{"id":263,"date":"2012-10-27T11:11:39","date_gmt":"2012-10-27T16:11:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/?p=263"},"modified":"2012-10-27T09:14:23","modified_gmt":"2012-10-27T14:14:23","slug":"complimentary-earplugs-part-2-of-100","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/2012\/10\/27\/complimentary-earplugs-part-2-of-100\/","title":{"rendered":"Complimentary Earplugs (Part 2 of 100)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s audio plug is a guest post from CJ Flesher<\/a>, VP of the AOK<\/a>. Enjoy! \u2013\u00a0d.r.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

When\u00a0I heard Damion had decided to do a series on what podcasts he and his cohorts listen to, I beat a path to his door. Why? Well, besides being the Vice President of the Oklahoma Atheists, my day job is driving a\u00a0truck while listening to 10+ hours of audio at a stretch. Most of that is filled with podcasts. My list is ever-growing as shows go defunct and new gems pop to the surface. In fact, I\u2019m currently in the process of\u00a0scrounging for some new stuff for my feed.<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u00a0is a reason why the NPR shows, Slate gabfests and WTF stay near the top of the rankings in their respective categories. Those shows are put out by professionals at a consistent pace, and often have important impacts\u00a0on our society. But it isn\u2019t any fun writing about the shows that\u00a0iTunes already says you should like. It is the hidden gems that need our\u00a0love, not the Radiolab or This American Life episode we already discuss\u00a0over beers.<\/span><\/p>\n

My\u00a0favorite podcasts are often heavily regionalized. The Godcast<\/a>, of which\u00a0I am an infrequent contributor, is one of these. But my favorites are\u00a0often regionalized to \u2018exotic\u2019 parts of the US of A.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"TANK<\/a>
Tank Riot Comic Cover \u00a9 2010 Jeremy Couturier<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tank\u00a0Riot! is just such a podcast. The hosts, Viktor, Sputnik and Tor (not\u00a0their real names) will spend a good portion of every show discussing\u00a0life in \u2018tropical\u2019 Madison, Wisconsin. It is because of this show that I\u00a0feel I have a healthy knowledge about, and disgust for,\u00a0Vice-Presidential candidate and Wisconsinite Paul Ryan.<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0saga surrounding the failed attempt to recall Wisconsin Governor Scott\u00a0Walker was particularly entertaining for someone who lives in a state\u00a0where <\/span>Sally Kern<\/span><\/a> is consistently getting re-elected and one of our Senators has a book out about how climate change is a hoax.<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t\u00a0get the wrong idea, Tank Riot is not (usually) just about Wisconsin\u00a0life and politics. Each episode has a topic, and the guys do a good job\u00a0of covering it. Topics are as schizophrenic as interests of the hosts.<\/span><\/p>\n

One\u00a0of the strong suits of the show is that because it isn\u2019t limited to a\u00a0theme (ie: atheism, philosophy, science news) it never runs out of\u00a0topics to cover. In its 120+ episodes, Tank Riot has covered Star Trek\u00a0Fan Films, Studio Ghibli, Kurt Vonnegut, Devo, Henry Kissinger, Ayn\u00a0Rand, Joe McCarthy, Carl Sagan, and Link Wray, just to name a few.\u00a0They\u2019ve also had multiple episodes on conspiracy theories, and an\u00a0on-going list of Great Douche-Bags in History. Three of the above make\u00a0that list. I\u2019ll leave it up to you to guess.<\/span><\/p>\n

To\u00a0me, Tank Riot feels like the podcast equivalent of MST3K. It has a\u00a0similar sensibility and absurdity about life. Maybe it is because both\u00a0shows come from the same part of the country and both have a Public\u00a0Access feel to them.<\/span><\/p>\n

To learn more about Tank Riot, check out the <\/span>show page<\/span><\/a>. It is available on <\/span>iTunes<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s audio plug is a guest post from CJ Flesher, VP of the AOK. Enjoy! \u2013\u00a0d.r.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-complimentary-earplugs","category-freethought-in-popular-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}