Let me be clear here: I am completely biased. Episode 94 (Numbers) was my own haunting introduction to the show. Recommended Episode: Play roulette with the feed.

The show is understated and subtle, and usually clocks in under 20 minutes if you’re looking for “quick and poignant.” Any writing that I do on Dead Eyes, I’m trying to channel his voice. Nate DiMeo is a minimalist with production, but his prose and nonchalance are what pack the punch. I didn’t have a car or friends, so there was a lot of alone time, and a lot of walking through quiet, dimly lit suburban neighborhoods on summer nights. I started listening to the memory palace when I was living in Silicon Valley for a few months. I recommend Scott, one of the show’s heavier eps. Recommended Episode: Gregor is typically recommended due to the “star-power” and semi-petty premise. These are satisfying, self-contained presentations of personal dramas, sometimes petty, sometimes grave. But knowing what goes into trying to resolve just one person’s hang-up, I cannot imagine the amount of pressure Jonathan Goldstein has faced episode after episode. I don’t fool myself into thinking all of Dead Eyes couldn’t have been condensed into one episode of Heavyweight. Recommended Episode: just listen to the whole six-episode feed from start to finish, and try to find the bonus episodes. The best part is, after you’re done with the whole thing you have the rest of Ross Sutherland’s Imaginary Advicefeed to enjoy. Learning “the rules” of the puzzle-solving is frustrating, but once you get it (with or without help) you feel SMART. Fans of Welcome to Night Valewill recognize the style, but might appreciate the addition of the meta-game played in between episodes, solving puzzles to unlock the actual narrative. The Golden House clears that hurdle by presenting as a studio-produced, public-facing podcast for a secretive tech startup/cult. Most audio-fiction that goes for “realism” ends up sounding studio-perfect. It’s fiction, I’ll get that out of the way in case it’s a big turn-off for you. When I saw the trailer for this show-yes, a video trailer to advertise a podcast!-I told everyone about it. The latest episode as of me writing this is Are You Listening? Devastating, but not exploitative. Recommended Episode: Pick any of them, really. They give their listeners the truth and a re-education. There’s nothing sensationalist about the show, no “star-power” endorsements needed. Earlonne and Nigel’s personalities and voices are perfect complements for one-another. Their sound-signature is unmistakable, thanks to a dedicated composer and consistent blend of polished interviews and yard audio. Recommended Episode: Relevant Questions – The reveal in the first few minutes is my favorite moment in all of podcasting. They are the podcast producer equivalent of really, really, really cool rock and roll guitarists: virtuosic in technique and execution while projecting a couldn’t-care-less attitude about meeting audience expectations. These are shows that I experience joy when listening to, best saved for a medium-aggressive tempo weekend walk in the park. While most of my podcast-listening is driven by an innate fear of bad things happening to myself or my loved ones if I don’t make it through my weekly queue, there are a select few that I commit to listening at regular-degular old 1.0× speed. Some might say that’s sociopathic, and I’m inclined to agree! But I have many shows to get through, and a very small window of time in which to listen to them. That sometimes bumps the playback up to 3.25× speed. I listen to a lot of podcasts, usually on 2.5× speed, with silences removed. Mike feels uncomfortable writing in the third-person. He has won no awards or honors, but writes music under the moniker Old Best Friend, infrequently produces his own Star Wars podcast called Bantha Fodder, and airs his general conversations with co-host Jacob Tender on Podchasm. He writes, edits, and mixes the unimportant investigatory podcast Dead Eyes. Mike Comite is a producer and audio engineer at the Headgum podcast network.

Pocket casts playback speed