Month: September 2019

Helwani’s MMA show is a professionally done podcast by a media member of ESPN Ariel Helwani. His podcast consists mainly of interviews with Martial arts athletes, coaches, and sometimes even celebrity fans of the sport. The podcast is mainly for fans of the sport. The podcast is available on iTunes and Youtube. The 2 most recent episodes on youtube each have over 100k views; additionally specific clips from each podcast can get well over 250k views. When first getting into the podcast its better to just watch the most recently uploaded episode. The episodes are extremely lengthy and can range up to 3 hours in length, making going back and watching every episode quite an unrealistic task. With regards to the kind of impact the podcast has on the sport it varies. Some interviews wind up being extremely emotional with athletes letting off a lot of whats on their mind, and sometimes they have things to say about their opponents which can lead to lots of controversy, but as well as a lot of hype for upcoming fights. A really well done interview on the show can sometimes help propel athletes into stardom; but some athletes can sometimes appear to be trying too hard and actually hurt their reputation instead.

I listen to a few podcasts and they are all different in content and format. However, one of my favorite podcasts is Criminal, hosted by Phoebe Judge. Criminal is the kind of podcast that makes me feel scared, curious, angry and extremely engaged because it tells many real crime stories that one might think that they belong to a fiction podcast. With the help of an amazing narration by Phoebe, the episodes usually explore some bizarre stories that some listeners want to share or that Phoebe herself investigates.
In terms of format, there is always one person that is involved in the story somehow being interviewed by Phoebe in an engaging and journalistic way. There are also many soundbites that are used to connect the pieces of the story together along with the mysterious sound in the background, which works really well with the idea of expectation and crime. The episodes are not very long, varying from 20-40 minutes each, and the stories are explained in a detailed way. That said, one of my favorite episodes from Criminal is A Bump in the Night (#71).

One podcast I listen to rather regularly is the New York Time’s The Daily. The podcast  starts with an introduction from the lead journalist setting the stage for the upcoming story. The introduction is usually scripted and is then followed by a series of interviews that compliment the story. Music is usually only used as transitions between scripted dialogue and interview clips. The outro is usually a simple summary of the story, perspective into what the future of the story holds, and sign-off by the journalist.

The statcast podcast is purely about baseball from a statistical point of view, introducing new players who are performing beyond expectations, veterans who have been under performing, and everything in between. There are many ways they go about analyzing players, teams, and the organizations as a whole, but sometimes they even tell short stories about a players career that can make you feel closer to a player and his journey becoming a professional. The combination of pure statistics lightened by short stories of a players life creates a mix that’s entertaining to listen to being a fan.

This podcast is intended for baseball fans who want too consistently updates themselves on who are the newest starts of the game and forgotten gems who could surprise in the near future. A pair of host talk to each other in an unscripted manner but do have a scripted layout of their topics. Considering this podcast is owned by MLB there are little to none advertisements, but any advertisements are of MLB.

Statcast podcast is distributed via apple podcast or on their website. The popularity isn’t very high considering it’s targeting only baseball fans and more specifically baseball fans into statistics of the game. No waves have been made outside of the baseball world but within the effects have been positive, specifically baseball twitter.

Since each episode is very similar in the use of statistics and forecasting of future performances, any latest episode would be a good start. The reason is because the hosts do a great job of consistently making the information easy to understand and always have new information ready to make you consider statistics differently.

The podcast that I find myself listening to and enjoying is called The Collector’s House.  It’s actually really interesting, because the podcast is part of MatchesFashion.com which is an online luxury retailer that is based in England. This podcast is intended for anyone who shows an interest in fashion. Each episode is a conversation with the host Danielle Radojcin and a special guest in which she asks them to choose five things that they would like to feature in a cupboard at 5 Carlos Place, London (the Matches Fashion headquarters) and give the reasoning as to why those are the items they chose. The podcast is formatted in a standard interview way. It is very relaxed and the only thing scripted is the intro and closing of each episode. It makes it feel as if the listener sitting with the host and the guest as the interview goes on.  I haven’t noticed any advertisements in the episodes I’ve listened to. I would say that the podcast is an advertisement for Matches Fashion seeing as most of the guests are designers that Matches Fashion carries in their online shop.  I don’t think it is super popular here in the U.S. but it may be popular in the U.K. Some episodes I would recommend to start off with are Alexa Chung’s episode, because she is hilarious and I am obsessed with her as well as Penny Martin’s episode, because its very fascinating to hear how she went from studying art history to becoming the one of the people to launch the biannual women’s magazine The Gentlewoman.

Today explained is a podcast from vox. And vox is an American news and opinion website distributed by vox media. The purpose of this podcast is to introduce to people the biggest news for the day, from Mondays through Friday.  The podcast is intended for anyone interested in news, especially in news away from politics at times. Today explained focuses most of the time on stories that are not focused much on mainstream media. It uses an interview-style format from experts from subjects they are focusing on. From week to week they offer different advertising from products to promotions from other podcast outlets like stitcher radio who also produces the podcast along with vox.  Though there is no ranking to match it along with another podcast in terms of popularity. Vox today explained does hold a 4.6 out of 5-star rating with over three thousand reviews on apple podcast.  It’s difficult to say if it has made waves but being from a big media outlet.  And also having a great rating it’s safe to assume so, also it is promoted heavily through vox and other sites like vulture.com have covered its release in February 2018.  When it comes to this particular podcast any episode is good to start with because it focuses primarily on individual issues that can sometimes have nothing to do with the last episode.

The podcast I chose to listen and analyze was a random one I found on apples podcast app called “Darknet Diaries.” Each episode of the podcast (aside from there sometimes being different parts of the same story) explores various parts of the “dark” side of the internet. Since every episode of this podcast is different, it is not a necessity to listen to them from the beginning and a listener could begin where ever they wanted. The podcast consist of both host and interview and scripted and explains in sometimes extensive and boring details on how cyber crimes are committed. The two episodes I listened to were 45 and 46 which are called “Xbox Underground” parts one and two. In both episodes I noticed how the podcast just started off with journalist Jack Rhysider jumping right into the episodes. Curious as to where the advertisements were I went on the website for the podcast and it stated that up to episode 40, Rhysider did everything for this podcast solo. He did the investigating, the writing, editing, publishing etc. After the 40 episodes writers, graphic designers and others help him with the show. The podcast currently has 4.9 stars on Apple podcast with 1,361 customer reviews so I’d say it’s been well received.

https://www.apmreports.org/in-the-dark/season-one 

The podcasts I focus on are mystery/true crime podcasts. The first season of the podcast In the Dark is 10 episodes and explores the abduction/murder of Jacob Wetterling (an 11-year-old boy) in rural Minnesota. Wetterling’s case went unsolved for 27 years until his remains were discovered on September 1st, 2016 which was revealed by Dan Heinrich, who also admitted to the crimes. APM Reports and reporter Madeleine Baran reveal how, as Baran puts it, “Jacob’s kidnapping was a huge deal here, it changed the way people parented children. It made kids afraid to go outside at night and it even led to a federal law that requires all states to maintain registries of sex offenders.” The first season was released in September 2016 with an update in 2018 of the Stearns County sheriff who provided detail of his predecessors’ faults. 

The podcast is a combination of scripted and host interviews. The format goes with some clips of T.V. or radio reports of the case during that time then, Baran speaks for a while or does an interview. Throughout the episodes, she has around 3-4 interviews (parents, friends, Dan Heinrich, FBI agents). Since it is a crime podcast, it’s best to listen from the beginning – after Baran introduces those who helped with the creation of the podcast (producer, editors, etc.), she states to go back to the first episode to understand it. It’s just straight investigative journalism, no advertising which I really like since the podcast had me hooked from beginning to end. 

Drink Champs is a podcast that is about hip hop, It is intended for hip hop fans that appreciate stories about how older hip hop figures came up in the rap scene and even how some of the new rappers came up in the rap scene. So they interview more older rap artist or even some older music executives that are responsible for a lot of careers in that field. This podcast is not scripted, it is more like a host interview style. In terms of advertising, Drink Champs went from a regular youtube podcast to signing deal with television network,  Revolt Tv, which founded Sean Combs, also known as Diddy. Revolt TV is a music oriented digital cable television network. Throughout the years Drink Champs grew bigger and bigger, with its casual setting, while interviewing their guest, everyone is free to drink as much as they want. They provide different types of liquor for their guest. Drink Champs has had some good reviews from their audience. Since this podcast isn’t in a particular order you can start with which ever guest you are more likely to be interested in. To add to their long list of hip hop figures on their podcast, actors like Marlon Wayan also made appearances on the podcast.