The Best Podcasts of 2018

Wrapping up my best of 2018 lists I am going to do my top 5 podcasts/moments. This has been a great year for podcasts. They are booming. This is the new thing for the younger generation. Podcast are the new talk radio. I love them myself. They are great. Anyway, lets do this.

At number 5 I have the day that I decided to stop listening to "The Bill Simmons Podcast". His "style" just got on my nerves far too much, and I was fed up. I don't remember exactly what he was talking about, I'm sure it was Boston related, and I just said aloud, "I'm done". After that I immediately removed his podcast from my library, and I haven't looked back. Ever since he started his own company, he has tried to act younger, hipper, cooler. It doesn't work. He is an old man. He still lives in the 80's when it comes to sports. His writing has completely regressed. His podcasting has gotten even worse. Also, he does the same thing over and over and over again. I cannot do another podcast with him totally sucking up to KD. We get it, you hate the Thunder, and now that KD is gone, you feel like he is your buddy. He's not. Also, all the Patriots shit is tired and loathsome. He is a shill. He may as well work for the Celtics and Patriots. I still listen to some Ringer shows, they have a few good ones, but I am totally done with "The Bill Simmons Podcast", and it feels great.

At number 4 I have the introduction of Gimlet Media to my life. My wife has a friend that works for Gimlet, she knows I like podcasts, and she recommend some she thought I would like that Gimlet produces. She was absolutely right. She first told us about "The Habitat". That was a homerun. Seriously people, go check that one out. I then started to listen to "Heavyweight", which makes me laugh, cry and feel for the people that the excellent host Johnathan Goldstein talks to each week of each season. This show is so perfect. It is like a nice warm shower after being out in the cold. Like a great cup of coffee after a long night. Like a perfectly cooked medium rare London broil steak for dinner. It is tremendous. And they just put out "Without Fail", hosted by Gimlet co founder Alex Bloomberg. He talks to people that have made it in the business/sports/computer/any big business type world. He also talks to some people that made it, then lost it, then made it again. It is so cool to hear these people's stories, and the way Bloomberg puts his spin on it makes the stories that much better. It is a great new show. Gimlet Media is awesome, and I love that I now know about it thanks to my wife's longtime friend.

At number 3 I have my own personal introduction to "Unspooled". I am a big Paul Scheer fan. I think he is a solid actor, and "How Did This Get Made" is one of the best podcasts ever. So when I heard him mention a new show when he was doing plugs on "HDGTM", where he would talk about good movies with film critic Amy Nicholson, I was intrigued. I downloaded the podcast, listened to the "2001: A Space Odyssey" episode first, and I have been hooked ever since. It is nice to hear Scheer talk about solid movies. It is even better to hear a person who gets paid to write and talk about movies, talk about these "classics". Amy Nicholson is a great, great critic. Her explanations of why she likes and dislikes these movies are excellent. I really enjoy this show, and I am now in the process of catching up on every episode, and it has made me watch certain movies I would have never thought to before. It's great.

At number 2 I have the "Comedy Bang! Bang!" Christmas episode. It is on here for one reason too. I love this episode. I love all the guests. I love that Jason Mantzoukas is always the co host because he always brings it. I also love that people like Jon Gabrus, Lauren Lapkus, Mary Holland and Paul F Thompkins, among others, always show up. But what made this specific episode so great was something I mentioned in my worst of 2018. If you remember, "CBB" did not do a Halloween episode, which meant no Leo Carpatzi. Well, he showed up, at the very end, of the Christmas episode. This was an almost 2 and a half hour long episode, and the last 14 minutes of it where the best. Carpatzi, played by Nick Wiger, showed up and said he had a new song. He always does that, and he always does his very NSFW version of "The Monster Mash". This time around he said the song was called "Happy Hauntedkah", which was his Hannukah/holiday song. Well, he got into the song, and it was just him doing, sorry mom and dad, "The Monster Fuck". It was as gross as ever. He made up some new lines, which were foul. And I loved every single second of it. It was hilarious. I was crying with laughter. It totally made up for the fact that there was no Halloween episode, because I got to hear Leo Carpatzi sing his famous song. It was amazing.

At number one I have a very personal reason for this being on top of the list. So, my wife's cousin introduced me to this new podcast "The Flagrant Ones". I have written about this podcast before, and that very blog is the reason this is my number one podcast moment of 2018. As I said, I wrote a review for this show about a month back, praising it. Well, on Thanksgiving, I was at lunch with my wife's family. Her cousin approached me and asked if I had heard the new episode yet. I told him no, but I was driving to Columbia later that day, and I was going to listen to it later. He told me to text him when I got to a very important part. He told me I would know what he was talking about. Well, I listened to the show, and about 20 minutes in, they read my review. They said my name. They said the website's name. They mocked me, which is what they do, but they also said very, very nice things. It was amazing. It is like when a band hears their song on the radio for the first time. This was my first single. The fact that three dudes that I admire in the world of comedy were reading my words and saying my name and saying the website's name was incredible. I will never forget this. It was the best. It was easily the best podcast moment of 2018 for me, and it wasn't even close.

There you have it, my best of 2018 lists. I hope you all had a great 2018, and an even better 2019. I'll be back to my regular schedule next week. Thanks.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He forgets that the greatest podcast in all the world mentions Ty’s name and writing every week. I wonder what that podcast is called?

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Cloves and Fedoras: Catch Up on the Great Podcast "Heavyweight" Before the New Season Begins

Cloves and Fedoras is Seed Sings reviews for little known pieces of pop culture.  Feel free to contact us with your own submissions of undiscovered gems that must be known.

Awhile back I wrote about a new podcast I really liked called "The Habitat". After listening to all of it in 2 days, I was looking for something new, in that same vain. My wife actually has a friend that works for Gimlet Media, the company that put out "The Habitat", and she recommend that I check out "Heavyweight". so, I subscribed and started listening to it the very next day. I was immediately intrigued right off the bat.

"Heavyweight", when you break it down to its bare bones, is about the host, who is amazing, more on him later, takes on a problem from family, friends or complete strangers, and he tries to help the person or people get closure. It is truly amazing. The first episode, as I said, it was the one that hooked me, was about him getting his dad and brother to speak again. The host, his name is Johnathan Goldstein, is so, so perfect for this show. He has a very calming way of speaking, and his hosting and writing are impeccable. One of my favorite things he does, at the start of every episode, he calls his friend Jackie and just harasses her. It is really funny. It is also needed when he gets into some very deep topics. It is a nice breath of fresh air. But Goldstein is just wonderful. I love pretty much everything he does, and how he goes about doing it. He is an amazing podcast host, and I cannot wait to hear more from him. Back to that first episode now. As I said, Goldstein has come to find out that his dad and brother haven't spoken in years due to some nonsensical fight. He gets them on the phone together, and eventually gets them to meet in person. The ups and downs and laughter and tears are all real, and it was a tremendous listen. And when Goldstein would try to interject, with these 2 very old school New Yorkers, I loved every second of it. The first episode was a great way to kick off this wonderful show.

From there on out, every episode was very enjoyable for me. Goldstein covers so many different things on the first 2 seasons, and I loved it all. He tracks down a girl that he saw on a video in a theater class in college that struck him so many years ago. He watched this video about angry people, and there was a transgender person who brought her daughter on set with her, and that was the person he remembered. He remembered her angry and confusion as to why she was brought to this set. He finally found her, and the conclusion was awesome. In one of the "funnier" episodes, Goldstein helps one of his buddies, who went to high school with Moby, try and track down a CD collection he lent him in high school. The CD collection was important because Goldstein's buddy loved it and could not find it again, and for Moby, it changed his life. That collection is heavily featured on his biggest hit record, "Play". The story of Goldstein and his buddy going to Moby's house, hearing Moby's side, and his friend eventually not getting his CD's back, it was great. It was so funny. There is another episode, possibly the saddest one, that involved bullying between teenage girls. Goldstein helps a lady that was bullied in high school find out why the girls started to bully her, and even when she moved, why they came to her house one day. The girl also reached out to another girl that was bullied, and their stories were heartbreaking. Another sad story was when Goldstein helped a lady find out why, after being diagnosed, and beating cancer, she was kicked out of her sorority. That story was all too real and all too troubling as to how cliques and rumors get started, and how they can last into adulthood. Another episode that spoke to me was about a foster child who fell in love with basketball, but then had to quit because her foster mom didn't feel like she made the proper grades to continue playing. The basketball hooked me, then the story, while tragic, was also moving and important for me to hear. When she plays basketball with her husband at the end, I shed a few tears. The best episode I have heard was the season 2 finale that involved Goldstein going home with his wife and new baby, and all the things he goes through and talks about with his mom. It was so great and so wonderful and so eye opening and just perfectly done. It is the brightest gem among many strong episodes.

"Heavyweight" is a podcast that is well worth your time. Know going in that it is sad and can be tragic, but Goldstein alone is worth listening. Season 2 ended awhile ago, but it is coming back for a third season this fall, and I cannot wait. Check this podcast out, and Gimlet Media, keep doing what you're doing because you are crushing it right now.

Find "Heavyweight" here.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He likes to go out and solve people's problems every day. Just today, he gave a man directions, even though Ty had no idea where the man was going.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.