The Pod F. Tompkast: All Episodes

January 28, 2023 8:10 AM

Welcome to the Pod F. Tompkast! When night descends on the internet, Paul F. Tompkins keeps watch over all their is, fueled by the music of Eban Schletter's pianoforte. Together, these two sentries ail unseen towards the shores of day, passing the time with comedy type ramblings and bitlets.

Revisit 2010, way before podcasts were cool, and hear Paul F. Tompkins interrupt Eban Schletter's piano playing to bring us surreal monologues, bits from his live shows, various guests and the adventures of John Lithgow, Cakeboss and Ice T.

A classic from the pre-Serial era of podcasting, the last episode was close to a decade ago. I thought briefly of trying to do one post for every episode, but only so I could reproduce the feel of listening to the original by pretending a new episode was coming soon and then needing to focus on my day job for a month or tow.

posted by mark k (8 comments total)

I randomly pulled this up on my podcast feed recently and (unsurprisingly, given the lack of topical humor) it holds up pretty well. Each episode was probably far too much production work for the pre-Patreon era, when I think the total income you could pull out of it was negative.
posted by mark k at 8:18 AM on January 28 [1 favorite]

I still sometimes break out into the musical medley of the last episode. Bleep bloop. I’m a robot, too! Bleep bloop. I only need one shoe.
posted by Comet Bug at 11:20 PM on January 28 [1 favorite]

My brother and I were just reminiscing about this...I didn't realize it had been so long since the last episode!
posted by rhizome at 5:52 PM on January 29

It's nighttime on the internet! Along with Spontaneanation and Superego I can listen to these over and over. I definitely suggest a first or re- listen to all of these.

the pre-Serial era of podcasting
What does this mean? I tried to do some looking up and all I can find is that Serial was wildly popular but did something change post-Serial? Podcasts I listen to don't seem to have changed much but maybe I'm just missing something obvious here.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 9:14 AM on January 31 [1 favorite]

I’d say post-Serial there are more podcasts, and many of the new ones are more normie — a bit less niche and quirky and more polished. Also there are so many more ads. But I don’t know what mark k meant by it.
posted by Comet Bug at 8:11 PM on January 31

If you're missing some Paul F Tompkins, he does a monthly podcast, called Stay F. Homekins, with his lovely wife, Janie Haddad Tompkins. And they are adorable together.
posted by ishmael at 9:38 PM on January 31 [4 favorites]

The watch-alongs with movies (Muppet Christmas Story, Train to Busan, to name a few), are quite fun.
posted by ishmael at 9:39 PM on January 31

What does this mean? I tried to do some looking up and all I can find is that Serial was wildly popular but did something change post-Serial?

Sorry, I was trying to be a bit too cute in my description. No deep meaning; just that Serial really exploded podcasting, and suddenly you had more, better edited weekly podcasts being monetized by companies like Gimlet or with patreon options for support. I had heard another old time podcaster (Helen Zaltzman) riff on Serial and I guess that was in the back of my mind.

If you're missing some Paul F Tompkins, he does a monthly podcast, called Stay F. Homekins, with his lovely wife, Janie Haddad Tompkins. And they are adorable together.

Why did I not know about this during lockdown?! Going to go start listening. :)
posted by mark k at 7:56 AM on February 1 [1 favorite]