Reply All: #189 Goodbye All

June 23, 2022 1:45 PM

One last thing before we go.

Episode page on Gimlet

This episode brought to you by the number seven, which tastes like the color yellow, which is the same as the smell of sending a risky text to your crush, which sounds kind of like finding out your great grandfather was a pirate who murdered a prince and blames it on another prince, which disrupted a long-standing alliance between two nations, sending the price of cotton candy through the roof ...

posted by jazon (9 comments total)

After regularly listening to him for ~10 years, I'll certainly miss Alex.
posted by MrJM at 1:52 PM on June 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

Honestly, Alex's Cryptkeeper idea sounds like a skit from Robot Chicken, except, they appear to have already done them. Like, a lot of them. Do we tell him, or let him keep living the dream?
posted by pwnguin at 8:17 PM on June 24, 2022

I thought the Cryptkeeper pitch sounded like “Bojack Horseman”.
posted by chrchr at 10:27 PM on June 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

When they got to the Breakmaster Cylinder interview, I punched the air and yelled “YES!” to my empty home.

I'm glad they chose to wrap it up gracefully, go out on a strong note, and move on.
posted by wjt at 1:27 AM on June 25, 2022 [1 favorite]

This was a really nice episode and a great way of saying goodbye. The Breakmaster Cylinder interview was definitely the highlight.

Just kind of wild that now I no longer listen to any Gimlet podcasts. (Every Little Thing is good but now a Spotify exclusive, and I don't have time for that malarkey.)
posted by General Malaise at 8:17 AM on June 26, 2022 [2 favorites]

This was my last Gimlet podcast as I too refuse to follow the "exclusives" to Spotify. How the mighty have faded away.
posted by jazon at 5:48 PM on June 26, 2022 [2 favorites]

Yeah it’s amazing to think that I used to listen to every single new Gimlet podcast that came out. From the first seasons of “Startup” and “Reply All” and “Mystery Show” and “Surprisingly Awesome” and “Sampler” — I’m probably forgetting some — all had so much effortless personality and point-of-view. Remember the amazing out-of-left-field John Hodgman helmed “Surprisingly Awesome” about extinct hockey? And every perfect, surprising jewel of a “Mystery Show”. And then to have all of these shows just kind of end or piss away every little bit of magic they had. “Reply All” held out longer than most. I remember the Dov Charney season of “Startup” and thinking “Wait … maybe this is bad?” All the shows ended or became boring and conventional and were replaced by even more boring and conventional shows and then the whole thing was bought by Spotify and this is a business success. While I hope Alex Goldman and the O.G. “Reply All” crew got paid out, the whole Gimlet thing is such a bummer.

P.S. remember when “Startup” was made into a sitcom starring Zach Bruff.
posted by chrchr at 8:23 PM on June 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

I wonder how Alex Goldman feels about the success of Gimlet?

The original pitch of Startup was that he could take his experience making audio stories and create a business that could... something something. I remember when they were considering developing an app that would allow users to share snippets of podcasts. I remember when they were trying to figure out how to get the military to pay them to make a partner podcast.

Honestly, looking at the quality of podcasts that have 1 person making them, vs a small team with one leader, vs a corporate team, and I always think the smaller team wins, if that individual has a voice and artistic vision. The best a corporate team can do is pay for travel expense.
posted by rebent at 5:38 AM on June 29, 2022 [2 favorites]

The synesthesia intro was great fun. (Though, in my recent experience, sending a risky text to your crush smells more like acetone combined with stepping into unexpectedly deep snow.)

I've really, really enjoyed Reply All. I'm sorry to see it change, but change can be good. I also genuinely regret having been an asshole to Goldman here in the past. He's both great at radio and seems like a genuinely kind person.

I assume Dzotsi plans to remain in radio. I look forward to his next project.

I remain suspicious that Breakmaster Cylinder isn't actually the psuedonym of a Gimlet employee. I've got all of their albums (as of a few years ago when I last checked) and quite like the music; it doesn't really matter who they are. I'm just curious. I guess that's the point.
posted by eotvos at 7:52 PM on July 7, 2022 [3 favorites]