steinerland – ykyz: Have your say

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

Here are the winners of Cast of the Week XII.

But first, some shoutouts:

Shoutout to our newest members of the 100 club: Andrew Steiner of Steinerland and Brian Thornsburg of Ranting and Raving. Put on your monogrammed green jackets, light up a cigar, and welcome to our exclusive club.

Shoutout to Sophia for spicing up our first week of March Madness with several episodes about the strange human custom of intentionally consuming things that burn our mouths.

Shoutout to Joel for finding a way to make a cast even more micro with his Bleat March Madness – The Micromicrocast. Unfortunately, I had to listen twice to realize the feeling of micro-deja-vu was well earned.

Shoutout to Kayla aka Violaceous Curiosity for jumping hard into March Madness with some well-done swaps.

Before we get to the winners, here are the honorable mentions for this past week.

15. Pumped Up Kicks by BeyondRhythm
He gives us the background on Foster for the People’s wonderfully cheerful song about teen angst with an imaginary(?) body count. Props to Cyannade for ending this episode the best possible way, with that maddeningly catchy whistling.

38. Earn online with the right chair by Poegosi The Poet
Microcasts call for micro topics, and Poegosi gets that right in this lovely little episode about finding just the right chair to keep you comfy, but not so comfy that you drift off. For my own part, I recommend adding a recliner to your office to give yourself a dedicated napping chair.

And now, on to the winners:

Runner-up:
124. To my wife by Aspie and Proud.
Elsa penned, then pronounced and posted this perfectly lovely ode to her partner. Well done and well within the spirit of March Madness experimentation.

Grand prize:
159. Use Headphones for this exercise by Doctor Irish
The good doctor picks up the top prize with this audio experiment, complete with show notes in an informative reply. We also strongly recommend listening to episode 160. Try this -Ambient Sound- Story Time an Audio Experience. Which uses background noises to great effect.

You may have noticed that we only gave out two prizes this week, yet we promised three during this month. In a moment of mixing things up ourselves, we’ve decided to give at least one prize next week to a swap cast, and offer a bounty to both the swapper and the swappe for double-dipping fun. Stay tuned to ykyz and don’t forget to get weird this March while you still can, it’s back to gray jackets and Cisco’s hold music next month.

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

Before we get to this week’s winners, we have some shoutouts to microcasters who made our week great.

Shoutout all seven microcasters who entered the 100 episode club this week. I’m talking about you Black Girl Baker, Dancing Bartender, Aspie and Proud, Astrocast by Diz, Plant Based Podcast, Voluptuous Voyager, and last but not least, xXxDisturbedOnexXx

We’re sending a second Shoutout to the Voluptuous Voyager for her episode 97. Be the bigger person? which is not only good but experiments with a delayed intro. While certainly not an approach that works all the time or for all microcasts, it worked well here and we encourage you to try out new things, especially this month (did we mention it was March Madness on ykyz?)

Shoutout as well to all of you who have offered to help out generally with promoting ykyz, we’ll be counting on your efforts to take ykyz up to 11.

Honorable mentions
Before we get to the prize winners, here are the honorable mentions for this week.

30. Steelman-ing by Just Thinking Aloud
Mark provides us with a concise, well thought out description of this important technique in arguing, which involves making the strongest possible case for your opponent before you begin to attack it.

145. You Should Never do this. The Stigmas in Health by Doctor Irish
In this episode, the good doctor gives us an important reminder to distinguish between the patient and the condition, and not stigmatize people by identifying them with their disease. I’d also highly recommend listening to the Doc’s episode 20. 600 Dollars on microtransactions on his Imperfect Reviews microcast, a warning tale for anyone who lets the little ones access an app store, intentionally or otherwise.

80. I Was A Communist by SteinerLand
Andrew tells us his first two words when growing up on the Kibbutz, an institution which is on the ropes in large part because people move away from them in search of Andrew’s third word.

Winners:
Just for March Madness, we’re adding a third prize level.

Third place:
12. Paranoid Android by BeyondRhythm
This well-crafted episode by Cyannade tells the story behind one of my favorite Radiohead songs. Rich in detail, and bookended by a couple of nicely appropriate sonic touches, BeyondRythm picks up our inaugural third place with an entry that’s well worth the 90 second listen.

Runner up:
22. Disneyland is Too Expensive by The Broken Down Starship
James clearly touched a nerve with his discussion of the high cost of Disneyland. Mixing news, official explanations, and a personal take, this excellent episode expertly lays out a lament shared by all too many parents.

Grand prize:
145. Chili Bricks – Just Add Water by SnippetsWithSophia
With her signature mix of perfectly recorded episodes, quirky history, and heaping spoonfuls of information, Sophia once again puts the spice in our bowls and takes home top prize in this week’s microcast cook-off. Who knew the freeze-dried bags of beef stroganoff campers carry today can trace their lineage back over a hundred years to bricks of dried beef, fat, salt, and chilis. Either way, it beats lembas bread.

Thanks to everyone who took part in CotW XI, talk to you soon on ykyz!