Digging into the podcast archive
From Andy Richter to Trek, Marry, Kill and beyond
There are some podcasts I listen to every week, usually the day they come out. My schedule is roughly this, with variation due to, you know, life.
Monday
The Delta Flyers
Tuesday
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, Gates McFadden InvestiGates (when it’s in season)
Wednesday
Office Ladies
Thursday
It’s Not Only Football, sometimes the rest of Armchair Expert
Friday
All Access Star Trek
(Don’t laugh! I have to listen to my own podcast as part of my quest for self-improvement, even when my own voice makes me all squingy because I think what I’ve said sounds dumb.)
I have a second tier of podcasts I listen to regularly, but with those, I’m in less of a frenzy to devour new episodes in a timely manner. They will be there for me whenever I need them, like a good friend or a lazy cat.
Here are some of the podcasts I’ve been catching up on:
The Three Questions with Andy Richter
I love the way Andy talks to people. I worked with him a million years ago on an MTV pilot called Head Cheese, well before he teamed up with Conan O’Brien, and I recall he was very kind to me back when I was just a wee and timid production assistant.
Andy’s three questions are:
Where did you come from
Where are you going?
What did you learn?
Ben Schwartz had some great answers. This is a guy who worked his ass off to get where he is—and how funny is it that he used to submit his jokes to Letterman by fax?
Another don’t-miss episode: Valerie Bertinelli, who sounds so down-to-earth despite having starred on a hit sitcom as a teenager and been married to a rock star at the peak of his fame.
Andy’s talk with Michael McKean might be in my top five interviews of all time. Michael even sang a jingle he wrote, which made me laugh out loud.
SmartLess
Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes co-host this interview show which ranges from delightful to annoying. They’re longtime friends, so one minute they’re hilariously shitting on each other, then Will and Jason are talking about how excited they are to be going to Sean’s Broadway show on opening night.
I normally prefer when they interview people they don’t know super well, but Will and Natasha Lyonne’s history was fun to hear about, and frankly, every Natasha interview is gold. (Please tell me you’ve watched Russian Doll and Poker Face. And don’t miss her Armchair Expert interview!)
I learned a ton about John Legend in this one, including the fact that I will never be as smart as he is, based solely on our New York Times word puzzle habits. (And, I suppose, his musical genius.)
Hot tip: If you already subscribe to Amazon’s streaming music service, you can get SmartLess episodes a few days earlier AND—even better—ad-free.
Enterprise Incidents with Scott & Steve
Scott & Steve started by making their way through the original Star Trek series (the one I grew up on), looking at the series as if it were serialized, digging into each episode with depth and humor, and talking with some pretty incredible guests who worked on the shows.
My favorite episodes are with director Ralph Senensky. Ralph turns 100 this year, and like my 103-year-old grandmother, he remembers his past with great clarity and knows how to tell a good story. He directed a handful of original Treks and hearing him describe what specific shoot days were like and why he made the choices he did is a rare gift.
Walter Koenig, who played Chekov, was the guest on this one and I had to laugh at his reaction to Scott and Steve’s level of detailed analysis as they discussed one of my favorite guilty pleasure Star Trek episodes.
They’ve now moved on to the animated series from the ‘70s and are about halfway through.
Trek, Marry, Kill
Co-hosts Bryan and Kristen have come up with a twist that makes their podcast stand out in a vast sea (keeping the swimming motif) of Star Trek podcasts: They break down an episode (choosing shows from across the franchise, old and new) by filling in hilariously entertaining categories like these, plus more:
best Trek trope
worst Trek trope
what would the captain of the previous show have done
what lesson from this are they teaching at Starfleet Academy
most “of its time” quality
At the end, they decide if they’d Trek, Marry, or Kill the episode. Fun, right? I was a guest on a episode with my pal Brian Drew (co-host of the Shuttle Pod and fellow TrekMovie editor), but my favorites are the ones when it’s just Bryan and Kristen.
There is much more in my podcast arsenal, but I think you’ve all had enough of me for one day. Plus I have some VERY VERY fun podcast-related news that I’m not going to divulge right now, but if it happens the way it’s supposed to, it will get its very own edition of this nerdy newsletter.
