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Chicken Pop Pod

Category: Comedy

This entertainment-driven podcast discusses retro 1980’s movies, games, books and more. Most anyone who grew up during this time will be reminded of things not thought of in a long time while enjoying a good laugh. The many hosts are all male so some girl-specific things (like Cabbage Patch Kids and Rainbow Bright) are not discussed. The episodes with whole numbers such as Episode 37, are content driven by the hosts. Episodes with a .5 include listener feedback content. Chicken Pop Pod is fun, releases content consistently, and has creative content-presentation ideas. The episodes vary in length from the manageable forty five minutes to the overly long hour and forty minutes. Another possible hindrance is the small amount of inside jokes that are known by the hosts but not by the audience.  Overall, we encourage listeners to try out Chicken Pop Pod for themselves and grab a laugh or two.

Rating: Daniel

Rating: Jana

Fell Calls

Category: Games

Fell Calls! is not for the average gamer who is comfortable playing his Xbox 360 and PS3. Fell Calls! focuses on Warmachine along with Iron Kingdoms RPG from Privateer Press. Shane, Mark, Jim, and Ryan dive deep into character analysis and story arcs while discussing strategy and controversial topics. Because we were unfamiliar with these games when we began listening to Fell Calls!, we did not understanding what was being discussed. After listening to several episodes we still had not gained an understanding of Warmachine with Iron Kingdoms RPG. We were forced to research outside the information the podcast presented. This is what we learned: Warmachine is a table top game that represents a military operation. Iron Kingdom is a campaign setting for the d20 fantasy RPG system. The setting was created by Privateer Press. Fell Calls! does not offer a way for curious listeners to understand the topics discussed. Only the highly knowledgeable will have a chance to understand the hosts and the content. The hosts provide a bland listener experience, and the show is desperately needing segments or background music. Fell Calls! will appeal to a very targeted niche; a small niche at that.

Rating: Daniel

Rating: Jana

Film Flim Flam

Category: TV and Film

Film Flim Flam is a relatively new podcast hosted by Derrick Shadowens. Derrick reviews and discusses movies in-depth by using clips from movies and soundtrack themes. Basically, the podcast is a behind-the-scenes look at how certain movies were made, why certain movies never made it to completion, and how stories are turned into films. Film Flim Flam takes a lot of production time and effort. Derrick does an admirable job of ensuring all the audio does not suddenly elevate and drown out his voice. For help in better normalizing audio within the podcast, we recommend “The Levelator” from The Conversations Network. A noticeable mistake that many new podcasters make is repeating themselves; Derrick repeats himself a lot. What would take most two minutes to say takes Derrick five. Also, Film Flim Flam episodes have incredible file size for an audio podcast. The last episode to which we listened was 145 Mb. The reason for the inflated size is how the MP3 is encoded. The bit rate was set to 192 kps and released in stereo. Derrick may want to try a more manageable 96 kps and set the audio to mono. The problems listed can be easily fixed. Film Flim Flam has great potential for presenting content in a entertaining and informative manner. We liked it!

Rating: Daniel

Rating: Jana

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