The Vergecast

Hot topics, great sense of humor. Overall quite entertaining while keeping me updated of the latest tech news.

I love the podcast

As a tech addict, the Vergecast is one of my favorite podcasts. True, you won't find real criticism here on the excesses of consumerism or any other fundamental problems with our economic system—the Verge's core business is to review new gadgets after all. But Nilay and his team do take their roles as journalists seriously, and I appreciate their commitment to go beyond the tech itself and cover the political & cultural impact of companies like Apple, Google, or Amazon. Case in point, their insightful take on Apple's push for privacy—which is undoubtedly a good thing for consumers—but will also reshape the advertising market in a way that is advantageous to Apple. That's a fascinating & important point to make, and the Vergecast regularly delivers intelligent commentary of this type. So a very good podcast then. There is just one, big problem: Dieter Bohn. Although the team at the Verge is full of very smart and talented journalists, for some odd reason they've decided to make Bohn their most important reviewer/commentator. Dieter is unfortunately on every episode, contrary to the others (Nilay has missed a few over the years). Unfortunately, DB is the most irritating journalist in tech. Not only are his reviews predicatable and bland, he also feels the need to tackle deep questions such as "What is a computer" or trying to establish the universal laws of iPad multitasking. These could be interesting topics, in the hands of someone with sound logic and clarity of thought. I'm always left feeling sad after listening to a great conversation on the Vergecast—Patel, for example, is always extremely interesting—only to be followed by horrible verbiage from Bohn. Most of the time, he's downright incomprehensible, all over the place, and seems to enjoy talking like an emotionally unstable teenager, concluding his segments with sounds like "blaaaahhhh". I don't think I've heard DB make a single intervention on the Vergecast that I thought was interesting or added any value to the episode. Am I the only person to think Dieter just doesn't have the chops to be a permanent contributor to this podcast? Why did they get rid of Paul—who was much better—and kept him? God forbid he ever becomes Editor in Chief if Nilay decides to leave....

Irreverence, honesty and getting in the weeds. My favourite episodes are where they get super nerdy.