Haven't tried every podcast app but I recently switched to Castro and I love it. Tons of advanced features and customizable settings which you can apply globally or to specific podcasts. UI is also very sleek and user friendly.

Lovett or Leave it can be hit or miss, but the opening monologue this week where Lovett excoriates Joe Liberman is quality. Even better than Yglesias' rant about Paul Ryan.

Today's "Why Is This Happening?" (Chris Hayes) is a really good and interesting discussion about housing policy, real estate, and our perceptions of home ownership.

I've tried a couple Citations Needed and it feels like the HastenKeeeeedwald hour. idk if it's just the particular time when I started listening, but the two episodes I've been through are:

- How Democrats are blowing Russia hysteria out of proportion
- Does Bill Gates get enough criticism and scrutiny for his philanthropy?

The second one, from today, is pretty loosely constructed compared to what you'd expect from a podcast called "Citations Needed":

- early on they describe Participant Media as a shell company Gates poured money into to fund his pro-charter school documentary Waiting For Superman; I happened to recall Participant for producing Citizenfour, and according to their wikipedia page they've produced some 75 films including the Best Picture-winning Spotlight, so that seems like a pretty dubious (and unsourced) claim

- Because Gates has invested in Comcast and Comcast is (they say) the primary/sole investor in Vox Media, they accused Ezra Klein of basically being a shill for Gates

When it comes down to the actual criticism, their best (and valid!) shot at him is, he's putting money into influencing the scripts and storylines on TV shows, and around the time this is happening a hilariously over-the-top anti-teachers-union episode of Law & Order airs. And I don't mean to make that sound like a conspiracy theory, I find it quite credible, but if the giant criticism here is that Gates isn't a perfect liberal and has blind spots like opposing organized labor: ok?

Continuing, they blast the Giving Pledge for its startling lack of accountability - they get all this big press for pledging to give tons of their wealth away, but how do we know they're actually doing it?

Sorry but given what's going on in the world today, I ain't got time for this. Chapo and Current Affairs manage to blast centrist Dems while being significantly more topical and entertaining.

I don't always agree with them but they at least challenge my views in an intellectual way.

Had stopped listening to it anyway, but can definitely never listen to PSA ever again after hearing Chapo's takedown of Pfeiffer's new book.

Cliffs on that takedown?

They're pushing Wilderness pretty hard now. I listen to PSA when something big is in the news like Helsinki or whatever, but they just have way too many podcasts now and if I listen to them all I'd listen to nothing but them.

I agree with bware's assessment for the most part. The snark is entertaining...for a while. Eventually you need more than that. Their guests are usually good, but they need to spend more than 20 minutes with them. They should sit around and snark no more than 10 minutes per ep, like Maron, then get to the meat & potatoes course.

Also I bought a Stitcher sub because I like Gilbert Gottfried's podcast and wanted access to the bonus content that used to be free but is now behind their paywall, also because Stitcher is one of the services that is compatible with my car. The Stitcher app & platform is somehow worse than the stock one that comes with the iPhone. I won't be resubbing when my year is up.

Also "Le Show" by Harry Shearer is fantastic, or you will absolutely hate it, depending upon your opinion of Shearer's comedy. It's the same show he's been doing for years on NPR.

"Thick Skin" with Jeff Ross is pretty funny, he just lets members of his entourage on mic a little too much.

I'd skip the first 3 episodes. It's all stuff we know.

I was curious about the results of the focus groups and robocalls run by Favreau.

The book is self-aggrandizing, focuses on ****ty anecdotes about Dan's life and partisan hackery while providing mediocre at best advice on how to fix America.

Dan is by far the least interesting member of the PSA crew. It's no surprise that his book would be so dull.

I loved how Chapo wound up having MORE respect for Obama after reading Pfeiffer's book, because it was apparent from the way Pfeiffer relates his personal Obama anecdotes that Barry did not give the slightest **** about him/them.

Finally got around to listening to Chapo and wow so good. It can be annoying sometimes when they constantly cut each other off mid story but the good parts are so good.

Love their episode on conservative cartoonists. The YouTube version is best since you can see the strips they're talking about.

Seems wrong that this forum is the only reason I even know of the existence of Chapo. I keep meaning to work it into the rotation but always forget.

Some of the episodes come off as a bit abrasive. Others are absolutely hilarious. Definitely a hit-or-miss podcast for me so far.

hmm

Anybody a Patreoni for Chapo Trap House.

Those guys are making a killing. Nearly 100K/month. Wonder if it's worth $5 to get a weekly podcast or stick with every other week for free. Never paid for a podcast before.

If you leave an episode feeling like you want to hear more then it's worth it. Their locked podcasts are very similar to their normal ones. They do do some specialized episodes, interviewing this or that person over some niche thing but even then the humor is still broadly the same. The episodes drop once a week and they're pretty consistent with it so youre not worrying about them skipping a month or so and taking your money.

They always joke about the Chapo Twitch stream but IT'S REAL (Felix started the Metal Gear Solid playthrough he promised)

idk if this will be amazing or boring (and don't plan on finding out tonight)

Clicked on that Twitch stream, it's just starting, or restarting after some technical issues.

The above link is a recording of a broadcast from earlier (several hours ago I think) - it's not live.

How much is a movie where you live? A podcast is basically the same length. Seems like a good deal to me if you enjoy the content and want to keep listening in.

i pay for it, it's good. it's one free and one paid podcast a week, so $5 a month = 4 extra chapos, which for me is good value cos i enjoy chapo a whole lot.

there is also something called the black wolf feed, where someone uploads the premium episodes for people who can't pay or don't want to. if you search around or ask in the subreddit it won't be too hard to find i think.

you can also get a t0rrent of the first 100 or so episodes including all the premium stuff on tpb, which was what convinced me to start paying.

IDK about other podcast apps but on Podcast Addict you can find the free premium feeds just by searching "chapo trap house". I subscribe anyway.

As an intro I'd recommend their episode on Pfeiffer's book, mentioned upthread. It's episode 225, was originally released as premium but got re-released as free. It's hard to post a representative ep because that one is just ranting and they do more serious, informative stuff as well, but if you don't find that ep funny, you won't like the podcast.