Here’s some stuff I have recently heard and liked in the podcast world.
I cite Gerry Spence frequently, and mention his book How to Argue & Win Every Time in the podcast a lot. Recently I heard him talk about his new book Bloodthirsty Bitches and Pious Pimps of Power: The Rise and Risks of the New Conservative Hate Culture on the Authors on Tour podcast. It was a very good talk, and he said a lot of the things I wish I was hearing from progressive politicians about how the concentration of broadcasting media power in a few hands undermines democracy. He mentioned how he can’t get on TV for this book and is worried his message won’t get out, but sir I heard you without any intervention of major media. If I start feeling my oats, I might even see if I can get him for an interview. I do recommend this episode.
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Irrational Public Radio is downright hilarious. I’m a little surprised it has been going on for so long without me ever hearing about it. It rings so true with me because it completely reinforces the things that have been bugging me about NPR lately. I’ve been meaning to write a post about it but I haven’t gotten around to it. If you listen to these shows, a lot of what I meant to say is captured in this pitch perfect parody.
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My friend Chris mentioned in comments to a post here that the April episode of WREK’s Eyedrum Sunday Special was especially good. I listened to it today and agree with him. There is a chunk in there of live Peter Brötzmann that sounded fantastic to me. It put me in mind of Bitches Brew/Agharta era Miles Davis, with that African influenced screaming jazz with a funky underlayer. It did indeed rock.
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William Shunn is about to wrap up his serialized podcast of his memoir The Accidental Terrorist. I’ve been waiting for the book for 10 years, since he mentioned it on GEnie long ago. I highly recommend that people go back, grab all 40 or so episodes of the show and listen to the whole thing. It took me (and him!) a year to get through it, but you can do it in a week now. I guarantee it will be worth your time or triple your money back.
Hi, Dave! Thanks for the shout-out, and the final installment of the memoir just went live minutes ago.
“He mentioned how he can’t get on TV for this book …”
Maybe the talk show circuit is finally tired of advertising nasty partisan political diatribes. (I haven’t read it, but c’mon, just look at that title). Nothing like a good conspiracy theory to get underground advertising tho…
Doesn’t the whole setup of this strike you odd, a book about how one should hate conservatives because conservatives use media to spread hate?
IPR is fantastic. Especially the fundraising and fake ads segments. Thanks for the tip.
Can’t remember if I already commented on this, but thanks for the plug! Glad you dig the show, and subscribe to our blog as well for updates and other whatnot 🙂
http://www.IrrationalPublicRadio.com/blog.html
Joe
IPR : Irrational Public Radio
Whoops, never replied here. Bill, I dug it! Always happy to bang the Shunn drum.
zgatt/Jim, supposing for an instant that things really are as bad as Spence says. How do you fight that any way other than full on? The right has worked very hard to move the direction of discourse the last 30 years. Now what is considered the “center” is really the right wing of the 70’s and what would be classically centrist liberal positions are considered to be loony left. The right didn’t move these boundaries by playing nice, and they don’t get moved back that way either.
Garrick, I’m with you!
Joe, Keep them coming as fast as you can. I love them.
To bad you don’t really know Gerry Spence because the people who do know he is a dirt-bag, but no one will say that due to his connections. I have heard personal accounts of him attempting to violate a mans wife at a private party in front of others.