Welcome to the 21st edition of the Cast of the Week awards (Breaking out of Lockdown Edition). Got the sick of home blues? Get outside! But first, read on for a double dose of winners and important info.
You can find this week’s nominees can be found at https://ykyz.com/f/cotwxxi.
Junior Microcaster Prizes
We will be experimenting with a dedicated Junior Microcaster award and might do a summer program. This would be open to anyone 18 or younger. We hope to offer at least one prize per week in this category, and if we get enough participants, we might offer a Junior Microcaster of the summer award. This is a great way for a teen to launch a career in casting. Note that if you take a teenage caster under your wing, you are eligible for our Mentor program, and will get referral credit for anyone you bring on.
And now, on to the CotW XXI winners! But first, some shoutouts:
Shoutout to PracticalMagic for episode 73. It is OKAY to rest! and the reminder that during the pandemic, lowering expectations for what you get done may be the only way to stay sane.
Shoutout to Rebekah of the SmartMoney microcast for a solid review of pay-to-play games in episode 318. Paid to Play Apps – Worth It?
Shoutout to BorisTheBlade for touching a nerve with the title and content of his 175th microcast episode Fat is not beautiful, Adele’s weight loss and Social Justice Warrior fascists pt. 2.
Shoutout to Asi the Voluptuous Voyager for episode 191. Ramblings… and her thoughts about the goal of her cast and reaching out to others.
Shoutout to Mistress of the Microcast for fearlessly asking the question no one else dares to ask in her episode 260. What happened to the Bermuda Triangle?
A few microcasters had episode milestones recently. Shoutouts to Snippets With Sophia, Doctor Irish, and Smart Money for hitting the big 300. Whoot whoot!
And now, on to the winners! But first, a few honorable mentions:
Honorable mentions:
Poegosi The Poet for his intriguing and highly interacted with episode 195. Selling feet pics online strange ways to earn online.
Snippets With Sophia for episode 302. Food-Based Insults, an excellent overview of the many ways to label another nation based on their food preferences, from Limeys to Krouts to Butter Stinkers (who knew!)
ThatbeardedSwede for episode 262. Nordic Walking voice chat debates online! Apparently, this awkward looking activity works not just for the elderly but can be good for fitness if you swap out lightweight poles for ones that weigh as much as mid-sized chickens.
And now, and this time we really mean it, on to the winners:
Bleats of the week:
This award goes to the most listened to (non-microcast) bleat of the past week. Since two weeks have gone by, we have two winners.
Should they be allowed? by Muslim Things
and
Live now 🔴 Gaming chat at 5 pm Friday! by Maleficent Gaming
Quote of the week:
This award goes to my favorite quote taken from a microcast episode or bleat. The two winners this time are:
“It’s as if you asked me what colors I would want the walls of my apartment painted while there’s a gaping hole in the floors and also the kitchen is on fire”, by Just Thinking Aloud in episode 186. Right/Left Wing and Other Pipe Dreams.
And
“Covid. I blame Covid. The entire last three months I blame solely on Covid. I mean, don’t you?”, by jenagain in episode 87. Ready or Not, pt 1.
For our regular microcast awards, we have:
Fourth prize:
In episode 242. Street Corn by Black Girl Baker, we get a great explanation of how to debug dense cake as well as a mouth-watering description of how to make homemade Street corn.
Third prize:
In Greek mythology, the Titans were pre-Olympian gods. In episode 260. Story Time: The Titans, Astrocast By Diz tells their wild and disturbing story with a mix of drama and delightfully strange detail.
Second prize:
Addie, of Music and Peace, gets a silver star and second prize for episode 384. Give Addie A Sticker – Rough And Rowdy Controversy, for her excellent contextualization of Bob Dylan’s latest album. In this packed cast, Addie covers the questions of how to judge new work of an old artist, music in the time of pandemics, and, as the title suggests, stickers.
First prize:
A Brewtiful Mind takes top prize for episode 189. Could You Drink 101 Beers in a Week? In it, Micah tells the true tale of a former school track star who drank 101 beers in a week and ran 101 miles in that same week. Mixing self-indulgence, Covid relief (funds were raised), excess drinking, and the return to much-neglected exercise, this cast perfectly captures our current moment.
Tag: mistress of the microcast
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 XIII
CotW XIII
You’ll find all the nominees for this week at https://ykyz.com/c/na?faveOf=cotwxiii
We’ll get right into the winners of Cast of the Week XIII.
But first, some shoutouts.
Shoutout to Elvira for crossing the 100 episode barrier with her Mistress of the Microcast series.
Shoutout to Joel for clocking in with 200 episodes of his NerdyOldGuy microcast.
Shoutout to Fredrik for the lovely episode 38. March Madness – Improvisation on Swedish Folk music (Guitar) (Original music by Fredrik). We always appreciate your original compositions.
Shoutout to the many users who jumped into March Madness with swaps and guest hosting. We listen to all of these, and you can find them collected in one place at https://ykyz.com/c/na?faveOf=marchmadness
And now, on to the winners. But first, some honorable mentions.
Honorable mentions
2. Mobile Gamers And Console Wars by Maleficent Gaming
Lilith got a big response for just her second microcast episode, an invitation to weigh in on the current state of mobile vs console gaming.
146. Kabbalah Numerology by Astrocast By Diz explains how to turn your name into a number as part of the ancient Hebrew practice of Kabbalah. Also, check out the fun and opinionated 155.Storytime: Zeus by Astrocast By Diz
60. Free Speech – Not Just Another Value by Just Thinking Aloud
At a time when patience for free speech is at the lowest point, it’s been in my lifetime, and censorship seems to championed even by the media itself, Mark succinctly explains the connection between free speech and honestly confronting reality.
And now, on to the winners!
Second place
87. Rosetta Stone with Alba of the Culture Mix by Life in Ancient Egypt
Alba steps into Marwan’s sandals and picks up his staff to lead us out of Egypt and into the British Museum, current home of the Rosetta stone, for a tour-guide quality description of this famously fractured artifact.
Grand prize
168. Takeover – Voluptuous Voyager – Swedish Death Cleaning by ThatBeardedSwede
This week, one caster perfectly captured the vibe of the show she swapped with. Asi, of Voluptuous voyager fame, gave us a wonderful slice of Swedish life in her guest appearance in episode 168 of ThatbeardedSwede’s microcast. Focusing on the practice of Death Cleaning (döstädning), or getting one’s affairs in order before it’s game over in this simulated we all share, Asi nails the feeling and focus of her host’s microcast. We also highly recommend Asi’s other Swedish take over episode on The Ice Hotel.