YouTubers asapSCIENCE (the people who solved the yanny/laurel conundrum for us), Greg and Mith are a couple who have launched their podcast series in May 2018. The series covers contentious yet relevant topics, with podcast titles like ‘Elon Musk: Evil Billionaire or Innovative Genius?’ and ‘Influencers: Pure Trash or This Generations Treasure?’.
Each episode of podcast Sidenote is focused around a thought-provoking topic, posed as a question. If the topic title isn’t enough to draw you in, real-life couple Greg and Mitch are strong personalities who often have conflicts in opinion, which makes for an interesting dynamic throughout the series. Excuse the mush, but it’s also pretty cute how much they learn about each other’s experiences throughout- you feel like you’re growing with them.
The podcast usually starts off with some to-be-expected podcast banter: this week’s show starts off with them talking about blisters and flip flops (???) for about 10 minutes, before introducing the topic at hand. Different to other debates and discussion podcasts that often more opinion based, Sidenote follows through and incorporates some meticulous profiling of the topic, including sources and supporting extracts. Greg and Mitch integrate a multi-layered exploration into 45 minute debates, making for some satisfyingly well-structured arguments with a running dialogue that keeps us ‘entertained whilst thoroughly learning’. I’m all for a debate podcast before bed or to break up the monotony of a train ride, so this definitely ticked the box for me.
In their latest episode, which focuses on toxic masculinity and whether we should live in a matriarchy, the couple explores the issue of masculinity and incorporates some of their experiences being gay – they talk about the restrictions of issues of ‘priding masculinity’ and being assumed feminine within the gay community. Furthermore, the pair excellently debate the affirmative and negative of, theoretically, whether women should be in power, whether masculinity created capitalism, and what the implications of this would be. The podcast series is honest, personal and undoubtedly engaging, it pushes the audience to think critically and further their perspectives on topical questions.
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