Big Names and Big Chocolate🍫
mmmm chocolate, + just added and top 5!
Hey Poddy People,
Ugh. Our images are glitchy on the website with new database rules from our providers. We’re working out a fix. The good news is the content is still there. Startup life, am I right?
In this week’s newsletter:
3 recommendations + an Honorable 1 music rec
Entertainment News
Analytics!
Just Added with reviews - 6 podcasts
Weekly Top 5
Week 5 of 6 from the FoundersBoost Bootcamp and I’ve reached the 3 min pitch. Got some great feedback. Also figured out how to use a teleprompter app, which decreased stress by 80%. If you’d like to watch in December for our Demo Day, you can sign up for the Eventbrite here with other startups 7 other startups participating.
Our SoCal Podcast Meetup is happening next Thursday, November 10th. Hope to see you there! Sign up here and share it with your LA friends. Presented by Great Pods x Apollo Podcasts X Stephanie Arakalian.
Duolingo (The language app & language podcast) and Crooked Media (Pod Save America) have teamed up for a new podcast, Radiolingo. Coming November 15th. Trailer and info here.
Biden on the Smartless podcast. Read more here.
In the news: Elon Elon Elon. Twitter Twitter Twitter. If you haven’t yet, take a listen to Elon Musk: The Evening Rocket from New Yorker writer/podcaster, Jill Lepore, on Musk’s history of his family, science fiction, and extreme capitalism.
Podcast to TV: John Hoffman, co-creator of my favorite true-crime podcast parody TV show, Only Murders In The Building, has been tapped to write and produce the Apple TV+ podcast, Wild Things: Siegfried & Roy, into an Apple TV+ TV series. More here.
Analytics!: We hit 50% growth in October! That’s 250% growth since April of this year. Google SEO is still in the driver's seat of listeners wanting to know more about the podcasts they want to listen to. This should bode well for my pitch presentation.
Spooky Growth! The top 5 is a good indicator of strong growth. If you’ve been subscribed for the last two months, you’re probably sick of me mentioning this, but it’s Meghan Markle’s Archetypes that is the primary driver. I’ll be on the lookout for the next big trending podcast when Archetypes season is over.
Non-podcast news: I’m going to Harry Styles this weekend with my friends visiting from out of town. I’m very excited and I’m going to have a great time. You should too.
On to my picks this week…
Podcast: Case 63
Genre: Sci-Fi
Publisher: Spotify
About: New York psychiatrist Dr. Eliza Knight (Academy Award winner Julianne Moore) begins treating a patient registered as Case 63 (Emmy nominee Oscar Isaac) who claims to be from the year 2062. What begins as routine therapeutic sessions quickly turns into a story that threatens the boundaries of the possible and the real.
Dreamy Oscar Isaac (Moon Knight) and Oscar winner, Julianne Moore (Jurassic Park: The Lost World), star in this mind-bending time-traveling thriller/sci-fi podcast. It’s an adaptation of the popular Spanish, Caso 63, which has concluded its 3-season run if you are interested. Case 63 jumped into our charts since being released last week. The full season is out and each episode is 15 minutes or less. I finished it in one run and one chore. I loved it. If you’re looking for a gateway podcast into audio fiction, this should be it. Short, simple, and with a twist of an end. Unfortunately/Fortunately depending on your podcast app loyalties, it’s only on Spotify.
Lindsey D. • Nerds and Beyond
“Its narrative strength can be found in its adept use of each and every minute of runtime, as it manages to both succinctly provide adequate world-building for the overall story while also interweaving a handful of gripping plot twists that will keep listeners on the edge of their seats until the final line is spoken.”
Podcast: Snafu
Genre: History
Publisher: iHeartPodcast Network, FilmNation
About: Hosted by Ed Helms, SNAFU is a podcast about history's greatest screw-ups. On Season 1, we tell the story of Able Archer 83, the NATO military exercise that almost caused a nuclear war in November of 1983... or did it?
The 1980s are ripe with juicy content for podcasts to explore. But there is always one particular person that is always involved in some fashion. President Reagan. Now he’s not the main subject of this podcast, but is mentioned quite a bit and especially in episode two. Failed policies of his administration are aplenty. This includes the Soviet Union policy. Boy, he sucked, and I liked him as a kid, too.
Listen to No One is Coming To Save Us (failed childcare policy) and Death At the Wing (failed drug war). They aren’t solely on Reagan, but they discuss and cite that administration.
Anyway, from the start, the 1980s movie War Games is mentioned, and right after the movie is released, this SNAFU happens. Talk about one of those Hollywood predictions.
Ed Helms is an enthusiastic and fun narrator even though it’s a major f* up of an event we’ve never heard of.
Pod Sauce Editors • Pod Sauce
“Fans of films like 1983’s WarGames, Argo, and Dr. Strangelove might also enjoy this series and binge this embarrassing series of events.”
Podcast: OBSESSIONS: Wild Chocolate
Genre: Food
Publisher: iHeartPodcast Network, Kaleidoscope
About: Forget Willy Wonka and those heart-shaped Valentine’s boxes. OBSESSIONS: Wild Chocolate. is a totally different beast. Join host Rowan Jacobson as he elbows his way through the rain forest, crash lands into cocaine flyaways, and avoids a few too many anaconda, tagging along with modern-day Lara Crofts as they try to get their hands on some of the world’s most ancient– and expensive– cacao.
Rowan’s experience is from NPR reporting on food. So his pedigree and narration are on point. It was just a tad bit too long in the first episode and could be tightened up a little, but still enjoyable! I am very tempted to order Chocolate from their podcast partner.
Frank Racioppi • Ear Worthy
“Obsessions: Wild Chocolate is more like a National Geographic documentary mixed with a hint of Raiders Of The Lost Ark. The podcast music thumps with native drums and local instruments that explodes in the ear with verisimilitude.”
Had to look this up 😊:
noun: verisimilitude
the appearance of being true or real.
A lot of music news:
NPR’s Tiny Desk concerts are just cool. We relisten to a few of them this past week because of…
Taylor Swift’s new album is released. Re-listen to her Tiny Desk.
Migo’s Takeoff is killed this week. Re-listen to their Tiny Desk.
Harry Styles residency in L.A (obviously personal). Re-listen to his Tiny Desk.
Drake - 21 Savage do a Tiny Desk. Just kidding. It’s a spoof for their album release, but NPR did respond.
Just Added
The Leviathan Chronicles
And That's What You REALLY Missed
Caso 63
Mamia & Me
Mentally Gil: Conversations with Creators
Out of Place
Top 5 Podcasts
Stay safe, go vote, sing Harry Styles songs, and be kind!
Listening with you,
Captain Ron
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