This year, I have spent most of my time listening to podcasts. Like, a lot of podcasts. I am pretty positive I have listened to every single podcast there is in the whole wide world. I am desperate for entertainment. I crave news. I want to learn and experience stories. Podcasts can do all of this and much much more. They can make my anxiety jump, but they can also soothe it. They can make me laugh, and they can make me cry. They can make me wake up and they can make me fall asleep. The possibilities are endless.
That said, not every podcast is good. Truthfully, very few podcasts are good in the grand scheme of things. There are so many podcasts out there (I think billions), and there are probably only a few hundred out there that are good. So yeah, let’s talk about the bad ones.
I’ve listened to podcasts where it’s a solo person monologuing to prove they are a wild narcissist. I’ve listened to podcasts where they talk about the craziest fart noises. I’ve even listened to podcasts where the host burps (gross, I know). But when deciding the WORST PODCAST of 2021, my decision was easy. Jake Schick’s podcast Ruminate with the Wise makes absolutely no sense. Who is the audience? Someone, please tell me who this is for. The first episode of the show is an interview with Mother Teresa. As someone who is always looking for underground podcasts, I was so so excited to hear this, BUT MOTHER THERESA WAS NOT ACTUALLY ON THE PODCAST. It did then cross my mind that maybe this was just a little comedy podcast listed under the philosophy category for fucking shits and giggles. I hate when people do this because it can be so misleading. This is a large reason for why our country has become so divided: misinformation.
So many comedians are turning to podcasts, and while Jake may think he’s doing something different with the form, he’s actually just doing something bad. Upon further research, I came across a stand up comedy set he did where he talked about therapy, and I didn’t crack a smile. Maybe he should spend more time in therapy and less time on the stage.
Jake does most the voices on this podcast, and it seems like he really does not care about being true to Mother Teresa. If she was alive I assure you, she would not be listening to this podcast. Maybe take another voice-acting lesson, Jake.
This podcast even has an episode called RAIN SOUNDS FOR DEEP SLEEP. Is there even a theme to this podcast??? And no, you guessed it, it was not actually rain sounds. Well it was in a way, but it definitely did not put me into a deep sleep.
And while I am already pulling my hair out writing this, I cannot leave before I mention the episode “A Night Out.” It is chaos. The turns make no sense, and there is no way this would ever happen in real life. If some of these episodes are supposed to be stories, there needs to be a way to get fucking grounded with your story and not leave your audience hanging right off a bridge ready to fall.
This is a fairly new podcast, and there is only five episodes last I checked (I won’t be checking again), but in only five episodes, they sing the Beatles’ song “Octopus’ Garden” TWICE! They sing this dumb song on this dumb podcast in multiple episodes. And while some of the singing is not bad, it is definitely no Frank Sinatra (by the way, I’m sure Frank Sinatra would not like this podcast either). As someone who has been a music journalist for many years, I care about what goes into my ears, and I am always on the lookout for new things that can move people around the globe. But things like this make me question my life.
If you want to listen to a podcast that is ruining this country, then yeah, go ahead and listen to Ruminate with the Wise. But I’d take fart sound analysis over this podcast any day.
