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I remember back in my college days, when I was an Resident Assistant (an unfortunate time for everyone involved), there was a group discussion about how words can hurt.  A speaker during group training brought up how the root of the word sarcasm was sarco, which meant something like "to rend flesh."  My response was to hold back a snort of disbelief at the smug morality of the speaker.

Stop being sarcastic?  Yeah, that'll work.

But you know what?  Maybe it's good to depart from caustic humor for a while.  There are times when you want to see people being cut down in a humorous, sporting way and there are times when you want to seek out a different sense of humor.  A sense of humor where you can get away from the harshness of life, and feel actual delight for some word play or clever set up.  Perhaps there's a place that welcomes this style of humor, where the wind blows through the orchards and the jokes are at no one's expense.

Won't you join me for the News from Lake Woebegon?

Whatta segue!      

Relevant Links:
Main Site!
Download from iTunes Here!
Store!
Prairie Home Companion Site!
Twitter!

Content Rating:  As Clean as a mason jar ready for canning season, which had better be really, really clean so as to prevent any food-borne illnesses.


Average Episode Length:  Ten episodes gives me an average time of 13 minutes.


A selection from the ever-popular A Prairie Home Companion, the News from Lake Woebegon features slice-of-life tales from the fictional town of Lake Woebegon, MI where,

All the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.

A listening experience this fine requires atmosphere.  Follow these simple steps to achieve the best possible setting to listen to the News from Lake Woebegon:

1. Procure an L.L. Bean winter catalog.  Close your eyes, open the catalog to a random page, and point to a spot on the page.  Open your eyes and order whatever your finger has landed on (free monogram optional).  If you have managed to select some sort of fishing vest, then you're on the right track!  Wait for it to ship to your home, then don the garment.  Make conversation with your pets about the weather.  
2. You're going to want a high level of Americana, so feel free to go to Hobby Lobby and grab a bunch of crap made in China that features the American flag.  Bake a few blueberry pies (home made crust! no cheats!) and allow them to cool on your windowsill.  Arrange the Americana accoutrements* around your chair, and gently mash the pies on either side of your head for full immersion.
3. Procure some lutefisk.  Vomit.  Profusely. 
4. Do your best impersonation of a Minnesota accent, which is frikken adorable:

Okay, I think we're in the proper head space for this.  

Like so many things that grown-ups try to interest you in, this was a huge disappointment.

Release Schedule:  Weekly, with the release on Monday (barring holiday weekends, according to their site).


Music:  Nah.

This is a podcast of storytelling.  Where host Garrison Keillor begins in his topics are far from where he ends, and the rambling path he travels is what has drawn listeners since...

-wait, seriously?  A Prairie Home Companion has been around since the 70s?  Well done!

I'm not exactly sure what to say about this podcast.  It revolves around the lives of imaginary people in an imaginary town.  There are hot dishes, ice fishing, high school graduations, funerals, and lives that start and end within the confines of this make-believe world.  Most of it is humorous, some of it is poignant, and all of it is pretty darn charming. 

Garrison Keillor is able to give you the world of Lake Woebegon in a brown paper-wrapped parcel, with a handwritten note wishing you a good day.  It feels like, hell, maybe like if Cracker Barrel restaurants weren't carefully calculated amalgams of tin advertising signs, and something real?  In some way he has managed to capture the spirit of the small town life everyone thinks of, but no one has actually lived.  


Unintentionally Good Part: I like how the audience cheers at the beginning of the segment.  It is fun to hear their excitement at the arrival of what they've been waiting for.

Unintentionally Bad Part:  I cannot bear to listen to more than 2 episodes in a 48 hour period.  As News from Lake Woebegon is a small part of a larger show, it is packed to the brim with its own charm.  This can quickly become saccharine and grating if it is listened to for long periods of time, so sprinkle in into your week and enjoy it as it should be. 


Unrelated rating:  One ham-salad sandwich out of a dozen deviled eggs. 

*I spelled that right on the first try.  HA!  Go me.

 Beer, pop culture trivia, and those questionable bowls of Chex mix that you want to snack from, but you're not sure if the people you're sharing with washed their hands after going to the bathroom.  From what I've heard from my more socially outgoing associates, Pub Quiz Nights are a thing!  You answer questions about episodes of Friends and receive laurels and maybe free alcohol! 

And now you can experience all that Saturday night fun in the comfort of your headphones and without the need to call a cab.  It's Ask Me Another!

Relevant Links:
Ask Me Another Main Site
Ways to download it!
Apparently a list of Pub Quiz Team Names for your perusal!

Behind the scenes, everyone's touching things.
                                                  -Contestant

Content Rating:  Clean, but expect innuendos and such things.

Average Episode Length:  Since there's only one episode, exactly forty-eight minutes and forty-five seconds!

Drinking Game:  Seeing how this is fashioned after pub quiz shows, I'd better come up with something. 

1. Think of those asinine drinking games you used to play in college.
2. Contemplate how you now have a mortgage and student loans.
3. Just drink as you damn well please.

I'm a ton of fun at parties.  

The games in Ask Me Another are clever and quick, created by Puzzle Gurus John Chaneski, Art Chung  and actor/writer Will Hines.  Host Ophira Eisenberg sets a fast pace as the questions and answers are flung about for the audience's amusement.  There are plenty of chances for witty banter and bad puns, and the guest contestants are willing to give as good as they get.

Contestants compete in a series of single-round elimination games, where the winner goes on to the final "championship".  The games themselves are super-neat and can include singing the answer, wordplay, haiku and whatever else you can stitch together to make a puzzle. 

There was stuff that worked and stuff that didn’t, but hey, that’s what editing is for. And really, sometimes my favorite moments of these shows are the parts that go wrong. Mistakes are the best! That’s why I make a lot of them! It’s a live audience and actual human contestants, so there’s always plenty of room for strange things to happen.
                                                             -Jonathan Coulton writing about the podcast here

Release Schedule:  I have no idea!  There are 13 episodes for this first season, so they should all be released eventually!  Most likely a weekly release.   A new episode each week, with the release on Friday.

Music:  THEY HAVE JONATHAN COULTON.

So yes, there is music involved.  Coulton sings songs between the puzzles that provide clues to who the secret guest that appears at the end of the show will be.  And sometimes he just sings songs.

Unintentionally Good Part:  This podcast is like Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me but with a higher chance of hijinks.  The host, Puzzle Gurus and Jonathan Coulton can reliably provide the wit, while the puzzles and guest contestants keep things fresh.

Unintentionally Bad Part:  Sometimes the contestants are smarter than I am and figure out the answer before I can. 

Hey!:  Since I started writing this review, there's a new episode on the NPR site!  Let's go listen together, shall we?

Alternate title: Your wacky uncles on the Internet (and they just figured out how to forward chain e-mails).

"Car Talk," a podcast of epic proportions. This show was picked up by NPR in 1987, which makes it long-standing enough to be older than at least half of you reading this review. A long standing NPR staple, "Car Talk" comes from a simpler, more genteel time, when families used to gather 'round the radio to hear tell of other people's broken alternators as Father smoked his pipe and Mother knitted socks.

Or something.

This show is old, yo, and it didn't get that way without maintaining a thoroughly hooked audience. Host to over 2000 call-ins a week, it's time you joined the learned regarding the podcast that is "Car Talk."

Hosted by brothers Tom and Ray Magliozzi, aka "Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers," the show revolves around listeners calling in with car problems. The brothers' collective automobile knowledge is impressive vast and vastly impressive as they deduce each caller's problem to the best of their abilities. Some callers are more educated about their vehicles and are able to explain which part is having trouble or what the symptoms are, many callers are forced to use noises varying on "VRRRUMMPPTPTPTPTPTHHHHBBBB" to describe why their car isn't functioning. Tom and Ray tease, cajole, comfort and inform their callers, give them their best diagnosis about what the problem is and send them on their merry way to the repair shop. In between calls the brothers annoy each other and host segments such as:

Stump the Chump - where previous callers come back to tell whether or not the brothers got the problem right.

The Puzzler - a logic puzzle where listeners can send in the answer for the chance to win a prize.

Whatever They Find Amusing - seriously, they read goofy e-mails aloud, or tell bad jokes.

Relevant Links
Main Site
Wikipedia Page
Shameless Commerce
Donate your car to charity, why not?

Episode Length: Fifty-three to fifty-four minutes.

The back-and-forth between the hosts is charming, their answers are informative, and the production value is awesome. Even if you're not a motor head "Car Talk" deserves at least a chance to tickle your ear buds before you write it off. Who knows, you might even figure out why your car makes that squeaky noise! Many of the calls are interesting and puzzle solvers might enjoy the deductive nature of the show. It is very interesting to listen to the hosts mull over a problem, batting hypothesis back and forth until they can somewhat agree on an answer.

Content Rating: Clean (squeaky). No fear for the children or tender hearts unless you're especially vulnerable to bad jokes.

Drinking Game: If you're fond of alcohol poisoning, drink every time one of the brothers laughs. If you enjoy the company of your liver, perhaps you could fashion a game that revolves around certain caller tropes including the following rules:
+Drink every time a problem involves a belt
+Each time a caller's name is spelled out (two drinks if they spell it incorrectly)
+When you actually recognize a car part they're talking about

Release Schedule: Weekly, every Saturday.

Music: Ye. Gods. "Car Talk," like so many other NPR podcasts, plays musical interludes in between segments. The songs all revolve around cars, with lyrics about broken down heaps and much beloved racing cars and HOLY HELL ARE THEY BAD. I cannot bear the songs played during "Car Talk" and immediately fast-forward past them. Now the intro, which is just a little bluegrass breakdown, I actually like. But the rest of the music? Caustic. Evaluate it for yourself and tell me if I'm right or wrong.

Unintentionally Good Part: The end credits.

Unintentionally Bad Part: This is a podcast about car problems. Every week, this is a podcast about car problems. Truth be told, I'm currently not listening to "Car Talk" due to burnout from listening to car problems every week. The subject material can become repetitive, and there is only so much the brothers' personalities can do to distract from that.

Unrelated Rating:Twenty-three seconds of wheezing laughter.

"From WBEZ Chicago, it's This American Life, distributed by Public Radio International, I'm Ira Glass."

The heretical, the sophisticated and the ridiculous. If a human can or has experienced it, This American Life is willing to explore any situation to find a good story to tell.

Each episode of This American Life centers around a theme and is broken into several different acts that each offer a unique point of view on that week's theme. One week's theme can be entirely devoted to a current event, only for the following week to surround the mystique of comic book culture. Previous themes include: "Classifieds", "Remember Me" and one of my favorites, "Poultry Slam." For each theme, contributions are given in the forms of interviews, short stories, investigative journalism, monologue, stand-up comedy routine or any other imaginable way that a story can be passed through your ears.

The Featured contributors run the gamut from authors such as David Sedaris, comedians including Mike Birbiglia, rabbis, bus drivers, lawyers, coaches, victims, day-dreamers and that girl you lived next to when you were in elementary school. Some contributors are erudite experts in their field, quite a few are hilarious, many are touching, all are genuine. They tell their story the way they want it to be heard, and the interpretation is left up to the listeners. When the same story is told from various points of view it becomes a strange game to try and decipher who, if anyone, is speaking the truth.

What I consider to be This American Life's most important value is its authenticity. This podcast is simply life presented in a more interesting format. The stories are incredibly engaging; as I listen at my cubical at work, I have been forced to perform the awkward and painful "silent laugh maneuver," I have clenched my iPod in anger, shaking it as I formed retorts in my mind and I have also probably made a lot of strange faces in reaction to This American Life which have disturbed my co-workers a great deal and I really should explain but then it may be easier to just remain "that girl with the headphones" rather than "that girl with the headphones who keeps talking about pods."

I believe you will also enjoy the dulcet tones of Ira Glass, host of This American Life. However, be aware that if a beloved author is a featured guest, you may be shocked by how they actually sound (I'm looking at you, David Sedaris). Be aware that your internal narrator's voice may be changed forever.

Relevant Links:
Download the Podcast here
Main website
Wikipedia Page
Store and Donation pages (you just try to ignore the pleas of Ira Glass during pledge drives, ain't gonna work)

Content Rating: Generally safe for work and all audiences with a caveat: many of the topics discussed (including religion, abortion, death, sexuality) may be considered explicit by some listeners. Also, there may be some swear words tucked into a story.

Average Episode Length: One hour.

Drinking Game: None yet invented.

Release Schedule: A new podcast is available every Monday. They do not offer an accessible archive, but previous podcasts can be purchased at their store.

Music: Non-intrusive background sound and interludes between acts, usually with some relevance to the episode's theme. I have no memory of any "bad" music occurring, and many songs played on This American Life will eventually find their way into my mp3 collection.

Unintentionally Good Part: The feeling you get from listening to NPR.

Unintentionally Bad Part: The feeling you get from listening to NPR.

How to find your NPR name:
"Take your middle initial and insert it somewhere into your first name. Then add on the smallest foreign town you've ever visited as your last name." - Jon Friedman [Originally found here].

Also: I do realize that This American Life's original format is a radio show, but hey, this is a podcast blog. So shut up.