Category: announcements

Have a Cool Yule Y’all

No review this week sorry. As I write this, I am elbow deep in wrapping paper and working out timings for cooking my Christmas dinner. As you read this, I will be elbow deep in shredded wrapping paper and seeing if my timing estimates are indeed accurate.

I can’t believe that I’ve managed to do this for a year without losing interest (this really is a rare occurrence). I have already paid for another year’s hosting, so I’ll stick at this for at least another year!

In case you want to get ahead of me, then the next few shows I review (in no particular order) will be.

A Tradition Of Violence
Deviltown
Badlands
Death In The Afternoon
The Lovecraft Tapes

I hope you all have a happy Christmas if you celebrate it, if you don’t then try to enjoy the endless crap on TV. You could always listen to a podcast instead…

Bah Humbug!

And the winner is!

Trophy pic

December 2nd marked the 1st anniversary of me launching this blog. In a rather preemptive strike on the traditional end of year lists that will invariably clog up all your timelines in a few weeks, I thought I’d get in with my rather unofficial awards celebrating the best (in my opinion) podcasts you can get. So, ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce the first annual podcastgeek awards ceremony!

Some shows I will have reviewed, and I’ll be adding links to the reviews where available. Others will be reviewed as soon as I get round to it. Each category will have a shortlist of five entries in no special order apart from how they spring to mind. At the end of each shortlist we will have the winners. I hope you have the patience to read all the way through. It shouldn’t take too long!

Now, there may well be some glaring omissions, especially if you’ve been following this blog for a while, but seeing as this will be an annual event, there is always next year, and I promise no series will win more than once.

The drinks are flowing here at the podcastgeek enormodome and the guests are waiting with bated breath to see who takes the gongs home. So without further ado, I’ll roll out the red carpet as the spotlights rake the night sky, put on my best bib and tucker and heap praise on a multitude of shows. DRUMROLL PLEASE!

Best fiction podcast

This was a tough one, because the entire shortlist is excellent, ultimately though, the result will come as no surprise to anyone who’s read my reviews.

The winner is THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES!

Magnus Archives Logo

Best true crime podcast

  • Hunting Warhead
  • The Lazarus Heist
  • Death In Ice Valley
  • Deep Cover
  • The World’s Greatest Con

Another tough one. Another 5 incredible shows, but there’s only one winner tonight. This podcast won just for the fact that there is some resolution to the crimes, and the fact that there are no real trigger warnings.

The winner is THE WORLD’S GREATEST CON!

World's Greatest Con logo

Best gaming/geek culture podcast

I had originally intended to spend a month or so only reviewing this rather niche area of the podcastverse, but I didn’t want to lose either of my regular subscribers, so I decided against it. Anyway, these are five very worthy podcasts, but for the sheer range of subject matter there can be only one (as the highlander would say).

The winner is HYPNOGORIA.

Hypnogoria Logo

Best science podcast

Originally I avoided science podcasts, thinking they would be stuffy and boring (despite having an interest in science). How wrong I was. The podcasts here are all very accessible and very entertaining.

The winner is BIG PICTURE SCIENCE.

Big Picture Science logo

Best comedy podcast

Over the years, I have listened to plenty of “comedy” podcasts that are as funny as standing on a plug. The shortlist here though are all very, very funny indeed. That said, in much the same way the The Magnus Archives was a rather predictable win, so is this. This one is a very sweary win “fae Dougie, Lee and John the dug”.

The winner is A SCOTTISH PODCAST.

A Scottish Podcast logo

Best paranormal/folklore podcast

I could have happily had four of Danny Robins’ podcasts and one other to make up the numbers, but that wouldn’t be fair, especially with so many interesting paranormal and folklore podcasts out there. The winner of this category really takes top spot, like hypnogoria, for the sheer breadth of subject matter. This really is a great series.

The winner is BONE AND SICKLE.

Bone And Sickle logo

Best factual podcast

Possibly the hardest category to judge, due to the catch-all nature of the title. Again, the shortlist entries are all worthy of your time, and I recommend you check them all out. The contrarian in me has decided though that it has to be heroic.

The winner is HOW TO BURN A MILLION QUID.

How To Burn A MIllion Quid logo

Phew, that’s a lot of podcasts isn’t it? And I’ve obviously done a load of listening. That is only a small selection of the podcasts that I’ve pumped into my brain over the last few years. If the best idea is to “write about what you know”, you can see why I started writing about podcasts can’t you?

“Ha! Mr podcastgeek” I hear you scoff. “Why don’t you get a life?”

In response I will click my fingers and out of the shadows a group of no-necked toughs in suits will have these hecklers ejected from the venue.

We have had some great shows mentioned this year, and despite missing out on a win, I really need to give an honourable mention to The Good Friends Of Jackson Elias. When I posted my review of that podcast, it had so many shares and comments, it is BY FAR the most popular post I’ve written. So thank you to all the Call Of Cthulhu and Chaosium fans who took the time to help grow my blog. It is greatly appreciated.

Deadlines, deadlines

A bit of a change this week. As you read this, I will be on holiday, braving the elements with no wifi or phone signal. I had originally planned to get a review written and scheduled for Sunday as usual. The deadline arrived rather quicker than expected and despite my best efforts I couldn’t get it finished. When I started this blog I had planned to keep at least one finished review ready to go for a situation such as this, but I used those up too. C’est la vie.

Normal service will be resumed next Sunday with my review of The Battersea Poltergeist by Danny Robins and the BBC. Im sure that both of my regular subscribers will be ok with that!

Until then, wish me luck trying to keep two kids (who spend more time online than Neo and Morpheus combined) entertained with frisbees, fishing rods and UNO.

See you next week.

Camping Holiday
The key to survival is being able to fashion a shelter at a moments notice

No escape from Big Brother

Just quick announcement to let you all know that I’ve now got a Twitter account. I’ve had a Facebook page for a while, but now it seems I’m a twit as well. There won’t be very much different content on there as this is my primary outlet for inane ramblings, but should you be a completist then the links are either Here and Here, or you can click on the logos on my biography page.

Hopefully the whole thing is now all automatic too, so I dont have to remember to update everything (this post is also something of an experiment to see if it all works, wish me luck!) Technology is great, except when it isn’t.

Tomorrow will see a return to normality with a regular post. It’s a review of the rather good series Bridgewater, so see you then.

Quick little update

Just a quick announcement to say that I’ve now included a subscription button to the blog. It’s that little red bell in the bottom right of the screen (it is on PC anyway, I’ll try and sort the android version out shortly too). Don’t worry, I wont be spamming you with hundreds of messages, I’m aiming to have a new post up once every 7-10 days which I think is reasonable, don’t you?

Anyway, I’d really appreciate you subscribing, so click that button. Unless you hate podcasts and were only here to satsify your curiosity!

Scratching my brain itch…

Welcome everyone to The Podcast Geek. Recently I’ve had a real need to do some writing. Almost a tangibile pressure in my skull, hence “scratching my brain itch”. Seeing as I spend literally 8 hours a day listening to podcasts I figured I’d start a blog to share the love and maybe recommend something new to discover.

I’ve amassed quite a collection over the years, so there’ll be lots of (mainly horror) fiction, folklore, history, actual play/boardgame related shows and true crime. What there won’t be is Joe Rogan. While I used to listen to the big bald shouty man, I have ditched his show in favour of more creative podcasts. I mean there’s only so many times I can hear him recommending hot yoga, Ju Jitsu and heroic doses of psychedelics.

Rather than just waxing lyrical about my favourite shows, I will also be reviewing shows that I perhaps haven’t enjoyed as much as others to keep in the spirit of a proper review blog. I mean, they can’t all be zingers eh? I’ll also be rating each one on “the brain scale”. Five brains is essential listening, and one brain is a show best left to people who don’t read this blog. That’ll serve them right (although to be fair, I can’t think of any one brain shows off the top of my head). I’ll also do my best to keep these reviews as spoiler free as possible. I am well aware that I’ll be covering a lot of well known, older shows that you’ll have heard of, but someone out there will no doubt be new to it, and I dont want to ruin any surprises for them.

Anyway, that’s enough of my ramblings for now, at least until I start proper posts, so please check back and if you’ve heard a podcast you think is great then drop me a comment and share the knowledge. If it’s a new one on me then I’ll definitely check it out and review it in due course. I’m always on the lookout for new content.

Me before writing helped scratch my brain itch
Lack of creativity can drive you mad.
MAD I TELL YOU!

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