Studio: Wizzard Media
Category: News & Politics
What It Is
Leftist compiles clips of political commentators from television & podcasts, with each episode grouped around a different theme.
Technical Details
Each episode runs between seventy-five & eighty minutes and features clips that all address a particular theme or issue. The show drops every four days or so, which is really quite remarkable, given how long the episodes are and all the clips they contain. The show doesn’t carry an Explicit Tag on iTunes, but there’s often a fair amount of salty language. How much (or how little) just depends on the commentator clips chosen for the show. The show’s been around since 2006, so there’s a huge archive at the show’s website. iTunes always has the 40 most recent episodes.
What About It
I really enjoy this show. Some of the shows the show takes clips from are shows I listen to already when I have time: Democracy Now, Citizen Radio, Common Sense with Dan Carlin. A lot of them are from shows I don’t already listen to, but probably should, like The Young Turks. The occasional television personality shows up, most notably Rachel Maddow, who I don’t get a chance to watch much, but I have a totally embarrassing and nerdy crush on. (It’s hopeless too since she’s a lesbian; not that my heterosexual crush on Kate Mara is exactly hopeful.) Anyway, I really enjoy hearing the discussions on the show; the show is totally honest about its bias, which is refreshing, and the podcast curator does a great job choosing clips – they usually are worthy of being called the best of leftist commentary. I like that the show isn’t like a weekly roundup; it sometimes has pretty old clips mixed with the new ones since the show is grouped around themes and issues. Some themes are broad, like Feminism or Racism; others are specific, like Ed Snowden or the Confederate Flag.
4 stars
Essential If
You need a clearing house because you can’t listen to more political podcasts.
Avoid Like the Plague If
You are currently wearing a tri-corner hat.
Best Entry Point
This one’s pretty hard actually. It’s just so consistently excellent that I’m looking back through some of the older episodes and I just honestly can’t even decide. Just subscribe. You’ll thank me later.