once. Once. And not too long ago."
Burnie: "What for, condoms?"

The Drunk Tank podcast consists of the main pillars of the Rooster Teeth Productions crew talking. And talking. And then yelling at each other before they go back to just talking. Burnie Burns, Matt Hullum, Joel Heyman, Geoff Ramsey, Griffon Ramsey and Gustavo Sorola serve as the main hosts. Occasionally an intern is thrown into the mix to give Gus someone to yell at. Discussion ranges from video games, recounting stories from life, movies, alcohol and anything else that comes to mind.

Drunk Tank broaches such topics as:

• Poisonous spiders and the recognition of them
• Those Lava Cake things you can get from Dominos
• Removing holy cards that had been buried in your yard
• Airlines and flying habits
  

Content Rating: Explicit. Swear words just flyin' around all over the place.

Average Episode Length: My highly scientific method of "squinting at iTunes" reveals that the average length is around an hour. There is a week long series of shorter episodes, so let's just exclude those shall we?

Drinking Game: It is a podcast called Drunk Tank. I trust you can come up with something, people.

Release Schedule: Weekly, with a new episode released each Wednesday! A delightful mid-week treat.

Music: This is where it gets interesting. What began as a contest to select a permanent theme song has morphed into a weekly showcase of fan-made opening songs. Some of the songs are exquisite and hilarious (see episodes 11, 34, 35 and 81) and many many many many many many songs are so bad I have to turn the volume all the way down until they're over. I'm always loathe to express my dislike of fan-created content, but honestly! There is a massive distance between "It has been confirmed by outside sources that I am capable of singing" and "A microphone came with my computer." I'm also throwing out this caveat: there is amateur rapping. Consider yourself warned.

Unintentionally Good Part: This podcast falls under the subcategory of "friends talking to each other" which means that there will be parts when no host can talk because they are paralyzed with laughter. It is safe to assume that you will suffer the same fate as well, so try to make sure you're sitting on the floor if you feel an impending rofl fit.

Unintentionally Bad Part: Other than the listener submitted opening songs? This podcast is banter, banter, banter and occasionally the topic will fall onto something you have absolutely NO interest in whatsoever. And then it will remain there for forty minutes.

"You're listening to Skeptoid. I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com"

Do you crave information? Information that may very well blow your mind????

Awesome. Let's take a moment to prepare ourselves, shall we?

First, go into the kitchen and get some tinfoil. If you don't have any than just print out the following picture five or six times and tape it together:



Still with me? Now, take the foil and form it into a hat. According to the eHow.com instructions (yes this is a real thing), "It is very important for the shiny side of the aluminum foil to be showing when the hat is complete to make sure it is effective against alien rays or mind control signals."

Relevant Links:
Main Site
Subscribe Here
Wikipedia Link
Donate Here - Donations for Skeptoid are nifty. There are micro payments starting at as little as $3.99 (US) a year to help fun the podcast, or your can donate as much or as little as you want. Not only do you support a podcast you enjoy and help to keep it ad-free, but you get a free DVD including the movie Here Be Dragons: An Introduction to Critical Thinking. The DVD is even autographed!

The Skeptoid podcast modus operandi is this: apply critical thinking to information presented to the public to decide whether or not a claim can be considered valid. This isn't just someone picking apart obvious crackpot theories or setting up pseudoscience straw men to shred so that he can reference the scientific method and prance off to his forums to be praised. Dunning does his best to separate the truth from the lies from the half-lies from the "yeah, no way" in each topic he discusses.

Content Rating: Clean. Depending on what particular conspiracy theory, poorly researched medical claims or misunderstood scientific process you hold to there is a possibility that any given episode could send you into a frothing rage. So...that makes the rating either Clean or Rage Inducing.

Dunning himself is not afraid of critique; he occasionally posts a podcast with a title along the lines of "Things I'm Wrong About", where he posts corrections for any erroneous facts he may have made in previous episodes.

The language used in Skeptoid makes the scientific (and depending on the subject, "scientific") ideas proposed avaliable to young adults and laymen alike without being insulting. This is not a podcast that exists just to belittle and berate those who practice things such as Aura Photography or The Secret. Brian Dunning simply lays a topic out and examines it with a critical eye, guiding the listener's mind to each flaw and erroneous fact like an Antiques Road Show host revealing to a Midwestern retiree that their beloved heirloom is, in fact, made out of particle board.

Average Episode Length: Twelve minutes-ish.

Release Schedule: Weekly, with a new episode released every Tuesday.

Music: There is music occasionally, in the form of background noise. Music also has a high level of occurrence when the host is being a bit of a smart ass highlighting or referencing a particularly far-fetched quote or belief.

"Belief that a report is customized for us tends to improve our perception of the report's accuracy. I notice this right away when I read Isabel Myers description for my own personality type, ISTJ, the Duty Fulfiller: "Practical, matter-of-fact, realistic, and responsible." Basically it's a nice way to say "Dry, boring, and punctual," which hits my nail pretty squarely on the head.

Drinking Game: Go to the sites supporting the theories that Skeptoid debunks. Read the forums there and drink. Heavily.

Unintentionally Good Part: I was thoroughly delighted to find that the host sings a little song for his 200th episode. Surely, some confused as-of-yet-undiscovered alien civilization culture somewhere must consider it a masterpiece.

Unintentionally Bad Part: After writing this review the word skeptic has lost all meaning to me. Now it looks like I'm spelling it wrong.

Gold Star!: Each episode of the podcast is not only listed on the site, but has a full transcript! Most excellent for people who like skepticism, but may not be able to access podcasts due to technical or hearing difficulties.

Alternate Titles:
Two Guys Read Wikipedia
Factoids: the Gathering
LMGTFY

This podcast is...wait for it...two guys, explaining how a process, social activity, natural event or other subject...works. This should not surprise any of us as the podcast is an offshoot of How Stuff Works, a site where you can learn about...

wait for it...

how nearly anything works. Uncanny, right? It's like they did this on purpose!

Ever wanted to know how deja vu works? Curious if there are dead bodies on Mt. Everest? Pondering the ethical dilemma of exorcisms? Want the low-down on habeus corpus? If you want any information of dubious relevancy related to you via two guys yakking, than SYSK comes highly recommended.

For an example, let's take a look at the erudite discussion surrounding saunas.

Josh: Kind of that Roman, Dionysian, orgiastic vibe in going on in the saunas was one of the reasons they were eradicated by Europe because in the early 16th century Europe got a little...tense.
Chuck: Yeah, the Protestant Reformation just ruined everything.
Josh: They were kind of like, "You can't do that! You put a hat with a buckle on right now!"
Chuck: "Yeah, you can't do that either! Or that! Or that! Or that! Get out of that sauna!"
Josh: "Start crying! Right now!"

Relevant Links:
Main Site
Download Episodes through iTunes!
Blog Entries!
SYSK Twitter Feed
Wikipedia Entry
Podcast.com Site

Episode Length: A sample size of 20 episodes gives me an average length of 35 minutes. This is interesting because if you look at the entire library of episodes, the time increase is huge. Early episodes are far, far shorter at about 5 minutes each, where the most recent episode at the time of this review weighs in at a heft 44 minutes and 48 seconds. This type of variation could prove beneficial for listeners! Need a long episode? Need a quick, in-between errands episode? SYSK has got you covered.

Release Schedule: Bi-weekly. The perfect schedule for a voracious listener. Also the perfect schedule for a less-frequent listener, because it's not like the episodes expire or anything.

Music: That one song that everyone who uses GarageBand uses in their podcasts. That, and sound effects from either Wheel of Fortune or The Price is Right.

Content Rating: Clean. The hosts might sneak in a few potty-humor jokes every now and then, but typically OK for all audiences. You can easily tell if the content is for you based on episode titles.

Unintentionally Good Part: The "peanut-gallery" style discussion about each topic. The hosts are more than willing to lend their own personal opinions and stories about whatever topic they're talking about and do so frequently.

Unintentionally Bad Part: The scholarly research about each topic is...dubious, at best. This is not a podcast you want to cite on your research paper. I haven't been able to unearth their research methods for each topic but I'm assuming it revolves around the use of an Internet search engine and...that's pretty much it. But I might be wrong! They might employ several interns who jobs involve cross-referencing articles! I doubt it though.

Drinking Game: Drink each time the hosts address each other by name.

Unrelated Rating: Five out of five correct answers on a pop quiz. A+ and a smiley face.

...oh crap.

Greetings, gentle reader! Turns out July was a hell of a month, but who cares? Not you!

Content coming...SOON(ish).

"This is Writing Excuses! Fifteen minutes long because you're in a hurry and we're not that smart!"

Out here in the vast wilderness of the Internets an intrepid browser could probably discover an infinite amount of professional advice on any given topic. Naturally, much of the advice is sarcastically quotation-marked "professional" at best, and you can only filter out so many of the crazies by analyzing whether or not it looks like they used Geocities-izer to make their site before you stumble across someone that has the pretense of actual knowledge.

So, gentle listener, how does one divine true and authentic information from the Intertrons in a safe and timely manner, without running the risk of clicking on a site that once seen, cannot be unseen?

First you read my reviews. And then you go listen to Writing Excuses.

Hosted by bonafide authors Brandon Sanderson and Dan Wells along with verifiable web-comic creator Howard Tayler, this podcasts is a veritable font of useful information for writers. A quick-fix of advice and opinion from the viewpoints of established authors who are willing to share their experience in podcast form. I believe the audience intended for this podcast is new or unpublished authors, but I think a writer of any level could gain some usefulness information out of Writing Excuses.

Relevant Links:
Main Site
...honestly, the main site is all you need. Each host has links to their own blogs, you can find the iTunes and RSS feeds right on the front page.

And why not, here's the Wordle you get for the Writing Excuses website:

Can't say they're not consistent when it comes to mentioning their sponsor.

Episode Length: Fifteen minutes on average. Occasionally longer, depending on how verbose the hosts are feeling about a particular topic.

Release Schedule: A new episode is released every Sunday.

Each episode focuses on one particular topic that relates to writing in some way. Example topics from previous episodes are:

The Anti-Mary Sue episode
Trimming
How to Write Without Twists
Plot-vs. Character-driven Fiction

Look at those topics! They're positively brimming with...topicability.

Each host in turn will share their ideas and experiences, and do their best to show how their information can be utilized by the listener. Their approach is friendly and welcoming; this is the kind of podcast that, could it be worn, would be your favorite hoodie from college. Brandon, Dan and Howard work together to host the majority of the episodes, but there are frequent guest hosts who are in turn harnessed to give a fresh view.

The hosts will touch on both the creative and business ends of writing, which will be much appreciated by aspiring authors. It is not enough to know how to write a story, or even how to edit it and make it presentable to editors, but how, where, when to submit, how to approach editors and publishing houses, what to expect after you actually write something! It is refreshing to see a creative task explained and examined with reason.

Content Rating: Clean. They may occasionally drop a very tame swear word. Or mention monkey poo.

Unintentionally Good Part: Writing Excuses Episode 632. Trust me.

Unintentionally Bad Part: This podcast is niche-niche-nichy. Even for aspiring authors, the advice generally pertains to only the science fiction/fantasy genres, so this podcast will attract only a very specific audience.

Drinking Game: Have a brass monkey every time they use a monkey as a plot device in their writing prompt.

Writing Prompt: A secret organization has implanted a device into your head that records your every thought for a live-steaming podcast. Go!

Stories! Sarcasm! SCIENCE!

This podcast comes highly recommended to people who have:

• Memorized the theme song for "Bill Nye the Science Guy."
• Lost five hours to a NOVA marathon on PBS.
• Injured themselves in a poorly thought-out "experiment" involving homemade napalm and/or that beehive in your back yard.

If you don't fall into the above categories but enjoy interesting stories that focus on scientific research and discoveries, than you'll probably like it too.

Relevant Links:
Main Site
Donations
Wikipedia Page
FAQ Page

Episode Length: Full episodes average about an hours, while the "Shorts" are about fifteen to twenty minutes.

I'm going to separate this review into two parts.

First: The Content

Hosts Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich lead a narrative focused on a single theme. One or several stories might be used to illustrate various viewpoints. If Radiolab were an section in your newspaper it would be that "wacky world" section filled with stories about goldfishes that save their owners from house fires. Here's a list of five randomly chosen topics from my episode list:

1 Famous Tumors
2 Stochasticity
3 Musical Language
4 Yellow Fluff and Other Curious Encounters
5 Sperm

See? Thoroughly variated through subject matter, and it features a decent back catalog of episodes for listeners of any taste to browse. The wikipedia page uses the phrase "thought experiment" describe this podcast, and I feel that's accurate. The subject is pulled and kneaded like clay, bending here for an interview, there for a research article, until the listener can shape it into something recognizable, or continue beyond the podcast with their own work. Fact finders and myth hunters would probably like this series a lot. The episodes provide good explanations for those who just want to listen and great jumping-off points for those who love to search out more information.

Content Rating: Clean. You will, as with so many things, have to decide if the subject matter is within your comfort limits. But y'know, no potty mouthings, so it should be safe for kids or students.

Second: The Production

The blips, squeals, murmurs and honks that permeate every episode provide nothing more than distraction from the main story being told. I understand that these sound effects are intended as emphasis, but they are so overdone that I have been forced to turn off episodes and leave them unfinished. Without fail each episode will have a streak of droning, nonsensical noise that have me digging my nails into my desk within seconds. In the episode Deception (rebroadcast on 6/1/2010) there is over a minute long stretch of disjointed electric guitar in the middle of the episode!

I'm not kidding. Go listen here from minute 46:11 to 47:14.

What purpose does that serve? I would prefer silence compared to the aural claustrophobia their producers are determined to make me experience. This podcast hits my interests, I want to listen, but because of these sound effects I feel the constant urge to abandon Radiolab for anything else.

Drinking Game: Take a drink every time one host speaks the other host's name.

Release Schedule: A new podcast is released every two weeks, according to the main site.

Unintentionally Good Part: Oh I am fond of inter-host bickering, and this podcast supplies it in delightful bushels.

Unintentionally Bad Part: Please see above review about the bleeps and boops.

I know I just took all the time to write thing here thing, but please, please disregard what I dislike about the Radiolab podcast and check it out for yourself. This is a really brilliant work, and even if I have issues with it, you need to experience it for yourself before you can really decide whether you like it or not. If I find the background effects annoying then that is my personal opinion, and not a flaw of the podcast. You might like 'em! You might like 'em up and down! And there's no risk trying it out! No payments, you can delete if you don't like it, you can keep it if you don't! SO GET TO IT!

Unrelated Rating: Three and One Half Nye per cubic meter of Science Guy.

Wizards of the Coast finally granted us the mercy of a single spot on their site
that holds all of the Penny Arcade Podcasts.

Even better: there is a shiny new series of podcasts in which Jerry Holkins (aka Tycho Brahe) DMs a jaunt through the new Dark Sun setting. Jerry describes the setting thusly:

"I guess it's pre-apocalyptic, it's as though the apocalypse happened in the future, but you're in the past after time had looped. I would say that's the right description."

Did you get any of that? I did. I think. Anyways, the newest series is as hysterical as the last, so hop to it and get to downloading!