Podcasts in Review

August 30, 2018 at 12:01 am | Posted in Podcasts, Podcasts in Review, Regular Feature, Reviews, Star Wars | Leave a comment

Here is this week’s Podcasts in Review, starting with the top five and honorable mentions, then moving on to the full reviews.

This Week’s Top Five

The Soundtrack Show Back to the Future, the Music (Part III)
Comic Book Noob Black Manta
Tarkin’s Top Shelf Episode 46
Skywalking Through Neverland Episode 222
Hyperspace PodBlast Episode 79

Honorable Mentions

Canto Cast Episode 42 covers International Talk Like Jar Jar Binks Day which turned out to be surprisingly interesting

Now here is this week’s Podcasts in Review…

Beltway Banthas: Episode 59 is hosted by Stephen and special guest Abby Gleason as they talk about the current real world political situation in the US, then they talk about the Star Wars Resistance trailer. They touch on Kelly Marie Tran’s op-ed piece for The New York Times, then they venture into the politics of some deleted scenes from A New Hope and Revenge of the Sith. They wrap up with more political topics and real world stuff. Overall, good episode.

Podcast Network: RetroZap
Runtime: 56 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Host: Stephen
Rating: Good

Canto Cast: Episode 42 features special guest Mike as they talk about International Talk Like Jar Jar Binks Day. Mike talks about why he started it, putting together the Gungan translator and dictionary, and more. Now coming across the idea online, I wouldn’t have thought too much about it, but hearing Mike talk about it, and especially all the work put into the translator, it’s a pretty cool thing. Afterwards they talk about Star Wars Resistance. Definitely worth a listen.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 50 minutes
Audio Quality: Good
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Jeff, and Tristan
Rating: Good

Children of the Force: Episode 111 they talk about Tom Angleberger’s Star Wars books, Kelly Marie Tran’s New York Times op-ed piece, and the Star Wars Resistance trailer. They go over news for the Star Wars live action TV show, and they touch on Thrawn: Alliances and Vader knowing Palpatine was behind the Clone Wars. Good episode.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 55 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Al, Anna, and Liam
Rating: Good

Coffee With Kenobi: Episode 139 features guests Amiyrah Martin and Jared Cantor as they talk about Star Wars Resistance, then they get into raising kids with Star Wars. Interesting discussion. Good episode.

Podcast Network: Coffee With Kenobi
Runtime: 1 hour 25 minutes
Audio Quality: Great
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Dan Z.
Rating: Good

Comic Book Noob: Black Manta they talk about the character’s first appearance, his role as Aquaman’s arch villain, his backstory, his hatred toward Aquaman, his weaponry and his suit. Great episode and a must listen to prepare yourself for the upcoming Aquaman movie. As always, they keep it educational and fun.

Podcast Network: Assembly of Geeks,
Runtime: 28 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Scott, Matt, and Regina
Rating: Great

Fly Casual: Episode 192 kicks off with gym stories, Saturday Night Live, then they get to the Star Wars as they go over some Starlog magazine letters. They review Star Wars #52, Darth Vader #19, and Thrawn: Alliances. They have a pa pa segment, then they discuss Return of the Jedi. They talk about seeing it the first time, their favorite moments, and their thoughts on the special edition version. Good episode.

Podcast Network: Betterkind Media
Runtime: 2 hours 4 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Corey, Steve, Garrick, and Mike
Rating: Good

Grand Moff Talkin’: Episode 64 opens with a lack of editing as they fool around with “What would your favorite Star Wars character buy at Wal-mart?” Then the show proper kicks off as they talk about the state of Star Wars. They talk about fandom, Star Wars: The Clone Wars returning, the movies, television, video games, Zeke jumps in a little for video game ideas, then they get into books, Kathleen Kennedy, comics and they wrap up with bloopers.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 1 hour 10 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Great
Hosts: Riley, Jake, Isaac, and Jazmine
Rating: Good

Hyperspace PodBlast: Episode 79 they talk with author Michael Morcei about the Flight of the Falcon series, the IDW Star Wars Adventures comics he’s doing, including an Agent Kallus story, what it’s like doing a Star Wars story, and he talks about his own book Black Star Renegades. Good interview and some nice insight on his upcoming Star Wars comic.

Podcast Network: Hyperspace PodBlast
Runtime: 28 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Bryan, and Shelby
Rating: Good

Kessel Run Weekly: Episode 100 they celebrate their milestone, go over listener questions, they talk about Star Wars fandom, and then they have members of their family on as they play “Would Your Rather” for various Star Wars stuff, and share their favorite Star Wars memories. Good episode.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 55 minutes
Audio Quality: Great
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Danny, and Kristen
Rating: Good

Lattes With Leia: Episode 30 beings with some catching up and what they’ve been up to. Then they dive into they psychology of people having relationships with fictional characters. They talk about parasocial relationships, the different ways people develop relationships with fictional characters, how they affect us, the positive and the negative aspects. Interesting discussion.

Podcast Network: Coffee With Kenobi
Runtime: 1 hour 18 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Amy, and Andrea
Rating: Good

Skywalking Through Neverland: Episode 222 is part two of their conversation with Terri Hardin. She talks about her one sheet poster collection, the rare Star Wars posters she has and her Steve Sansweet story, her movie work for films like Dune and Ghostbusters — which is pretty cool, and her long road to becoming a Disney Imagineer and her work on the dragon at Disneyland Paris. Lots of great stories

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 1 hour 31 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Richard, and Sarah
Rating: Good

Star Wars 7×7: Episode 1516 goes over one of the new excerpts from the Solo novelization to explore the time gap of how Qi’ra ended up with Dryden.

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

Star Wars 7×7: Episode 1517 goes over one of the new excerpts from the Solo novelization to explore the idea of L3-37 being one of three droid brains in the Millennium Falcon.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 11 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Host: Allen Voivod
Rating: Good

Starships, Sabers, and Scoundrels: Episode 62 they talk about the swimming pool for Kenobi and Kylo and Taxus dives deeper into the issue by talking with one of the people from In-Sync Exotics as they get into where the tiger cubs came from and the planned pool for them. Afterwards they go into the news, they talk about the return of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the trailer for Star Wars Resistance, and they have a Skystalking update for upcoming conventions and events. From there, they review Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn: Alliances. They don’t get into any spoilers so it’s a safe listen whether you’ve read it or not. They wrap up with some feedback on Star Wars chases. Good episode.

Podcast Network: Retrozap
Runtime: 1 hour 46 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Dennis, Taxus, and Jay
Rating: Good

Talk Star Wars: Episode 133 they talk about the Force, Force ghosts, Episode IX, the end of the Skywalker saga, Richard E. Grant not being Thrawn, Star Wars Resistance, and Star Wars mobile games. Good episode.

Podcast Network: Star Wars Commonwealth,
Runtime: 1 hour 23 minutes
Audio Quality: Great
Editing: Excellent
Host: Rob, and Brad
Rating: Good

Tarkin’s Top Shelf: Episode 45 goes over Star Wars Resistance as they talk about the trailer. Then they talk some about Favreau’s Star Wars TV show, and they speculate on what characters might be included in Star Wars Resistance (like characters from the Phasma novel or Bloodline). Good discussion.

Podcast Network: MakingStarWars.net
Runtime: 49 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Becca, and Mark
Rating: Good

Tarkin’s Top Shelf: Episode 46 features a new intro (which I like), and special guest Michael Kogge, the author of The Last Jedi junior novelization. He talks about writing and exploring the moment between Leia and Kylo Ryn, writing the prologue, writing the death of Luke, and more. Neat interview and worth checking out. While I have not read the junior novelization, this interview certainly piqued my interest in it.

Podcast Network: MakingStarWars.net
Runtime: 49 minutes
Audio Quality: Great
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Becca, and Mark
Rating: Good

TechnoRetro Dads: Star Wars Aftershocks featuring Battle Beyond the Stars they talk with Paul Bateman about the movie Battle Beyond the Stars. They talk about watching the movie as kids, the special effects, the ship designs, the story, the actors and more.

Podcast Network: Retrozap
Runtime: 50 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Host: JediShua, and Shazbazzar
Rating: Fun

The Crimson Files: Episode 1: Ghost Hunter, Bird Catcher is the first episode of an action/comedy audio drama centered on a super hero called the Crimson Crane. There are different people doing voices for all the parts, and there’s sound effects and music, making it a full production. In this episode some amateur ghost hunters investigate a haunted school, then wind up catching the Crimson Crane on film. It’s interesting. If you’re into audio dramas, you might want to check this one out.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 27 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: N/A
Rating: Good

The Deucecast Movie Show: Episode 341 features Dave, Mikey and Pinky as they talk about The Meg‘s success, Oscar show changes, and Movie Pass going down hill. Then they do their Fall movie preview as they go over all the movies coming out this fall, weekend-by-weekend.

Podcast Network: Retrozap
Runtime: 1 hour 13 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Dave, and Mikey
Rating: Good

The Deucecast Movie Show: Episode 342 features Dave, Mikey, Pinky and special guest Nathan as they go over movie anniversaries, talk Australia and Australian cinema, and then go over their top five Australian movies and/or Australian actors.

Podcast Network: Retrozap
Runtime: 51 minutes
Audio Quality: Great
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Dave, and Mikey
Rating: Good

The Imperial Senate Podcast: Thrawn: Alliances Part 1 they go over the first 10 chapters. Worth noting, they’ve only read the first 10 chapters for this episode, so their review is just based on that since they don’t know how the story will pan out yet, which is kind of interesting. They talk about Palpatine testing Vader and Thrawn, Batuu as one of the main locations, the Grysk as the new Vong, speculations, and their feelings on the first half of the book.

Podcast Network: Not Saf For Work,
Runtime: 1 hour 22 minutes
Audio Quality: Great
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Nicky, and Claire
Rating: Good

The Nerd Room: Episode 132 they go over their thoughts on Hasbro Black Series items and collecting, they talk about the Venom movie, Sony and their Marvel character universe, and they wrap up with Star Wars Resistance as they talk about the trailer and the show. Good episode and good discussions.

Podcast Network: Star Wars Commonwealth
Runtime: 45 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Tim, and Troy
Rating: Good

The Resistance Broadcast: Is Luke Skywalker the Reason for Rey’s Force Awakening? they share their thoughts on Star Wars Resistance, speculate whether Joonas will be back as Chewbacca after Episode IX, discuss Snoke’s other apprentice, and for their main discussion, they talk about whether Luke cutting himself off from the Force helped create the awakening in Rey. Plus they tackle listener feedback. Good episode.

Podcast Network: N/A,
Runtime: 59 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: John, James, and Lacey
Rating: Good

The Sandcrawler: Episode 58 goes over their thoughts on Black Series wish list figures, sets, vehicles and creatures as they break it down movie-by-movie. For instance, wish list figure for The Phantom Menace – Anakin and his podracer. It leads to a fun discussion for collectors as they think about what they’d like to see Hasbro make.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 1 hour 2 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Dan, and Mac
Rating: Fun

The Skyhoppers Podcast: Episode CIX starts off with a little Morrowind tangent, then they talk about Star Wars Marvel comic artist Salvador Larroca — fair warning, it’s not to praise him. This leads into comics territory as they talk about the Darth Vader comic series, Star Wars comics and comics in general. Then they discuss the Star Wars Resistance trailer and some general Star Wars television discussion. Good episode.

Podcast Network: Star Wars Commonwealth
Runtime: 1 hour 12 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Ben, and Ash
Rating: Good

The Soundtrack Show: Back to the Future, the Music (Part III) Dave talks about how the bad is able to play an unfamiliar song and how 12 bar blues works. He goes over the twinkling sound heard throughout the score, clock motifs, other motifs and themes. This episode wraps up the Back to the Future discussion. Great one to check out.

Podcast Network: HowStuffWorks
Runtime: 42 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: David Collins
Rating: Great

Thought Bombs with Bright Tree Radio: Episode IX Leia and TV Series’ Influence they talk about whether it is a good decision to include Leia in Episode IX via unused footage, the things they could do, and speculation on what will happen. Then they move on to discuss the lack of books no new film characters, the Solo film, and the influence of Star Wars TV series on Star Wars movies. Good episode.

Podcast Network: Bright Tree Radio
Runtime: 45 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Sophie, and Phil
Rating: Good

TSW Comics: Issue #12 covers a little Fantastic Four, then they talk about the Poe Dameron series, the Beckett one shot, Darth Vader Annual #2, SDCC exclusives, and Star Wars Adventures. They they get into the Darth Vader series, the Mon Cal arc, Darth Vader #18, and they do a full spoiler review of Darth Vader #19. Good episode.

Podcast Network: Star Wars Commonwealth,
Runtime: 1 hour 18 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Host: Rob, and Tim
Rating: Good