frandroid

I've fallen behind so I'm just now discovering that Atlas Obscura has some sort of partnership with Canadaland. Like, pleaaaase. I thought you were cool, AO. Also I'm seeing that Canadaland has some animal lover podcast--these seem like a ludic departures from news? And Canadaland is now pushing ads from Acast, one of the mid-size podcasting networks (possibly the largest international one? though much smaller than iheartradio/Clear Communications)... This smells like Brown is looking at expanding beyond his news/current affairs/politics niche. I wish him to step on rakes all along the way. Too bad his timing is perfect, as Spotify has mostly exited the space and VC predators have realized that there's nothing viral enough to wreck with their money, other than Gimlet media and whatever else Spotify had bought.

I'm this close to stop listening to Backbench--I miss Fatima Syed there.

Another super niche Canadaland annoyance--I listen to most podcasts at 1.3 to 1.5x, but Jonathan Goldsbie already speaks at 1.5x, so I have to slow down my Canadaland playback speed to 1.x when his episodes come on, and then I have to remember to re-accelerate Canadaland when someone else is hosting.

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I'm really loving the Empire Podcast, which I've just recently started listening to, from the beginning. William Dalrymple and Anita Anand have an excellent chemistry, and I'm absolutely dying for Anand's voice. They're both stellar historians... Even though obviously they prepare their episodes, it's amazing how they can just riff off the cuff on various historical tidbits, and how their podcast will turn on a dime to deal with current events within the context of their current historical topic.