I can’t really be against podcasts. I know, I know, my fans are probably disappointed: “Surely Pat can find some minor foible to harp on.” The truth of the matter is…. I can, but it’s like criticizing Google for finding a copious amounts of worthless web pages. Poor podcasts are like poor web pages: weakly executed and devoid of content. Since I came to the realization some years ago that more than 75% of the internet can be ignored for various reasons (i.e.: factually inaccurate, abandoned web sites, biased opinions, lascivious pages of ill repute, etc.), I take the internet-at-large with a grain of salt. That’s why I can accept podcasts as they are, because they aren’t trying to be anything more than the internet.
Podcasts aren’t innovation, per se, they are an audio extension of what is generally a visual medium.
Sifting through the wretched refuse of the general mass of these is too great a task for me this day, but luckily I’ve got a backup. I’m an occasional listener of the Penny Arcade podcast (I’d provide a link, but the language they use probably makes this NSFW), which is two guys who draw a comic strip on the web. Their comic, and really all their content, stems from the hobby of video games, something I grew up with and, being of similar age, had a very similar experience of with the creators. Their acerbic wit, individual psychoses, and general attitude keeps the listening absorbing.
Don’t you realize that I wouldn’t pause,
that I would cut him down with my claws
if I could have somehow never let that happen?
