Pop Culture Happy Hour | Jmunney's Blog

The 2022 Podcast Roundup

January 9, 2023

jmunney Best of 2022, Podcasts Best of 2022, Bjork: Sonic Symbolism, Blank Check with Griffin & David, Comedy Bang! Bang!, Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, Dead Eyes, Doughboys, Girls on Porn, Holly Randall Unfiltered, How Did This Get Made?, However I Wish You Luck, Inside Jeopardy!, Into It, Judge John Hodgman, Podcasts, Pop Culture Happy Hour, Pop Mom, Ruined, Scott Hasn't Seen, Six Seasons & a Podcast, Squirrel Girl, Squirrel Girl podcast, That's Auntertainment, The Letterboxd Show, Wastelanders: Wolverine, Welcome to Our Show, You Can't Disappoint a Podcast, You Must Rember This Leave a comment

Podcast, anyone?* More like Podcasts, everyone! What I’m trying to say is, it seems like everyone in the whole entire world is making a podcast nowadays. Or at least listening to them.

I’ve certainly been listening to dozens, if not hundreds**, in the past year. So without further ado, (and instead with further adon’t), here’s my roundup of my biggest takeaways from listening to podcasts in 2022, organized by category.

(*-Like “Tennis, anyone?” but replace “tennis” with “podcast.”)

(**-I guess it depends on if you count by the show or by the episode. Or how kooky you’re feeling.)

The Best Podcasts of 2020, According to jmunney’s Ears

January 11, 2021

jmunney Best of 2020, Podcasts A.P. Bio, A.P. Bio: The Podcast, Advanced Community Studies, Apartment 303, Best of 2020, Blank Check with Griffin & David, Comedy Bang! Bang!, Communication Studies, Community, Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, Cool Abed Films Chat, Cult Movie Cult, Dead Eyes, Dead Times, Dom and Andre in the Morning, Drag Her, Fighting in the War Room, Fluffy Town, Good Morning Greendale, Good One, How Did This Get Made?, Inside Conan: An Important Hollywood Podcast, Judge John Hodgman, MetaMeta, Newcomers, Oh Hello the P'dcast, Podcasts, Pop Culture Happy Hour, Pop Mom, Save Greendale Committee, Shipping Room Podcast, Six Seasons & a Podcast, That's Auntertainment, The Anonymous Advice Podcast, The AP Bio Rewatch Podcast, The Community Rewatch Podcast, The Darkest Timeline, The Greendale Seven Podcast, The Record, The Ron Burgundy Podcast, U Talkin' Talking Heads 2 My Talking Head?, Unspooled, Welcome to Greendale, You Can't Disappoint a Podcast Leave a comment

Any ranking of the best entertainment of the year is necessarily incomplete and represents the personal proclivities of the ranker, and that’s especially true in the case of podcasts. I listen to more podcasts than anyone I know personally (by a wide margin), but that’s still less than approximately 0.0001% of all the podcasts out there. So for my Best Podcasts of 2020 feature, I decided to make it particularly personal by listing ALL the podcasts that I listened to in the past year, because they’re all special, and all worth shouting out. I’ve organized them into a few categories: 2020 Debuts, Veterans, a few specialty categories that you’ll discover when you get to them, and Podcasts That I Host.

Best Podcasts of the 2010s

March 19, 2020

jmunney Best of the 2010s, Best of the Decade, Podcasts And a Movie: A Community Retrospective, Andy Daly Podcast Pilot Project, Best of the 2010s, Best of the Decade, Blank Check with Griffin & David, Comedy Bang! Bang!, Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, Cult Movie Cult, Dead Times, Drag Her, Fighting in the War Room, Fluffy Town, Fundamentals of Community Podcasting, Good One, Harmontown, How Did This Get Made?, I Think You're Interesting, In Your Dreams, Inside Conan: An Important Hollywood Podcast, Judge John Hodgman, Podcasts, Pop Culture Happy Hour, Pop Mom, Primetime, R U Talkin' R.E.M. RE:ME?, Shipping Room Podcast, Show and Yell, That's Auntertainment, The Awards Show Show, The Ron Burgundy Podcast, The Vulture TV Podcast, Topics, U Talkin' U2 to Me?, Unspooled, WTF 1 Comment

Any ranking of the best of the best must come with the caveat that the ranker hasn’t seen/heard everything, and that’s especially true in the case of podcasting, despite it being one of the youngest entertainment mediums around. Obviously I didn’t listen to every podcast released in the 2010s, but I did listen to my fair share. My feed mainly consisted of comedy, pop culture, and comedic pop culture shows. But even if I confine myself to those categories, I cannot claim that I was anywhere near comprehensive. So then, what you are about to read is the revelation of my podcast journey I went on in the past decade.

Best Podcasts of 2019

February 16, 2020

jmunney Best of 2019, Podcasts Best of 2019, Blank Check with Griffin & David, Comedy Bang! Bang!, Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, Good One, Harmontown, How Did This Get Made?, Judge John Hodgman, Podcasts, Pop Culture Happy Hour, Pop Mom, R U Talkin' R.E.M. RE: ME?, The Ron Burgundy Podcast, Unspooled Leave a comment

I continued my regimen of podcast listening as usual in 2019, so here’s a quick rundown of the audio shows that were tickling my ears and my brain the best the past year.

1. Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend
2. Black Check with Griffin and David
3. How Did This Get Made?
4. Harmontown
5. Judge John Hodgman
6. The Ron Burgundy Podcast
7. Pop Mom
8. Pop Culture Happy Hour
9. Unspooled
10. Good One: A Podcast About Jokes

Honorable Mentions
R U Talkin’ R.E.M. RE: ME (Always a transcendent pleasure, but only released four new episodes in 2019.)
Comedy Bang! Bang! (Released plenty of episodes, but I only listened to a few of them.)

Vulture Festival 2016

May 30, 2016

jmunney Better Call Saul, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Difficult People, Happy Endings, Mr. Robot, Television Better Call Saul, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Difficult People, Happy Endings, How Did This Get Made?, Mr. Robot, Pop Culture Happy Hour, Vulture, Vulture Festival, You're the Worst, Younger Leave a comment

vulture-festival

Last weekend, I attended several panels at the Vulture Festival, an annual pop culture extravaganza thrown by the entertainment wing of New York Magazine. Here’s how it went down.

DAY 1: SATURDAY, 5/21/2016

Breaking Better Call Saul
Vulture TV critic Matt Zoller Seitz chatted with Rhea Seehorn, Michael McKean, and BCS co-creator Peter Gould. Bob Odenkirk joined in via phone (which was unfortunate because he is not the type of guy who will be all “Awkward setup be damned!” and just jump into the conversation). This was a rather engaging discussion, as these folks are eager and eloquent when discussing their process. One major point was the inevitability posed by Breaking Bad already establishing where Jimmy/Saul’s life is headed. To this end, Peter noted how fans often ask him if Kim and Chuck will die, which he at first thought was due to a lack of imagination but then realized it was more about a concern from people in the hope that their favorite fictional characters will remain alive and well.
I had a chance to talk with Rhea Seehorn after the panel. I asked her if she would be submitting as Lead or Supporting for the Emmys this year. She said that her publicists take care of that, but she was pretty sure they would be putting her down for Supporting. When I mentioned that I blog my Emmy prognostications every year, she asked for my info so that she could check out my stuff.