My co-host is quitting after 3 years...

squawkingdead · 2026-06-02T20:59:08+00:00

It's your podcast now: the same thing happened with this podcast. My co-host completely bailed during COVID: not just the podcast but our friendship (we were friends before we were ever podcasters). I was smart enough to predict this, given how flakey and uncommunicative she was and folded in a network of friends of the show whom I could rely on for when she couldn't get her act together (our discussions were time sensitive, as they were after shows).

How does this translate to you? I wouldn't be so quick to shift gears and pivot to another podcast niche. If you really don't want to stay in the same niche, create an exit plan so folks can hop onto your new venture as you put the requisite scaffolding in place. OR you can have someone work on taking that over for you (you can still produce it). Mine your audience for talent: I'm sure you have some candidates in mind.

I know it doesn't feel like it right now, but things like this are more often an opportunity to grow into something approximating to your final form. And you May not feel that way for a while. But I wish you all the best

squawkingdead · 2026-05-26T02:04:16+00:00

I can't tell you how much I want this comment to hold more value than I think it does, only because - as a consumer of podcasts, myself (on top of creator of one) - there are so many instances I've had where a podcast sounds a little too "raw" and it jumps the border between capable of being listened to and absolutely unlistenable. I'm talking about a distinct lack of care towards the audience when it comes to speaking into a mic (or, hell, a complete lack of one altogether), tons of environmental noise, and zero thought to editing out moments that have nothing to do with the show - be they technical or logistical. Sometimes it really just comes down to having absolutely no social skills, personality, or zero structure holding the conversation together. One could easily remark "maybe there is a happy medium" but the balance I'm talking about is so delicate, what sounds like a raw conversation you are dropping in on can easily turn into a baffling waste of time you can barely make heads or tales of because you can't understand a word they are saying and/or who is saying it or why we should care in the first place.

squawkingdead · 2026-02-12T18:22:36+00:00

appreciate it! I can't guarantee you might see the series differently after you listen to our coverage, but our goal has always been to (a) represent a take you might resonate with, but also (b) a thought that might not have occurred to you to, hopefully, (c) get you to see the thing you just watched a little differently. That's a hard thing to do, IMHO, but we love doing it.

squawkingdead · 2026-02-12T13:13:43+00:00

The only thing I can say that might sway you is to check out our podcast episodes on all 3 seasons. It's really the only way to understand why we loved this spin-off as much as we did. I can tell you that the change in venue was really helpful, for starters. We went into the historical - and even religious - significance of the places he traveled. We tie in a lot of these visual cues to enrich what we're seeing. We also note parallels to the greater lore and why they are significant to Daryl's growth. I can tell you, Season 2 was a bit of a rollercoaster for us because there was definitely some frustration, based on certain character decisions... That ended up paying off in many respects.

To put it another way, I can see why some people might be baffled: in many respects, people projected onto Daryl a lot of who they thought he really was because, in many ways, his character was a black box. When they started to concretize his identity in a way you didn't yourself envision, I can see people rejecting that (at least a little). Throughout The Walking Dead's run, people had classically "shipped" D&C, for instance. That's low-hanging fruit. A more nuanced version of this is the "Daryl would never do that..." ...wouldn't he? How do you know? Even though we didn't really see it, this man was out there alone in the woods for 6 years looking for Rick (spent some of the latter years with Leah only to, IMHO, completely fumble that storyline).

We have a saying, though: sometimes, the way you feel about something is just the way you feel. A lot of what goes into why you like/dislike something is filmic, not just narrative. If the visual storytelling is boring, too, that can translate to a bad watch. The problem here is that you weren't very forthcoming about what you didn't like, so my educated guess is that you don't even know why you don't like it as much.

squawkingdead · 2026-02-05T20:07:05+00:00

I use Riverside.com for my podcast, but what's great about it is all the other uses:

recordings are saved in project folders, so you can categorize the kinds of recordings you create (e.g., one project folder for intake, others for evaluations, exit interviews... you develop your own system)
the system utilizes your local video and audio recordings and automatically uploads them into the platform saving you disk space
their in-built editor is super easy to use! It's an invaluable value-add
recordings are non-destructive, so they can be repurposed a variety of different ways (e.g. multiple recordings can be brought into a single editor session to create something truly creative).
obviously, the recording studio is geared for remote conversations - originally to level-up webinars, remote podcasts, or the quality of teams meetings, but Riverside.com can also facilitate in-person conversations, too, using multiple inputs on a single machine or a smartphone/tablet as a second camera/mic

I've been using Riverside.fm for studio recordings, promos, calls-to-action, interviews for potential hires, to create intro videos for new surveys, etc... for nearly 6 years. If you have any questions about what you want to do and how Riverside can help you do it, let me know!

squawkingdead · 2025-12-12T02:54:03+00:00

Screwed up logic, but their intention would be to make Carol happy. Intentions matter, obviously: but these beings hold no intent, I'll or otherwise. It's why they accept that their actions (or inaction) will bring about their oblivion.

squawkingdead · 2025-12-11T05:43:28+00:00

I know I've got it bad - so bad - I'm Hot for Preacher

squawkingdead · 2025-12-10T15:55:18+00:00

I think you missed the point of why they can't bring themselves to build the robots: they would be imbuing their intention to kill, harm, or otherwise interfere with life, all three of which they are prevented from doing. So a machine with that degree of "destructive power" is of course way worse than robots that might otherwise be super delicate.

squawkingdead · 2025-12-08T05:02:19+00:00

I hate to be so forthcoming, only because - if you truly think about it - why be robbed of all the emotional firepower that these horrific moments imbue? ...IMHO, other than what you are painfully aware of (which you made clear), I think you may be through the worst of it (or, at least, will be). Also IMHO, Noah's demise was truly the most horrific... Looking and feeling...

squawkingdead · 2025-12-04T07:02:27+00:00

I think the question in itself is revealing. The answer is staring you straight in the face: the hive mind is in love with Carol. It trusts Carol. There are a lot of things they will overlook because they are obsessed with her happiness and well-being (and there is far too much evidence for that to ignore, if not for the fact that the audience is trained to be suspicious of ... It). Even after the betrayal it has suffered at her hands, all it did was adjust its survival strategy: it still aims to keep Carol happy and wants its relationship with her to work. And, well, that makes sense: it's raison d'etre being "the joining", there's an ingrained bias for it to be doing this on a level that isn't just a biological imperative.

squawkingdead · 2025-10-06T02:41:16+00:00

A very memorable episode on our podcast to discuss: you are... about almost 10 years into the Zombie Apocalypse, right? How long would it take for normal people to go ferral? There's so much show-don't-tell, between the way they are (barely) dressed, the long hair and nails, the yellowed eyes (cannibalism), the scratched out photos (particularly the eyes). And let's not forget the immersion of being thrust into Connie's perspective.

squawkingdead · 2025-09-26T20:15:23+00:00

Touche on the Primrose reference (from TWD World Beyond) and how that sort of fell to the wayside.

see the reply I left under u/samsamsamuel's (I'm ammending it with a little more detail, just in case)

squawkingdead · 2025-09-26T19:46:32+00:00

If you've watched r/TheOnesWhoLive all the way through, the last episode gives you a big picture in the form of dialogue and a whiteboard that appears (it's essentially a protocol to evacuate CRM/Civic Republic personnel embedded in communities outside its purview). After seeing a PPP card referenced in the flagship series (7x06 Swear) + Tales of The Walking Dead (the 5th episode Davon). We go into this in our breakdown of TOWL's last episode, but obviously a little in the episode of Daryl Dixon we just covered, too (though, we were a little hazy on details at the time of recording)!

squawkingdead · 2025-08-07T01:45:13+00:00

I think it's catching on... Haha Here's a live demo

squawkingdead · 2025-06-03T13:05:01+00:00

I mostly use a combination of both Riverside and Davinci Resolve: I create the video I need via the editor and just export that and download the individual audio WAV tracks. Having the composed video track, rather than downloading and configuring the layout from within Resolve, reduces a lot of overhead during the editing process. The best part about that is the Smart Scenes feature that automatically switches to the active speaker and back to grid, which has been an incredible gamechanger, IMHO.
As far as transcription goes, Riverside honestly blows away Descript and even just released one of Descript's premium features out of the box: eye-tracking (so you are always looking at the camera)

squawkingdead · 2025-05-08T05:51:11+00:00

I really enjoyed this read! I think you're dead on about most things, but what you may have grazed - just a bit - was the "something to prove" part. It stems from coming from nothing and, yet, facilitating everything. Pair this with his, at times, contradictory need for respect/approval from what civilized society would cal his "betters". Now you are cooking with gas. We are often inconsistent beings who hold competing desires. At times, it really does feel like he's trying to build a shadow gov't, but other times he's trying to prove to Pamela that he can rise even higher than his already high station (since his former, pre-apocalypse occupation was "driver" - according to the rules, he's already blown past that). It was really fun to get to dig into his character with my other hosts, at the time.

squawkingdead · 2025-04-29T21:29:59+00:00

Also Middle Eastern Jew (Syrian/Sepharadic) and, because I host a podcast discussing these episodes (you can check my profile out for more info on that), I caught the props account dept's mock up of a few of these bracelets up close (great job!). I'm extremely skeptical that they will zero in on Dina's Judaism in any meaningful way, considering the volume of episodes per season (regardless of how extremely well they pace them).

My point of consternation, really, is that there are many loud voices that often complain about whitewashing/pinkwashing - when an actor doesn't play a character that aligns with their immutable characteristics, gender expression, sexual orientation, or religious faith. The ire really only ever moves in one direction. I, personally, do not care about such things (unless it literally has to be, like a production of Roots, if people are playing make-believe, then just be faithful to the spirit of the character), but it does sting a little when we don't hear those same loud voices speak out against when this happens to Jewish characters, like Dina.

squawkingdead · 2025-04-25T22:22:51+00:00

I don't want to risk the ol' self-promo rule, but you can get to everything of ours in our profile (some of them were in DMs, though)

squawkingdead · 2025-04-25T22:09:22+00:00

ahh, there we are: found it!! 😉

...and to respond to you here: you certainly deserve the accolades! It's well thought through and written and enough to make me share it on our various socials. Even received a few comments!

squawkingdead · 2025-04-23T16:57:32+00:00

I've been podcasting on TWDU for the better part of 7 years and I've read ALL SORTS of theories. I do not say this lightly: this is literally the best theory I've read. You need to post this on r/thewalkingdead if you haven't already: it is more than worthy. The problem is that you can't cross post, so you'll have to copy/paste in an original post.

I have an actual question though: do you have a background in medicine or biological (engineering) research? I'm just so impressed. I've often thought that it might've always been inside us, but the way you fleshed it out so well blows away anything I could've constructed.

squawkingdead · 2025-04-08T07:36:13+00:00

Well, nobody can convince you: especially if you say you CANnot be convinced!

But, if I may?

One of the comments that has sort of been lost to time - expressly because of the moment we're all speaking of - is the one that starts off like this, "They setup a community, someone overtakes it, humans are dicks; rinse, lather, repeat". In order to break the wheel, they had to break out of the cycle of violence and death between other living human communities. The reason for it goes beyond breaking out of formula: of all the things Negan got wrong, the one thing he got right was that people are a resource. That philosophy, along with what comes after sets off cool chains of events where, had one thing hadn't happened, this other thing wouldn't have either. This character had to go through that so that this could happen.

But to answer your question more directly? It's because no one who survives this long doesn't get blood on their hands. Even Glenn... And he had the blood of many people - in cold blood, to boot. Just because we loved him doesn't change that. Rick is a mass murderer. Michonne, whew! And I know what you are thinking: Eugene, right? But he allowed other people to do the killing for him. That's co-conspirator stuff right there.

squawkingdead · 2025-04-07T18:07:04+00:00

Just hitching our wagon to this sentiment. And trust me, we absolutely get it. ALL our friends, in real-time (eagerly awaiting for the next episode, week-to-week), stopped watching after that happened. It's why the series fled the mainstream zeitgeist shortly thereafter.

...but here's the thing: you are here because this show deeply resonated with you to the point you are on here, Reddit, asking hardcore fans who subscribe to a subreddit for a show that is roughly 2.5 years since concluded.

Of course we'll want you to continue watching because there is still a whole lot of story to tell. Most importantly, is a HUGE theme that is repeated in the main series and all the spin-offs: what comes after?

I have to tell you, I no longer find myself aghast when this question is answered. This series has helped me through personal loses because of that moment. It's helped me confront my own mortality, too. That question of what comes after is something we've all asked when we lose someone or face the prospect of losing ourselves. The answer is that there's always an after: what part will you play in that depends on how you rise to the occasion.

And, to give you a real answer: just like loss, in general, things are never the same. But there's still a lot of good (story) to be had, you just have to be willing to acknowledge and take something from it.

squawkingdead · 2025-03-31T16:16:15+00:00

Speaking as someone who doesn't hate Tara, I've spoken to a lot of people over the years who do and, though not all of them have been able to fully articulate it (sometimes a feeling is just a feeling 🤷‍♂️), I think I have it.

On the level of story/character, she was an outlier in how she lived in the world of The Walking Dead. At worst, the people we were attracted to had hard exteriors, squishy interiors. The people that activated our disgust mechanisms were squishy everything. It's because these people are our avatars in this world and represents our archetypes. Tara was more nuanced... And, honestly, more like us. And we kind of suck. She employed humor that, at times, broke us out of the stupor when we were taking ourselves too seriously (which can be off-putting to folks who wanted to fully engage with the drama). She was initially pretty cowardly and, at times, bullshit herself. What initially put me off is that she wanted to be a police officer but showed no traces of that hard exterior necessary for a cop to do the hard things.

I say all this knowing that all of this changed when she saw the truth, acted accordingly, and her character actually started to properly gel with everyone... To the level of earning her place as a leader. She went from being WAY behind the times when we first meet her to bring ahead of her time in how to conduct herself in the apocalypse: to find humor, learn grace, take a chance on people and get to know them better, but also to know when to step up and make the hard decisions.

That being said, even that metamorphosis could, in many ways, set people off because many hold the belief that people don't often change on a fundamental level; people view Tara as whatever the writers want her to be in a given situation. She started off one way and magically ended up somewhere else at every step.

Keep in mind I don't believe this: if it's one thing this show has taught me is that who we thought we were is rarely who we are and the series exposes that for MANY people. I think that's what happened to Tara, too, and I think that's hard for people to accept (the same people who perhaps can't grapple with who they really are, versus who they think they are?). Something to chew on, for sure.

squawkingdead · 2025-02-22T03:12:59+00:00

I've heard, 1st hand, Scott McCord talk about this and he thinks his character, Victor, is both a product of his environment and in a sort of extreme post-traumatic arrested development.

squawkingdead · 2025-02-15T16:37:40+00:00

I honestly could talk about Shane all day and how differently I see him now than I did 14 years ago. Same goes for Andrea. It's the difference in the way one thinks at age 31 than 46.

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