2024 Year in Review: Best Podcasts

Today is the final day of my 2024 best of lists. I have my top five podcasts/podcast episodes of the year. I’m all in on podcasts. I enjoy making them and listening to them. They comfort me and make my workouts fly by. I still listen to music more, but podcasts are gaining ground fast.

At number 5 I have “How Did This Get Made” covering “The Happening”. I vividly remember seeing this movie in the theaters and being utterly confused. At the time the only person I could talk to about how insane this movie is was my wife. She saw it with me and we were both dumbfounded. So it was nice to hear Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael and Jason Mantzoukas also talk about how nuts this movie was. It made me feel less insane. These people are in the industry, so I liked hearing their inside baseball talk on this incoherent movie. All three of them also happen to be hilarious, so hearing an intelligent and very funny conversation about a terrible movie made the listening experience that much better. I implore you, if you’ve been unfortunate enough to see “The Happening”, and you want to feel better about it, listen to this episode of “HDTGM”. You’ll feel way better.

At number 4 I have “Comedy Bang! Bang!” returning to hell house for their Halloween episode. It’s felt like years since they’ve done this. This used to be an episode I waited for every year, but they decided to take a break. But, coming back this year was well worth the wait. Aukerman was on point, as always, as the host. He led us all perfectly the whole time. Jimmy Pardo was an excellent guest to have for this one in particular. He’s the perfect foil. Jon Daly was good as always. Ben Rodgers is one of the funnier improvisers on the planet. But this was all leading to Nick Wiger singing his classic version of the “Monster Mash” as Leo Karpatze. His version is filthy and Wiger goes all in while singing the song. I enjoyed the long walk they took to get to the song because the payoff was tremendous. I hope “CBB” continues to do this every Halloween.

At number 3 I have “The Seth Myers and Lonely Island” podcast. This is the perfect “SNL” throwback show for me. I was all in on “SNL” when The Lonely Island was new and Seth Myers was one of the head writers. In this show they go back and talk about the digital shorts, which are some of the best things to ever come from “SNL”. Seth Myers convincing Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaefer was a triumph unlike any other. I love hearing the four of them go back and reminisce over some of the best stuff “SNL” has been a part of. I love hearing the process and how everything came together. It’s also pretty cool when they get their friends to leave voice notes about their time doing a digital short. I love this podcast and I cannot wait to hear more and more.

At number 2 I got to see “CBB” live on tour this year. It was awesome. “CBB”, by a wide margin, is my favorite podcast. It’s on this list twice. The live show was during the first part of the tour. I think it was the fourth or fifth show of the year. It was great, as I hoped. Aukerman did his thing as well as he always does. Paul F Tompkins was second to the stage and he played his Irish priest character that I adore. Lily Sullivan was next, my first time seeing her live, as her Australian counterpart. She’s even funnier live. She’s a damn good improviser. Connor Ratliff was a famous donkey from Missouri that I had never heard of. He was the highlight of the night for me. Carl Tart, one of the best, was the Pine Sol lady. This is a classic “CBB” character he created years ago, and it was rad to see him do it live. And Will Hines was last to the stage as a futuristic traveler which the whole panel gave a hard time. It was a great, jam packed show that nearly pushed two hours. I wanted even more. It was a fantastic live show.

At number 1 I have “Doughboys” doing their Munch Madness tournament centered around Taco Bell. Mike Mitchell and Nick Wiger are a perfect representation of opposites attract. Their back and forth makes this podcast one of the best out there. And to hear them talk about a place they love dearly, Taco Bell, made the month of March some of the best listening of the year. The fights were outrageous and hilarious. Getting their friends to come on and side with them made for great radio. The live finale was one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard on a podcast. The fight between Mitch and Wiger over the winner was incredible and it was blending into later episodes. These two, and their guests know so much about Taco Bell so I trusted their thoughts on the food. I don’t like Taco Bell myself, but it was fascinating to hear all these people who love it fight and argue and yell at one another about certain menu items. It was also downright hilarious. “Doughboys” always seems to say they have a bad podcast, but that’s not true, and especially not true when it comes to Munch Madness from this past year. It was a great collection of seven or eight episodes of my favorite listening in all of 2024.

That’s it for my best of 2024 lists. Hope you all enjoyed it.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Rice is My New Go To Side Dish

Yesterday on a run I was listening to "Doughboys". Every Tuesday they put out their Patreon episodes, and since I have access to them, it is a nice treat. They did one of their feed bags, in which they answer questions submitted by fans and listeners. I typically enjoy these episodes because they are free and loose and fun. It is a delightful hour plus. There are times where a question sits with me and I think about it, and that happened this week.

The question was from a fan overseas and they said that, instead of getting fries, they usually get rice as a side dish with their meal. They mentioned getting rice with chicken nuggets or a hamburger. This divulged into a question between the hosts and engineer on whether they prefer rice or a potato as a side dish. As I was running it seemed like a simple answer. I immediately thought that I would want a potato side dish. But the more they talked, the more I kind of flipped sides, then flipped back, then flipped again. I actually think this is a very good question, and I want to take a deepish dive into why I would now choose rice over a potato. And for those questioning my pick of rice over a potato, since steak is my favorite food, they said that this question only involves fast food places, no sit down/fancy spots, and fries are not included in the potato category. Those are totally out of the question.

So as I have sat with this for a couple days, the easiest answer for rice is how much easier it is to eat. Potato side dishes can be messy. They can be sloppy. They can also be super heavy and throw off the rest of the meal. Rice is much easier to eat, especially with a spoon. It is better for you. Both rice and potatoes are full of carbs, but rice is known as a "slow carb". I eat those regularly now. It is not sloppy unless you make it sloppy. My kids can make a mess of rice, but they are nine and five. An adult should have no problem eating rice clean. And rice is not nearly as heavy as a potato. It can be filling if you eat way too much, but you have to eat a ton of rice for it to fill you up. I also started to imagine both side options with some fast food spots that I really enjoy. The listener mentioned rice with chicken nuggets, and that sounds like a delight. Take some of that sweet and sour sauce and mix it in the rice with the nuggets and you could have a very low rent version of orange chicken. If I get nuggets and a baked potato, or a twice baked potato, or even a scalloped potato, that is too much. It is too heavy. I thought about burgers, mainly the double cheeseburger from Burger King, which is my favorite, and rice sounds so much better. The double cheeseburger is filling enough, so throwing a potato on top of that is far too much food. But if I were to get a side of sticky rice, that seems much more palatable. It seems much better for my insides as well. With the bun, and then add a potato on top of that, that is way too many carbs. The side of rice would be less, and better carbs. I love Popeye's spicy chicken sandwich, and a side of rice would be the perfect cooling down compliment to the heat. A potato wouldn't do much, but the rice would be excellent for quelling the spice. And as far as any chicken dish goes from fast food spots, rice is a much, much better side dish than any potato dish, save for french fries. Even when I thought about sandwich spots, like a Jersey Mike's or Jimmy John's, rice would be way better. I know chips are the sandwich side dish go to, but I think rice would be better, You could have less, it would be much better for you and no one ever needs that high, high amount of carbs. I always thought I was a potato guy. As mentioned before I love a good twice baked potato or a scalloped potato or some kind of potato hot dish. But those always made me feel too full before getting the main dish. I would over eat the potato dish. Rice seems like the better option. It is easier and better for me. I think I am now a rice fan and I like it.

Long story short, rice is a superior side dish to the potato for fast food restaurants. I would love it if America gave us this option. So the next time you just blindly pick a potato as a side dish, think about how much better of a choice rice would be. You won't regret it.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

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

Cloves and Fedoras: Ty thinks you should give "Doughboys" a listen

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.

Ed note: The podcast is called Doughboys.  They do not feel the need to have the differentiated THE.  We have corrected the text.  Find this great podcast here.

I recently talked about a great podcast called "I Was There Too" by Matt Gourley.  I'm always on the hunt for new podcasts that are comedy centric and I've just discovered "Doughboys". The hosts of the show, Nick Wiger(writer for Comedy Bang Bang) and Mike Mitchell(Birthday Boys) have a guest join them each week and they go out and review restaurant chains. On the first episode, they go to Chili's and they review it as if they're professional restaurant critics, but with a comedy edge, since they're both comedy performers and writers. It's very funny, but they also take it kind of serious. I mean, they really give constructive feedback on the food. In the Chili's episode, they really take the ribs to task. Saying that they are too saucy and they look gray. But, with all that being said, they still seemed to enjoy the rest of their meal. The only other problem they had was, the drinks were too sweet. After they review the restaurant they give it a ranking of one to five forks and give their overall impression. While going through the review, there's always some kind of funny story or experience that they've had at said restaurant in the past. Following the fork review, they go to a segment they call "Snack or Wack", where they have some type of big brand name snack(Chocolate Chip Resse's Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Chips Ahoy in the Chili's episode) and decide if the snack is good(Snack) or bad(Wack). Also, very funny to hear them rate these well known snack brands as if they are big time food critics. Being a fan of the Birthday Boys(both the comedy sketch team and the TV show) Mike Mitchell being attached to this made me excited to listen, since the Birthday Boys show was cancelled. I was just happy to see he was still doing things since he is my favorite Birthday Boy. They've only done three episodes, with the third one being released today, May 28th 2015. The restaurants they've reviewed are, the aforementioned Chili's, Taco Bell and today, IHOP. I highly recommend checking "Doughboys" out, it's pretty great.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for Seed Sing.  He will only visits restaurants that get reviewed.  He is eagerly looking forward to his first trip to Chili's, Taco Bell, and IHOP.