Overview of Content
Dead Meat Podcast
The first podcast I chose for my research was one I also looked at last year: The Dead Meat Podcast. I chose this show once again because it aligns with my interests perfectly and I am often fascinated by the discussions featured throughout. The Dead Meat Podcast, a spin off of the YouTube Channel Dead Meat, is hosted by Chelsea Rebecca and her husband James A Janisse and revolves around all things horror. With films often being the main focus of an episode, Chelsea and James spend 1-2 hours breaking down its themes, highlights, shortcomings and their overall thoughts on it. The episode I specifically looked at for my research (Ep. 171), focuses on Jordan Peele’s Nope (2022), digging into its central themes of stardom and animal abuse as well as some of the misconceptions surrounding certain scenes in the film.
Friends Per Second
Skill Up, the YouTube channel that this podcast is home to, is already a place I visit frequently to receive updates on the video game industry through its ‘This Week in Video Games’ series and its many reviews. Which is why Friends Per Second, started by channel owner, Ralph, and a group of friends (Jake Baldino, Lucy James and Jirard – aka The Completionist) felt like another ideal pick for my research. Like the rest of the content on its parent channel, this podcast covers recent news in gaming but also opens up these topics for discussion among the hosts and the guests they frequently have on the show. The episode I watched (Ep.2) featured another content creator I follow called The Sphere Hunter (Suzi Hunter) who primarily makes YouTube videos on video games in the survival horror genre. Together they went over new things relating to the Resident Evil series (my favourite video game franchise) and an event called Steam’s Next Fest (another topic that I am often up to date on), where a plethora of demos for upcoming indie games are advertised and made available for people to play.
Critical Role
Critical Role differs quite a bit from the previous two podcasts. This is a Dungeons and Dragons show where voice actors, Matthew Mercer, Marisha Ray, Travis Willingham, Laura Bailey, Sam Riegel, Ashley Johnson, Liam O’Brian and Talisin Jaffe broadcast their game sessions to millions of fans. It stands apart from the average joes game of DnD in their living room due to, of course, the talent on the show as well as the production value behind it. Custom sets, lighting systems, high quality props. . . It all comes together to create a premium version of the tabletop game and one that can be enjoyed as a spectator. The reason it was included in this research is because it can be enjoyed in the podcast format, thanks to the narration from Matt and the dialogue from the rest of the cast, watching it isn’t necessary. For the purposes of my research I looked at episode 14 from their third campaign, wherein guest star Robbie Daymond (who had appeared in the previous 13 episodes) and the character he plays (Dorian Storm) says goodbyes to the rest of the cast.
Structure and Roles
Dead Meat Podcast
The podcast opens with a montage of shots (for the video version) from iconic horror movies with the YouTube channel’s signature theme (U Make Me Feel – by MK2) playing over it, before cutting to Chelsea and James. Though they are co-hosts, talking equal parts in most episodes, Chelsea always takes the lead during the introduction as the show is her ‘brain child.’ Besides that, the show hardly cuts away during the length of its run time, featuring only a few intermissions to advertise the sponsorships supporting them.
The majority of episodes, including Ep.171, end with a brief outro where Chelsea and James share what other social media sites they can be found on, upcoming content on their YouTube channel and what merchandise is currently available for fans to purchase.
Friends Per Second
Friends Per Second is a little more organised and structured than the Dead Meat Podcast, with each episode being broken into clear segments – headlined by the host and time stamps for the video versions – that, depending on the theme of the episode, aren’t always necessarily connected. This disconnect isn’t something that harms the flow of the podcast as the varied topics are chosen based on what is relevant at the time of the release, giving the opposite effect and keeping it engaging.
Each episode’s host varies between the four main presenters. For the episode I watched, Jake Baldino was the host; leading discussions and moving the show on between all of its topics. This rotation is based on whether or not one presenter has more experience with one the episode’s topics (everyone on the podcast comes from differing sections of the gaming industry – Jake, for example, is writer/video producer from Gameranx) and the purpose of, once again, ensuring the show is engaging.
Critical Role
With Critical Role being a story centric podcast, the show heavily relies upon the narration of Matthew Mercer. As the dungeon master/game master, it is his voice that brings the setting, side characters/NPCs (non-playable-characters) and villains to life. He will establish a scene and hand it over to his cast, all playing their own fictional characters, to decide what to do next – like one big improv show. This dialogue is often broken up by out of character chatter as the cast joke with each other, ask Matt questions about rules and figure out plans amongst themselves.
At the beginning of every episode is also an introduction, wherein Matt and the rest of the cast make announcements and take a moment to talk about the show’s sponsors. There are more breaks throughout the rest of its runtime when the cast takes a break, often playing trailers in the meantime or showing off fan art. The length of a particular episode often determines how many of these breaks there are.
With Critical Role being a much bigger production than the other two shows, there is also a whole crew behind the cameras helping run things in their studio. Producers, operators, artists and marketers. . .Critical Role’s team can be found here: https://critrole.com/team/.
Style and Research
Dead Meat Podcast
Though they go in depth and have a lot of insight to provide on the topics present in any given episode, the Dead Meat Podcast is pretty informal and casual. Set up as a conversation, you are essentially listening to a couple geek out on their favourite horror media and discuss other topics that they are passionate about.
As mentioned previously, both presenters contribute to the podcast more-or-less equally though it is Chelsea’s show. She is the main host – leading the introduction and topics – editor and designer of the merchandise.
Friends Per Second
With Friends Per Second’s subject material (relevant gaming news) it acts as a very informative show that can still be informal and even funny. Its host contributes to the discussions with thoughtful insight and opinions on the current topic and very clearly knows what they are talking about. Like the Dead Meat Podcast, is it set up a conversation; featuring interview-like segments when they have guests on, like the episode that I watched.
Naturally, both the Dead Meat Podcast and Friends Pers Second involve research behind their conversations. The latter perhaps a little more so than the former as they are often covering recent articles and news stories, while the Dead Meat Podcast will be a mixture of informative content and lite reviews of the subject material.
Critical Role
Critical Role is a show made for primarily entertainment purposes. A fictional story, set in a fictional world with fantastical characters. Its tone can vary wildly depending on what is happening in the plot. The cast will be cracking crude jokes during some of the more laid back segments and breaking down into tears during some of the heavier and more emotional parts of Matt’s story.
That is, however, not to say that no research goes into the show. Like any other piece of fiction, a lot of the fantastical ideas in Critical Role are based off of or inspired by real life things. The cast and Matt specifically go the extra mile before certain episodes to make sure that their representations of certain things are accurate or not in any way maliciously/purposefully harmful.
Witchers and Witches 