Two great podcasts

Two great podcasts I've been listening to lately:

Black Jack Justice

I cannot say enough good things about Decoder Ring Theater's presentations of Black Jack Justice.  It's a golden-age-of-radio-esque presentation about two private detectives, Jack Justice and Trixie Dixon, girl detective.  The stories have dialogue and sound effects that recall programs from the 1940s, as well as nicely crafted internal monologues both from Jack and Trixie's perspectives.  Each program is about 25 mins long and are all well-written by Greg Taylor.

I'm pretty sure that Black Jack Justice counts as a romance novel because it's character-driven and because of the constant banter between Jack and Trixie.  Because the plotlines need to be wrapped up in 25 mins, some of the episodes end a little too quickly and too cleanly.  But the characters are funny, rich and vivid, the detectives confront a variety of interesting and controversial issues such as domestic violence, and the dialogue is very good.

The highest compliment I can pay to Decoder Ring Theater is that I have been "rationing" the episodes because I don't want it to end.

The BS Report

I've been a fan of Bill Simmons since before he moved to ESPN, and I regularly listen to the BS Report, his podcast.

I'm intrigued at how Bill Simmons has evolved from a sports-writer into an excellent interviewer and conversationalist through his podcasts.  He routinely scores interviews with stand-up comedians such as Jeff Ross and Patton Oswald, writers such as Chuck Klosterman, writers and producers for SNL, fairly high-profile actors such as Jon Ham, and of course sports figures such as Steve Nash, Mark Cuban and even the legendary Jerry West.  I think one of the most appealing aspects to Simmons' podcasts is that they aren't interviews so much as they are discussions about a variety of topics.  He lets sports figures talk about movies and TV shows, and talks sports with the actors.  He also interjects his own ideas into the conversations, which makes it less of an interrogation and more of a free-flowing discussion.  And best of all, he's funny.

I want to give a particular plug to Chuck Klosterman's most recent podcast (part 1 and part 2).  Simmons and Klosterman are both funny and smart and their discussions are always fascinating.  I had never heard of Klosterman until the BS Report but I will be buying his latest book of essays to read between the semesters.