woodworking podcasts

[bleedinblue]

I've tried Jay Bates/April Wilkerson's, FWW and WT.  WT is the only one I enjoyed and the only one I continue to listen to.

I'll look into the Woodshop 101.

[wtnhighlander]

I've been enjoying The Dusty Life podcast lately. The one Kyle Toth is on.

[Bulldog]

I like the fine woodworking podcast and wood talk. I enjoy listening to wood talk more, but I've learned way more tricks with FWW.  I really want to like the jay bates one, but I'm not sure of the point of the show. I'm not sure I've ever heard the girl on the show ever offer up anything, other than to agree with what other youtubers have said  

The little 6 or 7 minute podcasts, by 360 woodworking, are sometimes interesting. 

1 hour ago, wtnhighlander said:

I've been enjoying The Dusty Life podcast lately. The one Kyle Toth is on.

The three voices on the show all sound the same to me. I can't distinguish who is speaking most of the time. If I can figure that out, I will like this one as well. 

[wtnhighlander]

The new long-format show from the 360 guys is pretty good, but long.

[bglenden]

I think the Fine Woodworking podcast is best overall (good content, decent but not overwhelming banter). WTO is next (banter to content ratio just a bit high for my personal preferences, but going over the same topics over and over must get pretty old). 360 woodworking has excellent content from pros who have seen it all with a "this is the way to do it, don't waste your time on anything else" approach which I generally like. Too early to say for their long-form podcasts, but off to a good start IMO. I listen to all of these podcasts and try to pay attention, e.g. if I get distracted I'm likely to go back and re-listen.

In the next tier is The Dusty Life Podcast, MWA, Woodshop 101. Sometimes I find the episodes interesting, sometimes they are background while I do something else. I might skip out of an episode partway through if I'm not engaged. But all can have interesting content, and the hosts are all engaging. (And, without trying to sound all PC, it is nice to have some women bringing their viewpoints to the discussion).

The final category is MakerCast. It is an odd one. It is interview style. I find many of the episodes to be dull and will stop them early or might delete without even starting them. Others are fascinating providing insights you would never get in a more process oriented podcast.

Caveat: everyone is looking for something different, and what I like least/most might be the opposite for you. We are lucky in this community to have so many people interested and willing to spend their time informing and entertaining us. (If you were to ask my wife she would say they are all the worst!)

[Damien King]

I have listened to several woodworking podcasts namely:

• Hand Tools & Techniques-so far this is the best podcast I've found for unplugged woodworkers. Gary really knows his stuff and give useful information without fluff or ego. 

• Shoptalk live (Fine woodworking magazine's podcast)- Has had a number of hosts over the years. Unfortunately one of the current ones,  Matthew Kenney comes across as a real condescending ego-mania al douche. He, and to a lesser extent, Mike Pekovich, is elitist and seems to have penis envy of process oriented hand tool woodworkers. Aside from all this, one of their liabilities is that they have no diversity. Too many years working under magazine deadlines has sadly turned them into "race-to-the-finish-because-process-doesn't-show-in-the-finished-product" wood workers.

• Woodtalk-a long running podcast with over 300 episodes. It is one of the best. Marc Spagnolo a talented hybrid woodworker who made a name for hims self with the ridiculous moniker "the Wood Whisperer"  is one of the hosts along with guys named Shannon and Matt Cremona. Shannon represents the  hand tool woodworking realm and also works at a big lumber yard so he reports on wood supply trends. The final host is Matt Cremona and up and coming mostly-machine type woodworker, but who unfortunately has such poor diction and seems to swallow his words so badly you might ask yourself "what makes  someone with this sort of speech impediment think he can work in audio?'" Despite Matt, it's still the best podcast. 

• Modern Woodworker's Association- it's pretty good. Worth a listen to see if you like it. 

• The Afterlife of Trees-Very interesting stories about woodworking. Worth a listen if you have broad interests. 

• It's Wood-Interviews with all kinds of people in the woodworking craft and industry from loggers to sculptors. Simply done and good for a change of pace when you tire of listening about how to turn your hobby into a business  on every other podcast.  

• Against the Grain- they are trying. They often struggle with audio quality and have 3 hosts. One is easy to listen too, one sounds like an old crusty woodworker, and the last, Freddy Roman, seems to have lots of woodworking knowledge and experience, but is even harder to listen to than Matt Cremona. He gives vague, equivocal answers that are long on generalities, digressions, and double-talk and short on specifics. His answers are always qualified with words like "sometimes", "often", "it can be". What it can be is frustrating because so much of the time he fails to answer the question or convey the knowledge in his head effectively to the audience because of his abominable oral expression skills. He has such a poor command of language that I wonder whether he's very poorly educated or originally from a  non-English speaking country. Either way he's frustrating to listen to and actually leaves me feeling unsettled and wishing I had tuned into another. In fact, I sometimes change to another podcast in frustration. It's a huge shame that he doesn't know how to speak because if he was able to communicate effectively he would be a great asset to the show instead of the worst part of it. 

[Coop]

An old thread revisited by a first time poster. First of all, welcome to the forum. Some of the guys you commented on, I disagree with, some, I’ve never heard of and will definitely research. Your reflection on Marc, I’m all in!  And thanks for the large Readers Digest print.