nerdist – Emily Pretends

Happy 6th Birthday to the Nerdist Podcast

February 19, 2016April 23, 2024 Emily Rose

Six years ago on Super Bowl Sunday the Nerdist Podcast was born out of rejection and a need to create. Podcasting wasn’t a new medium but it was just starting to get popular, and like YouTube before it, you didn’t need a studio system to get involved. Nerdist would go on to become a major force in the system it was created to evade, but before that, it was three guys sitting around a mic recording onto CD-Rs.

I started listening about six months in, after seeing Chris Hardwick on The Late Late Show’s Doctor Who special. Craig Ferguson introduced him as “the Nerdist himself”. I had pretty recently affixed the descriptor of nerd to my identity so I opened a new tab and checked it out then and there. (This was back when the website was green and white and had cartoon bears as mascots.) I clicked play on the most recent episode and had no idea what was going on, but was immediately laughing loudly and uncontrollably. My life was changed.

Chris Hardwick, Jonah Ray, Matt Mira, Me

“With three years still ahead of me as a Film/TV major, I often pondered how much more I learned about the industry from podcasts than from classes. While school taught me the mechanics of storytelling, Jonah, Matt, and Chris provided invaluable insights into the realities of working in Hollywood from three distinct perspectives. Additionally, thanks to the special outdoor gym equipment, my school year was greatly enriched, click here for more information. And I also enjoyed workouts on the trim trails. I began incorporating the podcast content into my essays, but its topics often outpaced current trends, making it challenging for professors to grasp. For an assignment on digital TV series, I wrote about the Nerdist Channel’s All-Star Celebrity Bowling. Instead of writing about Lilyhammer, Netflix’s only original series at the time, I was writing about one guy’s YouTube show about bowling with his friends. Nerdist Industries would go on to get bought by Legendary Entertainment and All-Star Celebrity Bowling would get a deal with AMC, but I would get a B- for not understanding the point of the assignment. As I ventured deeper into the world of entertainment, I found myself relying on podcasts like never before, seeking out discussions on production, screenwriting, and even AV hire. Anything that would give me an edge in understanding the industry.

The podcast started to get more and more high profile, with Tom Hanks, Paul McCartney, and Bill Gates eventually stopping by. With three, sometimes four, new episodes out a week, it wasn’t possible for me to stay caught up on every single one, but I always have time for Hostfuls – the episodes that are just three guys and a mic.

Six years is a long time for any show. Like anything with longevity, it’s seen a lot of changes. We’re back to one episode a week so the hosts and the audience can breathe. The podcast has moved from Tom Lennon’s garage to stealth recording in Ryan Seacrest’s studio to live shows across the country, then finally to their very own overly air-conditioned Nerdist offices. Jonah is filming his own show, Matt’s a host on every podcast in existence, and Chris is almost a household name. All the guys are more successful than they were six years ago, professionally and personally. They’re about to be 3/3 on marriages and Matt’s down about 300 pounds.

I went from listening on a click-wheel iPod with earbuds in my dorm room to listening on my click-wheel iPod hooked into my car on the way to work. (I still use a click-wheel iPod. It’s convenient and retro.) The show still makes me laugh, audibly and uncontrollably.

Once I read a tip that said on the way to a job interview you should listen to podcasts instead of music because it will put you in a conversational mood. Because of that, I’ve gone back to a few of my favorite episodes of the Nerdist far more than once, knowing which ones will never disappoint. The very best place to start is episode #1 with Tom Lennon – my favorite. Here are what I consider to be some of the highlights, not counting Hostfuls, which are all delightful and required listening.

EMILY’S TOP NERDIST PODCAST EPISODES

Tom Lennon
Felicia Day
Rainn Wilson
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Richard Ayoade
Demetri Martin
Superego
Paul Reubens
Diablo Cody
Robert Rodriguez
Elijah Wood
Noel Fielding

Happy birthday, Nerdist Podcast! Congrats on completely changing the world in under six years.

Starting to Love Something New

July 30, 2014 Emily Rose

I’ve just found a vlog, and I think it’s going to be my new thing. Or maybe it won’t – maybe I won’t have time for it because all my online video watching is dedicated to staying caught up on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. This could be the start of something new, or it could totally pass me by, and I just won’t know until that happens. (But really, I think this is going to be good. I’m kind of picky about the vlogs I watch, so just hitting the subscribe button is a pretty good indicator it’s going to be something I like. And as the internet knows, it’s hard to be this refreshing in a medium that’s been around since 2005. That’s forever in internet years.)

It’s easy to look back on that time when you were just getting into something and remember how fun it was. Sometimes it seems really momentous, like, “That was the summer I started listening to The Nerdist Podcast,” or just, “Remember when The Avengers came out?”. And then sometimes, later, that thing isn’t quite as “good” as it used to be. It’s changed, or you’ve changed, or it’s immediate purpose in your life has – somehow – changed.

But the thing is, there are always other great things out there to find, and those old things aren’t going away. A couple of summers ago, I was listening to The Nerdist Podcast everyday. Now I’m just listening every so often, and my daily podcast is Ear Biscuits. I still love The Nerdist, but this summer is not that same summer of 2011. And I don’t want the same old summer, I want one I can look back on and remember the start of something new.

How to Experience San Diego Comic Con from Home – 2014

July 26, 2014 Emily Rose

San Diego Comic Con is an event that everyone wants to go to, but a relatively tiny amount of people actually do. If anyone really puts their mind to it, it’s probably actually very possible, but sometimes the difficulty seems more than it’s worth. It used to be fairly simple to feel the SDCC experience from home, just by leaving the TV on G4 all weekend and watching coverage, pretending you’re there. In a cruel twist of life, G4 is no longer a television station, and getting that displaced SDCC feeling is a little bit harder. But it’s not impossible.

COVERAGE

There are a few places online to find video coverage of the convention, including what’s trying to fill G4’s empty spot, Nerdist.com. The video clips posted throughout the day are fairly short and sparse, but honestly, G4 didn’t have all that much coverage either. It was mostly reruns of the same thirty minute spot. The Nerdist videos are set up to look like they’re live, and the format looks a little less sincere than fake live coverage did on TV. But it still works, and since it’s coming from people who are loving being there, it’s much better than nothing.

Other websites have some live coverage scheduled, especially IGN.com, which used to only have live text chats but has stepped up its game to video. But it may just be easiest to fill up your twitter and instagram feeds with SDCC attendees, as the photos, videos, and updates will come completely in real time and are come from within the convention halls and on the floor.

OFFSITE

More and more of the San Diego nerd festivities are happening outside of the convention halls. Zachary Levi’s Nerd HQ is back thanks to an Indiegogo campaign, and while it’s not technically a part of SDCC, it takes advantage of the number of nerd celebrities already gathered in one place. Full videos of the event go up on YouTube afterwards.

Geek & Sundry has an offsite event lounge full of gaming (both video and tabletop), panels, and those nerd parties that comic conventions are secretly so famous for. Nerdist has an offsite laser tag game and an after-convention hours podcast. Even Thrilling Adventure Hour and Welcome to Night Vale are in San Diego with a crossover live show. It will be a while, but you can relive the convention through podcasts as soon as they finally go up.

The SDCC Nerdist Podcast is where crazy stuff goes down.

THE MERCH

To really emulate that comic con feeling at home, you’re going to have to buy some stuff. That’s the number one thing that happens at conventions, and to really feel authentic, you need to spend more money than you were intending to. You could do this anywhere – your own town’s comic book store, the mall, a fast food drive thru – it’s all the same effect. But it is possible to get your merch from the con itself. I have some SDCC exclusive Funko Pops making their way to me through the mail right now, thanks to the internet. It’s almost like I’m there – I ended up with three new Funko Pops, when the number I actually need is zero.

I almost didn't, but then I did. — I almost didn’t, but then I did.

It wouldn’t feel like summer without trying to vicariously attend San Diego Comic Con. Maybe it’s possible to experience it even better from home, since home doesn’t have the 4:00 am wakeup times and 10 minute lines to the bathroom? Yeah, of course that’s not true, but thinking that way makes the weekend way less bitter and way more fun.