I was introduced to the Mountain Goats through, of all things, Moral Orel, which used No Children and Old College Try. I think Todd's advice here is spot on, and probably a better way to get into them than watching two seasons of a lousy puppet show before getting to the one good season that also included Goats' songs.

He has occasional "Blitz" episodes, which were originally intended to be short examinations of a single topic but have slowly gotten longer, like everything else he does. That said, they are self-contained, not multi-episode, and they focus on a concept, rather than retelling an entire war or period of history.
It…

Hardcore History is one of those shows that really makes me glad that podcasting exists. This week, Dan went on about World War I for nearly 4 hours, and crossed the 10 hour mark for the Great War Series so far. And, against all odds, it's absolutely riveting. I can't think of another medium where he could do this.

I really enjoy Pop Culture Happy Hour.
I liked Trey, but I don't think the show really suffers without him. Maybe that's just because the Venn diagram of his pop culture interests and my own has zero crossover.
For me, the deciding factor between a good episode and a great one is usually whether Glen is along for…

Swap 2 and 3, and you've got my list.

Agreed. He's great at improv, just not accents.

Huh. I was totally on the opposite side - within the first twenty minutes, this one became my favourite so far. His recitation of his dream of living in the sha na na house was just so tragic and hilarious… his doctor calling him back to tell him he could have all the egg creams he wanted… Then all the water…

Me too! For some reason the clickety-clacks got me every time. Lots of hard K sounds, i guess.

He was the DB Cooper of bears.

I never would have thought that the Chip character could be funny for a whole episode. But man, he was just hilarious.

I can't speak for Uzbekistan, but In neighboring Kazakhstan, they use "Kazakh" to refer to ethnically Kazakh people, while "Kazakhstani" refers to anyone living in the country, including Koreans, Germans, Ukrainians, and Russians.
Central Asia is complicated.

Yeah, I'm super stoked about this. After Paul F. Tompkins, who really belongs in a special category, Daly and St. Clair are my favourite BingBong guests.

I would listen to Terry Gross interviewing that shark.

Seconded! Foodfight was clearly ill-conceived enough to supply both the Peaches and the WHM-ers with plenty of unique material. Classic episodes from both.

Hardcore history is reliably fascinating. I'm not sure what it is about Carlin, but I'm perfectly happy to listen to entire four or five hour blocks of him just talking.

I feel the same way! Every time I hear news about John's march to the heights of lower-mid range Hollywood success, my first thought is: whither the Bugle?

The Flop House just started including ads, and they've done a pretty good job making them fit in with the style of the show (ie, hilarious).