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This is the third and last installment looking at the SFF podcasts I've been following (or at least tasting) in concerted effort to get a broader view of what's going on these days in the field. I'm going through these more or less in the order they appear in in iTunes display, which means starting from the earliest ones I subscribed to and moving forward.

Midnight in Karachi

This is another of the podcasts that appears as part of tor.com, hosted by Pakistani book blogger Mahvesh Murad. I think this podcast got off to a bad start for me with several guests/topics in a row that simply left me cold. I'd estimate the show runs about 50% "standard A-list authors", though with a more international slant than typical and with the discussions on a more in-depth and literary level. I keep meaning to try some more episodes selected by topic, but somehow it never rises to the top of the priority list. In part, this is also a defect of my listening context. The MiK discussions don't have the same interruptible episodic internal structure as many of the SFF talk-show style podcasts, which makes it more difficult to get back on track when I'm listening in commute-sized chunks. Perhaps I should save them for long road trips.

Fangirl Happy Hour

This show tends to be toward the "positive squee-fest" end of the SFF talk-show style, with an emphasis on media (and there is a strong emphasis on other-than-book media) that simply makes the hosts gleefully happy. The hosts are Ana (of the Book Smugglers) and Renay (of Lady Business), so if you're a fan of either of those sites and aren't listening to this, what's wrong with you? There's a strong woman-centered focus in the covered material (not necessarily female characters, but material of particular interest to female consumers) and a definite feminist consciousness in the commentary. One of the things I like about this show is that it helps keep me culturally literate in various types of media that I don't personally consume (such as comics, anime, games) without making me feel like I'm not the target audience for the show. Fangirl Happy Hour is on my "absolutely must listen" list.

The Heroine’s Journey

I added this podcast due to a reference on another show (although, as usual, I've forgotten which show and what reference). As the title might indicate, the focus is on women in media: movies, games, tv, comics -- pretty much everything except books. In contrast to my comment about "aiding cultural literacy" with regard to Fangirl Happy Hour, the depth and nature of the coverage in this show feels aimed at in-group listeners. If I'm not already at least vaguely familiar with the topic (which generally means it's a movie), it's pretty much like eavesdropping on a group of serious fans geeking out about their fandom. Well, ok, and I think that's exactly what it's intended to be. No harm, no foul. It just makes it less interesting to me personally. I'll probably drop this one eventually and I've only listened to a few episodes.

The Way of the Buffalo

I'm trying this podcast out because -- as mentioned on another show -- they're doing some serialized audio fiction as well as the talk-show style episodes. At some point I'll need to do some manual tinkering in iTunes to set up a play-list of the fiction I want to check out because it's too awkward to try to listen to older material through the default feed. I have to say that the ordinary episodes aren't doing much for me, though. The biggest minus is the production values and a certain chaotic scatteredness of script. It kind of reminds me of improvising radio dramas with a portable tape recorder as a kid. I understand that most podcasts are, literally, amateur productions (in all senses of the word), but a bit more organization and less random giggling and obscure personal in-jokes would give the show broader appeal. Also, for all that the serialized audio-book that pulled me in is Sarah Diemer's The Dark Wife, the overall demographics of the material has the sort of oblivious dude-heavy feel of guys who haven't quite realized that they pay disproportionate attention to guys.

(If it might seem that I'm being hypocritical in admiring shows with strongly female focus, I'll point out that they have a conscious and deliberate female focus. Also: not a level playing field. If a podcast had as its organizing principle "examining models of masculinity in SFF" I'd have absolutely no problem with a dude-heavy schedule.)

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And speaking of Fangirl Happy Hour, they just posted a list of 81 podcasts recommended by their listeners that you might want to check out.

Future topics in my Wednesday Literary Community series will cover my favorite SFF bloggers and zines, and a plea for recommendations of online short fiction sites to add to my gym reading.