{"id":18850,"date":"2022-10-19T00:22:37","date_gmt":"2022-10-19T00:22:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=18850"},"modified":"2022-10-26T06:49:22","modified_gmt":"2022-10-26T06:49:22","slug":"picking-podcasts-visually","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/19\/picking-podcasts-visually\/","title":{"rendered":"Picking Podcasts, Visually"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Eric Valentine<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n

T<\/span>wo of my favorite sayings I can recall from my youth were said by my Vietnamese-immigrant math teacher, Mr. Tung Trinh. When he wanted us to listen better and talk less, he\u2019d say, \u201cTwo ears, one mouth.\u201d If our eyes wandered away from the chalkboard too much, hoping to chat with a classmate, Trinh would say, \u201cTwo eyes, one mouth.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It all served as a clever reminder that hearing another\u2019s ideas should occur twice as often as speaking one\u2019s ideas. In the age of podcasts, listening to ideas has become a bit easier. And now, with the abundance of streaming content on our ultra high-def 6-inch to 80-inch screens, video is king. Wise podcasters have incorporated video into their episodes. Why not? You\u2019re already recording audio, you might as well turn on a camera, too. <\/span><\/p>\n

What follows is a mix of podcasts worth listening to that have also turned their shows into a visual medium. What\u2019s refreshing is to see them without all the production and fuss of a network TV show or news broadcast, yet these shows are still professional. You\u2019ve probably heard some or heard of some, now you should watch them, too. <\/span><\/p>\n

THE JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCE<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019d be remiss not to start with the podcast king, Joe Rogan. If you think he\u2019s just some martial arts geek turned reality show host turned UFC ringside commentator, you\u2019d be correct. You\u2019d also be missing how genius sometimes appears in unexpected and alternative forms. If smarts or wisdom is 90% seeing how things will unfold before they actually unfold, then Rogan is Albert Einstein.<\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019s been training across several martial arts for 38 years, had one heck of a back kick and a 2-1 professional kickboxing record to prove it, hosted a popular reality show before reality shows were the premier mode of TV broadcasting, stepped out of the MMA ring and into the much safer and still lucrative ringside-announcer post for the UFC, and also puts on a solidly funny stand-up comedy act now and then. <\/span><\/p>\n

All good stuff. Yet, he actually reaches greatness when he\u2019s podcasting. His show is regularly the most listened to podcast and his YouTube videocasts reach millions weekly, with 13 million subscribers and counting. Here\u2019s two reasons why:<\/span><\/p>\n

Rogan lands great guests, not just A-listers but A-grade intellectuals, creatives and influencers (not the social media type, the culture type). <\/span><\/p>\n

Some have joked pejoratively that Rogan makes tough guys feel like smart guys. But when you listen to a Rogan show you do in fact become more informed. That\u2019s because Rogan is incredibly well researched and never pretends to understand something he fully doesn\u2019t. His, perhaps, lack of mega-IQ or encyclopedic knowledge is his strongest asset, because he knows what he doesn\u2019t know and asks honest, clear questions. Not bad for an aging jock.<\/span><\/p>\n

THE TANYA ACKER SHOW<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Some folks think podcasting is the realm of the alt-right fascist neo-cons or their uber-progressive leftist libtard counterparts. And for a chunk of the podcast-verse, that\u2019d be true. If you\u2019re looking for a show that can dive into current events and is more about bios and information and less about bias and partisan vitriol, subscribe to The Tanya Acker Show podcast and YouTube channel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Acker is one of the three judges on the Emmy-nominated show Hot Bench. As a TV personality she must work alongside two other judges from different backgrounds to get at the truth behind a case, with a level of decorum and grace expected in a courtroom. It\u2019s all something her life history perfectly prepared her for. <\/span><\/p>\n

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Acker attended Howard University in Washington, D.C.\u2014which is part of the \u2018Black Ivy League\u2019\u2014and went on to graduate from Yale Law School\u2014perhaps the most conservative Ivy League school and prestigious law school of the bunch. Acker\u2019s biography puts her in a unique class of media personalities. She\u2019s socio-politically vocal yet viscerally non-divisive. And it plays out in her interview style, where she often lets her guests establish their biography, or story, before diving into their unique perspective or insight about a controversial or important current event. <\/span><\/p>\n

CONAN O\u2019BRIEN NEEDS A FRIEND<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The backstory of Conan O\u2019Brien Needs A Friend is that after 25 years in late night TV, O\u2019Brien realized the only people at his holiday party are the men and women who work for him. So he began a podcast that is half podcast, half fieldpiece\u2014an area where O\u2019Brien\u2019s comedic talents have always super-shined.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear if O\u2019Brien has made the friend he sought, but the comedian who some feel had every right to be disgruntled by the handlings of regular show biz has made a lot of money. Earlier this year, SiriusXM bought the rights to his podcast for $150 million. O\u2019Brien is laughing all the way to the bank.<\/span><\/p>\n

TRACY MALONE<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

On a more serious note, let\u2019s talk about mental health and relationships. Tracy Malone calls herself a person who survived a marriage and divorce with and from a narcissist. The term narcissist seems to be casually thrown around by people experiencing everything from unrequited love to unparalleled abuse. Yet, it\u2019s an astonishingly serious matter and surprisingly overlooked one, too. That\u2019s mainly because when you hear someone talking about their narcissist, it sounds like they\u2019re just talking about a real jerk. <\/span><\/p>\n

It turns out jerkiness is on a spectrum. Roughly 1 in 500 people are reported to have a mental health disorder called antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). That term does not mean the person has a fear or dislike of crowds or groups. Rather, it means that the norms of society don\u2019t apply to them. Specifically, the norms of emotional reaction to someone else\u2019s suffering, or the norm of understanding how with rights and privileges come responsibilities and duties. People with the most extreme version of this are often the serial grifters, rapists and murderers in any given population. <\/span><\/p>\n

Less extreme are people with narcissistic personality disorder\u2014something more prevalent than ASPD, with an estimated 1 in 200 sufferers. Malone uses her experience to interview experts, victims and others who offer services to the victims of these people, including their loved ones. Several years ago, she came across a True Story piece<\/a> I performed on the topic and I\u2019ve been referring folks to her YouTube channel ever since.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Eric Valentine Two of my favorite sayings I can recall from my youth were said by my Vietnamese-immigrant math teacher, Mr. Tung Trinh. When he wanted us to listen better and talk less, he\u2019d say, \u201cTwo ears, one mouth.\u201d If our eyes wandered away from the chalkboard too much, hoping to chat with a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18850"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18873,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18850\/revisions\/18873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}