Here is this week’s Podcasts in Review.
Awards Chatter: Emilia Clarke – ‘Game of Thrones’ kicks off with Scott talking with The Hollywood Reporter executive editor Stephen Galloway about publicists. The interview with Emilia Clarke kicks in at 18 minutes. Emilia talks a little about her parents and childhood, then goes over how she got into acting, getting into theater, and making ends meet until she got the offer for Game of Thrones. She talks about the first audition for the show, getting the part, reading the books, the wig and dyeing her hair, having to do the nudity, working on the show, and she touches on some of her other projects, including Solo (which, worth noting, she signed up for three movies just like Alden). Great interview. Emilia sounding like a very down to earth person. Definitely worth a listen. Most of the interview does focus on Game of Thrones, though, so don’t expect much Star Wars.
Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 1 hour 17 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Host: Scott
Rating: Great
Blast Points Podcast: Episode 123 kicks off with lots of news as they talk about the Obi-Wan Kenobi movie, Jon Favreau’s comments on the Star Wars TV show, George Lucas being at the Solo red carpet premier, the track listing for Solo, and then they go into the history leading up to the Solo movie. They cap off with details on the convention plans for Ace Comic Con in Seattle. Good episode.
Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 51 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Jason, and Gabe
Rating: Good
Brews and Blasters: Episode 167 is in their new studio. They go over the Bill & Ted 3 news, do some Therm Scissorpunch jokes, talk Solo tickets, go over some TV spots, the Solo track names, need’em got’em, and they discuss the vintage cards and whether to open them or not. Fun episode with lots of Star Wars discussion and some other fun stuff, be it Bill & Ted or pet lobsters. Plus the new studio sounds good.
Podcast Network: Retrozap
Runtime: 1 hour 6 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Joe, and Chris
Rating: Fun
Children of the Force: Episode 104 covers the news, Star Wars Resistance, Flight of the Falcon book series, and they go over the new episodes of Forces of Destiny. Plus they talk Avengers: Infinity War which is a spoiler discussion. Fun episode.
Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 52 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Al, Anna, and Liam
Rating: Fun
Coffee With Kenobi: Episode 121 Dan and Corey go over the news, they talk about the Millennium Falcon experience, and they talk Star Wars and Infinity War‘s box office success. Then they talk with voice actor James Arnold Taylor about the projects he’s doing, as well as his voice work, and his thoughts on Solo. Afterwards they go over some more news including Star Wars Resistance.
Podcast Network: Coffee With Kenobi
Runtime: 1 hour 9 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Dan, and Corey
Rating: Good
Coffee With Kenobi: Episode 122 Dan talks with guests BJ Smith and Meghan Camp. They talk about the new Forces of Destiny episodes, Meghan talks about the Millennium Falcon experience in Atlanta and what that was like, then they go over the news. They talk about the Solo premier, Solo track list, and other news. Dan talks about getting invite to the Solo red carpet premier, and he covers listener feedback. Unfortunately BJ’s line had some audio issues, Dan’s audio had some minor break up issues, and around the 38 minute mark there was a lot of break up. So the audio isn’t the best, but there’s still some good discussion.
Podcast Network: Coffee With Kenobi
Runtime: 1 hour 3 minutes
Audio Quality: Good
Editing: Great
Host: Dan Z
Rating: Good
Coffee With Kenobi: Episode 123 includes Dan’s audio from the press junket, his non-spoiler thoughts on having seen Solo, and he goes over what the red carpet experience was like and who he met. He also talks about the after party. Now fair warning, from 15:20 to 15:30 their is a brief scene description of something that happens at the beginning of the film. If you are absolutely avoiding all spoilers, you’ll want to skip that part. Dan also has some audio from the press conference thanks to Skywalking Through Neverland’s Sarah Woloski. The press conference included Ron Howard, Lawrence Kasdan, Jon Kasdan, Alden Ehrenreich, Donald Glover, Joonas Suotamo, Emilia Clarke, Woody Harrelson, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Paul Bettany. Each of them gets to talk a little as they field questions from the moderator and the crowd. Emilia is the only one who goes over some minor plot details, nothing really spoilery, but again, if you’re avoiding absolutely everything, skip the part where she’s speaking. All in all, a good press conference and worth checking out. Afterwards, Dan talks with James Burns about the whole experience.
Podcast Network: Coffee With Kenobi
Runtime: 1 hour 30 minutes
Audio Quality: Great
Editing: Excellent
Host: Dan Z
Rating: Great
DorkLair: Episode 38 Bill, Chris and Larry talk about the Obi-Wan Kenobi movie news, Alden’s three movie deal, and other news and toy news. Then they review Darth Maul’s S.H. Figuarts speeder. Larry’s audio isn’t the best, but still a good review of the speeder. If that’s something you’re thinking about, this is a good episode to check out as it might help you make up your mind.
Podcast Network: RetroZap
Runtime: 54 minutes
Audio Quality: Okay
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Bill, Chris, and Larry
Rating: Good
Fly Casual: Episode 181 starts with a Dr. Phil segment, some Cobra Kai, and pronunciations. Then they move on to comics reviews for Doctor Aphra #19, Darth Vader #15, and Star Wars #46. Up until this point, it was a good episode. But then they bring up Marvel, Avengers: Infinity War and how well their story group and film management is doing. It’s not hard for me to see where this is going. Once again they pick up the proverbial bat and start swinging away at The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. If you thought Lucasfilm dropped the ball on these, then by all means, listen to this episode. But if you liked those movies, please, save yourself the pain and suffering of having to listen to this conversation. With Solo so close, I thought they might stop, but I can see this will never end. So, yeah, don’t expect any more Fly Casual reviews unless someone DM’s me and let’s me know there’s a safe episode I can listen to. I can’t listen to anymore of these as it’s just not enjoyable.
Podcast Network: Betterkind Media,
Runtime: 1 hour 55 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Corey, Steve, Garrick, and Mike
Rating: Couldn’t Stand It
ForceCenter: Episode 115 they talk about Ron Howard’s interview on The Star Wars Show, and the new episodes of Forces of Destiny. Then they discuss Last Shot. They go over the pulpiness of the novel, the characters, and what this story might tell us about Solo. Good discussion. Plus they go over listener questions.
Podcast Network: ForceCenter
Runtime: 1 hour 23 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Ken, Joseph, and Jennifer
Rating: Good
Full of Sith: Episode CCLXVIII Bryan and Holly discuss Solo without spoilers. First, Bryan talks about the red carpet experience at the premier. Bryan also has some audio of him and Chris Taylor talking about the film after seeing it. Then Holly and Bryan talk some more about the film. Pretty safe discussion. If you’re going completely dark with no hints whatsoever to spoilers, you might want to skip this one. But there’s not really any spoilers at all, they just dance around a few things with some context clues. Some minor mic noise from Holly I think, but good episode.
Podcast Network: N/A,
Runtime: 1 hour 16 minutes
Audio Quality: Great
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Holly, and Bryan
Rating: Good
Geek Out Loud: Episode 237 features Steve and Erich as they talk a little Céline Dion (and Deadpool 2), then they dive into Avengers: Infinity War and full spoilers. They talk about what was done right, what they loved, how the comics differed from the movie, and what they’d like to see in the next one. Great discussion. They dig into a lot of different things.
Podcast Network: Geek Out Loud
Runtime: 1 hour 53 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Steve, and Erich
Rating: Great
Grand Moff Talkin’: Episode 29 starts with the episode dedication and some other stuff, then they get to the Star Wars novel Canto Bight. They split the discussion up with each host having been assigned a story and they go through the stories one by one as they discuss them. Fair warning, not a lot of love for the stories in this book, which is understandable as they used a lot of new authors and went off into some really weird directions. They talk about the characters, share their thoughts on each story, and while they don’t share much praise for the storytellers, they do have fun with it and keep the discussion lighthearted. They play a game to pick out the worst character name (there were some real winners in this book), highlight parts of the book to illustrate both the good and the bad, and end with their closing thoughts, and of course out takes. While I actually liked this book, I think it says a lot that I still enjoyed this episode. They did a good job of talking about something they didn’t like and still keeping it entertaining. I had some good laughs listening to this one.
Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 1 hour 16 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Riley, Jake, Isaac, and Jazmine
Rating: Fun
Grand Moff Talkin’: Episode 30 discusses The Last Jedi as they share their thoughts after seeing the movie a couple times and having some time to think about it. They also have some guests weigh in with their thoughts on the movie. Then they begin a deep dive as they walk through and discuss the movie from beginning to end. This episode ends the discussion before Canto Bight, which is where the next episode picks up. Fun episode and very positive discussion.
Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 1 hour 22 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Riley, Jake, Isaac, and Jazmine
Rating: Fun
Grand Moff Talkin’: Episode 31 continues their deep dive into The Last Jedi as they pickup with Canto Bight and go forward from there. They talk about Luke and Rey, Kylo, Snoke, Yoda, they Kylo/Rey throne room fight, Crait, and wrap up with broom boy. Good discussion.
Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 1 hour 18 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Riley, Jake, Isaac, and Jazmine
Rating: Good
Grand Moff Talkin’: Episode 32 is the second episode of their RPG series “Tales from Maz’s Castle.” Jazmine joins them this time around as their RPG leads them through a shipwreck on Takodana, a mission from Grummgar, and a trip to the gun shop on the Ring of Kafrene. Riley DM’s as they break out the dice and get into some really ridiculous fun. The gum ball machine cracked me up. If you’re looking for some enjoyable Star Wars goofiness, this one is worth a listen.
Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 1 hour 5 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Riley, Jake, Isaac, and Jazmine
Rating: Fun
Grand Moff Talkin’: Episode 33 covers listener feedback, and then they do complain complaints for The Last Jedi. More or less, they address complaints that are out there for the movie and weigh in with their own thoughts. They talk about Luke, the humor, Poe and Holdo, space Leia, Snoke and more. Afterwards Daniel joins them for a special segment, plus there’s bloopers. Jake’s audio is a little glitchy in this one, and there’s some eating on mic, so not the greatest audio quality, but it is a good discussion.
Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 2 hours 1 minute
Audio Quality: Okay
Editing: Great
Hosts: Riley, Jake, Isaac, and Jazmine
Rating: Good
Grand Moff Talkin’: Episode 40 covers the news, Jon Favreau doing a live action TV show, there’s some goofing around, and then they talk Star Wars Rebels. They talk about season four as a whole, they talk about Ezra, the music, time travel issues, highlights from the end of the season, Force use, other issues, things they liked, Kanan’s death, Mandalorians, and their final thoughts. Fun episode with some good laughs. The audio quality isn’t the best, though.
Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 1 hour 36 minutes
Audio Quality: Okay
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Riley, Jake, Isaac, and Jazmine
Rating: Fun
Grand Moff Talkin’: Episode 49 starts with a little pod grooming and a challenge for Steelewars, then Isaac goes over an old Legends book he recently reread, Jedi Apprentice: The Dangerous Rescue. Now this isn’t a detailed analysis of the story, more like a fun discussion that delves into the story a little bit and circles around it. They do pull out the stops for a dramatic reading from the book complete with sound effects and voices, which is fun. And as usual, they end with bloopers. All in all, another fun show.
Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 49 minutes
Audio Quality: Okay
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Riley, Jake, Isaac, and Jazmine
Rating: Fun
Hyperspace PodBlast: Episode 64 covers upcoming Star Wars TV shows. They start off with Star Wars Resistance as they look forward to the anime style and share their thoughts on what we know so far. Afterwards they talk about the Jon Favreau live action Star Wars show. Good episode.
Podcast Network: Hyperspace PodBlast
Runtime: 25 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Bryan, and Shelby
Rating: Good
Less Than 12 Parsecs: Episode 207 Tim reads the stormtrooper article he mentioned in Episode 206 (“Soldiers of the Empire” by Anthony Fredrickson). It’s an interesting article.
Podcast Network: Star Wars Commonwealth,
Runtime: 10 minutes,
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Host: Tim
Rating: Interesting
Skytalkers: Skytalkers Go To Hollywood includes audio of them, their excitement and their predictions before the Solo premier event. They have a quick audio bit live from the red carpet of the premier, and then the rest of the episode is after the premier, the red carpet event, and them seeing Solo. They recap what the event was like, and they keep it spoiler free when they start talking about Solo after seeing it. So even if your avoiding all spoilers, you’ll be safe listening to this one. It’ll give you something to get excited over.
Podcast Network: Star Wars Escape Pods Network,
Runtime: 20 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Caitlin, and Charlotte
Rating: Good
Star Wars 7×7: Episode 1405 covers “Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing” from Star Wars: Canto Bight and Allen makes sure to point out the ties to the other stories. Good episode.
Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 12 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Host: Allen Voivod
Rating: Good
Star Wars 7×7: Episode 1406 covers “The Ride” from Star Wars: Canto Bight and also includes Allen’s overall thoughts of the book, plus his plans for safe week with Solo fast approaching. Good episode.
Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 13 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Host: Allen Voivod
Rating: Good
Star Wars 7×7: Episode 1407 Allen talks about the review embargo for Solo and how it could be a good sign with them allowing reviews so far ahead of release.
Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 9 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Host: Allen Voivod
Rating: Good
Star Wars Report: Episode 330 kicks off with Bruce, Teresa Delgado and Mark as they talk Subway sandwiches, Solo premiers, avoiding spoilers, popcorn buckets and Solo dice. They get into some news, talk about their book review podcasts, audio books, the upcoming Flight of the Falcon series, Star Wars Battlefront II Han stuff which leads to a gaming discussion. They also talk comics, movie poll results, the Her Universe Solo collection, and Ashley Eckstein’s It’s Your Universe book. Afterwards, Bruce talks with Matt and John from Aggressive Negotiations podcast as they share their thoughts on Star Wars TV shows. The episode caps off with Bruce and Mark talking about the upcoming Star Wars live action TV show. Note there’s been a recent change with the Star Wars Report as Bruce has taken over for Riley, which I don’t mind at all. This episode did run a bit long though, with a lot of different topics, a lot of guests, but it wasn’t too bad.
Podcast Network: 2nd Airborne Division
Runtime: 1 hour 52 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Bruce, and Mark
Rating: Good
Superhero Therapy: Infinity War Therapy is a spoiler discussion. For anyone who watched the movie and felt like they needed some therapy, this might be the episode for you. They talk through the emotions of the film, they talk about grief, heroism, sacrifice, and it makes for a discussion that’s a bit different from all of the other Infinity War discussions I’ve listen to so far as it focuses on the emotions invoked by the film on the viewers, as well as the emotions the story invokes in its characters.
Podcast Network: Assembly of Geeks
Runtime: 25 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Dr. Scarlet, and Dustin
Rating: Good
Tatooine Sons: Episode 24 is a live episode as they follow the Solo red carpet premier coverage via the StarWars.com stream, so the audio is a bit rough. I did not make it all the way through this one.
Podcast Network: Star Wars Commonwealth
Runtime: 1 hour 31 minutes
Audio Quality: Not Great
Editing: Okay
Host: David, Nate, and Samuel
Rating: N/A
TechnoRetro Dads: TechnoRetro Dads Consult Earth, Wind & Fire to Rescue Sgt. Pepper they talk a little Infinity War (no spoilers), tell some space jokes, go over the news, Bill & Ted 3, choose your own adventure movies, cereal, and then talk some music as they go over Earth, Wind & Fire. Then they talk about the movie Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Band. They talk video games as they go over Robotron 2084, and wrap up with listener feedback.
Podcast Network: Retrozap
Runtime: 1 hour 17 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Shazbazzar, and JediShua
Rating: Fun
The Deucecast Movie Show: Episode 326 features guest Jennifer Kaufman as they start with some sports talk, then play a movie game. Afterwards they go over their top five wedding movies/wedding scenes in movies. Lots of variety, from movies like I Love You Man and My Big Fat Greek Wedding to Spaceballs and Monty Python. Good episode.
Podcast Network: Retrozap
Runtime: 1 hour 10 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Dave, Mikey, and Dr. Earl
Rating: Good
The Geek Supreme: Infinity War Aftermath is fully devoted to Infinity War, which just a quick break at the beginning as they make their Rotten Tomatoes score predictions for Deadpool 2 and Solo. Afterwards it’s all Infinity War, and they do go into spoilers. They talk about their thoughts on the movies, biggest surprises, weaknesses, and there is lots of Avengers puns. Very fun episode.
Podcast Network: Assembly of Geeks
Runtime: 58 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Darth Taxus, Scott, Jeff and Regina
Rating: Fun
The Sandcrawler: Episode 51 starts with some Celebration thoughts, then they talk favorite figures, Solo tickets, presale success, Star Wars movie watching habits, they go over the Star Wars Resistance announcement, listener emails, recent acquisitions, and they go over wave three of the Power of the Force 2 figures. Fun episode.
Podcast Network: Retrozap
Runtime: 1 hour 43 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Dan, and Mac
Rating: Fun
The Skyhoppers Podcast: Episode XCIV touches on swamp troopers versus range troopers, then they talk Lando, discussing the character and sharing their thoughts on him. Good episode.
Podcast Network: Star Wars Commonwealth,
Runtime: 1 hour 3 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Ben, and Ash
Rating: Good
The Skyhoppers Podcast: Book Club Episode XII goes over the book Heir to the Jedi as they share their thoughts on the book, talk about Luke and impostor syndrome, fridging, and the prose. Their final opinions, overall not a great book but not as bad as the hype. If you haven’t read the book and were scared off by all the negative opinions out there, you might want to give this one a listen to see if it’s worth giving a chance. Good episode.
Podcast Network: Star Wars Commonwealth,
Runtime: 52 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Ben, and Ash
Rating: Good
The Soundtrack Show: Star Wars: the Music (Part I) Dave talks about the pillars of Star Wars then dives into some of the music and themes. He touches on the lack of resolve in some of the themes but not others how that plays into the film, he touches on the Force theme, Leia’s theme, and also gets into listener email. Great episode.
Podcast Network: HowStuffWorks
Runtime: 51 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: David Collins
Rating: Great
Toy Run: Episode 109 they talk about May 4th, Disney Store, Solo tickets, toy news, KB Toys, toy runs, then they talk Star Wars Rebels as they go over all of the toys for the show. There’s also a Forces of Destiny tangent. Some minor audio issues at the very end, otherwise good episode.
Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 1 hour 49 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Criz, and Jake
Rating: Good
Wookiee Radio: Episode 65 kicks off with voice actress Vanessa Marshall and special guest Zoey who asks Vanessa some questions. They talk about Star Wars, Star Wars Rebels, voice acting, fandom and her other projects. It’s a great interview and worth checking out. After the interview, they jump into some discussions as they talk about the Obi-Wan Kenobi movie news, Jon Favreau’s comments on the Star Wars TV show, they touch on Last Shot (nothing spoilery), and they go over an article on Star Wars movies that were never made. Great episode.
Podcast Network: We Be Geeks Network
Runtime: 1 hour 10 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Editing: Excellent
Hosts: Ken, Derrick, and Mike
Rating: Great