The Bad Beta - A Climbing Podcast

Where’d you guys go?

Bad beta (or is it ‘the’ bad beta? Will this confusion ever end?) is a must for any and all climbers. While there is little real ‘teaching’ moments, I find this podcast extremely enjoyable and has prepared me for the crag. Maybe I don’t know what a Gaston is, but at least I know not to aid climb Supercrack. There are a few 1 star ratings on here and to them I say, if you want to learn about climbing I don’t assume an audio tool is reallllly gonna do it! Unless you climb with your ears... But that’s once you climb 5.15.

These guys are so funny. No real useful info about rock climbing or anything but just funny banter and stories. Great stuff if you’re not looking for a super serious pod cast

I've listened to a few episodes now and again to see if it ever improves...It doesnt. It takes them about half the length of an episode to dive into the main topic, which they discuss for maybe 1-2 minutes before getting off track and just start referencing themselves and how they have a podcast. A lot of inside jokes that are irrelevant if you don't know the hosts, or climb in southern Ontario which very much ostracizes the audience including myself (even though I've climbed all over Ontario and know the crags and routes they are talking about). Some of the hosts aren't really climbers and ask very simple and basic questions. The others I do have respect for because they are doing a lot of good for the climbing community in the province, but they'd rather play games like taboo or talk about made up t.v. shows with each other than actually share their climbing knowledge and trip beta. They make more references about winning pancake eating contests than anything climbing related. I think the audience that would enjoy their banter can't be climbers (one of the positive written reviews explicity says that he/she is not a climber). It's unfortunate that this podcast is so poorly designed, I think there is just so much wasted potential here. My notes to make it better would be to get to the topic quicker; don't digress so quickly; think about useful information for their target audience (which is should be outdoor climbers across North America); silly games are fun, but taking 25 minutes to explain the game to the other hosts is wasted time, instead, go over it ahead of time with the hosts and give a quick explanation only for the audience; less talking about competitive eating; and maybe have more relevant topics or guests on the show. Get Shaun Hunter or other setters, Mark Smith, David Smart, so many darkhorse Ontario climbers. Or talk about climbing news. Literally anything climbing related would keep my interest. But as it stands The Bad Beta Podcast is, unfortunately, just a bad.