Skeprechauns Podcast

Well last night I listened to their first episode of the podcast and I must say overall I am quite impressed. There were a few things I feel they could've done better but I put it down to their first podcast. They seemed a little disorganised at the start and seemed to look at each other as if to say "Right will we just press record and bite the bullet? and if we fuck up it'll be edited out" In some ways I commend them with just getting on with it but I would've at least liked them to take a 10 min discussion on how to do the opening ie: settle on the name (not sure if that was ment to be them kidding around) and more importantly  a quick  2-3 min intro from all the people in the studio, and weather they bring their professional opinion into it like the skeptics guide or if it's ordinary people discussing news topics. I was left wondering "wait, who is this guy?", "how many people are involved in this?" I feel it was important to at least determine the names and the number of people speaking. Anyway, they soldiered on and I actually find I quite entertaining if a little slower paced then other podcasts I listen to (for clarification this isn't a direct comparison with the skeptics guide, as that would be unfair, I mean in general as I listen to at least 4-5 in total).

I felt myself being drawn into the atmosphere, it was a homely "we're regular people who meet in the pub and we're gonna forget the mics are here" atmosphere. This adds to the uniqueness to the podcast and I suppose would help the speakers get over their nerves but I feel they shouldn't completely forget that this is a podcast and to explain things that mightn't be 100% apparent to the listener. Like say something like "I'm reading off this guys website and he says X" or "this was in an article in Y newspaper and I've printed it off and highlighted it". There seemed to be a tad of "I was reading this guys website x.com and you guys all know it" *cue agreement from the other panelists* and then they go on and read the lasted post from it without explaining the general feel or genre the website falls in. Now to be fair they may indeed have imparted the needed information to the listener but this is the lasting impression I have from listening to it last night.

I have yet to listen to episode 2 and I have no doubt these niggles will eventually be ironed out. As I said, overall this has given me a good impression and I am willing to put the small niggles down to it being the first episode.

Irish Skeptic Scene

So I was browsing the Dublin Skeptics in the Pub page. A group that I would love to go to one of their meetups as I regularly went to Skeptics in the Pub in Vancouver during my year there and made quite a few friends through that group, In fact I doubt I'd have enjoyed my trip there half as much if I hadn't come across those meetings. Anyway I've known about the Dublin Skeptics in the Pub since before my Vancouver trip but alas, the schedule didn't really suit me then and now since I'm out of work I'm unfortunately less likely to get a chance to go to them. I might make an up and coming brunch they have organised as there isn't the social pressure and the temptation to have a few pints (a few pints often leads to more).

 Anyways I was on their Facebook page when I noticed a url skeprechauns.com, hmm ok you've intrigued me, turns out they have a podcast that I didn't even know about. As I've previously said i'm a bit of a podcast listener in my spare time and particularly like skeptic/science/tech related podcasts and here was one in my home town that I didn't even know about!, with about 15 hour long episodes so far! Well I've subscribed and am committed to listening to them all in order even if it takes me 15 days!

I will report my opinion on the first episode when I get around to listening to it. Either later this evening or I might listen to it in bed tonight as I tend to do.