Cast of the Week XVIII

CotW XVIII
You’ll find all the nominees for this week at https://ykyz.com/c/na?faveOf=cotwxviii

And now, here’s u/Mattasher with the winners:

But first, some Shoutouts to the people who made our week this week:

Shoutout to Elvira of Mistress of the Microcast and BG from Black Girl Baker for reaching their 200th episode.

Shoutout to everyone for helping us crack the top 100k on Alexa! If you haven’t already installed the Alexa toolbar from Amazon.com, please do so now as that helps make sure our website stats show up accurately.

On to the winners!
Runners up:
217. Chakras – The Cliff Note´s Version by Astrocast By Diz
Diz gives us a perfect 80 second introduction to the concept of Chakras, and why you want to keep them clear and flowing.

246. James Bond And Heineken Beer by SnippetsWithSophia
Sophia takes on product placement in movies, and, in particular, the peculiar decision to pair fiction’s most famous martini drinker (shaken, not stirred) with a bland beer. I also recommend Sophia’s insightful episode on food history that explores the origins of many common last names.

266. Gardening and Math by SmartMoney
This episode of practical advice for teaching your kids math and gardening contains the best one-liner of the week, which I won’t spoil, but have a listen for the sentence that begins with “If six slugs eat one leaf every hour, and there’s only one can of beer in the house…”

And now, on to the winners of CotW XVIII:

Bleat of the Week:
This week we’ve added an award for most engaging (non-microcast) Bleat of the week. It goes to Asexual Asa for Pissing a lot of people off here about all the popular TV shows she’s never watched.

Second prize:
135. WHO: Globalism > Safety by Just Thinking Aloud
In this understated yet razor-sharp episode, Marko presents some basic facts and quotes related to the current crisis and draws us to an inevitable conclusion about one of the principal causes of so much of our pain.  

First prize:
228. Some thoughts by Aspie and Proud
It’s rare to see an episode of purely personal expression win a prize here, as the best microcast episodes tend to mix researched information with interesting and entertaining takes, but this week I had no choice but to award the top billing to Elsa. In this emotionally resonant, well written, poetic episode, she expertly expresses the angst I suspect so many of us feel in this stressful time.

Cast of the Week XVII

CotW XVI
You’ll find all the nominees for this week at https://ykyz.com/c/na?faveOf=cotwxvii

And now I’m handing things over to u/Mattasher for the winners of Cast of the Week XVII:

Shoutouts
Some shoutouts this week to the people who made our week:
Shoutout to If You Were In My Shoes for her willingness to share a well-crafted and poignant personal dilemma, with episode 5. There’s no point anymore.

Shoutout to Joanie for getting a new mic and making a contest out of it. You sound great to us!

Shoutout MondragonMMA and A Brewtiful Mind for each hitting episode 100.

Shoutout to Demi Semi Quaver Note for the awesome recitation of Walt Whitman’s city of orgies, complete with spot-on sound effects. A reminder to please make sure any poetry you post to ykyz is in the public domain, as is the case with Whitman.

Shoutout to Primal Haze for the outstanding first episode, 3 Reasons Why Microcasting Is A Great Idea. We agree with all of them! A reminder, though, to all microcasters: It’s best to fade out your intro music as you begin speaking.  

And, last but not least, Shoutout to all of you for continuing to help promote the site. We’re now ranked at about 120k on Alexa, just 20k away from our April goal.  

Honorable mentions
217. Sweden food, Swedish meatballs by ThatBeardedSwede
Our favorite Swede shares the history of meatballs and his own family recipe ingredients. IKEA may have spread this tradition around the world, but when it comes to meatballs, IMO there’s nothing better than homemade.


25. Let’s Eat and eat some more by Angelibean
Angelibean shares her newfound quarantine skill, eating all the snacks. She’s definitely not the only one stress eating, though apparently, some ykyz’ers are going in the opposite direction and stress fasting. Who knew that was a thing?


250. Tomatoes Indoors by SmartMoney
Turns out, a lot of us have food on the brain during quarantine. Our final honorable mention goes to Becky of SmartMoney with this perfect explanation of how to grow tomatoes inside.  


CotW XVII winners
And now, on to this week’s winners!

Third Prize:
226. Raised And Cake Donuts by SnippetswithSophia
In this mouth-watering episode, Sophia explains the difference between the main types of donuts we consume. Spoiler alert, if it looks like a unicorn or a Pokémon, it’s a cake donut.


Second Prize:
42. “The talk” to save a life. by Doctor Irish
The good doctor gives straightforward advice for dealing with someone who might be suicidal. Never has an episode been so unfortunately timely, as one of the many, many un-considered side effects of extreme “social distancing” has been an all too predictable spike in depression and calls to suicide hotlines.


First Prize:
236. Animal Crossing Filipino textile outfits by fashionmusings
In this episode, Gem explores the intersection of fashion and gaming and describes how the Ayala museum is using in-game outfits to show off traditional Filipino textiles. In times when traveling abroad is virtually impossible, virtual fashion may be the very best thing to go viral right now.