The Gaming Den

In an effort to saturate every waking moment of my life with some form of media or other, I found a gap during jogging that I'd like to fill.

For entertainment, I listen to Welcome to Night Vale, which is small community new radio from a town a Lovecraft-esque desert.

Episodes are generally ~25 minutes so, you know, you can use that as a timer.

I've recently been listening to the Chainsawsuit Podcast. Kris Straub's a funny guy.

Radiolab is a good one. We listen to it on our monthly Indiana-Missouri drives.

I am often surprised how interesting and informative a topic will be even when it sounds like a loser topic.

My wife turned me on to APM's marketplace: Money recently.

Also, podbay is a great Podcast aggregate app.

Joe Rogan

Order determined by the semi-nonsense way my podcast app organizes them:

Common Sense with Dan Carlin
BBC Global News
NPR On the Media
The Bugle
Science Friday
RadioLab
BBC Discovery
BBC Science in Action
NPR Planet Money
99% Invisible
The Memory Palace
BBC Documentaries
Intelligence Squared
Judge John Hodgman
Welcome to Night Vale
WTF With Marc Maron
NPR Snap Judgement
Risk!
The Tobolowsky Files
This American Life

Wow, that's a lot of options. Thanks guys. I'm tempted to (and just may) start jogging more. I'm surprised no one posted anything TRPG or video game related though.

I listen to the Nerdist and How Did This Get Made?

We will see you drop dead from exhaustion.

I haven't had good luck with video game/TRPG podcasts.

I've been listening to Nerd Poker. It's fascinating because because it's a very "real" table with nonsense houserules and a batshit storyline that involves spelljamming, clones, a mind-controlling space wizard, and recently introduced dwolves (that is dwarfs who are also wolves).

It's also heavily 2nd ed influenced, even when they weren't using 2nd ed (they started with 4th ed and rolled 3d6 for their stats ...). So it's a perfect example of how a strong group can overcome even the most hilaribad rules decisions.

For example, there is a "crit fumble table" that exists in the DM's MIND, which literally amounts to "after a fumble I roll percentile dice and decide how bad to fuck you based on how high the result is" (this is explained seemingly at least once a podcast). And yes, it HAS resulted in combats ending by enemies fumbling themselves to death.

Another time someone was explaining how the 4th edition Arcana skill lets you detect magic items, and the DM's response was literally "no, fuck that, so like a Barbarian learns Arcana and they can detect magic? No way, you have to be a wizard or cleric to be able to use that."

Started with Nightvale. I like the business as usual attitude the townsfolk have to all the Cthulhuesque horrors. Reminds me of Douglas Adams in a way.

Sashi wrote:Nerd Poker

So batshit insane stories run in 4e while taking cues from 2e. Sounds interesting, especially if they pull it off and have fun.

I’m bumping this so I can find it when I wake up. I’ve been listening to lots of podcasts since Ess died and I’m glad I finally made it to the party.

How about My Brother, My Brother and Me? Also seconding Night Vale.

I don't listen to many podcasts but I did just pick up the Chapo Trap House thanks to Frank mentioning it in passing (didn't know what the fuck he was referring to when he referenced it). I've found it very entertaining. I've been going through some of the takes they had on the 2016 race and a little cthulu ttrpg play they did.

Grek wrote:How about My Brother, My Brother and Me? Also seconding Night Vale.

I second My Brother, I am also listening to :

Stuff you should know
60-Second Science
Romance of the three Kingdoms Podcast
Life Kit
Planet Money
Up First
The Federalist Radio Hour

and for Magic: the Gathering related stuff:

Oaths and Emblems (Oathbreaker)
Laboratory Maniace (cEDH)
The Command Zone (EDH)
North 100 (CanLander)
Color Commontary (Pauper but it just ended) [go to look for a new one]
Limited Resources (Limited format mostly draft)

so many good podcasts......

The War Nerd (on wars), Grubstakers (on billionaires), Behind the Bastards (on famous shitheads), Intercepted (on current events, with the irreplaceable Jeremy Scahill)

The Magnus Archive is the best audio horror fiction podcast.

I mostly listen to media analysis stuff, notably the Not A Cast Podcast and We've got Ward.

Ancient Greece Declassified, Clash! (with Carl Zha)/Silk and Steel, China History Podcast (with Laszlo Montgomery), Echoes of India, History of Latin America, History of Japan (with Isaac Meyer), History of Southeast Asia, Iroquois History and Legends, Norse by Northwest, Ottoman History Podcast, Research on Religion, Radio War Nerd, Samurai Archives Podcast, Sean's Russia Blog Podcast, Silk Road History Podcast, The Land of Desire.

IMO, AskHistorians Podcast eventually jumped the shark (became too US-centric), but do make sure to listen to at least #13-14 if you listen to history podcasts at all.

Based on brief checking, highly optimistic about: And That's the Way It Was/Foreign Exchanges, How It Began, Popular Front, Revolutions, The Insight.

Unsure about, but suspect would be to your taste: Ear Hustle, Money on the Left, Revolutionary Left Radio.

Unsure about, but I'd like enough if well-done that I consider worth mentioning: A History of Europe, Key Battles; Russian Rulers (don't care much for ruler biography, but there's other kinds of episode).

Citations needed is usually good, Know Your Enemy (good luck finding it, terrible SEO) is a podcast where a couple dudes analyze republican ghouls and inform about their history and motivations. Left Anchor and Season of the Bitch also.

Power of Sound ASMR

I like the world he's building, the stress he pulls out of your body 'goes somewhere'... and it may be leading to trouble

I'm very surprised no one has mentioned Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. His stuff is more like miniature audiobooks than what you would normally think of as podcasts. His series on the Mongol Empire and World War I are fantastic, as is his single-episode analysis of the atomic bomb.

I also recommend Patrick Wyman's "The Fall of Rome" podcast. It got absorbed into his "Tides of History" project halfway through, which makes it annoying to pick out the Rome stuff, but the dude holds an actual doctorate specializing in late Roman history. He pins the actual "fall of Rome" in the reign of Justinian and goes into incredible depth on what it actually means for Rome to have fallen, the ways the concept of a "fall" was used politically even in antiquity, and alternative interpretations of the situation in the 6th century.

"Sawbones" is one of the guys from My Brother My Brother And Me plus his wife, who is a medical doctor, and they talk about wacky medical history stuff. Sometimes also modern quackery too. It's more entertaining than informative, but it's at least a little bit educational.

Mord wrote:I'm very surprised no one has mentioned Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. His stuff is more like miniature audiobooks than what you would normally think of as podcasts. His series on the Mongol Empire and World War I are fantastic, as is his single-episode analysis of the atomic bomb.

Hardcore History got four episodes worth of listen out of me. Two of those four left me incandescent with rage.

The first one that bothered me was a discussion of "Eastern" versus "Western" warfare. It was simplistic, Orientalist, and he made mention of tactics being encoded in DNA. None of that is a good look.

The one that made me delete and never look back was his discussion of the League of Nations. In this podcast, he mentions that Italy decided to do some colonialism in some African territories.

What he fails to mention, and this really underscores how Eurocentric his blinders are, is that one of the "territories" that Italy invaded was Ethiopia. This was not a case of 18th century European land-grabbiness; Ethiopia was a member state of the League of Nations. You know, that organization that said you can't attack each other and that they would gang up on the aggressor? The failure to intervene in the Italian aggression against Ethiopia was really what showed the failure of the League. Attacking a fellow member-state of the League was literally the one thing you weren't supposed to do.

And to listen to Carlin, you wouldn't even know Ethiopia was a member. It was just "some African territory."

I'm not an authority on history. I took my degree in it, I taught it at the secondary level for a few years. But I'm better equipped to examine sources and biases than Carlin is, apparently.

SeekritLurker wrote:Hardcore History got four episodes worth of listen out of me. Two of those four left me incandescent with rage.

First off, thank you. I commented nothing previously because the number of times I heard his voice (or, I think, even read a direct quote) is exactly 0, so I thought voicing a strong opinion based only on commentary (I could form a strongly negative opinion based on approving descriptions even) seemed imprudent.

SeekritLurker wrote:The first one that bothered me was a discussion of "Eastern" versus "Western" warfare. It was simplistic, Orientalist, and he made mention of tactics being encoded in DNA. None of that is a good look.

OK - you sure he didn't say something like "cultural" DNA? Because I think one could help summarize an actually decent explanation with that - I think the various peoples of different origins occupying the same lands passed each other a lifestyle in more detail than would be strictly needed. (I'm absolutely sure his explanations were gross oversimplifications, though.)

SeekritLurker wrote:What he fails to mention, and this really underscores how Eurocentric his blinders are, is that one of the "territories" that Italy invaded was Ethiopia. This was not a case of 18th century European land-grabbiness; Ethiopia was a member state of the League of Nations. You know, that organization that said you can't attack each other and that they would gang up on the aggressor? The failure to intervene in the Italian aggression against Ethiopia was really what showed the failure of the League. Attacking a fellow member-state of the League was literally the one thing you weren't supposed to do.

And to listen to Carlin, you wouldn't even know Ethiopia was a member. It was just "some African territory."

He failed to explain history, but succeeded "brilliantly" in repeating it - failing to actually count blacks exactly like most of the League did. Is there anything further you could say that would help me find and point to the exact words? I may start quoting precisely that everywhere he's brought up.

SeekritLurker wrote:I'm not an authority on history. I took my degree in it, I taught it at the secondary level for a few years.

SeekritLurker wrote:But I'm better equipped to examine sources and biases than Carlin is, apparently.

Low bar. I have no relevant degree and (based on the limited information admitted above) also am.

Bigode wrote:

SeekritLurker wrote:I'm not an authority on history. I took my degree in it, I taught it at the secondary level for a few years.

SeekritLurker wrote:But I'm better equipped to examine sources and biases than Carlin is, apparently.

Low bar. I have no relevant degree and (based on the limited information admitted above) also am.

So, the reason I put that there is because I don't count as an authority worth appealing to. I know how history is done and I've learned quite a bit of it, but the amount of original research I've done is negligible and I really prefer to pilfer secondary sources rather than digging down into the primaries.

I had a teacher of ancient Near East cultures whose pre-eminent primary sources were coins. I don't even begin to approach that level - and working closely with real historians made me give up on the idea of pursuing any post-grad work in the area. Those individuals are some serious next-level geeks (he said on a message board devoted to role-playing game design.)

Anyhow, I can't give you a timestamp or anything, but if you *want* to do your own legwork, you're welcome to. (I looked up my rant about Hardcore History on the Bookface, and it's been 18 months or so since I gave it any attention.)

The Second Ethiopian-Italian War and the Abyssinian Crisis were the names of the events. The podcast that utterly failed to mention either was episode three of Hardcore History, subtitled The Organization of Peace.

The episode with the 'encoded in DNA' thing was Episode Two, Guns and Horses. (I hope you're happy that you made me look that up, because I am happy to look things up for the purposes of a well-deserved rant.) Here's a tip: whenever anyone is talking about Western Culture, especially in contrast to Eastern Culture - unless they are narrowly talking about the Greeks in conflict with the various near-Eastern empires like the Achaemenids or the Sassanians - it is code for all that Proud Boy, Spartan myth-making, Western chauvinist bullshit. Even if he said "cultural DNA," it's still about Christian Western Europe being the best.

I'll be honest, though - I cannot be bothered to relisten to the podcast to try to tease out his exact verbiage, though.

You'll note that I started at the beginning, and that the bias piled up on me really early and caused me to rage-quit before any of the episodes that people always mention. Looking up the episodes I did listen to, it looks like they are no longer freely available, but can be purchased for $1.99 an episode. I won't tell you how to vote with your dollars, but you can guess how I would vote with mine.