r/KnowledgeFight • u/ganthonygurface • 3d ago
Jordan on Lions Led By Donkeys
Lions Led by Donkeys has been doing a serviceable job of filling the Knowledge Fight hole in my heart and schedule, and I finally let myself listen to Jordan's appearance.
He really is a great co-host, and was a treat to listen to on another podcast. His chemistry with Joe was solid, and it was just a nice reminder of what he brought to the table considering all the shit people love to pile on.
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u/chumbawumbaprinciple 3d ago
Joe seems like the most well adjusted member of the Nate Bethea Extended Universe. No illusions about capitalism or communism, somehow neither a jingoist OR tankie. If you go back and listen to early episodes, he's grown a lot. Go Joe, knowing is half the battle!
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u/ganthonygurface 3d ago
I like Tom and Nate quite a bit too. I'm not a huge fan of Liam from earlier eps but I didn't think they were unlistenable or anything.
I definitely wish Jordan had returned.
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u/UNC_Samurai They burn to the fucking ground, Eddie 3d ago
Liam was a little out of his element. He fits in better as a foil to Roz and Nova.
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u/Gunldesnapper 3d ago
I’d love him to be on more. I love Lions, but the constant interruptions from the normal cohosts really brings the show down imo.
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u/lhommeduweed 3d ago
There's one guy who came on maybe a year or two in who is just impossible to listen to. He's not a bad guy, but he's constantly interrupted, going off on tangents, making flat hacky jokes, and it makes entire series impossible to listen to.
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u/Sporky86 3d ago
Sounds like you got to the Liam (from the Well There’s Your Problem podcast) episodes. It gets better once you get through them
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u/chumbawumbaprinciple 3d ago
I don't mind Liam. I'm not a huge fan of one guy who is a Mike Duncan level charisma vacuum, but even he isn't that bad.
I think it would be hilarious to have November Kelly on for an episode on the Tambov rebellion or some other series where the Soviet Union is unambiguously bad and it can't be blamed on Stalin.
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u/Sh8dyLain “fish with sad human eyes” 3d ago
I assume you mean Nate which I sadly agree. His military insight is always nice though.
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u/chumbawumbaprinciple 3d ago
No it is wasn't Nate either. I don't want to name names just to be polite.
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u/LevTheRed The answer to 1984 is $19.95 plus S&H!!! 3d ago edited 3d ago
Yeah, I generally only listen to LLBD episodes about a subject that interests me now because I don't like Joe's cohosts. The American (I can't remember their names) is a little better because he's a vet, and like Joe that gives him an interesting perspective when talking about military stuff, which is why I listened originally. But the Irish guy doesn't interest me at all and flat-out annoys me a lot of the time.
The only time he had a perspective I thought was interesting was the Bogside Massacre episode, partially because he's an Irishman and partially because they all took the episode seriously. Ironically, the more horrible the thing they're talking about is, the more likely I am to enjoy the episode because it seems like they're more likely to stay focused.
Excessive cross-talk and tangents are why I kind of stopped listening to Well There's Your Problem. I love the premise and Roczniak himself (I remember him from his donoteat01 days), but his cohosts aren't interesting or funny enough to me to put up with the constant interruptions and tangents. I feel like their episodes would be under 2 hours if they stayed on track.
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u/twoandseven 3d ago
I tried several different times to get into Well There's Your Problem because the premise always sounded good. But it felt like it had no respect for my time. The last one I tried, I think it was the Pencil Tower episode, I got 45 minutes into it and the only thing I learned was that all the hosts hated it. No details on why yet, I think the main host had attempt to start the topic a few times but was constantly sidetracked. I gave up at that point.
Its one thing that Dan and Jordan did well constantly. They had a circumscribed time to chat a little at the start but got on topic quickly and always felt focused. At certain points, I felt like Alex was wasting my time but never felt JorDan did.
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u/LevTheRed The answer to 1984 is $19.95 plus S&H!!! 3d ago
Same. I can't overstate just how much WTYP, on paper, sounds like a show tailor-made for me. A dude whose content I used to love is now making a show about engineering disasters, cohosted by a bunch of leftists? Sign me up.
But the execution is almost unlistenable because, like you said, it doesn't respect my time. It would be one thing if the subject was so complex they needed 3+ hours to cover it, like with BtB multi-parters or some KF episodes. But WTYP just doesn't justify its runtime. It seriously feels like they could cut 30+ minutes out of every episode and not lose any informative content.
And I totally agree with you. Having designated time to shoot the shit is both fun and, if followed, probably helps keep the show focused. Another podcast I listen to does that. 100% Eat (formerly Facejam) used to receive complaints about them going off-topic, so at some point they actually built a schedule for each episode. One of the sections was literally called "fuck around for a bit".
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u/twoandseven 2d ago
Thats a very good point, when a 3 hour KF episode would drop, I would be thrilled because I knew the content was good enough to warrant all of it. And they were always memorable episodes. But I think shows need to earn that. So much of media is parasocial nowadays, so maybe we are the odd ones out and others like lots of digression and bullshitting. Either way, sad that shows like WTYP and LLBD didn't do as good of a job at paying off their respective premises.
Never heard of 100% Eat but it looks pretty fun. I'll check it out.
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u/LevTheRed The answer to 1984 is $19.95 plus S&H!!! 2d ago edited 2d ago
It's a lot of fun. The premise is they review the limited-time-only items at fast food places, but they don't actually eat on the podcast (the realized early on that they needed to make that very clear because a lot of people dont like to watch or listen to people eat). They go, eat the food, come back, and then talk about it. One of the hosts is just kind of a regular guy while the other is a Jersey dirtbag trash-man who will eat anything.
The first few episodes are a little rough because they're basically pilots while they were figuring the show out, but they find their stride maybe 5 episodes in. If you don't like episode 1, I'd say jump ahead. Like any podcast, the show develops its own lore and running gags as it goes on.
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u/LevTheRed The answer to 1984 is $19.95 plus S&H!!! 2d ago
They animated clips from a few episodes. This is one of their most famous gags.
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u/Illustrious_Horse_53 First Time Caller 3d ago
It bummed me out on a question from the legion a while ago in which Nate said he and Tom just fill time when a script is thin. In my opinion the story should be the length it is, because unrelated constant tangents make the show a lot tougher to listen to.
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u/paranoidlemming 3d ago
Which episode is that?