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So this post needs a little context, but it ends in something I hope will make you smile.
I have been very slow to the podcast game. I know it is the great new medium of our time, and I know I have been letting it pass me by. 1/17
So this post needs a little context, but it ends in something I hope will make you smile.
I have been very slow to the podcast game. I know it is the great new medium of our time, and I know I have been letting it pass me by. 1/17
Many people have demanded I give George Carlin's Hardcore History a try because it's perfect for me. I have listened to 5 or 6 hours, & I admit it's fantastic, but I also knew most of what he was saying already, & I read 10 times faster than I listen, so I gave up on it. 2/17
A colleague at work has recommended podcasts to me. We've even attended a podcasting conference together to help me prepare to launch my company's podcast. That's right. I host a podcast as part of my job. I still very rarely listen to them. 3/17
My New Year's Resolution for 2020 was to get more into podcasts. My girlfriend is super-into podcasts. Still, not doing it.
Then 72 or 73 days into a global pandemic, I started listening to podcasts while I was sitting at my desk working from home. 4/17
Then 72 or 73 days into a global pandemic, I started listening to podcasts while I was sitting at my desk working from home. 4/17
It started simply enough. I'd been listening to @BenFolds & Ben Gibbard, & then YouTube suggested podcast interviews with those artists. It is easier to let something play for an hour than go hunting for 15 4-minute songs, so I listened & learned & enjoyed & passed the time. 5/17
Years ago I was very into @cracked, & once I'd listened to a few music interview podcasts, YouTube suggested some old Cracked podcasts that I'd never listened to because I don't listen to podcasts. One of those podcasts had the women from @MyFavMurder on it. 6/17
After listening to their contributions to the Cracked podcast, I thought, "Huh, that's pretty interesting." So I listened to a few of their own episodes. They chat back and forth in such a pleasant way while telling these terrible, terrible stories. 7/17
That's not an experience I could replicate by reading. I need to hear them talk it out. The medium is the message, and @MyFavMurder's medium is podcasting. 8/17
Thoroughly impressed, I asked my girlfriend —podcast listener & big True Crime fan— what she thought of their podcast; without moving her feet from where she was standing she reached over & picked up an autographed playbill from one of their live shows from off her desk. 9/17
So I decided to broaden my foray into podcasts a little further. @cracked fired all my favourite writers and actors several years ago. I follow them all on Twitter, and most of them have landed okay. They all also have podcasts. So I decided to explore those. 10/17
That brings me to today's story.
Minutes ago I was listening to @DOB_INC and @Soren_Ltd, two former @cracked writers who now write for @LastWeekTonight with John Oliver and @AmericanDadTBS respectively. They have a podcast, @QQ_SorenandDan. 11/17
Minutes ago I was listening to @DOB_INC and @Soren_Ltd, two former @cracked writers who now write for @LastWeekTonight with John Oliver and @AmericanDadTBS respectively. They have a podcast, @QQ_SorenandDan. 11/17
They somehow went down the rabbithole of favourite translators of epic poems and sagas. I ask you, where else but on a podcast would you ever hear two professional comedy writers talk about that? 12/17
Anyway, @DOB_INC was explaining why he passionately believes Beowulf's best translation is the 2001 one that begins with 'So.' As he was saying that, I thought, "God, that's nerdy, but that's exactly how I feel about Robert Fagles' translations of The Iliad & The Odyssey." 13/17
Seriously, you guys. I've read The Iliad and The Odyssey many times. I doubt I'll ever read another version again. Robert Fagles' versions leave everyone else in the dust. 14/17
No sooner is the thought in my head, then @Soren_Ltd literally said, "That's exactly how I feel about this guy named Robert Fagles who translates Homer," and he then went on to say exactly how I feel about it. 15/17
I'm dancing around like an idiot, grinning like a mad man, pumping my fist in the air, for reasons that take 16 tweets to explain: A comedy writer I've followed for at least the last 15 years has the same opinions about Ancient Greek translators as I do. 16/17
That makes me insanely happy for no good reason.
Podcasts are awesome, you guys.
/end of thread
Podcasts are awesome, you guys.
/end of thread
