So I listened to two relatively related—content wise—podcasts: NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour and Combat Jack's The Read. The latter of which I listen to weekly at my leisure. Though these two podcasts are starkly different in terms of presentation
of the news, I did find their format to be similar. They both have
internet personalities who host and run down a gamut of topics.
Because I listen to The Read, I choose to listen to NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour so I could hear from a different perspective on pop culture/entertainment news. Pop Culture Happy Hour is presented to be a tongue-and-cheek approach to news reporting—in the vein of Jon Stewart or Bill Maher. However, I found NPR to be much more bureaucratic and formal when talking about the hard news stories, which are few and far in-between. The rest of the show was really just cluttered with shallow pop culture games, such as: Can you guess if I am naming a Game of Thrones character or a Jimmy Choo shoe? It seems like they host's consciousness avoid talking about the hard news stories or inserting an opinion to keep the tone of the podcast lighthearted. Even though I did find some humor in this podcast, I believe they may be targeting an older more mild listener.
The Read on the other hand is far less mild approach to discussing current events. This show takes the most talked about news stories of the week and briefly explain them, before the hosts insert their personal opinions on those topics. The two hosts did not hold back on discussing the events leading up to the unrest in Ferguson, MO, as well as, why the Kardashian's are useless. With this type of podcast, I believe that listeners will like or dislike it depending on whether or not their views align with hosts who are expressing strong opinions. Otherwise, who would want to spend an hour of their time listening to viewpoints that they disagree with?
Showing posts with label podcasts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label podcasts. Show all posts
Monday, September 1, 2014
Podcasts
"Go Fork Yourself with Andrew Zimmern and Molly Mogren"
August is the time of the year for state fairs. State fairs are known, particularly in the food world, for their unusual and up and coming trendy foods, some of which make the crossover to being trendy restaurant food. Andrew Zimmern (host of Bizarre Foods) and Molly Mogren spent this "episode" of their podcast discussing new, trendy state fair foods, how to make them, and what they tasted like. It was interesting to listen to because they talked about the background stories behind some of the booths at the Minnesota state fair as well as why some of the new foods were successful and some weren't very good. They agreed that the best and most successful trendy foods were made by people who took a lot of pride in what they produced. Unfortunately those were few and far between.
They also spent some of the podcast discussing the Elimination Diet because Molly Mogren recently tried it to determine if she has any food sensitivities and how different ingredients affect her mood/health.
Towards the middle of the podcast they veered a bit off topic, but I found myself still listening because they were able to make it feel as though it was a conversation between a group of friends. They also talked about what they are planning on making for Labor Day weekend.
They talked about a new food start-up, Nature Box, that delivers healthy, mostly gluten-free, non-GMO, zero trans fat snacks to your door. Nature Box sponsors the podcast, but it has been in other food news lately as well.
Finally, they answered listener questions such as "what is your favorite cut of pork?" and where to eat in Boston, I like this part of the podcast because you never know what you're going to learn--it's all dependent on what listeners want to know.
"The Sporkful" (Dan Pashman)
The episode I listened to is called 'The Science and Religion of Matzoh' (April 2014). It began with a quick (30 second) Old Testament/ancient history of matzoh. The episode is based on a visit to the largest American manufacturer of Kosher goods in Newark, New Jersey.
The first person he spoke with was the Vice President of Operations, Randall Copeland. Copeland is not Jewish so Pashman asked him to explain the importance of matzoh to those who don't have a connection with the religious significance. Copeland feels that it is a good substitute for other, more commercial crackers (which are typically greasier and higher in sodium).
The two then discussed the research and development process at the manufacturing plant, specifically, the science of crunch and how something can be made more or less crunchy or textured. They also spoke about the holes present all over a sheet of matzoh as well as the charred edges. The location and number of holes (docking-like with pie dough) can greatly impact the texture of the cracker. Matzoh has more docking than some other crackers. The charring on the edges also can impact taste and texture. The amount of charring is often different depending upon the region where the matzoh is made.
Pashman then spoke with one of the rabbis that oversees the production of the matzoh and ensures that it is Kosher. There are very specific guidelines and qualifications for the prep and baking so that it can be labeled Kosher and several rabbis oversee and enforce the timing, ingredients, etc. to make sure that it is not only Kosher but also Kosher for Passover. Passover has it's own rules, which I found interesting because I'm not Jewish and don't know much about the various rules and regulations that make something Kosher as opposed to Kosher for Passover, etc.
This podcast is really good for people who want to know in-depth history and details about specific food topics. Most of the episodes are based on relevant food news or events, such as the announcement earlier this summer that Hot Doug's, an iconic Chicago hotdog stand, will be closing this year, or, in the case of this episode, Passover. I thought it was really fascinating and it certainly kept my attention for the entire 30 minutes. Others in the food industry must agree because it's been nominated for a James Beard Award.
August is the time of the year for state fairs. State fairs are known, particularly in the food world, for their unusual and up and coming trendy foods, some of which make the crossover to being trendy restaurant food. Andrew Zimmern (host of Bizarre Foods) and Molly Mogren spent this "episode" of their podcast discussing new, trendy state fair foods, how to make them, and what they tasted like. It was interesting to listen to because they talked about the background stories behind some of the booths at the Minnesota state fair as well as why some of the new foods were successful and some weren't very good. They agreed that the best and most successful trendy foods were made by people who took a lot of pride in what they produced. Unfortunately those were few and far between.
They also spent some of the podcast discussing the Elimination Diet because Molly Mogren recently tried it to determine if she has any food sensitivities and how different ingredients affect her mood/health.
Towards the middle of the podcast they veered a bit off topic, but I found myself still listening because they were able to make it feel as though it was a conversation between a group of friends. They also talked about what they are planning on making for Labor Day weekend.
They talked about a new food start-up, Nature Box, that delivers healthy, mostly gluten-free, non-GMO, zero trans fat snacks to your door. Nature Box sponsors the podcast, but it has been in other food news lately as well.
Finally, they answered listener questions such as "what is your favorite cut of pork?" and where to eat in Boston, I like this part of the podcast because you never know what you're going to learn--it's all dependent on what listeners want to know.
"The Sporkful" (Dan Pashman)
The episode I listened to is called 'The Science and Religion of Matzoh' (April 2014). It began with a quick (30 second) Old Testament/ancient history of matzoh. The episode is based on a visit to the largest American manufacturer of Kosher goods in Newark, New Jersey.
The first person he spoke with was the Vice President of Operations, Randall Copeland. Copeland is not Jewish so Pashman asked him to explain the importance of matzoh to those who don't have a connection with the religious significance. Copeland feels that it is a good substitute for other, more commercial crackers (which are typically greasier and higher in sodium).
The two then discussed the research and development process at the manufacturing plant, specifically, the science of crunch and how something can be made more or less crunchy or textured. They also spoke about the holes present all over a sheet of matzoh as well as the charred edges. The location and number of holes (docking-like with pie dough) can greatly impact the texture of the cracker. Matzoh has more docking than some other crackers. The charring on the edges also can impact taste and texture. The amount of charring is often different depending upon the region where the matzoh is made.
Pashman then spoke with one of the rabbis that oversees the production of the matzoh and ensures that it is Kosher. There are very specific guidelines and qualifications for the prep and baking so that it can be labeled Kosher and several rabbis oversee and enforce the timing, ingredients, etc. to make sure that it is not only Kosher but also Kosher for Passover. Passover has it's own rules, which I found interesting because I'm not Jewish and don't know much about the various rules and regulations that make something Kosher as opposed to Kosher for Passover, etc.
This podcast is really good for people who want to know in-depth history and details about specific food topics. Most of the episodes are based on relevant food news or events, such as the announcement earlier this summer that Hot Doug's, an iconic Chicago hotdog stand, will be closing this year, or, in the case of this episode, Passover. I thought it was really fascinating and it certainly kept my attention for the entire 30 minutes. Others in the food industry must agree because it's been nominated for a James Beard Award.
Podcasts 1
NPR August 27: Life After Ice Buckets: ALS Group Faces $94 Million Challenge
Obviously, Ice Buckets is very popular recently. Instead of reporting celebrities and citizens participating the Ice Buckets activities, this news focusing on the challenge ALS Group meets after receiving large amount of money. It is a new reporting angle, and it is also what people care about.
The reporter interviewed the ALS group's CEO, the Charity Navigator's CEO and the associate dean at Indiana University's school of Philanthropy. They talked about the usage of the money and the challenge ALS Group now met from different perspectives. The news was well edited; the editor put the interview recordings across the news to reply to different questions. But I think it would be better if they could interview one or two citizens who donated the money to express their opinions and concerns instead of saying "people may concern".
As a four minutes' news, I think this news did a very good job.
Scientific American 60-second mind. August 30: Talking with strangers make you happy
In personal, I like 60-second mind very much. It will introduce you a new interesting scientific research in 60 seconds. It really has high requirements on editors. They need to pick the most attractive part in a research and use the plain English the tell the audience.
At first, the news asked audience to imagine a common situation in daily life: when you went to the subway, will you talk to strangers? It is easy to attract audience attention in this way. Then the host introduced the Chicago study about the different feelings about people who engage to talk to strangers and people who would like to keep silent. The study found that people engaged to talk with strangers had more enjoyable experiences. Then it explained why this would happen.
Although this news is only 60 seconds and it seems to be a little rush, it always had people's attention.
Obviously, Ice Buckets is very popular recently. Instead of reporting celebrities and citizens participating the Ice Buckets activities, this news focusing on the challenge ALS Group meets after receiving large amount of money. It is a new reporting angle, and it is also what people care about.
The reporter interviewed the ALS group's CEO, the Charity Navigator's CEO and the associate dean at Indiana University's school of Philanthropy. They talked about the usage of the money and the challenge ALS Group now met from different perspectives. The news was well edited; the editor put the interview recordings across the news to reply to different questions. But I think it would be better if they could interview one or two citizens who donated the money to express their opinions and concerns instead of saying "people may concern".
As a four minutes' news, I think this news did a very good job.
Scientific American 60-second mind. August 30: Talking with strangers make you happy
In personal, I like 60-second mind very much. It will introduce you a new interesting scientific research in 60 seconds. It really has high requirements on editors. They need to pick the most attractive part in a research and use the plain English the tell the audience.
At first, the news asked audience to imagine a common situation in daily life: when you went to the subway, will you talk to strangers? It is easy to attract audience attention in this way. Then the host introduced the Chicago study about the different feelings about people who engage to talk to strangers and people who would like to keep silent. The study found that people engaged to talk with strangers had more enjoyable experiences. Then it explained why this would happen.
Although this news is only 60 seconds and it seems to be a little rush, it always had people's attention.
Podcasts 1
NPR 7 am News Summary Podcast:
I think one of the major appeals of this podcast is that it is quickly consumable, but it feels very rushed. The major focus was on global events like the conflict in Ukraine and the opinions on how President Obama should handle the increase of Islamic extremists. The podcast then turned to issues in the United States like new legislation in Texas that could outlaw abortion, and of course the ongoing events in Ferguson.
All in all, this podcast seems like an excellent way to get a quick news fix while you're on the go. The topics covered are all important subject matter, but it's easy to miss details unless you're fully paying attention. I had to rewind several times to make sure I was catching all of the facts.
The Daily Show Podcast without Jon Stewart:
This podcast is designed to give a peek into what it takes to make The Daily Show by talking with writers and correspondents about the stories they produce. The most recent episode had head writer Elliot Kalan and correspondent Jessica Williams talking with producer Sara Taskler and writer Jo Miller about a piece they put together about sexual assault on college campuses. The conversation was both compelling frightening, especially when you're aware that to produce it for the show, there have to be entertaining qualities in a subject that is no laughing matter.
The next story was an interview with J.R. Havlan who had written for The Daily Show for the past 18 years. Hearing about how the show has developed from a small, punchline-based program to the show it's become was very entertaining.
I think I preferred this podcast to NPR's based on the style alone. The Daily Show had a much more conversational style where the content had room to breathe. However, if you're looking for just the news in quick soundbites, NPR is the way to go.
I think one of the major appeals of this podcast is that it is quickly consumable, but it feels very rushed. The major focus was on global events like the conflict in Ukraine and the opinions on how President Obama should handle the increase of Islamic extremists. The podcast then turned to issues in the United States like new legislation in Texas that could outlaw abortion, and of course the ongoing events in Ferguson.
All in all, this podcast seems like an excellent way to get a quick news fix while you're on the go. The topics covered are all important subject matter, but it's easy to miss details unless you're fully paying attention. I had to rewind several times to make sure I was catching all of the facts.
The Daily Show Podcast without Jon Stewart:
This podcast is designed to give a peek into what it takes to make The Daily Show by talking with writers and correspondents about the stories they produce. The most recent episode had head writer Elliot Kalan and correspondent Jessica Williams talking with producer Sara Taskler and writer Jo Miller about a piece they put together about sexual assault on college campuses. The conversation was both compelling frightening, especially when you're aware that to produce it for the show, there have to be entertaining qualities in a subject that is no laughing matter.
The next story was an interview with J.R. Havlan who had written for The Daily Show for the past 18 years. Hearing about how the show has developed from a small, punchline-based program to the show it's become was very entertaining.
I think I preferred this podcast to NPR's based on the style alone. The Daily Show had a much more conversational style where the content had room to breathe. However, if you're looking for just the news in quick soundbites, NPR is the way to go.
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Podcast Responses
Slate’s The Gist: Puppies Don’t Win Pulitzer’s
Mike
Pesca was the main speaker of this podcasts; however, he had several guest
speakers talking about various topics and included some funny voice recordings
of celebrities at The Emmys. From the trail of Bob McDonnell all the way to a
new app that Pesca describes as “the next twitter,” popular topics of today
were discussed.
I
enjoyed listening to Pesca because he kept things interesting. Overall, the podcast
seemed upbeat, and he used a few seconds of techno music to represent a shift
in topic each time he changed the subject. When he was explaining each topic,
he used sarcastic remarks to emphasize his opinion. One example of when he did
this was while he was discussing the Bob McDonnell trial. He mocked the
defenses’ main argument with ridiculous alternatives to support McDonnell’s
innocence.
Not
only was Pesca able to keep the podcast upbeat with his humor and music, but also
his guest speakers talked about some innovative topics. He had the CEO of a new
app called Yo join in on the podcast, and he told listeners a little about
where the app originated and how it is useful for communication in Israel.
Pesca explained this app as the next twitter because its ability to send the
message “yo” with a simple click of a button.
Although
I enjoyed listening to the majority of the podcast, I felt the remainder of it was
mostly to advertise. I don’t listen to a lot of podcasts, so I don’t really
know if that is a normal thing to do, but I noticed a lot of Pesca’s airtime
was used to encourage his audience to download the Yo app or subscribe to
Harry’s razors, so he really lost my interest there.
BBC World Service: Global News
After
listening to Pesca’s entertaining podcast, this one was a bit hard to bear. It was a
typical newscast, and the podcast had a lot of great, useful information;
however, it lacked the ability to hold my attention. The assortment of topics
the podcast discussed ranged from militant activity, Ebola, James Foley’s death
and some pop culture news.
The
speakers that went into more depth with each topic ended up being recordings of
reporters for the story. Although the recordings were very helpful in learning
more about the topics, they were very poorly replayed during this podcast.
While a female reporter was giving a recap on the emotional events of the
James Foley memorial, there were some technical mistakes made and the recording
and podcast speaker were talking at the same time. It was very distracting, and
I wasn’t able to focus on what the reporter was trying to say.
Other
recordings that were replayed during the podcast also seemed a bit fuzzy or bad
quality, and the information being given during those recordings were crucial to
learning more. During the Ebola report, the woman trying to explain the amount
of possibly infected victims seemed to have a bad connection because there was
a lot of background noise in her report.
The
podcast was also boring, and the long gaps of silence between topics didn’t
really help my attention span. The pauses also were a little confusing. At
first, I actually thought I’d accidentally paused the podcast because the gap of silence
lasted so long.
I
don’t’ mean to really criticize the podcast because it really went into depth
with some very important topics that interested me; however, I believe they
could’ve ensured that the podcast quality was a little better before posting it
to the pubic.
Overall, I’d have to say that if these two podcasts were
able to combine, they’d make better news. Mike Pesca’s upbeat attitude was easy
to listen and pay attention to, but I wish he’d brought in a few more serious
topics, like the Global News did, rather than spend time telling us about Harry’s
razors and other advertisements.
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Lab 2 post (podcasts)
NPR Tech podcast:
There were several topics discussed on this podcast: hackers looking for weaknesses in software, electronic devices being used to repel sharks, how renting apartments in San Francisco using sites like VRBO is affecting the housing market, tech security breaches (DefCon conference) and buying cheap drones/making drones.
Although this podcast addressed some very interesting topics, it was kind of all over the place. The transitions between the different topics was awkward because they didn't saying anything about switching to a new topic. I would have liked this podcast more if there had been some kind of roadmap at the beginning telling me what was going to be talked about and what order the discussions points were going to be in.
I did like the way each story was structured, however. Each story was broken up with interviews of experts in the different fields. One reporter interviewed a speaker at the DefCon conference and another interviewed a student that was researching using drones to create a 3D map of a college campus. These interviews helped keep the stories interesting since there were no visuals.
Dan Carlin: Common Sense-The Wages of Fear:
This podcast discussed the 4th amendment and what happens when our system is run on fear. "In order to be free we must be brave."
Unlike the NPR podcast, this podcast was about one topic. I liked the focus on one topic, but there was not a lot to break it up. Carlin tried to keep his podcast interesting by using quotes and more of a narrative style. He also began with a hypothetical situation to hook his audience and addressed the audience as "you". I did like the conversational style, but I found myself getting more distracted because Carlin was the only person talking on the podcast.
The topic of the podcast was interesting and Carlin brought up some points about national security that I hadn't heard before. Unfortunately, because Carlin was the only person on the podcast it was more opinion based and had shades of his biases.
I don't know if I can necessarily say that one podcast was better than the other. They were presented in very different formats. If NPR gave more structure to their podcast and presented the audience with a roadmap of their discussion points it would have been more enjoyable to listen to. On the other hand, if Carlin's podcast had been a little shorter and he had included some interviews or had other people talking in some capacity I would've had a better experience with his podcast.
There were several topics discussed on this podcast: hackers looking for weaknesses in software, electronic devices being used to repel sharks, how renting apartments in San Francisco using sites like VRBO is affecting the housing market, tech security breaches (DefCon conference) and buying cheap drones/making drones.
Although this podcast addressed some very interesting topics, it was kind of all over the place. The transitions between the different topics was awkward because they didn't saying anything about switching to a new topic. I would have liked this podcast more if there had been some kind of roadmap at the beginning telling me what was going to be talked about and what order the discussions points were going to be in.
I did like the way each story was structured, however. Each story was broken up with interviews of experts in the different fields. One reporter interviewed a speaker at the DefCon conference and another interviewed a student that was researching using drones to create a 3D map of a college campus. These interviews helped keep the stories interesting since there were no visuals.
Dan Carlin: Common Sense-The Wages of Fear:
This podcast discussed the 4th amendment and what happens when our system is run on fear. "In order to be free we must be brave."
Unlike the NPR podcast, this podcast was about one topic. I liked the focus on one topic, but there was not a lot to break it up. Carlin tried to keep his podcast interesting by using quotes and more of a narrative style. He also began with a hypothetical situation to hook his audience and addressed the audience as "you". I did like the conversational style, but I found myself getting more distracted because Carlin was the only person talking on the podcast.
The topic of the podcast was interesting and Carlin brought up some points about national security that I hadn't heard before. Unfortunately, because Carlin was the only person on the podcast it was more opinion based and had shades of his biases.
I don't know if I can necessarily say that one podcast was better than the other. They were presented in very different formats. If NPR gave more structure to their podcast and presented the audience with a roadmap of their discussion points it would have been more enjoyable to listen to. On the other hand, if Carlin's podcast had been a little shorter and he had included some interviews or had other people talking in some capacity I would've had a better experience with his podcast.
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