[julian_sark]

Content vanishing is the reason I archive e.g. favorite podcasts and some YouTube videos. For example, the whole cracked.com podcast's back catalogue seems to have effectively vanished from (useful) streaming now, for monetary reasons.

Though even here, backup copies gets increasingly harder to create. Another podcast I listen to has now stopped having an RSS/xml feed and while it seemingly is available still, it's available only in a proprietary player on ne web site.

Warehouse fires are one thing. But increasingly, change of distribution model is ruining the availability of stuff that was free to access when created, for purely profit reasons.

[deanCommie]

The cracked.com podcast, specifically the episodes with Jason Pargin were God-tier.

I can't see a world in which I would re-listen to the archive, but they were foundational to so much of my thinking. And to this day I follow Pargin on whatever podcast episode he goes on, and on any subject, knowing it'll be incredible.

If you somehow haven't heard, the Secretly Incredibly Fascinating Podcast has him as a regular guest: https://sifpod.podbean.com/

As does 1-900-HOTDOG - https://soundcloud.com/1900hotdog

Each of these are by former Cracked employees, so when Jason Pargin is on, the conversation gravitates to a lot of the same big subjects - society, art, culture, science, and all the ways in which we take it for granted, or don't understand nearly the way we should.

[julian_sark]

Exactly!

Jason Pargin, aka David Wong, is the main reason I listen to (and yes, re-listen) the Cracked podcast. I have recommended some of his articles to many folks over the years for it's insightful content, and occasionally revisit them myself. It's literally a case of "come for the jokes, stay for the insightfulness".

Sadly I never really got into his comedy horror books (even though I own one or two). But Pargin has said so many insightful things that are meaningful to me and my psyche, I have once asked him to compile these things into a genuine self-help book. But the man's to humble, I recall he essentially said that there are likely people better suited to do this.

I knew of his new ventures, glad he's still going strong, and yes, of course I do listen to 1-900 with him (as guest) and the incredibly funny Seanbaby. But thanks so much for mentioning it!

[deanCommie]

Yes, I never got into his comedy horror books either. But I buy every single one because he's contributed ENDLESS hours of engaging entertainment for me, and the books are the only way I can give him money.