The first podcast I listen was The Daily from the NY Times. I listen it on my laptop, while I was doing some digital art. The overall production quality of the podcast was akin to a news broadcast. As I continue to listen to it, I could visual see it on the TV as a new report special like ABC 20/20. The podcast was in the news category with a more progressive motivation, mostly in this podcast discussing Elizabeth Warren dropping out of the presidential election and how women possible win against President Trump. The audio quality is similar to a news report where transitions between different sources and anchors. This is not the typical podcast I listen to as this is pre-planned, edited, and audio-only.

https://www.callyourgirlfriend.com/episodes/2019/3/8/podcast-millionaires

The second podcast was the Call your Girlfriend, and to be honest, I did not enjoy it. The hosts are fine, but I think that the target demographic audience for them is young/adult females, female empowerment, and I am a young adult male who listening to it for an assignment. It was a good podcast, not going to lie; however, I would not listen to it on my free time. The production quality is good, clear as day with audio. The podcast cover the cost of running a podcast company, how that it needs constant viewership, possibly doing live-events, and selling merchandise. It had a theme of production cost, but it felt informal, which I enjoy. Compared to the The Daily, which was formal news and had a system of presenting it, the Call your Girlfriend podcast had the host jumping in and out, to say what they want to say, like a conversation. I enjoy that aspect of it.

High Seas, High Stakes | Critical Role | Campaign 2, Episode 99: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmLNSQwQQXQ

The third podcast I listened to is the Critical Role Podcast. Critical Role is a Dungeons and Dragons live-stream, which has podcast version of their streams. I usually watch them live on twitch, but sometimes I watch the vods on the background, while doing Dungeons and Dragons pre-work for my games, or exploring the many PDFs I have. D&D is a tabletop RPG game, where a group of four to six adventurers and a game master create their own world and explore it. Be it an fantasy epic or a book drama, anything could happen. The hosts of the show are a group of well known voice actors: Matthew Mercer, Marisha Ray, Travis Willingham, Laura Bailey, Liam O’Brien, Sam Riegal, Taliesin Jaffe, and Ashley Johnson. They play off each other so well and the story they tell is epic. I could go over the history of them, but it would take too long. Back to the podcast. It is a live-stream first, but they offer their content in podcast form. Their production quality is that of a studio, with great audio quality and video content. The episodes are long, ranging from 3 to 4 hours, with Campaign 1 being 115 episodes and Campaign 2 (current one) being 99 episodes. It is a lot of content, but enjoyable with some episodes having guests on them. I enjoy it as a D&D fan.

The Witcher is Never Witching! – Off Topic – #223: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNzyO76jZEg&list=PLTur7oukosPH-PT3-TVGO9L_GDP89lGYP&index=3&t=0s

The fourth podcast I listen to is Off Topic. The podcast is made by Rooster Teeth, a production company which produce online content, ranging from machima/ animated series like RWBY (pronounce “Ruby”) and Red vs Blue. A group within Rooster Teeth, is Achievement Hunter, a group of people who play video games, and Off Topic is their podcast. Off Topic has an audio component, but you have to watch the video of it to get the most out of it. The audio is really good, being made under a production company, and it is an interesting podcast. There is no set discussion, and members on the podcast come and go. The discussion are based on what’s going with the member’s lives, interest, and general news with their commentary. It is a very hyperbolic podcast, but it feels like hanging out with friends, which I enjoy. It is not too serious, its laid back.

Jack Pattillo on Achievement Hunter, Rooster Teeth – We Have Cool Friends: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol_NofCGEqI

The fifth and final podcast I watched was We Have Cool Friends, from Kinda Funny. Kinda Funny is an online content company, located in San Francisco, which partners with the Achievement Hunters under Rooster Teeth. They have a patron which supports them and merchandise under the RT Brand. I only knew them from the Achievement Hunter and their personality like Greg Miller because of Video Game Journalism. Kinda Funny produces mostly podcast shows like this one, We Have Cool Friends, Kinda Funny Podcast, and others. The quality is really good, for being a smaller group compare to Off Topic, but the content is solid. The podcast, We Have Cool Friends, is basically an interview show of them interview interesting friends they know, and this episode I chosen was one I knew from watching Rooster Teeth content. It feels like a conversation of friends just talking, and I enjoy it.

A big thing I notice about the podcast I consume is that majority of them at least have a live-stream appeal to them. For shows like Critical Role and Off Topic, they will live-stream them to a live audience. For Critical Role, they do some on Twitch.tv, while Off Topic live-streams on Rooster Teeth.com. In addition, they have a video component to them compare to radio, which has only audio. With the video component, it makes it easier to post it around to other sites like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc to show to everyone.