I almost always have a podcast playing when in the car, most of the time a D&D game like Acquisitions Incorporated or Critical Role. Over the summer I expanded my listening horizons, and here are the ones that have garnered my attention and that I can highly recommend.

In no particular order:

Wolverine

Produced by Marvel and Stitcher, Wolverine: The Long Night follows an investigation into a series of murders in a small fishing and lumbering town in Alaska. Richard Armitage (The Hobbit, Hannibal, Castlevania) plays the titular Logan/Wolverine, but really only in the background, as the story is told from the point of view of the agents investigating the crime.

Written by Benjamin Percy (Wolverine, Nightwing, Green Arrow) and wonderfully acted by the talented cast, what really drew me in was the immersive sound design by Brendan Baker and Chloe Prasinos.

Season 2, The Lost Trail, follows Logan to New Orleans, and is much more from his point of view as he searches for an old flame.

I really hope that there will be more seasons coming out. Without spoiling anything, there seems to be a wealth of plot to explore bridging the two seasons, and I hope we get to go there.

Hello From The Magic Tavern

I just started listening to this yesterday, and man, is this funny. Arnie accidentally fell through a portal behind a Burger King into the land of Foon with his podcasting equipment, and set up shop in the local tavern, interviewing the locals of this fantasy setting. The first episode focuses mostly on a shape-shifting badger and how he goes about his transformations and…I don’t want to spoil this for you.

The podcast itself is run by three improv comedians from Chicago, Arnie Niekamp (playing a fictional version of himself), Adal Rifai (Chunt), and Matt Young (Usidore! Wizard of the 12th Realm of Ephysiyies, Master of Light and Shadow, Manipulator of Magical Delights, Devourer of Chaos, Champion of the Great Halls of Terr’akkas. The elves know him as Fi’ang Yalok. The dwarves know him as Zoenen Hoogstandjes. And he is also known in the Northeast as Gaismunēnas Meistar). That should tell you what you need to know.

The Gary Vee Audio Experience

I’ve tweeted and posted about Gary Vaynerchuk’s podcast before, and I’ll do it again. He’s relentlessly positive. He’s got good advice on marketing and branding. And he’s, at least for me, been enormously helpful in adjusting my perspective and mindset.

He’s loud, he’s boisterous, he curses. A lot. Get over it an listen.

The caveat here is that many of the episodes, which drop daily, are not “new content” in that his message is pretty consistent, so it’s not required to listen every day. But if you want a shot of adrenaline-laced positivity and energy on your way to work in the morning, give this a listen.

Acquisitions Incorporated: The C Team

A spin-off of the original Acquisitions Incorporated D&D podcast, the one that launched all of the others including Critical Role, it follows the exploits of one of the franchises based in Red Larch in the fictional land of Faerun of the Forgotten Realms.

This D&D game, run by Penny Arcade writer and CEO Jerry Holkins, is entirely theater of the mind, and doesn’t use maps or miniatures. The cast consists of Ryan Hartman (Donaar Blitzen). Amy T. Falcone (Walnut Dankgrass) (the “k” is silent), Kate Welch (Rosie Beestinger), and Kris Straub (K’thriss Drow’b).

This one is probably the most niche of them all, and the hardest to get into, as there are three seasons of content, and each episode is about 2 hours long, but if you’re willing to put in the time, you’ll get a great, epic, character-driven story arch with a lot of laughs along the way.

Team X

I would be remiss if I didn’t include my own podcast, the Team X game that we stream live on Sundays (new season starts on January 25th) at 4 pm on Twitch, and the podcast version of the show drops on Wednesdays.

Team X is actually an official franchise of Acquisitions Incorporated, as Jerry Holkins (see above) has recognized us in his own game, and sent the letters of incorporation to us when we started in 2018, dubbing us “Team Xenagogue”.

While our episodes are long (usually about 3 hours), we’re not as plot-driven so it’s easier to just jump into our game anywhere. We almost always devolve into hyjinks and delving into the food and drink of the realm. We have a lot of fun.

The cast is Christina “Cluus” Whitton (Drenmai Jemweaver), Yvan Martino (Thunuk Gentletrunk), Gideon Rhys (Hugon Vallander), and Ras (Eno). Please give us a follow (or better yet, subscribe!) to our Twitch channel, as it helps us do things like pay for our web conferencing and, hopefully one day, our website.