Let's Talk 10 Podcasts #6

Okayyyyyyy. Back at it again, with another 10 podcasts. I do too much of driving, running, cooking, working, and sitting around and I need something to occupy the silence. In case you don’t know, I’ve already done this five other times, so feel free to check out my other 50 podcasts I listen to:

10 of my Favorite Singular Story Podcasts (#5) - February 2019
Up (4) Another 10 Podcasts To Check Out In 2018 - October 2018
10 Podcasts (X3) To Listen To In 2018 - February 2018
10 More Podcasts You Should Listen to Today - October 2017
Top 10 Podcasts To Listen To Today - April 2017

All of the podcasts on this blog are talk radio podcasts. Just people sitting around a table with some microphones, so most episodes last for an hour or two… I’ve paired each podcast with a video clip of the show this time around. The topics covered vary, so let’s jump into another 10 podcasts I listen to. Here we gooooooo.

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10. Beyond The Pine

“The gang gathers weekly to discuss vaping, shooting films, and their personal lives with occasional celebrity guests.”

Hosted by Steven Suptic and YouTubers Sugar Pine 7, I’ve only watched a few of their youtube videos which are pretty funny, but I enjoy their podcast. This podcast is 4 or 5 guys sitting around chatting about relevant news, YouTube drama, podcast drama and more. A weekly podcast with a pretty dope name and logo. It remind me of conversations I would have with my friends.

9. Your Mom’s House with Christina P. and Tom Segura

“Your Mom's House is a comedy podcast hosted by married comedians Tom Segura and Christina Pazsitzky. The podcast has far ranging conversations, discussing topics such as ongoing events, comedy, to the daily life of the two co-hosts.”

The married comedian duo host super long episodes which often entail comedian guests, YouTube news, funny internet videos, and other random things going on in the world. Pretty funny stuff, although you have to sift through the advertisements and lengthy episodes, some upwards of 3 hours long. I find myself laughing throughout the podcasts, I just don’t always have three hours to try and listen to it all! Your Mom’s House comes out once a week.

8. StarTalk Radio

“StarTalk is a podcast on space, science, and popular culture hosted by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, with various comic and celebrity co-hosts and frequent guests from the worlds of science and entertainment.”

Hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson, this science podcast has awesome discussions about science and life. I have loved the episodes with guests that are interesting to me. Again, I don’t listen to every single episode, as many of the topics covered are way over my head, but there are some solid topics on this pod that will get your brain thinking. StarTalk is a weekly podcast.

7. Impaulsive

“The world's greatest, most thought-provoking, mentally stimulating podcast in the history of mankind... hosted by a bunch of idiots.”

This podcast is hosted by famous and controversial YouTuber, Logan Paul. If you don’t frequent YouTube, you might know him from the Japanese Suicide Forest video. But anyway, this podcast is Logan and a typical East Coast guy named Mike who often have on young and upcoming guests. This podcast started off a little immature in my opinion, but has become one of the better to watch and listen to podcasts out there. You just sometimes have to get through Mike talking over everyone. Check out new episodes every Monday Wednesday Friday.

6. No Jumper

“Coolest podcast in the world.”

Podcast hosted by YouTuber Adam22 with mostly rappers, porn stars, and YouTubers as guests. His girlfriend Lena The Plug often co-hosts with him as well. Adam can be a little intimidating at first with all his tattoos, but he does a great job interviewing his guests, often while smoking weed or drinking. A little on the edgy side, but pretty professional given the guests and set up. Sometimes you get one episode a week, sometimes four. Always worth a listen. Check out his episode with Dennis Rodman below.

5. Pardon My Take

“Big Cat & PFT deliver the loudest and most correct sports takes in the history of the spoken word. Daily topics, guests, and an inability to tell what the hosts might be doing will make this your new favorite sports talk show.”

This Barstool Sports podcast headed by Big Cat and PFT is released 3 times a week. They have hilarious conversations with big named guests every episodes, often being sarcastic, but making good points. I don’t listen to every episode, but whenever I do, it is a good and funny time. Each episode they do a Mt Rushmore of “Fill in the blank” where they name their top answer to for example: Being average, farm animals, back up quarterbacks… In each episode there is also an interview or two, usually with some sort of athlete, or sports related guest. I like to think of this as “real sports radio” podcast, in the sense of your friends are just talking sports with no filter.

4. H3 Podcast

“The H3 podcast is a division of YouTubers H3H3. Their content mostly consists of reaction videos and sketch comedy in which they satirize internet culture.”

YouTuber H3H3 (aka Ethan Klein and his wife Hila) bring in guests and discuss YouTube drama along with other internet news. They love to call out other internet stars and often mock what traditional media calls “news". This podcast comes out twice a week, and while this podcast is a bit hit or miss with me, I really enjoy the podcast episodes with YouTuber Gus Johnson or OG YouTuber, now comedian Bo Burnham. They are linked below.

3. Call Her Daddy

“Follow along vlogger Alexandra Cooper and best friend Sofia Franklyn as the duo dives into the explicit details of their life in NYC. In their 20s, the two exploit the f*ck out of their lives, making you feel a hell of a lot better about yours.”

Another Barstool podcast on the list that has blown up lately. It is all about relationships, sex, and embarrassing stories from the female perspective. The two hosts, Alex and Sofia don’t hold back with being upfront and bold about the topics covered. And they make sure their thoughts on how women should be running the sex game and why you should “call her daddy” are known to all. A little offensive (to some) and inappropriate (to others), some of the things they say or stories they tell are so absurd, they often makes me laugh out loud, although episodes can also drag and the hosts can be a little annoying… Episodes come weekly

2. Making Sense with Sam Harris

“Join Sam Harris—neuroscientist, philosopher, and best-selling author—as he explores some of the most important questions about the human mind, society, and current events.”

Take a big flip in the opposite direction of the last podcast, the Making Sense podcast is hosted by intellect Sam Harris and will get you thinking and using your brain. Nolan got me turned on to this one, as it used to be called, Waking Up With Sam Harris. Sam often has on other philosophical guests and discusses important topics that will make you question the life you are living. His voice is also very soothing and smooth to listen to. This podcast comes out once a week.

1. Joe Rogan Experience

“5, 4, 3, 2, 1…… The Joe Rogan Experience is a free audio and video podcast hosted by American comedian, actor, sports commentator, martial artist and television host Joe Rogan.”

Joe Rogan is by far the greatest conversationalist. There are so many great episodes, and they come out almost daily, as he sometimes records 2 episodes a day. Depending on the guest, Joe will often drink or smoke while discussing deep topics, current events and worldwide theories. His discussions are always entertaining and he is by far the best “talk” podcast you should dive into first. Guests range from Elon Musk to Dale Earnhardt Jr to Lance Armstrong to Steve-O to Alex Jones. There are over 1300 interviews, so definitely find someone you would like to hear talk.

I hope you enjoyed this blog about another 10 podcasts I listen to. That takes us to 60 pods I try to get to every week. Don’t forget to check out the other 50 I have posted about before (links at the top).

You can get all podcasts for free by downloading on itunes, listening on the websites (links provided above), stream on spotify, or use the podcast app on your phone.

And as always, are there any podcasts that you suggest I listen to, specifically talk radio podcasts??

Josh

Time to upgrade

Electronics and technology have always been a catch 22 for me. They are so wonderful as they make life simpler and we can learn so much from them, but they also make life so tough as they are distracting, constantly need updating, and often cause us to waste time.

I have 5 main electronic items, just like you, that may need updating. 

Number One: A Phone. Luckily for me, my iphone 6s which I got the day before my wedding in 2016 is still going strong. Wow, now that I look at that, this was over 3 years ago. And since I go to so many concerts, I probably should get an update since new phones can film at such a high quality and record such great audio. Anyways, Apple was caught making batteries die quickly and offered a $40 fix before 2019 began which I took advantage of. You can still can get a new battery it just costs a little bit more now. Take a look at this comparison chart. Here are a few tips to make your battery last longer:

1. Put your phone on low power mode… easiest thing you can do, as I do this every damn day.

2. Close unused apps… everyone is guilty of forgetting to close Apps they aren’t using.

3. Turn off bluetooth… most of our external items (speakers, watches, earphones, etc) connect to bluetooth now and use battery.

4. If absolutely necessary, put your phone in airplane mode! This will ensure your phone does absolutely nothing with cellular, which will save you battery.

5. Get a new battery, or maybe just a new phone…. we can all use this, but can we afford it? No.

Number Two: A Computer. I’ve had a computer for as long as I can remember, shoutout floppy disk days, but I built my first computer senior year of high school, and used that for the first two years of college. During the fall of my junior year at Adrian, 2009, I built my second and current computer. I wanna say I spent nearly $1400 on it at the time, and it was a pretty top of the line build. It has lasted almost 10 years so far and still does alright. I can't run high quality games anymore, and I get very nervous with the storage space and potential hard drive crashes, but it does it’s jobs for now. Although I am in search of a new one, so if anyone has any ideas…. let me know! I also currently own a macbook pro and it fulfills it’s purpose, editing and internet browsing for work. I don’t really store anything on this computer as it only has 250 GB of storage. Here are some tips for anyone using a computer or laptop. 

1. Back up your data to an external hard drive, I have 2 backups of all my files from my computer that I try to backup once a month, which for some people isn’t enough!

2. This ties into technology to upgrade #1, your phone. Back up your phone! Either use the simple backup feature on the iphone, or simply copy and past the pictures and videos from your phone to your computer. i know too many people that lose all of their photos the minute they break their phone. Can’t have that!

3. If you want to game, go big or go home. It’s hard to play computer games well on a not so good computer… so you’re gonna have to pay for it. The other option is to get a playstation or xbox instead of gaming on PC. Even though I have an XBoxOneX now, nothing beats the keyboard and mouse. WASD for life!

4. If you know how, build a computer for less than buying a prebuild. This will get you more bang for your buck! Although I have been debating lately between building vs just buying a prebuild. Takes a lot of research and stress out of it!

5. Back up your computer to an external hard drive! Did I already say this? Yes I did. No one prints photos or has VHS tapes anymore. Everything of value is on your computer, don’t let it disappear with a broken hard drive.

Number Three: A TV. Now I am not in the need of any new TVs, but I thought this would be most relevant to others reading. In our apartment we have 2 50inch TVs, one of which we won, and one of which Rachel bought when she first moved out. In addition to these two, I have another 2 32inch TVs at my parents place, again both won (my Mom is really into sweep stakes) TVs are constantly getting better. Here is a quick tip for your TV. Get a Roku, Chromecast, or Amazon Fire Stick. You don't need to spend all the $ on a smart TV. Get a “cheaper” normal TV without the “smart” options and just get an inexpensive $30 add on (one of the devices named above) for all the “smart” options. I’m not sold on the 4K TVs or the curved TVs at this point, so I’m going to hold off. Also ditch the cable, get Netflix and Hulu, and probably stock up on your DVDs (like me), as everyone is coming out with their own streaming services these days.

Number Four: So when I started this blog over 18 months ago, number 4 was a Camera. I got my first DSLR late in 2011. A canon 60d and it has been wonderful. What I was looking for in a new camera was more of an auto-focus feature, especially for video. I was debating between the 70d or 80d. Well, back in December of 2018 I bought a Canon 80d. So I am changing this Number 4 to a quality lens. If you thought the "body” of the camera was costly, you are very wrong! Glass is expensive! Here are a few lenses I own, as well as a few I am looking to get into in the next couple of years.

Lenses I Own:

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM

Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 

Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6

Lenses I Want:

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L 

$1900

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L 

$1600

Oh and a quick tip for camera users: Find the camera that is right for you. For almost all of you, that is just your cell phone. Phones these days are amazing devices and can do wonderful things. If you want to step it up, get a DSLR, or one of the mirrorless cameras. Whether it is Canon, Nikon, or Sony, you won’t be disappointed.

Number Five: Computer Speakers. This is probably least relevant to most reading, as people either use their crappy laptop speakers, or some small bluetooth speaker. These work for some people, but not audiophiles. While I wouldn’t call myself an audiophile, I do enjoy some bass and surround sound to my music and movies. My computer speakers, which actually broke in the last year, I had since sophomore year of college, fall of 2008. It was a 7.1 speaker system connected to a small receiver that included a cd player, with front center (both left and right inside it), left, right, back left, back right speakers, and subwoofer. They did an awesome job for the last 10 years, but it was time for an upgrade anyway. Another downside to this system was that it was wired, so there were wires all over our apartment.

For my TV I have a sound-bar that has the main center bar, and then a back left, back right, and subwoofer. Not a crazy good sound-bar, but it does the job.

I do listen to my laptop and bedroom TV sometimes without any sort of speaker, which is fine at times.

Recently I have been getting into Vinyl, and really need to get a good sound system to listen to my vinyl. Right now it is just playing off of my sound-bar, which again, isn’t terrible, but it’s not great. I need to look into getting an amplifier (or a receiver with an amplifier in it), a preamp, and a solid set of speakers.

Tip for those who listen to anything: Invest in speakers. The sound quality only gets better with more speakers you have, and generally the more you spend on the setup. Whether it is a simple sound-bar, or a full speaker setup with an an amplifier, the feeling of that subwoofer rumbling or the all around you feel with surround sound, it really is game changing and you won’t regret it.

Those are the five main types of technology that I need to upgrade and it’s about time I do so. Any suggestions for an item in one of the categories above? Or maybe a different electronic item I am missing out on?

Let ya boy know!

Josh

Are You Not Entertained?

Are You Not Entertained!?

Well it has only been a year and a half since I started my actor/actress per month movie watching. Clearly I didn’t keep the pace. Last was Emma Stone during January of 2018… before that was Jim Carrey during December 2017…

I spent the end of 2018 and beginning of 2019 watching 20 of Russell Crowe’s movies. I decided to watch most of them in chronological order of their release. Here we gooooooo

Did you know Russell Crowe is a New Zealander? His net worth as of 2019 is $95 million. Not too shabby.

I started off this Crowe movie marathon with a 1991 Australian flick called Proof. It was actually a pretty good film about a blind photographer making a friend (Crowe). He received best supporting actor award for Proof from the Australian Film Institute.

Romper Stomper in 1992 (Australian film) is basically about racist skinhead Nazi’s. It reminds me of American History X. Crowe won best actor from the Australian Film Institute for this role.

Silver Brumby in 1993 is a movie about a particular horse and about a man (Crowe) trying to catch the Silver Brumby (horse). If you really like horses, this one is for you.

In 1995, his first role as a FBI detective came in the American movie No Way Back.

Outside of these smaller films, as far as I’m concerned, Russell Crowe launched his career in 1997 with the release of LA Confidential. Sure he actually started acting as a child in 1972, but he didn’t have many well known releases up to this point. Had you heard of the four movies above? Anyways, in LA Confidential he plays police detective Bud White looking to solve some high level crime.

He followed up LA Confidential with another ‘97 release, Breaking Up, which also starred a young and beautiful Selma Hayek. Breaking Up is a rom-com with some okay parts, think ‘97 romcom that brought in only $12k in the box office....yikes! Following these movies in 1997, Crowe then had two big 1999 releases: Mystery, Alaska which is about a hockey team based out of Alaska that plays the New York Rangers, and The Insider which is based on the true story of whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand (Crowe) breaking the news that cigarettes are bad for you through reporter Al Pacino. Both solid movies. Then I would say he performed his greatest role in Gladiator, which was released in 2000. If you haven’t seen this movie based on life in Ancient Rome, you need to do that ASAP. Crowe plays Maximus, who is a Roman General turned Gladiator. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Gladiator. I remember watching this movie over and over as a kid with my brother. We would pause the DVD on scenes where gladiators got chopped in half at the waist by chariots and when there was a futuristic Co2 tank in the back of that same chariot. Good times.

In 2001 he plays the famous, and schizophrenic mathematician, John Nash, in A Beautiful Mind, which is my second favorite Crowe movie next to Gladiator.

This was followed up by Cinderella Man in 2005 in which he plays boxer James J. Braddock during the Great Depression. Crowe then plays an outlaw in the western 3:10 to Yuma in 2007. American Gangster also came out in 2007 in which Russell Crowe plays police officer Richie Roberts as he tries to take down drug dealer played by Denzel Washington. Political thriller State of Play was then released in 2009, followed by Robin Hood in 2010.

Also in 2010, Crowe stars in The Next Three Days with Elizabeth Banks. Crowe has to get his wife (Banks) out of jail, in you guessed it, 3 days. Highly suggest this movie for an action thriller. Winter’s Tale came out in 2014, which Crowe plays a demon chasing a thief down who rides a magic horse, woah! Noah, the story of biblical Noah and his ark with Emma Watson, also came out in 2014, Russell plays Noah. The action/comedy, The Nice Guys where Crowe and Ryan Gosling play detectives was released in 2016. Another detective film for him.

The last and latest movie of Russell Crowe’s I watched was The Mummy, the 2017 version. Although it was more of a Tom Cruise movie, but Crowe plays Dr. Henry Jekyll. I still prefer the Brendan Fraiser Mummy though...

At the end of the day, if you want to be entertained, load up Gladiator or A Beautiful Mind, maybe even The Next Three Days.

Did I miss any Russell Crowe classics? Any suggestions on who I should watch next? Might be back to an actress for the next round…

Josh