61 Frames Per Second

Watcha Listening to? A Life Well Wasted

Posted by Bob Mackey

If it seems that I’ll I’ve been doing lately is pimping out podcasts, I have no choice but to plead guilty. It’s just that after the 1UP/EGM/UGO hullaballoo, there’s been a lot of podcast-related news to talk about—which is perfect for people like me who can’t spend a waking moment of the day without their headholes plugged with earbuds. But I must point out that today’s bepimped podcast is notable for not featuring a bunch of dudes gathered around a microphone for 90 minutes—not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Former Ziff-Davis (and, presumably, current UGO) freelancer Robert Ashley’s new podcast, A Life Well Wasted, has already been compared multiple times to NPR’s This American life, but the comparison is so apt that I feel no shame in making it again. Rather than sticking with the traditional “guys in a room” model of video game podcast, A Life Well Wasted consists of a series of tightly-edited interviews interconnected with musical interludes and Ashley’s own sleepy narration. The first episode is about the closing of EGM, and if you’re thinking “I’ve heard so much about the death of that magazine that at times I feel I, myself, have been fired,” then you’re wrong. A Life Well Wasted’s presentation alone makes some of the retold stories all the more interesting—and most of the content was completely new to this podcast-addicted dude.

So go and check it out
. I’m definitely looking forward to future episodes, and hoping that some other podcasts get inspired to change up their format a little.

Related Links:

The 1UP Show is Dead, Long Live CO-OP

Dear 1UP: This Girl Loves You
1UP and the State of Games Journalism


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About Bob Mackey

For a brief period of time I was Bull from TV's Night Court, but some of you may know me from the humor column I wrote for Youngstown State University's The Jambar, Kent State University's The Stater, and Youngstown's alternative newspaper, The Walruss. I'm perhaps most well-known for my bi-weekly pieces on Something Awful. I've also blogged for Valley24.com and have written articles for EGM, 1UP, GameSpite and Cracked. For all of my writing over the years, I have made a total of twenty American dollars. It's also said that I draw cartoons, which people have described with words such as "legible." I kidnapped the Lindbergh Baby and am looking to do so again in the future.

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