With all the time I’ve dedicated to podcasts over the course of the past few years, I’ll be honest: I’ve mostly stayed in the “mainstream” of podcasts. I’ve played it safe. I’ve stuck with podcasts made by the NPRs, the Gimlets and the other institutional podcast-makers of the world.
While these podcasts are almost always guaranteed to be fantastic, I’ve never really have tried to see what weird stuff is out there. So over the past week, I went into the abyss.
These podcasts below are so inexplicable, so unashamedly strange that they border the line between work of a once in a generation genius and material that goes beyond the realm of coherence and human understanding.
You’ve been warned.
“Twisting The Wind”
This is probably considered a “podcast” over by definition, but that’s where the comparison ends. It’s probably more like avant-garde art.
This show bombards you with otherworldly echoes, sounds, Kanye West-esque voice synthesizers and random interviews with random people throughout the course of each episode. It has no structure. It has no purpose (as far as I know). Maybe this podcast’s purpose is to have no purpose. Comedian and host Johnny Pemberton does what he wants, whether it makes sense or not.
Even when you begin to think you know what direction an episode is heading, the show does a complete flip in narrative and surprises you. This element of surprise is interesting in itself, even though it can be easy to tune out with how incoherent the podcast is.
This is the first time I’ve heard a podcast like this, which is pretty exciting. It’s not necessarily enjoyable from a listener’s perspective, but it’s awesome to know that people are experimenting with what a “podcast” can be.
Just like Ornette Coleman did with the genre of jazz, someone has to be pushing the boundaries of art. You don’t have to like it, but you can appreciate it for what it is.
Rating: 3 out of 5 earbuds
“Worst Idea of All Time”
I believe the two hosts of this podcast are masochists of repetition at heart. What I mean by this is literally in the name of their podcast, but I’ll explain.
Imagine watching the Adam Sandler-directed movie Grown Ups 2 not just once, but 52 times in a row. The same punchlines. The same slightly-above-average guest performance of Shaquille O'Neal. The same everything.
Not only do Guy Montgomery and Tim Batt watch Grown Ups 2 over and over and over again, the two hosts decide to take on the feat of continuously rewatching the movie Sex and the City, too. And the depths they go in terms of their analysis of each film and their emotional stability is both amusing and morbid.
Batt and Montgomery in their efforts to curb the mundanity of the “worst idea of all time” also talk about pretty much anything that’s on their minds during each episode, like the Rat King from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, of course. Along with their 10-minute conversation about whether Carrie Bradshaw, a fictional character from Sex and the City, should be compared to a Christ figure, this podcast has its hilarious moments.
Rating: 4 out of 5 earbuds
“!mposter!!”
"!mposter!!" is producer Joe Pietropaolo’s audio playground. Almost immediately, you’re immersed in jamming music, random sound effects and sound bites from interviews he’s done.
Each episode of his sometimes has a loose theme to it, usually revolving around a concept or a particular quote from an interview, but for the most part, this podcast is an experiment in the limits of audio production. Like “Twisting The Wind,” I’m almost positive this show doesn’t have much of a purpose other than Pietropaolo to have fun with audio.
The unique soundscapes Pietropaolo creates are interesting to listen to without any other elements added in, but don’t necessarily prepare yourself to binge-listen to this show.
Rating: 3 out of 5 earbuds
Liam Niemeyer is a senior studying journalism in Ohio University’s Honors Tutorial College. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Will you give these a listen? Let Liam know by tweeting him @liamniemeyer.
