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Reader, I have a confession to make before we get into this review.  I'm not particularly proud about this, but here at ViddyViddy I try to maintain the sense of dignity and transparent business practices that brought you to these podcast reviews in the first place, so here it is:

I gave up on listening to a good podcast.

Gave up!  I found a good, strong podcast and I tried to listen to it and then it made my brain cramp up and I felt like something in the internal workings of my brain snapped and now I can't write in cursive anymore.  Read the mission statement from their website while I go lie down in a dimly lit room.

The Partially Examined Life is a philosophy podcast by some guys who were at one point set on doing philosophy for a living but then thought better of it. Each episode, we pick a text and chat about it with some balance between insight and flippancy. You don't have to know any philosophy, or even to have read the text we're talking about to (mostly) follow and (hopefully) enjoy the discussion.

Relevant Links:
Main Site!
Get the podcast and check out archives here!  You can subscribe via the handy-dandy buttons on the top-right side of the page.
Shop/Donate
Twitter!
Comments!

Content Rating:  Explicit.  Ye be warned.

Average Episode Length:  About an hour or two.  Looks like most episodes will give you about an hour and forty-five minutes of content. 

Drinking Game Song:

The sign is divided between the signifier and the signified, and the signified is actually a concept or an idea.  So the signifier signifies the signified but it's not signifying or referring to a real object in the world it's actually referring to an idea or a concept.  

That would be the point where I started smelling burnt toast.   

But I still want to share this podcast with you, because holy-moly a group of people are making an effort to make philosophy accessible!  That's amazing!  I love this podcast, and when I have the proper time I plan to actually sit and listen to it, pausing at times to let my brain cool down. 

Release Schedule:  Looks like there is a new episode twice a month. 


Unintentionally Good Part:  Dude, a group of people have put forth the effort to make philosophy accessible.  And they make intermittent jokes about what they're talking about!

Unintentionally Bad Part:  Takes my full attention to listen to this podcast.  I prefer to be able to listen to a podcast during my daily tasks, and ya just can't, ya just can't I tells ya!

Unrelated rating:

I've said it before, and I'll say it again:  writers love doing anything except writing.  Perhaps they'll organize the office and research new, carbon-neutral brands of coffee in preparation for writing!  As they sit down to open their word processing program they'll stumble upon Reddit for just a few minutes that stretch into hours.  Maybe they'll even pick up a book that is about writing, and read that instead of making their word count grow.

And I'm here to help those writers push away their unfinished novel for a few more days.  Allow me to present for your reading (non-writing) pleasure, the Nerdist Writer's Panel podcast.

Relevant Links:
Main site!
Nerdist page to listen to the podcast!
Twitter!

"We have to go back to high school."
"I'd rather not."

Ben Blacker, your host and guide to the world of professional writing, invites you to listen in to his chats with creators as they discuss the greater world of writing.  There is a wide bevvy of writers to choose from with Writers Panel:  novelists, comic writers, television and movie script writers, and all manner of those who earn cash by putting words to page.  The variety brings a unique level of awesome to this podcast because just as a writer needs to read outside the genre they write in, listening to the methods of different kinds of writers can also be very helpful.   

Content Rating:  Explicit, and tagged as such in iTunes.

Average Episode Length:  A glance askance shows about one hour and fifteen minutes.  Not bad at all!  It feels like the right length for the interviews.

Drinking Game:  Pick a book you had to read in high school and either base a drink off of that, or make one mentioned in the book.  Easy mode:  grab The Great Gatsby or The Sun Also Rises. 

Release Schedule:  An episode is released once a week, typically early in the week. 

Music: There is an opening song.  We'll get to it in a minute.   

Robert Kirkman!  John Scalzi!  Marlon Wayans!  There are dozens of people you will most likely recognize that have been interviewed on Nerdist Writer's Panel.  It is a practical cornucopia of interviews.  Blacker's interviewing method lets the writers wander in and around topics, so while you do get sage advice about writing you're also sure to hear some funny personal stories.  Nerdist Writer's Panel provides great bang for your podcasting buck, if you're willing to spend said buck listening to writers. 

And let's just assume that you are.  

Unintentionally Good Part:  I like when it is in front on an audience.  There is something charming about hearing the soft laughter of the crowd in the background.

Unintentionally Bad Part:  I dislike the opening song.  I appreciate the effort that goes into creating a song just for a podcast, but it's a race to fast forward past it each time the podcast starts up.  Sorry!  I hate poo-pooing creative efforts!  If it was meant to be an ironic presentation, then I missed the point.

Unrelated rating:  Two grammer errors and mispellings out of 3 to be at.

In a surprising turn of events, dear reader, I don't just spend the whole of my life listening to podcasts.  Sometimes I pretend I'm a writer!  And what's the best way to pretend to be a writer?

Wait, what do you mean 'by writing'?  Oh reader, you so crazy.

No!  You spend your time thinking about writing!  That's the ticket!  At least two hours each day are spent visualizing an increasing word count, which typically leaves me so exhausted that I spend the rest of the day watching Netflix.  When I can muster the energy I also do things like find podcasts that features two authors, who are friends, talking about pretty much whatever comes into their heads.  Sometimes they even mention writing.  Welcome to Lunch Box, featuring Ed and John. 

LUNCH BOX is an episodic conversation about coarse dining, literature,
cultural amusements, and escaped zoo animals.

Relevant Links:
Main Site!
RSS Feed!
Ed Skoog's website, featuring the best WordPress background I have ever seen.
J. Robert Lennon's website

Hosts Ed Skoog and John Lennon have pulled up a third chair to the two-top table they've been sharing and invite you to sit down and listen in to their chats.  These two gentlemen wish to relate to you the trials and tribulations of their day to day lives as authors, and will make sure to take plenty of tangents along the way. 

Here are some things they've written that aren't podcasts!





[For those of you that Adblock my site and can't see the links:  you're all bastards.]

Content Rating:  Cleaner than some?  From what I've listened to there isn't a massive amount of swearing, but I guess they could talk about butts and that might offend your delicate ears.

Average Episode Length:  An hour with a few extra minutes sprinkled on top, just like grandma used to make. 

 Bonobos hate Jane Austen. 

Drinking Game:  Find one of the food items that are invariably discussed by the hosts.  Then go get a beer and drink that while you eat the food and listen to the podcast again.

Release Schedule:  According to the release dates on iTunes the episodes are released sporadically, usually within two-three weeks of that last.

Ed:  I just changed the baby.
John: Into what?

Music:  What might be the best podcast theme song I have ever heard.  It fits the feel of the podcast perfectly, it's quick, it's adorable, and it has the podcast's title in it.  Boom, all ya need. 

John:  What do the Scotts call mashed potatoes and mashed turnips?   Tatties and tweeps, or something like that, tatties and neeps.  Neeps and tatties!

Ed:  Is that true?

John:  Yeah, neeps and tatties with haggis.

Ed:  Is that true or is that just what they told you?

John:  No, it's actually printed on menus!

Ed:  You didn't ask a lot of questions and they just said this to dismiss you.

John:  They have special menus printed for the American to seem more regional.

What would come to mind if I told you that I have discovered a podcast that will not only help you actuate your high-level functionality, but also ensure that you're "actioning your deliverables" for a future-proof pathfinder project?

Hey, you're cool, right?  Of course you are, just look at you, brimming with coolness (I like that shirt, good color on you).

So that means you like cool things, right?  Naturally.  Your instinctive good tastes lead you to coolness like a lightning bolt to a tragically unconcerned golfer.

Well it just so happens that I have a cool thing that you should take a look at.  It's not really my cool thing, but it was made by cool people who subsequently want to share their coolness with other cool people.

Like you.

It's a documentary (hang on, I'm getting to the cool part) about comics.  Trust me on this one.

Check out their cool video, which is also totally sweet:



Those cool people made the documentary and now it is up to cool people like me and you (you are cool, right?) to help them get the money they need to properly finish it and make it the epitome of cool.  We're not talking star-swipes left here, kids.  This documentary will be so cool, you'll be able to take your DVD of it (which you can get when you back this project with $25 or more) tap it on a broken jukebox and make it work.

That is, if you're cool.  You're cool, right?

Kickstarter Page.  Drop a few bucks, make something cool happen, get cool stuff in return.

"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!

This beast is going to be about podcast reviews from now on.