Reply With QuoteSorry Farside, it's a new one on me. Could you explain?Originally Posted by FarSideOfTheMoon
I'm a long term listener to skeptical podcasts, but I just have this gut feel that the skeptical podcast has 'jumped the shark'.
I'm not sure what makes me feel this way, is it the ever growing number of new podcasts which bring nothing new to the party? Is there a dumbing down effect as more people get interested in the area? Is it that the same people are being constantly interviewed and popping up on the different podcasts? Is it that some appear to be displaying slight narcissistic streaks?
I don't know, I wouldn't want to not appreciate the effort that some people are putting in, and I'm not aiming criticism at anyone in particular, but I wondered if anyone else felt something similar.
Sorry Farside, it's a new one on me. Could you explain?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_sharkJumping the shark is an idiom used to describe the moment of downturn for a previously successful enterprise
In some ways the phrase itself has jumped the shark these days
Well I never. The Fonz!
I don't listen to podcasts TBH as I find the whole process tedious - you can spend an hour listening to something that does nothing but waste an hour of your life!
I think they're like anything - do it well and you get a good product, but as they are free and easy to produce (similar to blogs) then every Tom, Dick and Harry who wants to get in on the act can do so - the result being a proliferation of utter pap.
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Can't say I entirely agree with you John. The only podcast I listen to is the sceptic's guide to the Universe (Novella et al). For me it's highly entertaining and informative and I listen to it when I am doing other stuff like cooking or driving and so it's not really wasting any time at all. I don't see it as being anything different to having the radio on in the background (Radio-4, of course).
Podcasts are excellent for background listening, like my 45 minutes commuting in the car each day. However, just like a radio programme, I wouldn't go out of my way to sit and listen exclusively to one.
I think the quality of the SGU still shines through compared to a lot of other podcasts, but in some ways, I find even it a bit uninspiring more often than not now.
A lot of people seem to like the SGU podcast. I don't think I've ever listened to that one.
I might give it a try one evening while I'm sitting with a whisky.
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I listen to a few skeptical podcasts (such as SGU) usually on my two hour long commute to work and back each day.
Podcasts - as with music - have the advantage (over blogs & visual media) that they can be listened to whilst doing something else. If I want to read a blog I have to stop everything else to do so - I certainly can't drive at the same time. A podcast I can listen to on my daily drive to work, meaning it essentially takes up none of my time as I'm driving to work anyway.
Of course, podcasts vary in quality - but so does everything else. And podcasts aren't for everyone. They are just another medium which, in my opinion, should be utilised. How well that is done will depend on those producing the podcast.
Some of them do overlap quite a bit in content and if some of the podcasts seem a bit samey, then maybe be more selective in what you listen to.
I had it all...but I threw it away. Then I found it again, so that's alright.
Blog thingy
Me on Twitter
The beauty of Podcasts is that you can be doing other things at the same time (driving, working, homoeopathy, levitation...), and they are free!
I agree to some extent with FarSideOfTheMoon. It's a bit like punk rock! All very well to say "grab a guitar, anyone can do it" in 1977 (great sentiments), but once everyone IS doing it it soon becomes clear that only a few are talented and that many just rehash old ideas (badly). That said, in music and podcasting, I'd say it's great that all are able to have a go and put stuff out there. We just have to be a little selective about what we listen to I think.
I like SGU. Little Atoms + Scepticality can be fun too...
Smudge.
Definitely that is turning out to be the case now. I think some of the exercises are turning more into vanity projects now rather than serving any useful skeptical purpose.
I think maybe my concern is that people could be spending their time doing something more constructive. What that 'something' is, I don't know! But I just have that gut feeling that a lot of time is being wasted over populating the skeptical podcast arrena.
Shouldn't you be drinking a whisky?.... sitting with a whisky.
yes there are now about 20 skeptic podcasts ..you will find a list on the radio section of my website
Unfortunately as well as overlapping they do have an irritating habit of interviewing each other
here's a list
- Skeptically Speaking http://skepticallyspeaking.com new from Canada formerly Q Transmissions , very good now
- skeptoid.com weekly podcast blasting away the widespread popular pseudoscience, pity he's a bit imprecise like a Skeptic Rush Limbaugh
- theskepticsguide.org good weekly podcast, bit slow and American, sometimes scoffing and alarmist on global warming
- affiliated TV skeptologists.com
- drbonesshow.com Quackbusting & Science Education for kids
- Jon Ronson podcasts New Discoveries
- tokenskeptic.org Kylie Sturgess podcast
- poddelusion.co.uk/blog/ a new skeptical podcast ...
- evilburnee.co.uk a new skeptical podcast ... seems quite good
- thebigcigarette.com .. a Skepticality type podcast
- Science for Skeptics and more http://madisonwi.us/WIDE-LP/Citywide...neup/index.htm
- Little Atoms ..http://feeds2.feedburner.com/littleatomspodcast
- Skepticality http://www.skepticality.com/ bangs on about global warming
- OZ Skeptics VODcasts http://www.skepticzone.tv/ files too big/slow
RATIONALISM
- pointofinquiry.org from the Center For Inquiry founded by Paul Kurtz
- Free Thought Radio , infidelguy.com
- Humanist News podcast
- GeologicPodcast by Arthur Hrab ..very well produced featuring The Religious Moron of the week http://www.geologicpodcast.com/
- Philosophybites podcast not great, maybe worth the occasional look
Do any of them feature Ted McGinley?
(Sorry, an obscure Jumping The Shark reference)
There are way more skeptical podcasts than that!
The obvious one I would point out is Righteous Indignation. However, there are also 'skeptic zone' from the Australian skeptics, 'skeptics with a k', 'Inkredulous', 'Just skeptics', 'Skepticpod' and 'Monster talk' just to name a few.
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