What I Drove to this Week

This is a potentially recurring idea to highlight some of my favorite things I am listening to in the car (which is usually podcasts by the way) when I’m not yapping for Sunday Driving. To start, I want to highlight the two podcasts I listen to as soon as I can every time they come out. Both are second iterations of essentially the same podcast, the first being The Regulation Podcast. This was known as the F*ckface Podcast for about 200 weekly episodes from 2020-2024; then the parent company of the podcast, Rooster Teeth, shutdown, so they went independent and had to rebrand to The Regulation Podcast (although they got the RSS feed of the past podcast, the rights to some of the old merch, and access to all the YouTube and social accounts) which is probably better for advertising purposes. They have video game and real life supplemental content that I sometimes watch, but their weekly podcast is a must listen for me. They are very funny guys, two of which I have consumed content they’ve made for 10+ years, and each episode brings a new hilarious string of chaos. That being said, it is somewhat of a niche corner of the internet (as they call it) so it isn’t a podcast I would recommend to just anyone, but is my personal favorite at the moment. The other must listen is a twice a week podcast called Numbers on the Board, formerly Through the Wire, and it is a basketball podcast under the ESPN umbrella. They renamed a year and a half ago when they left Bleacher Report to join ESPN. Similar to Regulation, I found them through other works by a member of the podcast. Kenny Beachem is one of the hosts and I have watched his NBA Youtube content for probably 8 years now, and started watching TTW/NOTB a couple years after that. They are under the ESPN bubble, but also are part of Kenny’s basketball brand called Enjoy Basketball, and that is the perfect way to describe why I enjoy the pod. It is 4 guys who genuinely love the game of basketball and it is such a breath of fresh air not to have it be full of clickbait debates or people hating on players, but is instead praising success and the beauty of the game. They consistently post the podcast twice a week year round, so even deep into the off season they stay creative in making enjoyable podcasts, and have really stepped up their game on Tik Tok and Youtube to supplement the audience the rest of the week. NOTB and The Regulation Podcast are my two favorite podcasts at the moment, but I have a whole slew of podcasts I really enjoy.

Before getting to those, let me touch on my music taste. I have a music taste that I am very aware is unique and not an ideal taste for most. This is a big reason I have two main playlists, one for myself and one literally called “playlist for others” so if I have aux for a big group of people I have what I would call safe music and I don’t embarrass myself. On my personal playlist, I have two main groups of songs. The first is top chart pop style songs. Even if the song isn’t one that necessarily was actually a top hit, they all follow the similar formula of “catchy and easy to memorize chorus, upbeat and perky beat, rarely longer than 2 minutes” all of which is especially important in the Tik Tok era of top charts. This portion of the playlist includes songs like “Temperature” by Sean Paul, “Smokin Out The Window” by Bruno Mars and Anderson Paak, or “Fire Burning” by Sean Kingston. A lot of people don’t enjoy this style of music because it is repeated over and over in so many places, but I find a lot of comfort in knowing the song and being able to sing and vibe along with it. The other side of my playlist is showtunes. I was a theater kid in high school, and despite never being able to sing (including to this day) I love belting out musical songs when I am alone in the car more than almost anything else in the world. This is just about the only genre of music I actively look for new songs in, and I am always finding new songs with impressive vocals I convince myself I can sing, despite knowing I am absolutely butchering it. I will almost always listen to a podcast over music when I am in the car on my own, but sometimes I am in a music/singing mood (or I have a passenger in the car) and have to switch over from Apple Podcasts to Spotify (no I do not know why I don’t just listen to all my podcasts on Spotify). 

That’s enough music talk though, if I am writing a “What I Drove to this Week” blog, then I need to focus on podcasts as they are about 85% of what I am listening to. Outside of the two podcasts I already wrote about, I have 6 others that are in my fairly regular listening rotation. For one reason or another they aren’t as much of a “I need to listen to this ASAP” as Regulation or NOTB, but they are still podcasts I almost never miss an episode of. Two are related to my previously mentioned podcasts, as they are passion projects by a member of those pods. The first is So…Alright, which is Geoff Ramsey’s side project outside of Regulation. He goes into each episode with a general idea of what he wants to talk about, but he allows his brain to go on branches, and it is what I would say is the main inspiration for the style of Sunday Driving. Small Ball by Kenny Beachem is the other passion project. He decided a twice a week basketball podcast with NOTB and near daily basketball content on YT was not enough for him, so he added another to his slate and I enjoy it just as much. Another pod that is close to a must listen is the Underwater FlyZone podcast, and the only reason it isn’t always is that I enjoy watching it on Youtube instead of just listening, and most of my podcast listening happens in the car, but I consume nearly every episode one way or another. The last basketball podcast I listen to is Mind the Game with Lebron James and Steve Nash (formerly JJ Redick before he got a coaching job) and is a great insight into the behind the scenes of the NBA. I also listen to The Basement Yard, which has a rapidly growing fanbase due to Tik Tok, and has even expanded to doing live shows across the country. Lastly, I listen to Tales from the Stinky Dragon, which is a Dungeons and Dragons podcast. This one I have to be in a certain mood for (as DnD is a very focus needed podcast theme) but I love the people in the show and try and catch up if I get behind (luckily they post every two weeks so I can catch up fast). 

I will end this by asking for recommendations for music but especially podcasts anyone reading this far listens to. I love finding new podcasts and in the normal ebb and flow of media consumption I want to have some to fill the spots of ones I drop off listening to. 

Sincerely,

Just a guy talking to himself