Welcome to the 22nd edition of the Cast of the Week Awards.
You can find this week’s nominees can be found at https://ykyz.com/f/cotwxxii.
There were lots of milestones hit these past couple weeks.
Lilith, of Maleficient Gaming brings in her 100th episode discussing Vader Immortal coming to PlayStation VR. Kayla, of Mental Musings, shares a side of math that most probably were not aware of in her 100th episode.
Our favorite Egyptologist, Life in Ancient Egypt rang in his 200th episode by discussing how Egyptians handled death. Asi the Voluptuous Voyager shares a poem that stands out to her in these hard times called “Do not stand at my grave and weep” by Mary Elizabeth Frye. Poegosi the Poet discusses if the site “live me” is worth using. A Brewtiful Mind lets us all know that beer slushies are a thing just in time for the hot summer weather. Just Thinking Aloud shares his plans on what he wants to do in his next 200 episodes. Lastly, MondragonMMA wants everyone to know that the first MMA gyms are opening back up!
Gem, of Fashionmusings, uses her 300th episode to share the history of why doctors wear white lab coats nowadays.
Addie, of Music and Peace, wants to celebrate on ykyz for hitting the amazing 400th episode milestone.
And finally, Kayla, aka Violaceous Curiosity, was the first user to hit the 500th episode milestone where she finally explains the meaning behind her username.
Congrats to all our milestone breakers.
And now, onto the CotWXXII winners! But first, a quick shoutout:
Shoutout to Practical Magic for bringing in a special guest to help out with her cast, Guest witch of the day.
And now, onto the winners! But first, a few honorable mentions:
Honorable Mentions:
210. Being Brainwashed by Voluptuous Voyager discusses the importance of seeking knowledge on your own and not blindly following everything you are taught.
328. Thanksgiving in a Pan – Ish by SmartMoney shares some delicious recipes for quick dinner ideas, including a way to have the taste of Thanksgivings Day Dinner without all the work.
And now, on to the winners:
Bleats of the week:
Do y’all actually like coffee? by Claybro931 got a dozen ykyz’er to weigh in on this seeming eternal question and got some good recommendations for coffee alternatives.
Best/worst pick-up line WINS Starbucks gift card! by Violaceous Curiosity picks up the second bleat of the week award with a giveaway of her own for pick-up lines. Congrats to Poegosi the Poet for the win, make sure to listen to his answer.
For our regular microcast awards, we have:
Third Prize:
322. Parkinson’s Disease – Real Stories. What you Need to Know by Doctor Irish explanations what happens to one’s body as they begin to develop Parkinson’s Disease. The main focus is on highlighting how this disease affects real people in their daily lives both mentally, as well as, physically.
Runner up:
200. Death by Ancient Egypt shares all the details on what happens after a tomb is sealed and why the burial procedures were so important to the Egyptians for their journey to the afterlife.
Grand Prize:
197. Robot Bartenders: Yes or No? by A Brewtiful Mind takes home the grand prize with this timely and informative episode about using robots as bartenders to reduce human contact in alcohol delivery, which may be a feature or a bug, depending on your perspective. Also, make sure to check out Micah’s excellent episodes on Beer Slushies and Puppies on Beer cans.
Tag: fashionmusings
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.
Cast of the Week VIII
We now have a Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/ykyzHaveYourSay
Feel free to like or follow or whatever it is one does with, or to, a Facebook page.
u/Mattasher writes:
Before we get to the prizes, we have a number of shoutouts this week to those who made our week:
Shoutout to all those who joined the 100-club this week:
Clare with Brown Skin Pearls
Geraldine with fashionmusings
Janet with SnippetswithSophia
Joanie with CatGuruJoanie
Noah with Doctor Irish
Rebekah with SmartMoney
Shoutout to the two established users who booted up new microcasts this week. Joel kicked-off Wrestling with Football (about the new XFL league) and Noah crossed over into new territory with Imperfect Reviews.
Shoutout to @ndrewSeiner for finding his groove as the microcast equivalent of dropping a tab. Always be mindful of set and setting before tuning in!
One final Shoutout to SmartMoney for launching up my new favorite channel c/dumbcriminals
And now, on to the winners.
But first, some runner’s up:
92. Chapped by Brown Skin Pearls
Perfect for this time of year, Clare goes through the basics of chapped lips and how to handle them.
52. Biscuit Lashes by Black Girl Baker
Somehow the transition from talking about grating butter to a discussion about fake lashes just… works.
104. Adulting…Easier Than a Spreadsheet by SmartMoney
Becky gives us some basic advice on how to manage money without having to plot out every cent we spend. If you have 68 seconds to spare, I recommend spending it listening to this helpful episode.
104. DO NOT NAME YOUR CAT THESE NAMES – very serious by CatGuruJoanie
This very serious episode introduces us to the many bad cat names Joanie has encountered over the years, and Gary, which is definitely the best name, not the worst.
WINNERS:
Runner up
89. The Blank Page by Life Bites Podcast
Conner’s meditation on staring on a blank page takes the runner-up spot this week. This tightly crafted episode introduces us to the enemy and leads us on to victory over the creative void.
Grand prize
93. MM’s And The U.S. Presidents by SnippetsWithSophia
This week’s grand prize winner is Sophia’s well-paced, well scripted, well-researched episode on the one box of M&Ms that recipients will want to keep around for a long time. This delightful episode alone might have been enough to bag the top prize, but Sophia complimented it with several other well researched and interesting episodes about food and the halls of power. You can find them all here:
Cast of the Week VII
CotW VII
u/Mattasher writes:
Before we get to the prizes, we have a number of shoutouts this week to those who made our week:
Shoutout to jen.again for kick-starting my new favorite channel, c/ihateitwhen. Jen’s complaint about tissue boxes may be the most gloriously relatable first world problem I’ve ever heard.
Shoutout to Black Girl Baker who’s finding a great groove with her one-two punch of baking and “tea”.
Shoutout to CatGuruJoanie who has been experimenting with YouTube-style quick edits of her audio. Though not right for everyone, this technique is working well for Joanie’s cast.
Shoutout to ThatBeardedSwede for keeping casting alive on Reddit with a dedicated channel to microcasting.
Before getting to the main event, we hereby recognize a few runners up this week:
76. Thoughts on fake pockets? by fashionmusings
Gem clearly hit a chord with this discussion of fake pockets, an endless source of complaints for my own daughter.
79. Baby Steps by Life Bites Podcast
In this thoughtful meditation on moving forward, Conner reminds us that “You can go for miles, just taking baby steps”
69. Chicken McNuggets vs Vegan Nuggets by SnippetsWithSophia
Sophia’s episode about everyone’s favorite finger snack as a kid makes us wonder how much actual chicken is in McNuggets.
And now, on to the winners!
Runner up
54. What is Chinese Astrology? by Astrocast By Diz
In this timely episode, Diz explains the Chinese system of years and animals, including the nifty trick of asking someone’s zodiac animal as a sly (but not foxy, that one’s missing) way to figure out their age.
Grand Prize
86. Attachment by CatGuruJoanie
Joanie, with a hit tip to Violaceous C, brings the receipts for what many a cat owner has long suspected. Namely, their cats actually do love them, they’re just chill in how they show it. With well researched and tightly delivered episodes, we’re quickly becoming “Securely attached” to Joanie’s excellent microcast.
Cast of the Week IV
CotW IV winners!
You can find all of the nominees for this period at: https://ykyz.com/c/na?faveOf=cotwiv
u/mattasher writes:
And now, without further ado, here are the winners of CotW IV.
But first, some shoutouts:
Shoutout to Doctor Irish, our Rookie of the Week. The good Doctor blasted through his first level requirements with dozens of high-quality episodes and great community engagement. We were prepared to offer a Rookie Referral bonus to whoever got the doc to pay us a house call, but it turns out he found our job ad directly.
Shoutout to the Dancing Bartender, who was lost at sea for over a week. Good to see him back and contributing more tales of tall ships and life at the corners of the map labeled “Here be monsters”.
Shoutout to CatGuruJoanie for our new favorite intro/outro. You make us purr with delight, and meow like little kittens.
And now on to the CotW winners.
But first, a suggestion. If you are having trouble remembering the best episodes of the last week to nominate, we recommend using the “favorite” feature to Heart your top episodes each week. That makes it easy to review what you liked best, just go to https://ykyz.com/f/YourUsername to look back over your faves.
And now on to the CotW winners.
But first, here are the runner’s up:
EP44 protest dressing by fashionmusings
A follow up to last week’s winning entry about fashion police, this one might have taken a top prize again if she’d included some nice juicy examples of specific protest wear.
Ep.5 What is an American? by Alba of The Culture Mix
This brief but thoughtful episode asks the question in its title and gives a few ways to look at it.
Ep 14 Horoscopes vs Astrology by Astrocast By Diz
Diz gets us up to speed with a detailed definition of Astrology and Horoscopes in this content rich, well recorded microcast episode.
And now, on to the CotW winners:
Second prize:
In “Song Reco”, Music and Peace tells the tale behind one of the most famous folk/blues songs of all time. Packed with detail but not overwhelming, Addie’s recommendation takes us back to song’s origins in the 30’s, then forward to the 60s when it became a monster hit for The Animals. Don’t spend your lives in sin and misery, tune in to Addie’s Music and Peace microcast instead.
Grand prize:
There wasn’t much debate about which episode deserved the top spot this past week. Our favorite Millennial Jonathan nailed it with his creative, high effort, perfectly executed episode titled “Grocery”. In just 90 seconds, Jonathan takes us on an epic coffee run that goes from home to the grocery to the annoying self-checkout lane, complete with sound effects and mega stuff Oreos. His checkout total for coffee plus extras may have hurt his wallet, but he’s going to be just fine after taking home this week’s Grand prize.
Thanks for another great week of episodes at ykyz!
Cast of the Week III
CotW III winners
Before we get to the winners, some general notes:
• All microcasters, paid or unpaid, are eligible, except for Prospectors (see https://ykyz.com/blog/index.php/microcaster-levels/)
• To be considered for a prize, you must have proper episode titles and have set your email and avatar. Unfortunately this week we had to exclude some wonderful nominations on that basis.
• When choosing winners, we first narrow down the field by removing casts with poor audio quality or a topic that has connection to your microcast theme.
You will find all of the nominees for this period at: https://ykyz.com/f/cotwiii
Because this was an extra long period, we’ve added more winners and runner’s up than usual. We had lots of great nominations, but a handful of them really shined.
Here’s u/mattasher with descriptions of this week’s winners. We begin with the runner’s up:
EP. 32 Skincare Emergencies by Brown Skin Pearls. This tightly crafted, interesting episode introduces us to new uses for feminine wash.
Ep. 45 Side Hustle by IAmMillennial. Jonathan perfectly captures the moment many of us find ourselves in, where trends in tech and economics have led so many of us to become gig workers of one kind or another.
EP53 VR Gaming by NerdyOldGuy. Joel drew half-a-dozen responses for his personal take on virtual reality gaming and motion sickness.
Finally, a shoutout to ykyz’s own Teresa (ThatOneGirl) for her excellent four-part series A Place called Ohio).
And now, on to the winners! Because this was a longer period, we’ve picked two second prize winners.
Second prize
EP59 The right of public access by ThatbeardedSwede. Here’s another lovely slice of life episode from or favorite Swede. This episode discusses the tradition and laws related to public access on private property, including the right to pick berries and mushrooms. We also highly recommend ThatbeardedSwedes’ other nominated episodes on Fika and The Stockholm Syndrome.
Ep13.Spicy Food by staplezz1301. This episode mixes the author’s personal relationship to spice with a view of spiciness as a metaphor for Mexico in general. As staplezz1301’s asks, “What’s life without a little bit of spice”.
Grand prize
EP06 a ruler by fashionmusings. This well researched, high effort episode focuses on a fascinating intersection of fashion, politics, and history. Who knew there used to be cops wandering around South Korea armed with scissors to give hippy scofflaws an on-the-spot trim?
Congratulations to fashionmusings and all the other winners and runners up. Keep your eye out for great episodes for next week’s contest!