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.
Tag: homeschool
Cast of the Week II
Cast of the Week (CotW) winners
All CotW entrants are nominated by you, and chosen by ykyz founder u/mattasher.
You can always find the most recent nominees at:
ykyz.com/f/castoftheweek
u/mattasher writes:
We had lots of great microcast episodes this past week! But before we get to the winners, I want to highlight a few non-microcast Bleats. The most interesting conversation starter of the week was Amandalotta’s “iPhone for littles?” which drew lots of strong opinions about kids owning expensive cellphones. Feel free to check it out for yourself.
Amandalotta also asked the vital question, Where do you find a dog with no legs? See the answer for yourself.
Special mention also goes to ThatOneGirl for her 4-bleat series on “The Demon Midwife”, a fascinating story that just missed the deadline for last week’s Cast contest.
Runner’s up for CotW:
Ep.4 Life Bites – Story Idea by Life Bites Podcast
Conner presents an interesting dilemma, Do you wake up a sleeper only to tell them that the world is about to end?
EP4 Travel Skincare by Brown Skin Pearls
Clare provides practical, specific advice about skincare and travel. Solid, informative, interesting.
Ep. 19 YouTube by IAmMillennial
IAmMillennial swears he doesn’t fall down YouTube rabbit holes, then takes us down his most recent YouTube rabbit hole, babies sneezing. Who knew that was a thing?
Second place:
EP35.Homeschool vs Public School by ILoveEveryone
ILoveEveryone presents a single strong, well researched argument related to equity and state funding of public school, vs the lack of support for home school students.
First place:
Ep29 Music and Peace by Music and Peace
Addie gives an impassioned, yet calm and thoughtful meditation on gatekeeping in music. Perfectly scripted and well recorded, Addie’s plea for opening up the musical garden to all those who want to admire it, is worth listening to at least twice.
Some final thoughts this week about the microcast. Some of you are beginning to get the hang of the format, and to dominate it. As you go about producing your episodes, keep in mind the distinction between microcast episodes and Bleats generally. General Bleats are about conversation. Microcast episodes present information and perspective. They may ask for feedback, but they aren’t just topic starters to kick off a conversation. Note in particular how The Broken Down Starship’s outstanding “Biggest Disappointment” episode introduces a topic, then does much more by going into details about the topic generally, and outlining a specific case of disappointment with well-thought-out context.