Many of the Law, History & other podcasts I remember being staffed with PhDs and/or experts in their fields. Then I ran into Hope J. Leman's interviews. A 'grants researcher' (?) with no background in history or law she has an agenda skwered hard to the right against 'wokeness' (whatever that is) & engages in aggressive social media against 'leftists'. Fine, but as a lawyer & a holder of an MA in History I can't imagine why the NB Networks utilizes people with these or any sort of outspoken political agenda. It's troubling esp but more so when they have little no expertise in the reviewed fields. No thanks.
Can’t develop a format to train the interviewer, which is not surprising since the boss conducts some seriously unprofessional and rambling interviews.
See the “Joseph Smith” giggle fest as an example.
Clearly the whole idea is to just flood the market with content.
Writers and publishers be aware how this makes your hard work appear.
Trying to listen to Alan Taylor's Thomas Jefferson’s Education which sounded fascinating but gave up given the astoundingly poor audio quality. It's 2020. There's absolutely no reason New Books in History can't make the effort to ensure its podcasts are listenable. Such a waste of a great opportunity.
Ryan Tripp asks specific questions that are really pivotal for the arguments and evidence. He lets authors skip questions and doesn’t interrupt. Highly recommended!
I was listening to his interview of Douglas Egerton for his book on the Adams dynasty and could not get through more than 10 minutes of the discussion because of his intolerably long winded, multi part, and highly specific questions. I have to rewind the podcast in order to comprehend what he is asking each time and I find it impossible to keep track. And his interview style is uncomfortable because it seems as if he is reading his questions verbatim as written in front of him. He makes for awkward, stilted and overlong transitions in what should be a fluid and engaging conversation. More professional interviewing is needed, in addition to better sound quality. The subjects of the books are interesting but I cannot spend my time listening to this subpar product.
The books and authors covered in the podcast are ver interesting. But the people conducting the interviews are adequate at best and not infrequently embarrassing.
Although the authors tend to be very articulate and topics interesting the production quality of the podcast is low. I just listened to the Greg Downs interview and the questions asked seemed like multipart essay questions from an exam rather than a interview.
The sound quality is erratic and usually lousy. The interviewer(s) often seem, well, clueless despite their academic credentials. I gave up after struggling to listen to an author’s answer while the interviewer practiced guitar in the background.
I read about this podcast on my alumni magazine and was so looking forward to it. When I read the list of titles and authors featured I got even more excited. But, when I started to listen I was very disappointed in the other disregard for producing quality audio in a day and age when it’s not so difficult.Please please please invest in the software you need to make Skype interviews so good.
Congratulations to Marshall Poe and all the volunteers. It takes great effort to keep up with new releases. This is a very valuable tool to authors and history enthusiasts. Keep the good work!
Great content but the poor production quality means this Podcast is not worth the time.
The fact that the production quality does not improve over time feels like a bit of an insult to the listener who is expected to put up with various and ongoing noises and distractions. Having done some radio I do feel for the host but not everyone should have a radio show or podcast. It is harder than most people think.
Wow, I came to vent about the host but it seems others already have. The interviewees are great and endlessly fascinating. The host sounds like he always wants to impress the guest with his own knowledge and rants, which are almost never interesting. I keep wanting to give up this podcast because I can't stand him (my last frustration was hearing the sounds of him clearly typing something on a keyboard while the guest was answering a question, and then faking a "Wow I find that fascinating" before quickly moving on to the next prepared question) but I will put up with it as long as the guests remain good. He can fix this podcast easily by interjecting less and making less about 'me me me.'
I like the show, but I agree with the comments about Marshall. If he isn't making some bizarre noise, he insists on saying, "Un-huh" at the end of almost every sentence uttered by his guest. The late Johnny Carson was a good interviewer because he got out of the way of the guests and didn't feel the need to interject himself every 2 seconds. I am a very auditory person and every "Uh-huh" is like someone standing in front of me and poking me in the forehead with a finger. I don't want Marshall to be replaced, but please have more of a professional approach to interviewing.
Thanks
The New Books Network is doing a vital service by providing a long-form discussion platform for experts from countless fields and disciplines. Sure, some of the shows may have a few rough edges, but what insightful and thoughtful opinions will always top polish and glitz in my book. For Marshall and all the other New Books hosts, please keep up the great work!
This podcast has a lot of information, but in my opinion there's too much time spent on the author's background and biography. This is important information, but it's not as interesting as the book itself. Also, the host brings up his own anecdotes, which would make for a great 2-way conversation but not so great as a podcast. The sound quality for the interviewee is quite crappy. For instance, I tried to listen to the Prokofiev episode while jogging, and the sound resolution & volume for the author was so awful that I didn't want to bother; the host sounded fine. Nevertheless, I do appreciate Dr. Poe's efforts in putting out this podcast.
I disagree with many reviewers. Prof. Poe is entertaining and a great reviewer. He brings out the broader significance of each book remarkably well. People should remember that this is free. If you want polished professional productions produced by a whole team that does nothing but prepare for a single weekly interview, go to the History Channel. This is on the edge of academe and something broader, and I don't know of anyone who can bridge it better than Poe.
Marshall, we do not want to hear your bizarre breathing, phlegm, or powers to snore while awake. Keep your nose away from the Mic! Or invest in some kind of "on/off" switch on the occasions that you allow the author to speak.
Distressing, because this is really really good after the first ten minutes of boring biography and academic shop talk
I really enjoy the New Books Network podcasts. They are on very esoteric topics but are fairly casual. I don't agree with the reviewers who don't like the "umm" ing etc. This isn't a slick production with all the bells and whistles. It's just a couple of professors talking about research topics.
The interviews are very interesting and almost all of them are worth listening to. The only problem is the host, Professor Poe, interrupts the interviews to talk about himself, his studies, his thoughts far too often. As other reviewers have noted this is a good conversational tactic but it's unpleasant to listen to for the audience. He also seems unable to control his laughter at times. This leads to some awkwardness and it's an unpleasant laugh anyway. It's a wonderful podcast but please please please less Poe and more interviewee.
Great books and a wonderful opportunity to learn about different areas of history and books you may not have time to read. But I agree with the other commenters -- Poe needs to keep himself out of the interviews and stop with the anecdotes. Regular listeners do not need to hear again about his wife the mathematician and how shocked she is (still??) that historians don't collaborate. The podcast is best when Poe sticks to asking the occasional question and letting the authors talk.
This would be a great podcast, but the interviewer constantly goes "uh-huh" almost every time the guest makes a comment. It is slightly less than it used to be, but it is still annoying. I am unsubscribing due to this. If you can tolerate this annoying part of the podcast, then you will be fine and enjoy it very much.
This is an excellent podcast for anyone interested in history. It's great to hear the authors of scholarly books actually have a chance to talk about their books, especially with someone who actually asks intelligent questions. As others have said though, Dr. Poe too often interrupts the author and this sometimes disrupts the flow of the author's comments. If he could just hold his tongue...
Overall, this podcast is really good, but Professor Poe does interrupt quite frequently with his own points and stories, drawing parallels between his studies and experiences with what the guest is talking about. I understand why he does this, it makes for decent conversation when there is no audience, but in this case there is. Also, it would be great if the interviewee's mic level could approximate Poe's -- there's a substantial volume difference, which makes the interruptions very noticeable.
Questions, book selection, and guests are essentially good, but host's constant and loud "um-hum"s every 5 to 10 seconds are incredibly annoying and signficantly distract from the experience.
The authors and books are fascinating, if you can get past the 15 minutes at the beginning of each program that are wasted on academic-insider shop talk and the noises of presenter Marshal Poe's gastrointestinal and upper respiratory tracts. He's apparently conducting these interviews by phone using a headset with a microphone, which means that his every breath, gulp, burp, cough, hawk and snort are broadcast direct into the listener's ear. Very unpleasant. Use a speakerphone instead! And don't inject yourself into your interviews so much. We're listening because we want to hear what the authors have to say, not what you have to say.
This would be a 5 star review except for a technical problem- I can always hear Marshall fine but sometimes his guests sound tinny and very hard to hear, esp. over road noise. Some simple volume editing might fix this. An historian's history podcast, this has the potential to be one of the best for the seriously addicted historiophile (sic).
