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2016 edition of the Podcast Review

Last year I posted about all the various podcasts I listen to from time-to-time, and it was one of my more popular posts. So it's time I did it again...



SEN 1116 - Melbourne sports radio station, lots of little snippets of interviews for a variety of sports, but especially Aussie Rules.

2 Guys 1 Cup - only caught this late in the season. Australian comedian Wil Anderson and his mate Charlie talk a lot of shit about footy, often with a guest or two.

BBC 5 Live Sports Specials - occasionally a good one in here, but also plenty I don't bother with.

ABC Grandstand Sports Specials - similar to the above BBC 5 Live rating, just less prolific in output.

All Out Cricket Podblast Podcast - one of several cricket podcasts I follow, and they're all slightly different. Has its moments.

Alt-F1 - very entertaining F1 and general motorsport podcast. Good mix of the serious and the piss take.

Beating the Book with Gil Alexander - Vegas podcast, mostly centred around NFL but baseball and other sports as well. Sometimes insightful, sometimes a little monotonous, but Monday NFL reviews with Storytime with Chris Andrews during NFL season is worth listening to just for that - especially when you know some of the protagonists in the stories!

ESPN Behind the Bets - another Vegas-related podcast. Usually ignore the football season ones, there's enough decent material in the rest of the year to forgive those.

Betting 360 Podcast - from Dave Duffield and the Champion Bets podcast. Seem to have gone quiet lately, reckon he's run out of guests for a while. Plenty of decent episodes in the archives anyway.



Big Footy Podcast - reckon they might have given up on this one. Will give it a couple more months before deleting it. AFL podcast from a fans forum perspective.

Cricket Sadist Hour - another cricket podcast, this one from Jarrod Kimber and comedian Andy Zaltzmann. Have gone quiet of late, they are on notice...

Crime in Sports - my absolute favourite podcast which I only discovered this year. Two American comedians rip the absolute crap out of professional athletes who have turned into the lowest scumbags on the planet. You don't need educational qualifications to make a fortune out of playing sport, and virtually all of the profiled sportsmen (and women!) in this brilliant podcast series are testament to that. Ain't no Rhodes Scholars in here, but a lot of scumbags with not even enough brain cells to cover up blatantly obvious crimes. Love their catchphrase imitating the sentencing judge - "You sir, can fuck off!".

Criminal - another favourite I found this year. Smoothly presented series about criminal events, sometimes a serial killer, another time an episode about assisted dying for the terminally ill (which is deemed a crime or treads a very fine line in most US states). Lot of strange cases from the history books as well.

DRF Players' Podcast - American racing podcast I listen to occasionally, certainly around Triple Crown and Breeders Cup time.

Fox Footy Market Watch, Open Mike and Fox Footy Podcast - the trio of AFL podcasts from the Fox Footy Channel. All worth a listen. Open Mike interviews players of the past, the Market Watch talks about the draft and trading during the season, and the latter one previews and reviews each round of the season.



Freakonomics Radio - one of the more famous podcasts out there, well produced and an easy listen, even on sometimes dull economic subjects.

BBC Radio 4 Friday Night Comedy - plenty of good stuff and also plenty of rubbish. The beauty of podcasts is you can skip to the next one very quickly if it's crap. Includes the Now Show, Just A Minute and the Newsquiz.

Full Credit to the Boys - Aussie sports podcast, mostly centred around rugby league so I'm an occasional listener at best.

Golf.com Podcast - one of several golf podcasts I tune into, this one obviously a bit more serious from tie-ins with the magazine.

Geek and Friends - entertaining cricket podcast from Peter Miller, the cricket geek. It's better than it sounds!

Hot Takedown - analytics-based podcast from the team at FiveThirtyEight.com. Mostly centred on US sports, but does widen their scope occasionally.

How The Race Was Won - a video podcast focusing on the end of major cycling races. Focuses on key tactics and incidents, if you're just a casual cycling fan, it provides very good insight into the tactics of a race.



How To Be Amazing with Michael Ian Black - lengthy interviews with famous people, but many of them not-so-well-known outside the US. Most of them are interesting.

Radio 4 More or Less: Behind the Stats - myth-busting number crunching, highlighting any peculiar numbers used in the media and calling them out for bending the truth, or simply blatant lies. Naturally, the Brexit campaign and Donald Trump have been covered a few times this year.

Mug Punters - Aussie punters podcast. Has its moments but could cut down on the rambling.

NAB Trade Radio - only runs for 2-3 weeks per year, loads of interviews with player, agents and analysts around the AFL Draft.

Newsjack - topical weekly Radio 4 comedy show, written by the public. Not bad.

No Laying Up - another golf podcast, not too serious. Often interviewing lesser-known players who you rarely get to hear from.

No Such Thing As A Fish - brilliant comedy facts podcast from the QI Elves.

Pardon The Interruption - audio podcast of the ESPN TV show. Listen to it most weeks, but not everyday. Wilbon and Kornheiser make the show, not the same chemistry when they have others filling in.

Roar, the Richmond FC History podcast - relatively new podcast from Rhett Bartlett, son of the great KB. Lots of interviews with players of years gone by, some were club legends, others barely played a game. A great listen for Tiger fans.



Racing Ahead - I used to listen to this religiously back when Shane Anderson was aboard and there was a mandate to question authority. Now it is very much ra-ra, all praise that powers that be, and never question the decisions of stewards, Racing Victoria or Tabcorp with Michael Felgate at the helm. The 60-90min show is chopped into individual interviews on Audioboom these days and I skip most of them (pain in the arse to retrieve via RSS Podcast app, but it can be done). Even Jury Duty, the Monday panel show meant to stir up a bit of controversry, has gone soft these days.

Racing Postcast - previews and reviews of the weekend (and big Festival) race meetings from the expertise among the Racing Post staff. Worth listening to for Paul Kealy alone. Also a weekly football podcast in there which I don't bother with.

Rex Hunt : This Is Your Football Life - interviews with former AFL/VFL players, taking me back to the glory days of my youth!

Rhod Gilbert's Best Bits - Radio Wales podcast from his Saturday morning radio show. Has the occasional dud week, but mostly pretty funny.

Road to the Draft - AFL podcast looking at the young playing talent being dissected by every AFL fan in the lead-up to the AFL Draft.

Punters Post Mortem - from Sky Racing Radio out of Sydney. Pains me to say that a NSW racing broadcast is better than one from Melbourne, but given the current state of Victorian racing media & politics, it has jumped lengths clear. They've even stolen one of Melbourne best analysts, Deane Lester. Weekly review of the weekend's racing.

Sports Geek podcast - sports marketing industry podcast. Not really connected to what I do but I find most episodes very interesting - and it's an area that I could have ended up in with my qualifications.

Star Talk - a bit geeky, an entertaining and often funny look at science and the universe hosted by popular US scientist Neil de Grasse Tyson.

The Steak Knives podcast - seems like an entertaining Aussie punting podcast. But I can't listen to a whole episode because the sound quality is bloody awful. Buy a proper microphone guys!



Stuff You Should Know - brilliant series, been going for years. As it says on the tin, lots of interesting stuff to learn every week! The two presenters complement each other really well.

Stumped - from the BBC World Service and an Indian radio station, another cricket podcast. Only found this one a couple of weeks ago, going well so far.

Talking Tigers - official Richmond FC podcast, marked down severely this year as they now do it live and invite live callers, and lost their compere who was the excellent filling in the middle between Richo & Tony Greenberg. The replacement.. not as polished.

Can't Bowl, Can't Throw - the best of the cricket podcasts I follow, Aussie Dennis Friedman constantly taking the piss out of cricketers around the world, ably assisted by @cricketbatcat.

The Australian Cricket Podcast - this one is either very entertaining or gets on my nerves (mostly due to Menners' voice), it swings like a pendulum regularly.

The Bill Simmons podcast - not as caught up in the hype as many on this one, but he has some good stuff from time to time.

The Clubhouse with Shane Bacon - another decent golf podcast focusing on the PGA Tour.

The Drinks Break - bloody hell, another cricket podcast. Didn't realise there were that many! James Wickham, Lizzy Ammon and others chat mostly about English cricket.

The Final Furlong - now in the ATR stable, this racing podcast from Ireland attracted a cult following and then became mainstream. Cork radio personality Emmett Kennedy hosts with regular panellists such as Kevin Blake, Rory Delargy, Tony Keenan, Vanessa Ryle and Candice Hare. Can be prone to a few too many inside jokes and like most Irish racing folk, heavily biased towards the National Hunt season, but very entertaining. Also home to the occasional special edition on the issues of serious punters, such as bookmaker account restrictions and professional form study. A must for racing punters.



The Infinite Monkey Cage - Brian Cox and Robin Ince present a "witty, irreverent look at the world through scientists' eyes." Can be quite entertaining.

The J Files - music history from Aussie radio station Double J. Unfortunately copyright/performing rights issues prevent them from playing any more than snippets of the songs mentioned.

The No Dickheads Policy - highly-rated last year, the guys have been far less productive this year. Perhaps it was because they sold the Nissan Pulsar which acted as the studio.

The Sounding Board - love this one. Behind the scenes Aussie media podcast featuring Craig Hutchison, formerly a pest of a TV sports reporter, now a media mogul, and long-time footy journalist Damian Barrett. The conversation largely revolves around the work that goes into breaking a story, and then media & PR spin required to stay in control of it. I might not have described that very well and it doesn't sound that exciting but it actually a very well assembled weekly podcast.

The Sportsbet Audio Network - two podcasts in one here. The Audible, which comes out weekly during the Aussie winter, and the B-Set, a new racing podcast which comes out late each week previewing the weekend's racing in Australia. I'm a tad biased as I worked alongside two of the guys on this show many years ago, but it's a really good mix of expertise and humour. Essential listening but assume it's only got a few more weeks left during the Spring Carnival.

The Superfooty Podcast - AFL podcast from the sportsdesk of the Herald-Sun. Won't be much from them for a few months.

The Telegraph Cycling Podcast - runs daily during the grand tours, less frequently between races. Mix of content, pure reporting on races and other times life around the tours. There's also a premium subscription available with even more content, for those with a bit more time on their hands and probably more likely to go out for a 100km ride on a Sunday.

The Tennis Podcast - still on my list but haven't listened to it in ages. Everything's too nice in the world of Law & Whitaker, a bit too posh and cheery rather than questioning authority such as the lack of drug tests on the circuit.

The Traders AFL Fantasy Podcast - as it says on the tin, won't hear much from them for a few months.



The Vertical with JJ Redick - really enjoy this one. Hosted by a current NBA player but not all about basketball. It's more about life as an athlete and how it's nothing like what most people imagine. Also has a lot of great guests on the show, from the NBA and other sports/industries.

The Zone - Aussie sports radio shows across different states. Can take or leave these, only listen to the SA & WA ones, and the SA one might soon get the boot, just can't listen to Kane Cornes, his voice annoys me.

Titus & Sergio's Variety Hour - pisstake podcast talking about sport in Australia mostly. Can never be said that these guys take themselves too seriously...

Under The Influence - have to thank an old uni mate now living in Canada for this one, doubt I'd ever have found it. Extremely interesting podcast about the effects of marketing - what subtle little things led to bacon becoming the world's favourite breakfast meat, or how did a New Zealand advertising agency set up a radio station purely for dogs? Really interesting stuff about how we are constantly being influenced by marketing geniuses, yet we think we are smart enough to make our own decisions. One of my favourites.

Wait Wait Don't Tell Me - American public radio show on the NPR network. A bit like Mock The Week, very funny, entertaining format.

William Hill Golf Podcast - tournament previews each week, only problem is I'm rarely up to date enough to listen to it in time before they too off!

Winners - another RSN production which is nowhere near as good as it once was. Go back a couple of years and we have Friday panels with some of the most astute punters in the country - Dominic Beirne, Daniel O'Sullivan, Ralph Horowitz etc.. These days we're lucky to get one half-decent punter and a TAB mouthpiece. Let's dumb it down guys, that's what the industry needs!

One Forty Seven Seven - Aussie harness racing podcast by a couple of participants/fans of the industry, rather than media types looking through rose-coloured glasses. On a break at the moment, hopefully they return soon - the Inters are coming!

Like A Version - Triple J live in the studio performances from Australia. Probably too old for this stuff now but occasionally a decent musical act for me comes on.

Live at the Wireless - think this one's dead now. Another Triple J podcast, with recorded live gigs.

MY TOP 10

1. Crime in Sports
2. Under The Influence
3. The Sounding Board
4. Titus & Sergio's Variety Hour
5. The B-Set (part of The Sportsbet Audio Network)
6. Stuff You Should Know
7. Criminal
8. No Such Thing As A Fish
9. The Vertical with JJ Redick
10. Can't Bowl Can't Throw

with honourable mentions to Freakonomics, The Final Furlong and Wait Wait Don't Tell Me.

Feel free to add your favourites in the comments!

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