Weekly Podcast Picks: Playcation and The Alarmist by the Earios Network

 With all the buzz surrounding large podcast networks like Spotify, Amazon, and Apple, there are a legion of smaller and more focused podcast networks that deliver high-quality "ear worthy" audio.

Take, for example, EARIOS, which is a podcast network "built around the most engaging women in entertainment."

According to Earios, it strives to elevate the podcasting market with intelligent, diverse, subversive content BY WOMEN, FOR EVERYONE.

Recently, I checked two of its podcasts and found them utterly charming, information-rich, and hosted by talented female hosts.

The premise of the Playcation podcast is that co-hosts Amanda Lund and Maria Blasucci have been cooped up in the house for too long, and they're ready to travel the world. Well, almost ready. 

On Playcation, Amanda and Maria plan rival vacations to the same far-off (or near) land and listeners vote on whose trip they'd rather take. The WHEEL OF ADVENTURE determines their budgets, reason for travel and one travel hiccup. From Bermuda to Australia to Berlin, Maria and Amanda travel the world from the comfort of their own homes and take their listeners along for the ride. 

I listened to the episode about Bermuda and found the co-hosts utterly delightful with a chatty playfulness and strong chemistry.

 Listen To Playcation here. 

In The Alarmist, Earios has designed a mixed cocktail of entertainment and education with an added injection of host catastrophizing.

Writer/Comedian Rebecca Delgado-Smith, along with a special guest, scrutinizes history’s greatest disasters to figure out what went wrong, and most importantly, who’s to blame. 

Delgado-Smith is able to walk that tightrope between disaster and comedy. She is prudent in her comic comments and clear and concise when providing information about these disasters.

Earios bills this show as "the perfect remedy to our everyday anxiety! They say history repeats itself, not on The Alarmist's watch!"

While the podcast's notes spotlight well-known tragedies like the Plague, the sinking of The Titanic, or the break-up of the Beatles, there are lesser-known but even more fascinating tragedies covered on early episodes.

I listened to the episodes on the sinking of the USS Indianapolis at the end of WWII  and found it both informative and entertaining. Episodes on more arcane tragedies -- such as the 1903 Iroquois Theater Fire in Chicago in 1903 that killed more than 600 people and the 1932 Great Emu War in Australia in 1932 -- made for captivating listening.

Listen to The Alarmist here. 

The woman who run Earios are a triple threat of artistic talent and business acumen.

 

Priyanka Mattoo is a writer and filmmaker in Los Angeles. She was formerly an agent at UTA and WME, as well as Jack Black’s partner at their production company, Electric Dynamite. Priyanka co-hosts Earios’s critically-acclaimed beauty/wellness podcast, Foxy Browns. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Vulture, and The Hairpin, and her film work in festivals from Sundance to Cannes.

Amanda Lund is an actor, comedy writer, and producer. Amanda has appeared in many television shows including Fresh Off The Boat, New Girl, Brooklyn 99, and Parenthood as well as the feature film Goosebumps, and has developed TV pilots for Syfy, Fox and Comedy Central. She was an associate producer on Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising with her friend and writing partner, Maria Blasucci. Amanda is very active in the podcast world; she co-hosts The Big Ones and appears regularly on Spontaneanation and Superego.

Maria Blasucci is an actor, producer, and comedy writer. She is best known for her roles on shows such as HBO’s Family Tree and Ghost Ghirls on Yahoo Screen. She was an associate producer on the 2016 film Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising. She currently stars in the Comedy Central series Drunk History and can also be seen on Netflix in the films Mascots and Patchwork. Maria has been active in the podcast community for the last eight years. She and Amanda Lund co-host the weekly podcast The Big Ones.

Check out the Earios network for more information on its lineup of podcasts.