Podcasts in Review

June 7, 2018 at 12:05 am | Posted in Podcasts, Podcasts in Review, Regular Feature, Reviews, Star Wars | 1 Comment
Tags: daniel josé older, roger christian

Here is this week’s Podcasts in Review.

Blast Points Podcast: Episode 126 they talk a little Solo, new things they noticed on repeated viewings, then they dive into Teras Kasi. They talk about the mention in Solo, the Masters of Teras Kasi video game, the origin on Shadows of the Empire, the mention in Shadow Hunter, and the connection to the Praetorian guards. They talk about the story of the game and their experiences with it. Fun discussion.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 47 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Jason, and Gabe
Rating: Fun

Brews and Blasters: Episode 170 kicks off with some discussion on grills and deals, then they get into Solo and feedback, they address the box office and media, then some Solo discussion with spoilers. They also touch on The Toys That Made Us. Fun episode.

Podcast Network: Retrozap
Runtime: 53 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Joe, and Chris
Rating: Fun

Children of the Force: Episode 107 has some audio before they see Solo, and then their thoughts right after seeing it. They talk about their favorite characters and the scenes they loved. Fun little episode.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 19 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Al, Anna, and Liam
Rating: Fun

Coffee With Kenobi: Episode 126 has some audio before seeing the movie, general thoughts from various people, audio quality is a little rough. Then they have audio after everyone saw Solo (better audio quality for this part). Dan, Corey, Tom and others weigh in, spoiler free. If you’re still avoiding spoilers, you can give this one a listen, otherwise you can probably skip it and check out one of their other episodes where they actually dig into the movie and spoilers.

Podcast Network: Coffee With Kenobi
Runtime: 45 minutes
Audio Quality: Okay
Editing: Good
Host: Dan
Rating: Okay

Coffee With Kenobi: Episode 127 Dan talks with Joonas Suotamo (Chewbacca) at Galactic Nights about Solo. There’s audio of the panel including Warwick Davis, David Collins and some of the Disney Imagineers as they talk about Galaxy’s Edge. Afterwards Dan talks with Aaron Sagers.

Podcast Network: Coffee With Kenobi
Runtime: 46 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Host: Dan
Rating: Good

DorkLair: Episode 40 they cover a bunch of 6 inch scale toy news in this episode, both Star Wars and non-Star Wars. They go over listeners’ figure wants, the newly revealed S.H. Figuarts Star Wars figures, and they do a great review of The Last Jedi hermit Luke.

Podcast Network: RetroZap
Runtime: 1 hour 18 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Bill, and Larry
Rating: Good

Fandom Force Podcast: Episode 0 goes over Solo. They share their overall thoughts, they get into what they did and didn’t like, and afterwards they get into some of their general Star Wars concerns. Good discussion.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 47 minutes
Audio Quality: Pretty Good
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Sam, Megan, Melissa, and Katelyn
Rating: Good

Fantastic Justice Squad Super Wonder Brother Friends: Episode 30 has some prelude discussion, then they talk Solo. Per their usual format, they start out with a non-spoiler discussion going over their general thoughts, they take a break to play a movie game, then come back for their full on spoiler discussion. Entertaining, on point, and fun. Great episode.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 1 hour 35 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Sancho Panda, Secret Alias Man, and Garrick
Rating: Great

Fly Casual: Episode 183 they kick off with some tangents, then they discuss Solo. Lots of praise and positivity as they talk about their favorite scenes, the characters, the nods and inclusions, and everything else that tickled their fancy. And some tangents at the end. Fun discussion.

Podcast Network: Betterkind Media
Runtime: 1 hour 45 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Corey, Steve, Garrick, and Mike
Rating: Fun

ForceCenter Reacts: Solo: A Star Wars Story Review they talk Solo, their thoughts on Alden, they get into a nice character exploration of Qi’ra, and much more. Nice discussion. Great episode.

Podcast Network: ForceCenter
Runtime: 1 hour 38 minute
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Host: Ken, Joseph, and Jennifer
Rating: Great

Galactic Fashion: Episode 34 they talk about the Jurassic World collection at Hot Topic, the Ready Player One clothes at Hot Topic, Prophecy Girl clothes brand, new Her Universe items, reviews of clothes they’ve recently bought, and they go over the history of eye shadow. Good episode.

Podcast Network: Jedi News Network 
Runtime: 58 minutes 
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent 
Hosts: Teresa, and Christy 
Rating: Good

Grand Moff Talkin’: Episode 52 goes over Troy Denning’s Star Wars novel The Joiner King. Jazmine just re-read the book, so she does an overview of the story, they talk about Luke and Leia discovering their mom is Padme, the Killiks, comments by Luke that are very similar to The Last Jedi, Luke using Force illusions and the wear and tear they put on him, and Luke mentioning pushing Star Destroyers around (a nod to The Force Unleashed). They also do a dramatic reading that’s pretty funny. Fun episode diving into a Legends book many probably haven’t read.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 47 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Riley, Jake, Isaac, and Jazmine
Rating: Fun

Hyperspace PodBlast: Episode 67 features guests Jess, Jorgie and Connie as they talk about Last Shot and the social commentary in the novel: the gungan, the ewok, and droid rights. They also compare and contrast Lando and Han’s relationships, and the use of modern language in the book.

Podcast Network: Hyperspace PodBlast
Runtime: 29 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Bryan, and Shelby
Rating: Good

Jedi Journals: June 2018 kicks off with their Solo experiences and thoughts on the film, then they get into some comic news with the announcement of the Beckett one shot. Afterwards Dennis joins Jay to go over the “Legend Found” arc for Poe Dameron and Poe Dameron Annual #1. Dennis also shares his thoughts on Solo. Then Jay and Chris go over The Last Jedi junior novelization and how it differs from the movie. They also go over book and magazine news. Good episode.

Podcast Network: TheForce.net
Runtime: 1 hours 44 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Jay, and Chris
Rating: Good

Less Than 12 Parsecs: Episode 220 goes over headaches and bacta, and Solo’s lackluster box office performance.

Podcast Network: Star Wars Commonwealth, 
Runtime: 8 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Host: Tim
Rating: Good

Less Than 12 Parsecs: Episode 221 Tim talks about buying Celebration tickets, seeing the VIP tickets sell out in 3 minutes, and trying to get a hotel.

Podcast Network: Star Wars Commonwealth, 
Runtime: 8 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Host: Tim
Rating: Good

Magic on a Dollar: Episode 31 goes over some site stuff, Disney news, Disney history, and Dave goes over his thoughts on Solo.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 35 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Host: Dave
Rating: Good

Making Tracks: Episode 1 kicks off a new podcast hosted by Mark Newbold and Dave Tree. They have the first part of their interview with Rogue One director Gareth Edwards who talks about Saw Gerrera, John Knowles, he shares a fun Lens Flair Pro story, and he talks about working with the story group. Then they talk Solo and their hopes for it. Darth Elvis has a new song “Yak Face” which is kind of catchy. Plus they have some interviews from conventions with Bill Westley who talks about working on The Empire Strikes Back and other films, and Katy Kartwheel who talks about this being her first convention. Nice interviews.

Podcast Network: Fantha Tracks Radio
Runtime: 1 hour 10 minutes
Audio Quality: Great
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Mark, and Dave
Rating: Good

Making Tracks: Episode 2 includes part two of their interview with Rogue One director Gareth Edwards who talks about the head space of having to make a Star Wars movie. Afterwards they talk some Solo, people’s initial reactions (okay audio quality for this segment), and they have an interview with Eileen Roberts (Mosep Binneed).

Podcast Network: Fantha Tracks Radio
Runtime: 1 hour 8 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Mark, and Dave
Rating: Good

Neil Lowery’s Blow That Negativity Out of the Sky: Up the Baggies is a quick conversation with Mark Newbold covering collectibles, Rancho Obi-Wan, what Fantha Tracks is up to and other random Star Wars stuff. Now Neil, bare with me as I’m going to offer a lot of criticism, hopefully you find it constructive. First off, the episode doesn’t have any kind of intro, so it doesn’t feel so much like a podcast as an audio byte. There’s some editing issues where I guess the call dropped out so Neil had Mark repeat himself even though the recorder caught all of the conversation, so there wasn’t any need to repeat it (so the redundant stuff could have been cut out to improve the production quality). There’s also some dead air, so that could have been edited out. Mark’s audio quality was good, but Neil was a little hard to hear. Now I haven’t listened to any other episodes, so I’m not sure if this how they normally sound or if this was an outlier, so there is that.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 20 minutes
Audio Quality: Okay/Good
Editing: Needs Work
Host: Neil Lowery
Rating: Needs Work

Rebel Force Radio: Solo Review #2 is their live podcast with the fans in Ohio after seeing Solo so lots of interaction with the fans. They talk about Lando, field questions from the audience, Jimmy and Jason are joined by Billy and Pete, and the audience weighs in with their thoughts on the movie. Good episode.

Podcast Network: Rebel Force Radio
Runtime: 1 hour 58 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Jimmy, and Jason
Rating: Good

Skytalkers: Solo: A Star Wars Story Breakdown they talk about the format of Solo and the structure, the different directions the movie could have gone, themes, the characters, questions and other stuff. Interestingly enough, they’re actually very critical of the movie. There’s not a lot of positivity or praise, especially in the first two parts of the episode, part three isn’t too bad. They wrap up with a recording of John Williams in concert playing some of the music from Solo.

Podcast Network: Star Wars Escape Pods Network, 
Runtime: 2 hours 4 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Caitlin, and Charlotte
Rating: Okay

Spotlight Star Wars: Episode 105 Ken talks Solo, about Han’s name and not embracing his family. Then 20 minutes in, he’s joined by Dimitrios Papadon as they talk Star Wars, fandom, Solo, what they loved about it, the box office and unrealistic expectations, and some other Star Wars stuff. Fun conversation. Afterwards Ken goes over some listener feedback, escaping into Star Wars, and he has a remembering Greedo segment. Good episode.

Podcast Network: ForceCenter
Runtime: 1 hour 1 minute
Audio Quality: Good
Editing: Excellent
Host: Ken
Rating: Good

Star Wars 7×7: Episode 1431 goes over brand fatigue and Star Wars scarcity.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 10 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Host: Allen Voivod
Rating: Good

Star Wars 7×7: Episode 1432 goes over weekend #2 for Solo‘s box office.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 8 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Host: Allen Voivod
Rating: Good

Star Wars 7×7: Episode 1433 goes over the fan reactions to Rian Johnson and The Last Jedi and whether that group is having an affect on Solo, or whether it comes down to bad marketing decisions.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 14 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Host: Allen Voivod
Rating: Good

Star Wars Bookworms: Episode 90 they talk Celebration and tickets, Teresa touches on the Solo book Most Wanted, then they talk about the movie Solo as they go through it, the events, the characters, their thoughts and observations. Good discussion.

Podcast Network: 2nd Airborne Division
Runtime: 1 hour 32 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Teresa, and Aaron
Rating: Good

Star Wars Report: Episode 333 Bruce, Matt Rushing, Mark and Scott Ryfun talk Solo. They share their thoughts, address the response to the movie and expectations. They talk about the feel of the movie, what works, box office numbers, and more. They also talk about the Boba Fett rumor and Celebration. At 1 hour 14 minutes, they interview Last Shot author Daniel José Older who reveals some nice insight into the book. Great interview.

Podcast Network:  2nd Airborne Division
Runtime: 2 hours 14 minutes
Audio Quality: Great
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Bruce, and Mark
Rating: Great

Starships, Sabers, & Scoundrels: Episode 56 they go over Galaxy’s Edge news, Beckett one shot comic news, Solo novelization, and fashion news and Star Wars items in the “That’s So Wizard” segment. Afterwards Bill from DorkLair joins them to talk Solo. They go over general thoughts, how Alden did as Han, Lando, what new characters stood out most to them, favorite scenes, things that didn’t work for them, and more. Great discussion. Taxus does a “Saber Clash” segment for Solo.

Podcast Network:  Retrozap
Runtime: 1 hour 50 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Dennis, Darth Taxus, and Jay
Rating: Fun

Talk Star Wars: Episode 121 they talk about the Boba Fett movie rumors and the Logan director, Solo box office problems, Episode IX, article on sex scenes in Star Wars, listener questions, and then they talk Solo. They talk about Han’s last name, what they liked about the film, and there’s lots of praise. They also talk about the possibility and their thoughts on other spin off films. Good episode.

Podcast Network: Star Wars Commonwealth, 
Runtime: 1 hour 53 minutes
Audio Quality: Good
Editing: Great
Hosts: Rob, and Brad
Rating: Good

Talking Bay 94: Episode 4 features a great interview with Roger Christian who talks about the first time he saw a movie set, being mentored by John Box, getting hired by George Lucas, the return of Han’s dice, designing C-3PO’s eyes, designing R2-D2, the set dressing for Beru’s kitchen, the food, making blue milk, how he found the skeleton for the krayt dragon as well and Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru’s skeletons, making the lightsaber and finding the parts for it, as well as his book Cinema Alchemist and the documentary he’s working on. He also talked about how he got involved with The Phantom Menace, the scenes he worked on, and he mentioned a line Carrie provided for C-3PO. Great stuff, and good audio quality. Definitely give this one a listen.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 52 minutes
Audio Quality: Good
Editing: Excellent
Host: Brandon Wainerdi
Rating: Great

Tatooine Sons: Episode 27 they share their thoughts on Solo after having seen it a couple times. They talk about the poor box office results, they go over the easter eggs, and they explore a what if situation – what if Qi’ra made it off of Corellia instead of Han? Afterwards they go over some news, Star Wars RPG game, and new working titles for Episode IX. Good episode.

Podcast Network: Star Wars Commonwealth
Runtime: 58 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Host: David, Nate, and Samuel
Rating: Good

The Fantha From Down Under: Episode 1 is an Australian podcast hosted by Adam O’Brien. This episode covers news, toys, current shelf status in stores in Australia, and magazine news. Adam talks with guest Jedi Jones about Solo and excitement for the film. Note this is a pre-Solo discussion so they hadn’t seen it yet. Then Adam talks with guest Jedi Shua about Solo, also pre-release, and what they’re looking forward to. Afterwards Adam talks with Keith Kappel from Fantasy Flight Games about writing, working for Fantasy Flight, and how the game works. Audio quality does vary segment to segment from okay to good. The discussions are good, so the show has potential if they can improve the audio quality.

Podcast Network: Fantha Tracks Radio
Runtime: 58 minutes
Audio Quality: Okay
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Adam O’Brien
Rating: Okay

The Geek Supreme: Talking Solo & Cobra Kai they go over Rotten Tomato scores, they talk about Cobra Kai, play a Star Wars spelling bee game, then discuss Solo. Lot of time spent on Solo, so lots of Star Wars discussion. Good episode. Fun as always.

Podcast Network: Assembly of Geeks
Runtime: 1 hour 6 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Darth Taxus, Scott, Jeff and Regina
Rating: Fun

The Great Big Beautiful Podcast: Episode 182 features a conversation with author Patrick Rothfuss. As a fan of his books, I was looking forward to listening to this one, unfortunately they don’t talk about his books in this interview. Instead, the talk with him about his charity work, Geeks Doing Good and Worldbuilders. They talk about social media, and some other tangents which leads them deep in the weeds. In then end, it really wasn’t anything I was interested in. Depending on your interests, you may want to skip this one.

Podcast Network: Geek Dad
Runtime: 1 hour 34 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Jamie, and Samantha
Rating: Okay

The Nerd Room: Episode 121 they talk Solo, first a non-spoiler, general discussion. Then they go over the weak box office performance, then they dig into the movie and spoilers. I have to be honest, this episode felt long to me. And while it was long at over two hours, sometimes a discussion can keep you interested and entertained and two hours can go by before you know it. That wasn’t the case here. Probably could have benefited if it was condensed down.

Podcast Network: Star Wars Commonwealth
Runtime: 2 hours
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Tim, Troy, and Sunjay
Rating: Okay

The Sandcrawler: Episode 52 they talk Solo, their experiences in theaters, and their thoughts on the movie. Good discussion.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 1 hour 20 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Dan, and Mac
Rating: Good

TumblingSaber: Episode 128 they talk birthdays, Boba Fett movie rumors, their thoughts on a Fett movie and the rumored director, then they talk Solo. They share their general thoughts, then they dive in. It’s a slower paced discussion, but thorough and interesting. I loved the observation about L3 noting Han being in love with Qi’ra, monitoring his heart rate, and also stating that Lando is in love with her, possibly implying that his heart rate/body readings change as well around her. They also go over Kasdan’s comments on future Solo stories, and listener feedback. It’s a bit long, but worth checking out. Audio quality is pretty good, but Michelle and Carlos’ feed wasn’t as good.

Podcast Network: Star Wars Commonwealth
Runtime: 2 hours 34 minutes
Audio Quality: Good
Editing: Excellent
Host: Kyle, Cory, Michelle, and Carlos
Rating: Good

Wookiee Radio: Episode 68 they pull up some old audio from 2013 of a conversation with Jimmy Mac where they ticked off what they’d like to see in a Solo movie which all came pretty close to the mark. Back to now, they talk about Solo and share their thoughts and observations. Good discussion.

Podcast Network: We Be Geeks Network
Runtime: 1 hour 9 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Ken, Derrick, and Mike
Rating: Good

Reviewed By: Skuldren for Roqoo Depot.