Everyone and their mother has a podcast now. We don't yet, but hell, I'm down to start one with my Mother. If only she'd return my calls.

Here are a few of our favorite podcasts that got us through 2024, and hopefully will see us through 2025, if the entire world doesn't burn down first. In absolutely no order of priority or favoritism, here's what we listened to regularly. I should add that some of these we have listened to for over 10 years, others we started during Covid lockdown, and some even more recently than that. This is going to be part one of at least two, maybe more blog posts ("Yay!" says no one).

First up is Ryan Singer, and his podcast Me and Paranormal You. Ryan's podcast covers every topic in the world of the paranormal, the weird, and more. A couple of standout episodes I'd recommend are his encounter with a sasquatch, and this episode with guest Shane Mauss, where Ryan tried DMT and records the experience then discusses it immediately after. It's fascinating, and Ryan has a way of speaking that is instantly compelling. We have designed several different pieces for Ryan*, who is a veteran stand-up comedian as well as paranormal researcher (dude also has ultimate narration voice, so if you need a voiceover, get in touch with him).

Next - and yes, there is a definite theme here - is Bigfoot Collectors Club. I started listening to BCC just before we went into lockdown, so I was lucky enough to have a backlog of episodes to listen to. The BCC boys cover a huge range of topics, and have guests from all walks of life (usually fellow actors, podcasters, or researchers). BCC is very akin to just hanging out with your friends and shooting the shit. I love it. Also, if you take the three original members, and stack them one on top of the other, you would have a human tower almost 20 feet high. Producer Reilly is also an incredible musician, and if you subscribe to BCC on Patreon, he releases each episode's soundtrack there plus additional material he's recorded, which makes the price worth it alone - there's also a ton of Patreon-only podcasts.

We've already talked about this one here. The Angry Designer is a weekly podcast, hosted by Massimo Zefferino and Shawn Carlisle. Zefferino is the founder of Zfactor, an agency based in Waterloo, Canada. The podcast offers some nice insights and views into the world of a designer, and how the challenges of the designer might be met, along with some interesting interviews and retrospectives. Definitely worth a listen. There's also a YouTube channel which has unique content, if you want to see their faces.

Getting back to the paranormal, next is Monsters Among Us, a podcast by Derek Hayes. Each week, Derek curates a collection of calls from listeners who call or write in to recount their own paranormal experience. I believe I started listening to this around the same time as BCC - sometime near pre-Covid lockdown. Derek has a huge backlog of episodes - even if you don't subscribe to his Patreon (which you should), there's a ton of regular episodes to catch up on.

* (including this one which was never used, and subsequently never finished but damn, I really wish it had been. Maybe I'll go back and finish it sometime this year).