Podcasts in Review

May 4, 2017 at 12:01 am | Posted in Interview, Podcasts, Podcasts in Review, Regular Feature, Reviews, Star Wars | Leave a comment
Tags: adam bray, cole horton, jordan d. white, kevin j. anderson, tricia barr

Here is this week’s Podcasts in Review.

Beltway Banthas: Episode 29 Swara talks about Celebration, they talk about Jedi, the Force and where Luke is taking them, then they have the audio from the Star Wars Military panel at Star Wars Celebration Orlando 2017 which featured Jason Fry, John Liang and Thomas Harper.

Blast Points: Episode 71 covers the Celebration panels they weren’t able to go to as they talk about the Rebels panel, speculate on what the animated show will be, and play some audio of Dave Filoni from the Star Wars Show stage as he hints at the next project. They go over the Animated Origins panel, These Are the Droids You’re Looking For panel, the Heroines panel, and they talk about the Cantina panel and the vegetable carver guy. They also talk about the fact that not all of the big panels were livestreamed and are not available on YouTube, they ponder why there were no displays for Rogue One costumes or The Last Jedi, and more. Great episode.

Bombad Radio: Episode 276 is a great interview with author Kevin J. Anderson covering his new projects Spine of the Dragon and Louis and Clark, what it’s like co-authoring projects, his writing process, as well as Star Wars, Dune, Hellhole and Superman.

Bombad Radio: Episode 277 features an interview with Jules De Jongh who voices Cora Harper in Mass Effect: Andromeda. Jules talks about Mass Effect and the other games she’s worked on covering the process, what the projects were like and more. Good interview and there’s no Mass Effect spoilers.

Brews and Blasters: Episode 117 is solo hosted by Joe as he goes through some listener emails and dives into Thrawn without spoiling it.

Comic Book Noob: Ego the Living Planet covers Ego, the character Kurt Russell is playing in Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2. They cover the character’s comic book history and origins, his powers, and they compare the comic book version to the movie version. Good episode to check out before seeing the movie.

Fangirls Going Rogue: #CarrieOn LIVE from Celebration is the audio from their podcast stage panel at Celebration which features Tricia, Teresa and Sarah as they talk a little about The Last Jedi and the 40th Anniversary panels. They talk with guest Holly Griffith about NASA and Star Wars, they talk about Leia, and they talk with guests Bethany Blanton, Ruth Amos and Sandra Choute.

Full of Sith: Special Release with Andrew Slack covers Star Wars, activism, Teach Me You Did and honoring teachers. Kind of interesting but not a must listen to episode. If you’ve ever had any teachers who had a big impact on your life, you might want to give it a listen so you can participate in Teach Me You Did.

Galactic Fashion: Episode 23 they talk Celebration, cosplay, Ahsoka lives day, new Hera shirt, other new Star Wars items, new Batman and Wonder Woman items, issues with Her Universe being in the Celebration Store, new Her Universe items, Mustard brand, Loungefly, they talk with Kay about fashion panel, fashion items, and Celebration fashion highlights. Plus they have some audio from the Star Wars Show, some other panel audio, and some Ashley Eckstein audio. And there’s the origin of bermuda shorts. Good episode.

Geek Directive: Movie Predictions & Hogwarts Dog Houses features Scott, Regina and Taxus as they talk about their plans for Star Wars Day, they talk about eSports and scholarships, which Hogwarts house their dog would be in, there’s a new “Moment in Geek History” segment, they talk Avatar and Avatar Land, and they make their Rotten Tomatoes predictions for upcoming movies this year. Fun episode.

Geek Out Loud: Episode 209 features special guest Teresa Delgado as she talks with Steve about her Celebration experience. From panels to meeting celebrities and fun stories, it’s a great episode. Definitely worth a listen.

Hutt Space Radio: Episode 4 covers Celebration, going after the Hasbro exclusive Luke, the wristbands, meeting celebrities for autographs, the Animated Origins panel, the Retrozap meet-up, Hayden photo-op, meeting Riz Ahmed, Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Tiya Sircar, Vanessa Marshall, John Knoll, the Rebels panel, Ree Yee’s find, and other figures. Good episode covering Chris Celebration experience and giving people an idea of what the con was like. Good audio quality in this episode, too.

Lattes With Leia: Episode 15 they talk pronunciations, water bottles, the Scum and Villainy cantina event, some spoiler free thoughts on Aftermath: Empire’s End, and they talk a little about Star Wars: The Visual Encyclopedia. Their main discussion is on Kylo Ren which is pretty interesting. This is an older episode (back in March) as I’ve still got a bit of catching up to do, but it’s a good one to check out if you missed it.

Less Than 12 Parsecs: Episode 118 covers the new books Tim has acquired for his Jedi library.

Less Than 12 Parsecs: Episode 119 covers a band that did a Beatles/Star Wars crossover and Tim plays two of the songs from the album.

Less Than 12 Parsecs: MiniRig MiniEpisode 12 is Tim’s observation that as Luke grows more powerful in the Force, the planet he is on has more water.

Rebel Force Radio: Episode 4.22.17 features Jimmy, Jason and Billy Mac as they touch on The Last Jedi poster and their mistake on who was in it, they touch on the trailer, they discuss a listener theory on Rey, Kylo and Finn being mind wiped, they talk about the situation at Celebration, George’s shirt, the tributes to Carrie, and Billy Mac does some pretty good Lando impersonations. They also cover Kathleen Kennedy, Mark Hamill and Rian Johnson’s recent comments. Then they have an interview with Dennis Lawson. Dennis talks about getting the part, working with George, being on set, his thoughts on his first convention and they even talk a little about Ewan. Really good interview. Worth a listen.

Rebel Force Radio: Episode 4.28.17 they talk about Mark’s shorty robe, Rian Johnson’s comments on similarities to Empire, the crawl, and whether The Last Jedi will answer fan questions. They go over Ashley Eckstein’s comments, the talk Ahsoka and Rosario Dawson’s comments. Then they talk with F.J. DeSanto about The Last Jedi trailer. He shares his full synopsis for the entire plot of The Last Jedi, all speculation, but pretty fascinating. Then they’ve got some Nissan Rogue coverage as they share audio from the Nissan booth at Celebration as they talk with one of the guys at the booth about the car, and some general Star Wars talk. They also have an audio snippet from an interview with Gene Siskel did with Mark Hamill which includes some comments on the “sequel trilogy.” Good episode.

Rebel Yell: Rebels At Celebration features Steve, Teresa, Erich and Aaron Goins as they talk Celebration. They cover the Star Wars Rebels panel, the Rebels trailer, the Rebels press conference, and they touch on a little on The Last Jedi panel. Fun episode.

Rebels Chat: Episode 76 features guests Liz and Sal as they talk Star Wars Rebels season three. They go through the entire season episode-by-episode highlighting some of the big themes and moments from each episode. From Ezra’s dark side subplot getting dropped, to their favorite episodes, quotes and moments, this one covers all the goodness of season three. Plus they cover the trailer for season four.

Skywalking Through Neverland: Episode 166 talks about John Williams’ appearance at the 40th anniversary panel at Star Wars Celebration Orlando, they announce that Gary Kurtz will be their special guest in their upcoming 40th anniversary celebration episode, and Drew reviews Guardians of the Whills. They talk about when the story takes place, and some of the big things the book shows. It’s a little on the borderline for spoilers. On one hand, it probably doesn’t spoil anything, but if your wanting to go in with a clean slate and no expectations, they might talk about more than what you would want to hear. Afterwards there is a skywalker story from a listener, and Richard and Sarah go over Thrawn. They don’t spoil too much, so you can still listen and enjoy the book, but you might want to read it first if you’re trying to avoid all spoilers. Good episode.

Star Scavengers: Episode 16 they talk about Celebration, the LEGO Freemakers panel, their cosplay, and then they interview the show’s creators Bill Motz and Bob Roth and the show’s composer Michael Kramer. Great episode and great interview.

Star Wars 7×7: Episode 1027 features Wookieepedia moderator Nathaniel’s favorite Star Wars memory.

Star Wars 7×7: Episode 1028 features Eric Goldman’s (IGN TV Executive Editor) favorite Star Wars memory.

Star Wars Bookworms: Episode 72 they talk about Celebration and share a bunch of interviews including Adam Bray, Tricia Barr, Cole Horton, and Jordan White. Good episode with some nice interviews and fun Celebration stories.

Star Wars Report: Episode 279 is solo hosted by Mark as he runs down the book news and touches on Thrawn while staying spoiler free.

Starships Sabers and Scoundrels: The Scoundrels Clip Show Vol. 1 is essentially the best of Starships Sabers and Scoundrels. While Dennis was away at Celebration, Taxus brought together a bunch of guests for this show which in turn features all of their best bits from past episodes like Lenny the Lothcat, Deep Breath and the robe advertisements. There are tons of guests from across the Retrozap network and beyond. Really fun episode. While there is a health dose of past content, there’s also a lot of new content in this episode so it’s not one to skip. It’s also the perfect place for new listeners to dive in.

Starships Sabers and Scoundrels: Episode 27 is their post Celebration coverage episode as Dennis talks about his experiences at the con. They also cover news, rumors and the usual show items. Good stuff.

Talk Star Wars: Episode 67 features Marc, Rob and Steve as they cover various topics like cut Palpatine dialog on creating Anakin, possibilities with sequel trilogy, the legacy of the lightsaber, what happened to Maz, they analyze the relationship between Luke and Rey and speculate on training and dialog meaning, they discuss the Han Solo alien and the desire to see more recognizable alien species, they talk about Kathleen Kennedy’s comments in Steele Saunder’s interview, they talk about Luke’s rumored lightsaber crystal necklace, Battlefront II Rey and Kylo outfits, whether Rey will lose a hand, the May release for Episode IX, Rosario Dawson, and Mr. Robot rumors. Good episode with tons of quality discussion as always.

Tarkin’s Top Shelf: Episode 14 features Mark and Becca as they discuss the new Thrawn novel. First they touch on Celebration and book news, then they get into Thrawn with some spoilers. It’s a nice discussion that bounces around rather than breaking the book down from beginning to end. This means you can listen and still enjoy the book. They touch on some interesting discussion points, and they ponder about why Del Rey had such a strict embargo on the book when there doesn’t appear to be anything in the book that would warrant it. Good episode.

TechnoRetro Dads: Episode 4.24.17 covers Celebration, the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 soundtrack, and more Star Wars. Fun episode.

The Nerd Room: Episode 70 they discuss Forces of Destiny, the Hasbro 3-3/4″ poll, toys, Kathleen Kennedy saying Carrie Fisher won’t be in Episode IX, Episode IX release date moving to May, Indiana Jones 5, Battlefront II, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 early reviews. They get into Marvel with New Mutants and Deadpool 2, no love for Logan, Marvel changes with digital comic codes, and they talk comics. Afterwards they talk about Calgary Expo. The episode felt pretty long in large part due to all the topics they covered. Probably too many topics and not a tight enough focus for the episode.

The Sandcrawler: Episode 24 features Mike, Dan and special guest Chris Salton as they share Celebration stories and talk Star Wars. Chris and Dan talk about their Dave Filoni encounter, and Mike does some great impersonations. Very fun episode.

The Skyhoppers Podcast: Episode XL features guests Alex and Jinn the creators of A Star Wars Comic. They about their comic, their inspiration, research, process and they talk Star Wars stuff, Celebration and The Last Jedi trailer. Very fun chat.

TSW Kessel Run: Episode 4.24.17 covers Steele Saunder’s interview with Kathleen Kennedy and her comments on whether they will ever release the original versions of the movies (short answer, no). It also covers Luke’s necklace in The Last Jedi.

TSW Kessel Run: Episode 4.26.17 covers the new VIP, the newly announced release dates for the movies, and stuff on the vlog.

TSW Kessel Run: Episode 4.28.17 covers the news that Rian Johnson will not be writing Star Wars Episode IX and there’s some speculation on the story, in particular, Leia’s story.

TSW Kessel Run: Episode 4.29.17 covers two new rumored character names for the Han Solo movie and one of them being a puppet.

TSW Kessel Run: Episode 5.2.17 talks about the negativity between fan outlets like what happened between Rebel Force Radio and Making Star Wars and Now This Is Podcasting going after Star Wars News Network, and calls for civility in the community. Having listened to a handful of the TSW Kessel Run episodes now, I have to say I really enjoy these daily episodes. They’re each around 15 minutes, have a tight focus, and they’re solo hosted by Marc. They’re only available to VIP members. Now I wouldn’t go so far as to say these episodes are worth the cost, but the idea isn’t so much that you’re paying for these episodes, but you’re supporting the podcast, and these episodes are a great little bonus. Definitely something to think about if you’re a fan of the network.

TSW Roundtable: Episode 4 features Rob Cast, Rob Wade and Dan Solo as they talk about the balance of the Force, the balance between having old characters and new characters, which eras should future Star Wars movies explore, Twin Suns, spoilers and avoiding them.