Podcasts in Review

March 10, 2016 at 12:01 am | Posted in Podcasts, Podcasts in Review, Regular Feature, Reviews, Star Wars | Leave a comment
Tags: martha wells

Here is this week’s Podcasts in Review.

501stCast: Episode 92 covers all the latest 501st news with troop reports and 501st Legion guests. They talk about the new Legion elections, recent charity work and spotlighted events, as well as chats with fellow members to find out about their garrisons and what they’re up to.

Awards Chatter: Jennifer Jason Leigh episode features an interesting conversation with said actress as they go over her career and the myriad roles she’s played. I’ll admit I haven’t seen very many movies that she’s done, but the lengths she’s gone to for the roles is impressive. She takes her work seriously. If you’re looking for celebrity interviews, I highly recommend Awards Chatter. It’s a good podcast.

Blast Points: Episode 8 was fun, and at times, hilarious. In this one, Jason and Gabe talk about Attack of the Clones. It’s not a hate fest or dissection picking the movie apart, but a genuine love for the film and all it’s entertaining quirkiness. As they say, this is the most outrageous Star Wars movie ever made. From Christopher Lee on a space motorcycle to the forbidden fruit and the rollicking in the field, it’s a positive discussion holding up the enjoyable and crazy elements of this Star Wars classic. Afterwards they wrap up with some questions from kids, and all in all, it’s a great episode. Give this one a listen.

BNN (Bombad Radio: Episode 3.7.16 covers this week’s news including Zack Snyder’s recent comments, Star Fox, Men in Black, Ghostbusters, Spiderman, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Nintendo news.

Bombad Radio: Episode 229 features an interview with author Martha Wells, one of my favorite female authors. They touch on media tie-in work, author rights to out of print books, young adult fiction, the draw of fantasy and sci-fi, the Raksura and upcoming work. It’s a nice interview.

Children of the Force: Reaction Corps “The Honorable Ones” zeroes in on the Star Wars Rebels episode as they discuss Kallus, honor, the possibility of a rebel informant and perhaps a double agent. Good episode.

Comic Book Noob: Colossus & Negasonic Teenage Warhead tackles a timely duo as Regina, Scott and Matt talk about the two supporting super heroes in Deadpool. They cover the interesting background for Colossus, his Russian origins, his pacifist nature, being the strongest member of the X-Men, the times he has lost his cool, and how spot on his movie representation was. With Negasonic Teenage Warhead, I was surprised to hear she doesn’t have a lot of comic background, but they do a good job of revealing the origin of her name, how her comic character differs from the movie, and why that isn’t such a bad thing. Great episode as always.

Fly Casual: Episode 78 goes completely off the rails…a lot…but it’s fun and packed with humor. They manage to talk about Episode VIII and Rogue One news, release dates for The Force Awakens Blu-ray and digital release, the backlash on the Star Wars Rebels season two split, toy news from Toy Fair on Hasbro, Uncle Milton and LEGO. Fun show and crazier than usual.

Fly Casual: Episode 79 starts with comic reviews as they cover Star Wars #16, the art style and Aphra’s personality, and Kanan #11. Then they head into Star Wars Rebels with “Homecoming” and “The Honorable Ones” where they give praise for adding more dimensions to the villain. Good reviews. Afterwards they get into rumors as they talk about Rogue One character names, who’s playing who, a recent Rian Johnson article, and which cast members are returning for Episode VIII. Funny episode. They had me laughing out loud quite a few times.

Force Cult: Episode 49 covers their thoughts on Star Wars Rebels “Homecoming”, Rogue One trooper rumors, new cast members, Episode VIII picking up where Episode VII left off, and Hasbro Black Series at Toy Fair. This was my first time tuning into Force Cult. It’s a general discussion Star Wars podcast with multiple hosts (3 guys and one girl) and pretty good audio quality. That said…I didn’t like it. I wasn’t able to relate very much with the hosts and their opinions. It may sound harsh, but there was a lot of whining in this episode as some of the hosts complained about the casting choices of Benicio Del Toro and Laura Dern, that Ep VIII would be picking up right where Ep VII left off, and there’s a lot of F-bombs. While I’m not adverse to adult language, it didn’t come off well in this podcast episode. I probably won’t be checking out anymore episodes for Force Cult.

Radio Free Tatooine: Episode 7 covers The Force Awakens Blu-ray releases, benefits and drawbacks of digital copies, Daisy’s comments on Episode VIII and lack of Rogue One news. They dig into Star Wars Rebels “The Honorable Ones”, Zeb and Kallus, the surprising character development, the droid fight, the Darth Vader comic book tie-in, and the desire for a Rogue One tie-in due to the Death Star hints. This is another new podcast for me. It had good audio quality, good hosts and followed a general Star Wars discussion format. Might be worth your interest to give this one a try.

Rebels Chat (The Wookiee Gunner): Episode 34 covers Star Wars Rebels “The Honorable Ones” as Johnamarie and Maria talk about Kallus, Zeb, honor and more. Nice episode discussion as always as they dig into the themes and characters of the show.

Rebel Force Radio: Episode 3.4.16 covers Star Wars Uprising, when we might see the Rogue One trailer, The Force Awakens Blu-ray release, speculation on deleted scenes, Oscar discussion and listener emails and voice mails.

Rebel Grrrl: Episode 25 is hosted by Amanda Ward with guest hosts Sal and Liz Perales as they talk ANOVOS, costumes, cosplaying, going to conventions, charity events, interacting with fans, some of the negatives and fears of cosplaying, as wells as news, collecting, Rey’s Survival Guide, Star Wars Rebels “Homecoming” and the show in general. Not too bad of an episode. It was my first time listening to Rebel Grrrl and I’ll probably check out another episode or two before forming a solid “keep or drop” decision. Normally there are two hosts but Tracy was absent on this one so I’ll definitely need to listen to one where both hosts are present. There is some adult language so keep that in mind if you plan on listening with kids around.

Skywalking Through Neverland: Episode 112 is their All-Time Awards show. Playing on the theme of the Academy Awards, they present their own awards show spotlighting Disney films from all eras. It’s a really neat show as they have special guests for all the award presentations, each doing their own skit which is worth a few laughs. There’s audio clips, highlights from past award shows, and the whole thing is integrated together for a genuine awards show feel. Outstanding editing. Definitely tip my hat to Rich and Sarah for putting this show together. It was a lot of fun to listen to and earns my pick of the week.

Skywalking Through Neverland: Episode 113 touches on a few quick topics but most of the episode is devoted to Disney’s Zootopia movie with Sarah leading the way. She talks about the characters, what the movie is like, shares some fun facts and they play a bunch of audio clips from the press conference which gives a nice behind the scenes look at how the movie came about and was put together. Pretty cool. At the end of the episode, they tackle fan feedback on the All-Time Awards. Good episode and definitely worth checking out for anyone interested in Zootopia. There aren’t any spoilers so anyone can listen in.

Star Wars Bookworms: Episode 54 starts out with the podcasting awards, they talk about the Marvel coloring books, Poe Dameron launch parties and other new. Then they head into listener questions (quite a few, takes up a good third of the episode). Afterwards they review Before the Awakening by Greg Rucka, providing their thoughts on each of the three stories and what questions were answered from the movie. I liked Aaron’s observation that Finn felt a little too elite in the book. It’s still a good book, but personally, I felt Finn’s was the weakest of the three stories. Good episode.

Star Wars Minute: Phantom Menace Minute 74 features Pete and Alex along with guest Jordan D. White, the editor of the Marvel Star Wars comics line as they discuss minute 74 of The Phantom Menace. Now it’s been a long time since I’ve tuned into Star Wars Minute, but they really haven’t changed much. The format is the same with the hosts featuring a guest and discussing one minute of a Star Wars movie as they sequentially go through the whole thing. Each episode is about 25 minutes long and it’s still a great podcast with good audio quality and great discussion. I highly recommend it. In this one, they cover “you can’t stop the change”, Shmi’s Swedish accent, Anakin not being born on Tatooine, where did all the humans come from, the 1000 generation of Jedi, the Jedi teachings, Star Wars on Trial, slave documents, and how often Skywalkers bathe. Funny episode.

Star Wars Minute: Phantom Menace Minute 75 also features Jordan again as they talk about Shmi’s last name, naked 3PO, 3P0 being Anakin’s son and Shmi’s grandson, the POV shot, why the inclusion of slavery, background droid Nobot and his haunting Legends backstory, and a cutscene with Kitster.

Star Wars Rebels Declassified (Rebel Force Radio): The Honorable Ones features Jimmy, Jason and guest Billy Mac as they talk about Enemy Mine, Geonosis and the Geonosians, what measures of success the rebels will achieve, the Death Star, the Lasat and their similarity to Klingons with Zeb being like Warf, Kallus, warriors and honor, parallels to Les Miz, the reference to Onderon and The Clone Wars. There’s a nice character dissection of Kallus, the creatures, and overall an excellent episode.

Star Wars Report: Episode #210 features Riley and special guest David Collins as they talk about the music of The Force Awakens, David’s background, the 35mm original Star Wars print that surfaced and it’s importance, plus more. Dave’s audio cut in and out at parts and was sometime garbled which hurt the episode a little but there was some good discussion.

Tarkin’s Top Shelf: Episode 1 covers The Force Awakens novelization by Alan Dean Foster and Before the Awakening by Greg Rucka. Tarkin’s Top Shelf is a relatively new podcast hosted by Mark E. Sutter and Becca Benjamin that focuses on Star Wars literature. They’ve got good audio quality, though there were a couple very minor issues where the mic went funny in this episode, and they carry a good conversation about the books. They give their recommendations, mention the contradictions between the novelization the movie, then break into their spoiler discussion as they go into the details of each book. I like the hosts and enjoyed it enough that I’ll check out some more episodes. If you’re a Star Wars book fan, it’s worth a try.

The Great Big Beautiful Podcast: Episode 51 features an outstanding interview with voice actor Kevin Conroy. Kevin is the voice of Batman. He talks about his background, being Batman, doing the voice, meeting fans, his love for the character and the profession and advice for those thinking about getting into the business. A must listen for Batman fans.

The Mystic and the Wizard Podcast: Episode 18 has some of the weirdest discussion I’ve ever heard in a podcast. First up, fluoride, as in the chemical that’s in toothpaste. Seriously. Then they talk about Hitler having one testacle, Tesla and anti-gravity, RH negative blood type humans being descendants of aliens, NASA recordings of the dark side of the moon and the weird sounds they captured. If you’re wondering why I picked this podcast, it’s because at the 33:33 mark, they interview author Kevin Hearne. They talk with Kevin who shares how One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest influenced him to become a writer, the challenges of getting published, what drew him to Heir to the Jedi, the pantheons involved in The Iron Druid Chronicles, what he knew already and what he had to research, reading the old myths, Oberon and dogs, different things he does for his writing process, writing advice, the audiobook narrator Luke Daniels, writing woman as badasses, and what’s next from him. It’s a good interview and worth skipping ahead to. After the interview, they get back into some weird topics like tortoise reproduction. While I won’t be hunting down more episodes, I would check them out again if they scored another good author for an interview. On the other hand, if you’re looking for a podcast that dives into some strange and sometimes entertaining subjects, this one might be worth a try. It was certainly bizarre.

Winding Down With Williams (Coffee With Kenobi): Episode #4 plays a bunch of fan covers of The Force Awakens music. It’s actually pretty good and worth a listen. This is the first time I’ve listened to this podcast, and the theme is the same for all the episodes, each one featuring fan renditions of John Williams’ music. It’s hosted by Rob Wainfur (The Bearded Trio) and it’s got good audio quality.