Here is this week’s Podcasts in Review.
501stCast: Episode 93 covers the Star Wars Podcasting Awards, fan films, troop reports, trooping with Weird Al, and The Force Awakens Blu-ray releases.
Aggressive Negotiations: Issue 007 covers their favorite Jedi with an excellent character analysis on Jedi like Obi-Wan Kenobi, Aayla Secura, Kanan, Luke and some great observations. If you’re looking for a discussion driven Star Wars show with great sound quality and good hosts, give this one a try.
Beyond the Vote: Episode 001 is hosted by Riley Blanton (Star Wars Report) and Scott Ryfun (My Star Wars Story). It’s an interesting podcast as Riley and Scott talk politics, politicians and voters as they cover the US presidential race. They’re both conservative and provide some great commentary not just on politics, but some of the factors around the politics. In this episode they start with how they came to their own political beliefs, they talk about Hilary, Bernie and Trump. They tackle the idea of voting for a personality rather than an ideology. They also talk a little about immigration. It’s interesting episode, and if you’re into politics, I recommend giving this one a listen. I really enjoyed it.
Beyond the Vote: Episode 003 covers their current thoughts on Trump, Cruz and Rubio, wins and thoughts on that, why people are voting for Trump, Jeb Bush having money but no votes, super delegates, broken convention, Scalia and new court justice, plus Obamacare. Another interesting episode. Really enjoying these.
Blast Points: Episode 10 starts with some news discussion as they touch on Episode VIII filming, question whether Kylo would get the bounty money on Han’s head, speculate about Lando being at Han’s funeral and whether Chewie will give a speech. They move on to Rogue One and the droid member, Chewie being in the Han Solo movie, whether we’ll get Chewie’s POV, Star Wars Rebels “Shroud of Darkness”, The Force Awakens Blu-ray releases, and then they head into a meaty discussion on the special edition changes. They go through a lot of them, big and small, and ask themselves “Would you miss it?” From Beru’s voice and extra dewbacks to Jedi Rocks and Anakin’s eyebrows, it’s a fun topic.
Blast Points: Episode 11 features special guest Mike Pilot from Full of Sith. Jason talks with Mike about sharing Star Wars with their kids, how he got into podcasting, seeing The Force Awakens, what’s next for Full of Sith, and a series of fun questions that rounds out the episode ranging everywhere from favorite bounty hunter to favorite beard. Fun episode.
Coffee With Kenobi: The Force Awakens Incredible Cross-Sections Book Chat features a cool interview with author Jason Fry and illustrator Kemp Remillard who talk about book, working on the project, collaborating, and coming up with the details. If you’ve read the book, it’s a good episode to check out. I actually just finished reading it so it was perfect timing.
Comic Book Noob: Peggy Carter & Madame Masque covers both a hero and a villain. They cover Peggy Carter’s origins, differences between television show and comics, Madame Masque’s father, her skills, her relationship with Iron Man, her scar, her mask, and their comic recommendations. Excellent show providing great coverage of both characters to help educate fans on who these people are, their comic histories, and how it relates to the tv show.
Fangirls Going Rogue: Episode #30 covers a lot of topics, from Daisy Ridley’s comments and judging people on looks, to the MTV Movie Awards and Star Wars fairytale connections. They also spotlight Kylo Ren for their character discussion. Great episode with lots of interesting topics and fun hosts.
Force Center: Episode 9 features guest Andres Cabrera as he and hosts Ken, Joseph and Jennifer talk about recent topics like Mark Hamill on Luke being gay, and into deeper discussion points like diversity and representation in Star Wars, as well as the greatness of Poe Dameron. If you haven’t checked out Force Center, give their main show a try. It’s got a good mix of hosts and professional sound quality.
Geek Out Loud: Episode 174 is another “Pass the Corn” episode with Erich and he and Steve cover the movies for March. They talk about sports, R-ratings and superhero movies, Punisher, Ghostbusters, Zootopia, The Brothers Grisby, 10 Cloverfield Lane, new Divergent movie (which leads to Hunger Games discussion), Midnight Special, Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, Batman v. Superman, Suicide Squad, Highlander anniversary, Police Academy, The Money Pit, Gung Ho, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2, Fargo, Memento, third movies in series and Inday. Lot of movies, both new and old, and with Erich and Steve behind the mic, it’s a fun movie discussion.
Great Big Beautiful Podcast: Episode 53 features an interview with Star Wars Rebels voice actress Vanessa Marshall who talks about voice acting, working on Star Wars Rebels, getting the part of Hera, playing the character, and a little on Guardians of the Galaxy. Great audio, great content. Then they have an interview with Star Wars Rebels voice actor Taylor Gray. Unfortunately this one is a car phone interview. The sound is a little degraded and Taylor’s sound volume is kind of loud which means the hosts’ volume is pretty loud. It makes it hard to find a happy medium between the two when playing with the volume. Definitely worth checking out for the Vanessa interview.
Hangin’ With Team Kanan: Episode 08 goes old school with some Star Wars: The Clone Wars as they discuss their favorite characters, story arcs and even hair styles for a very fun episode. Good one for TCW fans.
Jedi Journals: March 2016 episode has a Before the Awakening discussion, as well as their usual coverage of new and upcoming comic, book and magazine releases. They talk about the Marvel Star Wars coloring books, The Force Awakens comic adaptation, the C-3PO one shot, Star Wars graphic novel, and more.
Radio 1138: Episode 39 kicks off with the Indy 5 news, they have a micro-interview with Billy Dee Williams, and a nice little interview with Greg Grunberg who talks about how he got the part of Snap Wexley and doing some scenes that didn’t make it into the movie. Afterwards Mark and James speculate about Han’s funeral, actors playing Han, they talk with Jordan Court about lightsaber sparring, they talk about Episode VIII filming locations, James and Matt go to Puzzlewood, they talk with Verona Blue about her voice work in The Force Awakens and working with Matthew Wood, they talk about the passing of Tony Dyson R2 designer, touch on the demise of the ForceCast, the Star Wars Podcasting Awards, and they talk with Jamie Benning about his “Do or Do Not” documentary. Very good episode with a ton of content, lot of variety, and good audio quality.
Rebel Grrrl: Episode 27 covers the news, Episode VIII filming, Han Solo actors, listener emails, Mortis and the balance of the Force, introducing Star Wars to kids, what they would be in Star Wars and more. It’s a fun episode and it has a very different vibe from other Star Wars podcasts. Last time I tuned in it was just Amanda, so this time around I was able to hear both regular hosts in action. They do a good job of discussing Star Wars and keeping it fun. There’s lots of adult language, so keep that in mind, but if you’re looking for another all female Star Wars podcast to tune-in to, give this one a try. You might like it.
Rock Out Led (Rock Out Loud): Led Zeppelin I Side A is a special version of Rock Out Loud hosted by Steve Glosson and Jimmy Mac from Rebel Force Radio. Together, they geek out about Led Zeppelin. They talk about how they discovered the music, share their thoughts on the bad, and dive into side A of Led Zeppelin’s first album. It’s all the great factors that Rock Out Loud usually brings, but completely Led Zeppelin focused. While I’m nowhere near as big a fan as Steve and Jimmy are, I still enjoyed this episode a lot. Looking forward to more Rock Out Led.
Star Wars Action News: Episode 472 is their C2E2 coverage as they talk about what they saw and bought at the con, give a real quick recap of the Del Rey and Marvel Star Wars panels, then break for a Luke Hot Toys review, soundtrack collecting, and Tsum Tsums.
Star Wars Bookworms: Episode #55 covers This Is Madness, Teresa talks about SXSW, seeing The Force Awakens documentary, meeting Matthew Wood, and what the panel was like. They talk about the Star Wars Podcasting Awards finals and give a nice rundown on the finalists. It’s a shorter episode than usual, and no book/comic focused discussion, but it’s a good one. Nice addition to the playlist that breaks things up, keeps things entertaining, and covers some fun stuff.
Star Wars Rebels Declassified (Rebel Force Radio): The Forgotten Droid features Jimmy, guest host Spencer Brinkerhoff, and guests Tricia Barr and Steve Glosson. Jimmy talks about his apprehension of another droid centric story, they discuss people’s connections to droids, they talk about the droid vendor, Chopper’s history, Ketsu’s return, the caution sign, the Death Star droid, the Alan Rickman voice, the shoulder bump, what it takes to kill a droid, understanding the way droids think, evil Ugnaughts, understanding what Chopper says and more. Interestingly, Spencer hosted this episode, driving the discussion forward, keeping things on topic and covering a lot of ground. While it was just a little heavy handed, Spencer will be returning next week, and if Spencer sticks around for Declassified, I think he’ll fit in well with a couple more shows under his belt as he gets into the grove. He’s certainly a good addition to the roundtables. Overall, good episode.
The Jedi Beat (Force Center): Episode #3 is hosted by Jennifer Landa and covers the Star Wars ring theory. Really nice episode. She covers the details of theory, the aspects of parallelism, gives examples to help illustrate the points, plays audio clips to help break things up and keep the show entertaining, and she speaks with the guy who came up with the Star Wars ring theory idea. I highly recommend checking this one out if you haven’t delved too deeply into the ring theory yet. It’s a great way to learn about it and get caught up. If the other episodes of The Jedi Beat are as good as this one, I’ll be very impressed. Great editing, sound quality and content.
Unmistakably Star Wars: Episode 22 starts with some news discussion which digs pretty deep into Episode VIII details, a little too much for my liking as I’m anti-spoiler person and I don’t like delving too much into what the upcoming movies are going to be about. I’m all about the surprise. Now this was my first time tuning in, so I’m not sure if they’re a spoiler heavy podcast or not, but it’s something to consider. Aside from Ep VIII, they talk about the Darth Maul fan film, the Han Solo movie, Star Wars and friendship, and at the 45 minute mark, they get to their interview with author John Jackson Miller. They talk with John about Star Wars, Kenobi and they touch on his current Star Trek project. There’s a couple audio crashes, and very faint but weird whining kind of sound that pops in and out of the audio portions before and after the interview. It’s an okay episode. I’m an interview junkie, so that’s why I tuned in. Aside from the couple audio issues, they’ve got good audio quality.
Reviewed By: Skuldren for Roqoo Depot.
