Podcasts - Lather Talk and The Shaving Tulsan

Glad to hear you gave us another shot. Hope we can continue to pop out good content for you (and everyone else) to enjoy.

Glad to hear you gave us another shot. Hope we can continue to pop out good content for you (and everyone else) to enjoy.

Hi Gerard, I'm glad I did too.  I guess I can be a grumpy curmudgeon with the best of them sometimes, sorry about that.  I think its great that you guys are doing the podcast and bringing on some interesting guests from the wet shaving world - Thank you.
Mark

I was able to listen to the first three episodes of Lather Talk.  First, kudos to Jon and Gerard for taking on the project.  Secondly, I found the content to be very good.  I didn't agree with everything said but the topics were relevant for today's community.  There were some things I believe were missed (for example, how can Mystic Water and Shannon's Soaps not even warrant a mention   ) but, overall I thought the first few episodes were done well.  I'm sure I'll be able to catch up to current episodes in no time.  Thanks Jon/Gerard...you guys made my drive this afternoon much more enjoyable 

I was able to listen to the first three episodes of Lather Talk.  First, kudos to Jon and Gerard for taking on the project.  Secondly, I found the content to be very good.  I didn't agree with everything said but the topics were relevant for today's community.  There were some things I believe were missed (for example, how can Mystic Water and Shannon's Soaps not even warrant a mention   ) but, overall I thought the first few episodes were done well.  I'm sure I'll be able to catch up to current episodes in no time.  Thanks Jon/Gerard...you guys made my drive this afternoon much more enjoyable 

Podcasts and driving go together very well 

Honestly there's just SO many artisans out there it's hard to keep up. We're not excluding anyone or not giving a shout out, and though I've heard of Mystic Water and Shannon's, I don't have any of their products (yet!) 

I try to pick up stuff as often as I can, but I'm a hobbyist like any of you are. I'm sure I can give thoughts on someone, but I've said it on the podcast......for the most part pretty much all artisans are releasing excellent products nowadays. It's a good time to be into shaving, probably the best time ever because of all the products out there. 

Thanks for listening. Always open on thoughts, takes, or suggestions on guests in the future.

We're trying to do the hobby well. Even if it doesn't come off that way sometimes, I can say that a victory for a soapmaker is a victory for wetshaving. If an artisan closes up shop, then that's bad for the market, because I believe that more options is ultimately good for the consumer. 

Though now, I think it's going to affect the hobby significantly with everything else that's going on. 

But we'll continue to try to shine the spotlight on the hobby. 

I mean....what else do we have going on? 

I was able to listen to the first three episodes of Lather Talk.  First, kudos to Jon and Gerard for taking on the project.  Secondly, I found the content to be very good.  I didn't agree with everything said but the topics were relevant for today's community.  There were some things I believe were missed (for example, how can Mystic Water and Shannon's Soaps not even warrant a mention   ) but, overall I thought the first few episodes were done well.  I'm sure I'll be able to catch up to current episodes in no time.  Thanks Jon/Gerard...you guys made my drive this afternoon much more enjoyable 

Podcasts and driving go together very well 

Absolutely!  Especially when you're driving for a good 3 or 4 hours.  As much as I love music in the car, it's nice to have podcasts as an option.  Long drives seem to go faster when you can bury yourself in a story.  Or, like yesterday, spend a good amount of time listening to a couple chaps discuss one of your favorite interests.  BTW, I'll be checking out a few of the other podcasts you mentioned (unfortunately, the Shaving Tulsan is not on the Stitcher app).  I'm always on the lookout for good podcasts as I spend a good amount of time in the car. 

Have you listened to the Razor Burn podcast yet?  I was able to listen to the 1st episode of it yesterday as well.  It's certainly a different take as compared to Lather Talk but the content was really very good.  Although, as a warning, the language did get a little salty at times.  And again, they missed some key elements.  For example, how does PAA not even warrant a mention in the tallow vs vegan debate????  It seems like it is their mission to prove vegan can be just as good as tallow.

We're trying to do the hobby well. Even if it doesn't come off that way sometimes, I can say that a victory for a soapmaker is a victory for wetshaving. If an artisan closes up shop, then that's bad for the market, because I believe that more options is ultimately good for the consumer. 

Though now, I think it's going to affect the hobby significantly with everything else that's going on. 

But we'll continue to try to shine the spotlight on the hobby. 

I mean....what else do we have going on? 

Based on the first few episodes, I would say you're definitely doing the hobby/community well!  Again, I may not agree with everything, but that is a part of what makes the community and your show enjoyable.  I'm a believer that there are very few "Right" and "Wrongs" in wet-shaving.  What really matters is what works well for the individual.  As long as the differences are presented or discussed with that concept in mind, I feel the community can thrive. 

BTW, I haven't listened to the Flipping episode yet (I like to listen to podcasts in order, so I will get to it in the next week or so) and I'm assuming that is the episode that is a bit more controversial.  Even though it is difficult to take on a controversial subject, it can certainly be done.

You mention the soapmakers that may need to close up shop.  This is an interesting topic as I have wondered in the past, with the amount of new soapmakers coming into the community and the new formulations that some existing soapmakers are coming up with...how does that fare for well-established artisans?  There are artisans who have been making great soaps for years with no or minimal changes to their formulations (quite honestly, in many cases, there's no need to make a change because the soap is already top-tier).  But as the hype builds on social media for the new artisan or formulation, fewer purchases are being made of the established artisan resulting in fewer sales and, possibly, the realization that it's time to close shop.

HoosierShave  no I haven't listened to Razor Burn yet but I will soon.  As I generally listened to podcasts when I'm diving and I'm not driving as much at the moment I have to make other time available - no more 70s rock tunes during my basement workout I guess.  It will be all podcasts all the time. 

I think we started getting into listening to this kind of spoken word thing early on when our kids were young and we'd go on summer holidays with 10 hour drives - we got all kinds of kids' CDs and also discovered audible books on CD as well.  I have very fond memories of listening to the Lemony Snicket The Hostile Hospital narrated by Tim Curry (yes, Rocky Horror Picture Show Tim Curry). It was a blast.

 Podcasts and audible books have come a long way and some of the long format discussion podcasts out there are excellent.  I've listened to multi-episode Hardcore History podcasts totalling 15-20 hours in length on a single topic.  Wrath of The Kahns which is about Genghis Kahn and his children and grandchildren is excellent.  Obviously its not a one sitting experience. Whats become apparent is that there is an appetite for this kind of thing and that people are generally a lot more intelligent than TV networks ever gave us credit for.  Topics can range really on virtually anything and can be discussed at length without having to fit into a 30/60 minute time slot and it doesn't matter what sponsors might consider appropriate or not, so long as the podcaster can raise enough money, usually from listeners but increasingly from sponsors of their own, they can talk about anything.  I mentioned above, (I think) about this whole "intellectual dark web" where academics and intellectuals discuss at length many of the issues plaguing our societies today - nobody can shout them down with a chorus of how dare yous.  The revelation is that there are a lot of ordinary people out there, maybe driving truck or whatever who are listening to this material, engaging in it and comprehending it - guess what?  They're not operating at the mental development level of 10 year olds or whatever it is that network types seem to think is appropriate for broadcasting.  Network broadcasts are ridiculously expensive so the execs won't take risks with their shareholders' money - go with the safe stuff that seems to work despite rotting brains.

Its also great for niche interests like wet shaving because no network is ever going to broadcast content on wet shaving so guys like Jon and Gerard can fill the niche with Lather Talk.  I recommend that you not only listen to Lather Talk and other podcasts you might enjoy but subscribe to them because listeners is how they succeed and maybe even earn a return on their investment of time and money.