A lot of gaming sites (I assume) hope to one day put together a podcast similar to the quality and format of Chicago Public Radio’s This American Life — Robert Ashley actually made one, while the rest of us sat around with the fantasy in our heads, where it existed unknown to our idle hands and the ears of potential listeners.

If you’ve never listened to TAL, it’s an entertaining hour-long radio show (with a shorter television series running on Showtime), each episode collecting stories around a theme, like matchmaking or being afraid to sleep. Ashley’s A Life Well Wasted podcast borrows the format and presentation, sharing interesting interviews on video games and the people who love them, in high fidelity.

The monthly show’s most recent episode, “Gotta Catch ‘em All,” explores the efforts of collectors and archivists, visiting a vintage pinball museum and investigating a Stanford University program seeking to save the history of online gaming. There are only two episodes so far, but already it’s one of my favorite podcasts, which isn’t saying much actually, as I can’t be arsed to listen to any other video game programs other than Penny Arcade’s.

On a related note, our own JC Fletcher had a somewhat cameo in Joystiq’s most recent podcast, lending his vast knowledge of video games no one else bothers to remember. The segment starts around the 01:09:05 mark, and JC’s contribution, though offscreen, is pretty funny!

This was a lot of text for a random link post. TLDR: A Life Well Wasted is a good podcast for a lazy Sunday.

tags / a life well wasted / joystiq / robert ashley / podcast / this american life / ec