Hey all. I’m switching up the format this week and doing something different. While it’s important to me to keep a gaming focus on my blog, gaming isn’t the only thing that’s important in my life. I am working on a review of an older indie title right now, but in the meantime, I wanted to share some of my favorite podcasts with you. I have been listening to my all-time favorite podcast for sixteen years, but I’ve picked up on quite a few new-to-me podcasts more recently. Here are four I recommend.
Retronauts (audio)
This is my all-time fave. I’ve been listening to Retronauts for most of the past sixteen years, although when they left their former employer, Ziff Davis, and went independent, I didn’t know for a little while that they still existed. Retronauts covers retro video games, sometimes going into deep dives on individual games. More recently, the ‘nauts have ventured into things like retro TV shows and movies, which aren’t as interesting to me, but it’s still a great podcast. The show’s definition of “retro” is ten years ago and older, but most of the discussions revolve around media from the ‘80s and ‘90s.
The Retronauts hosts have developed a mythical status in my brain, because I’ve been listening for so long, but have never met them. Now that I’m more active on Twitter and Discord, I’ve come to learn that the hosts don’t get a ton of replies to their Tweets, and they may even (gasp) reply to something I say in the Discord server. Maybe someday I will meet Jeremy and Bob, but I need to work on my approach so I don’t come off as an obsessive fanboy.
The Ezra Klein Show (audio)
This is put out in association with the New York Times, and covers topics such as technology, economics, “effective altruism”, and climate change. The good news about this show is that every episode is fact-checked, a rarity in an age of rampant internet misinformation. Ezra is a deep thinker and asks deep questions, although I’m afraid most are prepared in advance, which can make the show a little stiff. Being made in association with NYT, Ezra can book leading experts in their field, which is a good reason to listen.
Digital Foundry Direct (YouTube)
This is a recent addiction of mine. Digital Foundry is a YouTube channel in affiliation with EuroGamer that covers bleeding edge game technology. This includes things like frame-rate analysis, which I never thought much about prior to watching the channel. Basically video games output a series of images or “frames” every second. On consoles, frame-rates are typically 30, 40, 60, or 120 frames per second, but frame rates are prone to falling short of their targets from time to time. On a PC, frame rates can often go higher than on a console, but PCs aren’t flawless. In addition, the channel talks a lot about “ray-tracing,” a fairly new technology that renders light in a much more realistic way than the old “baked” way of doing it.
Digital Foundry Direct covers the latest gaming and technology news, talks about upcoming content on the channel, and answers questions from their supporters. I’ve learned a lot from these people about how to have a better gaming experience, though if I have a complaint, it’s that the topics can get kind of same-y after a while. There’s only so much to talk about on the bleeding edge of gaming, and there’s a lot more tried and true technology from the past two decades that rarely gets mentioned. Still, I enjoy the show.
Rich Roll Podcast (YouTube)
Though I don’t watch every episode of this one, I definitely enjoy it. Rich Roll advocates a whole-foods, plant-based diet, something I’ve adopted as of 2022 and it has changed my life for the better. I lost a ton of weight, and I feel like I’m in my best health. This show is mostly the opinion of one man, and if you want nutrition advice, you may want to seek help from a registered dietitian. That said, many of the guests are medical doctors (a reputable source), or have published a book with a reputable publisher. Worth your time if you’re interested in improving your health.
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