Enough with the Podcasts, Already

Happy Feast Day of Saint Francis of Assisi!

It’s been a bit of a rough week, not least because my computer couldn’t decide if it needed to update (and thus render itself unusable) or not for a few days (rendering itself unusable). 

There’s an expected free expansion of Assassin’s Creed: Mirage coming soon, which would be fun after finishing up God of War. If it doesn’t come soon enough, we’re doing LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.

Might do a Lindsey Stirling concert in November? Hashing things out.

Enough with the Podcasts, Already

Alright, I should probably explain that title, shouldn’t I?

To start, I don’t mean fiction podcasts. Things like Night Vale, which have basically used the podcast format to do the radio show for the Internet Age? Yeah, I’ve got no beef with you. You can stay.

In the last few years, it seems as if podcasts, as a medium, have exploded. Everyone and their mother has a podcast. Everyone. It’s been a weird ride as a non-podcast person. Yeah, I occasionally catch the Catholic Talk Show on YouTube, or episodes of “Stuff You Missed in History”. But I’m not a regular listener, making it come across as just plain weird. Look, it got bad enough that campaign strategists for presidential candidates last year were trying to set up interviews on supposedly insanely popular podcasts that “everyone’s listening to” and no one has ever mentioned to me in my life.

“Everyone’s listening to [such-and-such] podcast!”

“95% of millennial women listen to the [this-or-that] podcast!”

“97% of men say they get their opinions from [doohickey] podcast!”

Who are these people you are talking to? What are you fudging talking about?

[rubs forehead]

I probably sound like an old man shouting at a cloud right now, and I get that people are probably not going to talk to me about their socio-political opinions picked up from a podcast because I don’t generally talk to people about that kind of thing. But seriously? Are these all really so popular? And why now? Podcasts aren’t a brand new art form. I did a presentation on them in undergrad over a decade ago, and they weren’t brand new then, either, though people were less familiar with them.

And I made my professor happy by knowing what Rifftrax was, because he was a fan!

It’s a little strange to see other forms of media trying to catch onto the trend. Only Murders in the Building is fun at all, but you can tell that the makers just kind of went wild about the idea of a podcast, because it’s pretty difficult to figure out the logistics of how the main characters actually release this podcast, and different characters talk about starting their own as if they’re all destined to be big. Although that could be like how people in real life all think that their ideas are going to be the Next Big Thing? Maybe I’m reading too much into it.

Look, it’s a free country (in theory), and you should be able to broadcast what you want and listen to what you want, for the most part. I get it. But we’re in this weird space where we’re placing a lot of value on this one form of entertainment, as if that’s where we should be getting our news and our ideas of world events. And most of these really big ones are being hosted by randos! 

Now for something like Stuff You Missed in History, where a ton of research goes in, and they’re not taking deliberate political stances or telling you to inject yourself with horse de-wormer, that’s fine, go for it. But it’s kind of wild that people are going to podcasts as THE big way to reach people, and people are lapping up podcasts as if they are THE way to get information about the world. 

Like, okay, I know trust in established institutions is at an all-time low, so plenty of people out there are deciding to trust randos on the Internet because they’re not experts or certified in any official way. But you know what? That’s still dumb as rocks. I realize that this is probably going to reach no one, and it’s an extended rant about how much I hate seeing headlines about famous and influential podcasters that I’ve never heard of.

The question still stands, though! Why are people putting so much trust in podcasts? Why are people even getting into podcasts right now instead of any other form of entertainment? Why are political campaign managers under the serious impression that getting on this or that podcast is the way to win voters?

Quit it! Quit freaking out over podcasts! Your funky little history podcasts or radio shows or fun facts or whatever, those are fine, but I desperately ask that people not put their stock in news podcasts, or interview podcasts, or think that random guys who speak well are a substitute for people who know what they’re talking about.

That’s just dumb.

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