New podcast: Beer and Bullshit

Warning: This post is 100% shameless self promotion and even features a solicitation for advertisers. I’m sorry.

About a month ago, it came to my attention that I might actually be the only remaining asshole in the country without his own podcast.

And so, in an effort to prevent my membership in the Self-Important Internet Asshole Association (SIIAA) from lapsing, in mid-July I launched the Beer and Bullshit podcast. In accordance with SIIAA policy (we have amazing meetings in trendy new cafes you’ve never heard of), I am now also obligated to shamelessly promote my podcast on all of my various social media channels and my pandemic-dormant blog.

As noted, the show is called Beer and Bullshit and it will feature a healthy dose of both. If you’ve come to know me from this blog, you obviously know that I am a beer writer and so I will most definitely be taking the conversation that has typically lived on this space to the audio medium to expand on those topics with the people I’ve come to know writing about the beer industry in Ontario for almost a decade. I’ve recorded a handful of shows already and these conversations include a chat with returning co-founder and CEO of Steam Whistle Brewery, Greg Taylor, and an in-depth conversation about contract brewing with Lost Craft Brewing Company owner, Shehan De Silva. I’ve also already recorded a chat with two small brewery-owners that will basically frighten anyone who listens out of any aspirations they might have to become small brewery-owners. Stay tuned!

In a transparent attempt to make sourcing interview subjects more manageable, every other week I will forgo interviews altogether and just briefly review beer news with my good friend, Chris. Chris and I have been friends for more than three decades and after a long period living in different cities during and after university, we are now both back living in London raising our families and living roughly three blocks apart. As one of my oldest friends, he and I obviously have a pretty natural conversation style that will hopefully translate to talking over beers in podcast format but it might also just mean the show is filled with in-jokes and stupid asides that will alienate and confuse listeners and ultimately ruin our friendship. Stay tuned!

I also plan to (spoiler alert) pepper the show with interviews with personalities from the Canadian comedy community. When I lived in Toronto I was a little bit involved with Second City and have retained many of the relationships I made there. While I am no longer funny, many of these folks still are and so you can occasionally expect what amounts to an improvised interview vaguely associated with beer. While none have aired yet, I’ve recorded a few of these already and they are definitely…interesting. I laughed a lot, at least.

So, for those of you keeping score at home, I’ve launched a podcast that seems like it will attempt three different formats. A cursory glance at my own podcast subscriptions would probably suggest that I am being “influenced” by the interview format popularized by shows like WTF and Armchair Expert while also “borrowing” the character-based humour of Comedy Bang! Bang! and “paying homage” to the conversational style of The Jeselnik and Rosenthal Vanity Project — all while trying to wedge in my area of “expertise;” beer. But it’s probably for the best if we don’t dig too deep into my sources for “inspiration….”

Will it all coalesce into a coherent podcast concept that seamlessly blends beer, comedy, and interesting conversations? Or will end up a disjointed, derivative, and messy vanity project? Stay tuned!

No, but seriously, please stay tuned.

You can already check out the first three episode virtually everywhere people get their podcasts, include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, Pocket Casts, Podcast Addict, and Podcast Donkey. A handful of kind souls have already subscribed and if the pioneering reviewers on Apple Podcasts are to be believed, it seems like people like what they are hearing. So, thank you!

I’d also love to hear directly from you if you have feedback, suggestions, or ideas for shows and so the Beer and Bullshit website has a handy contact form (It also has a weird live chat feature that I built in just for fun but so far no one has used it. It actually pings my phone when I get a query so if you’re lonely feel free to get weird with me on the live chat).

Shameless plug alert: I am also currently seeking advertisers for the show to help pay for the meagre hosting costs and Chris’ crippling drug addiction so if you are interested in promoting your company, brand, or product on the show, you can hit me up here.

New episodes will drop every Wednesday so subscribe now and you won’t miss anything. Please.