The entire first season of United States of Anxiety passed by without me being aware of it, but the first few episodes of this second "Culture Wars" series have been excellent. It's a well-done, refreshing change of pace from a lot of the more hyper-timely political pods I listen to.

I think I might drop NPR politics podcast. It is, in fact, a good round-up and would probably be valuable if I was able to force myself away from the internet more and lead a healthier life. But as it is, by time I listen I've sat in these stories for awhile already and it increasingly feels like their panel doesn't…

Yea, I think I'm going to drop some other political podcasts I listen to that are more 'weekly news round-up' stuff. By the time I listen to them, I've probably thoroughly marinated in those stories already. The shorter PSA keeps that first segment of the show, the better listen it is. I think that's why, terrible…

I like a lot of Lowe's less timely, more evergreen stuff more than his 'what happened in the NBA this week' episodes. That Burke interview was great.

That Pokemon TCG for Game Boy WAS surprisingly good. I had zero interest in ever collecting the cards when that game came out, but I stole my sister's copy and played the hell out of it.

Finally going to get some congressional investigation on the most important matter of the day.
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It was fun to hear him promise to use that terrible "fact" on JJHo and then actually follow through with it on NSTAAF.

Someone ate MLA's Thanksgiving turkey and she'd been thinking about that sandwich all fucking day.

There's room for both things in a well-rounded podcast diet, I think. I'd also agree that I'd love the show a whole lot more if it was 10% less weird Twitter schtick and 10% more actual thoughtful discussion, but I get that I'm probably the minority of their audience on that front.

Yea, I like that it seems to have allowed them to get back to being a little more playful with things.

STAY OUT THAT DAHK WATER, TATIANA!

I found the other one! Finally!

I have a hit or miss relationship with that show, but I thought both of their discussions this week were pretty interesting. I think it's good to have an understanding of some of the numbers too, but it was refreshing after a weekend of hearing it discussed mostly as policy to have a show step back, look at the big…

I think the 'top podcast' algorithm isn't strictly by most downloads (although that is part of it). I'm pretty sure a surge in downloads can boost a ranking as well, probably to do exactly what you're talking about: temporarily kick a new potential hit podcast to the top of the charts so people can find it.

Usually a lot of NPR stuff will make a summertime return to my podcast feed, but for some crazy reason I've accumulated a bunch of political podcasts and I'm not sure if that will happen now.

I think cutting back to one episode a week again is going to do them wonders.

That's why I don't totally get the offense over it. It's not like he's making some grand moral judgment or saying this is the "right way" to do things. It's simply an observation that if you're going to live together and be romantically committed long-term, you might as well file the paper work and get tax breaks…

That seems to be a struggle for a lot 'edutainment' type podcasts (looking at you How Stuff Works family of products).

Yea, at some point it just shifted gears into something that wasn't for me (where are the podcasts for 30-year old straight white men, I ask?!) and that's totally cool. The roughly bajillion spin-off Facebook groups show it's something valuable to a bunch of other people and that's just neat.

I would have gladly endured more "Aaron talks about Star Trek" episodes to preserve whatever magic formula they had for a couple years there.