I had to make a tough cut recently to my podcast roll. I couldn't keep up with all my follows, even listening to a bunch of stuff on 1.25 or even 1.5 speed. I added a show I mentioned in the comments of my last entry called Lost Debate, which I like quite a bit, and I quickly found that I couldn't take on another show and maintain a steady-state solution, so I had to cut something. Since I already have a bunch of sports podcasts, I gave Knuckleheads the boot. Apologies to Darius and Quentin -- you guys have a pretty good show, but I just don't have room right now. Also, if I'm being honest, you get a bit repetitive. You ask the same questions to every guest, and there are only so many times one needs to hear about what an NBA player purchased the first time he "got that bag." (Spoiler: it's a chain and/or a luxury car.)
I find this to be a common problem with personality based podcasts. When I first start listening, I'm all in, and then at some point down the line I find that I'm not that into it anymore, and it's like Oh, yeah, right, I've heard this bit fifty times already. The quintessential example of this The Adam Carolla Show, but it happened with a few other shows too, such as Desus and Mero. And I have a feeling it might happen with Adam Carolla's friend Sarah Silverman. I started listening to her podcast about a year ago and found it so delightful, I burned through her entire back catalog in like a week, but now she's no longer the must-listen she once was because it's kinda the same. She's still in rotation, but it wouldn't be too surprising if I replaced her with something else in the near future.
Since you asked, here's my current podcast roll.
Sports
Effectively Wild
Extra Points
Hang Up & Listen
Minus Three
The Bill Barnwell Show
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The Mina Kimes Show
The Ringer NBA Show
News/Politics/Commentary
The NPR Politics Podcast
The Lost Debate
The Gist
Political Gabfest
Blocked & Reported
Comedy/Personality
The Poscast
Larry Wilmore: Black on the Air
Real Time with Bill Maher
The Sarah Silverman Podcast
Music
Hit Parade
Relationship/Sex Advice
Savage Lovecast
Science
Star Talk with Neil deGrasse Tyson
Long Form Interview
The Michael Shermer Show
So, you can see why I have to make cuts sometimes. It's a lot, but I can usually burn through them, and if I don't I just deleted them Sunday night and move on. I've gotten over my OCD aversion of having to listen to every. single. episode. And, like I said, I listen to a bunch of them on faster speeds. I can polish off NPR Politics Podcast and The Gist just getting myself and the kids ready in the morning.
The main downside to listening to so many podcasts is that I don't listen to music very often anymore. Every now and then when I'm doing a crossword puzzle late at night, or I'm going out for a run, I'll throw on Pandora, and it'll play a stream of awesome songs (those algorithms work!), and I'll think to myself man, music is awesome; I need to listen to music more often, and then I won't do it. I do have dreams of getting a record player and taking up record collecting, but that's a kids-are-out-of-the-house hobby, not one I'm going to start up anytime soon.
In other news, one of S's friends is in town for a conference, so she prolonged her trip and stayed with us for a few days. It's cool to see her. She's really sweet and good with the kids. Unfortunately, it was a dreary, drizzly day, so our plans of a hike got squashed. It's just as well. I scraped the shit out of my shin doing box jumps, and it's still all cut-up and nasty. By the way, I hate box jumps. They're the worst exercise: Here, jump up on this hard wooden box repeatedly, and if you miss once by a few millimeters, you'll shred your shin. It's partially my own fault -- I mean, it's totally my own fault, but partially it was a consciously bad decision and not just an accident. I was doing them at 24 inches, which is normally fine, but it was near the end of the workout, and I was already super tired, and the angel on my shoulder said don't be a hero, just flip the box over and do it the shorter way of 20 inches, but then the devil on my other shoulder said leave it where it is, you pussy! (My inner devil uses gender offensive language.) Should've listened to my angel. This is another example of when trying to "push it" backfires. You should quit pushing it at like age 42, if not younger. You can actually get more out of your workouts by going a little easier because you don't get hurt and don't have to sit out until your recover.
Anyway, instead of going on a hike we watched a movie, and it was a very, very bad movie: Cheaper by the Dozen-- the new one with Zach Braff and Gabrielle Union, who have quite possibly the worst screen chemistry of any movie couple in film history. They're the anti-Bergman-and-Bogart. The film just kinda meanders from one story line to the next without actually developing any of them, and then there are these awkward, after-school-special-style social justice messages shoehorned in. Oh, and also, the movie isn't funny, like, at all. There was one time I laughed, and I don't even remember what the joke was now. As a parent, you end up watching a lot of movies you don't really want to watch, and occasionally when they are over, you say to yourself hey, that actually wasn't half bad, but most the time you don't say that because it was as terrible as you were anticipating. This was one of those latter times.
That's all for tonight. Until next time...
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