I’ve listened to all of the episodes of this podcast (or at least, some amount of all of them; I frequently don’t make it all the way through). The show covers topics I’m interested in and the two hosts seem like really nice guys, and so I keep coming back to it and trying again. Alas, I keep running into the same issue, which is that it can be difficult or even impossible to get through the episodes, because the hosts don’t stay on topic. I like shows where people go off on little tangents; it makes the shows personable and interesting and can be a great chance to add funny content. However, this show takes it to such an extreme that it becomes genuinely frustrating. For instance, they did a show on electrocution, and I was so interested to learn about it that I genuinely made several attempts to get through the episode, but they so frequently got distracted that I couldn’t actually follow the facts and learn anything. I was listening because I don’t know about injury and death by electrocution and I wanted to learn, but it kept happening that by the time they got back on topic, I’d lost track of what part of the explanation they were in. They also keep making the ‘joke’ that one of them hasn’t put their phone on silent and the other texts them whilst they’re recording. Funny once? Not particularly, but different strokes for different folks. Twice? Five times? Almost every episode?
Lately their episodes have tended towards being almost entirely tangent with very little actual information on the topic, such that I, as someone who has no medical or science education or experience have generally found that when I make it through an episode, they haven’t said anything that I didn’t already know i.e. basic general knowledge. The show used to have a lot more actual information in it, so that you’d come away (if you made it through) with some knowledge and facts about emergency medicine or disease etc. Lately it feels more like they’ve maybe got some vague idea of an outline, but it’s more just two guys shooting the breeze and telling stories, and for some reason they’re recording it.
They both seem like such nice people, and so I keep getting suckered in, but time and time again I find myself either mildly annoyed/frustrated or even at the point of not just ‘not having fun’ but genuinely having a bad time.
For medical podcasts I would suggest Sawbones and/or This Podcast Will Kill You. Both have covered topics this show has covered, and with hosts who work or study in the field, and both have some humour (Sawbones more so, although TPWKY is quite funny when they’ve both had a couple of Quarantinis) but they give a lot more actual information. For a demonstration of how to do a tangent well, try Stuff You Should Know (admittedly a show with a much more professional set-up than this one, but still a helpful guide as to how to structure a ‘casual but competent’ conversational non-fiction audio show).
I wish the hosts of this show the best of luck. I actually think that a few small tweaks could make a huge difference and turn this into a really top-notch show, but that would involve the hosts being willing to take listener feedback constructively. Alas, in the show they’ve laughed at and made fun of the negative feedback they’ve gotten, which isn’t how a show gets better. I wonder whether the thing that would make the most difference to the quality of their output would be having an editor go through the show before they publish it; someone who can offer a listeners perspective. I suspect a lot would get cut out, but a tighter show could not only be more informative but could also be funnier. Two people joking and laughing together are never going to be able to edit their conversation well for a third party listener, because they’re inside all their own jokes; of course they think it’s all funny.
