The BoardGameGeek Podcast BoardGameGeek

I listen to podcasts all day long (mostly about this hobby), and I believe Candice Harris to be singularly talented. On my first couple of tries, I didn’t connect with the format. But like a lot of great media, once it clicked for me, I got hooked.
Some things I enjoy about her as a host:

▪ Insightful - she makes amazing connections and offers comprehensive yet terse descriptions, making complex, sometimes esoteric games understandable.
▪ socially intelligent - her interviews are engaging, diplomatic, and solicitous. I find her to be skilled at navigating the ebb-and-flow of conversation.
▪ enthusiastic - this is self-evident, but she also brings a natural energy to traditionally “dull” games or even ones she isn’t crazy about.
▪ open - “the omnivore” she seems to be able to pivot to almost any genre with ease and is most excited about gaming frontiers where she has yet to explore.

In short, I could not imagine a better person to host this podcast - it’s just a delight!
As for my criticism, not enough episodes!! Cannot wait to listen to more.

I had to unsubscribe to this podcast. I love what Candice brings to the board gaming community, but most of this show is endless banter going on and on about games I haven’t played. There are a few things that could be done to make this podcast much better.

First, there is a problem with some board game podcasts that they can become just listing out a bunch of games and describing them. For most people who haven’t played all those games, they don’t really have enough context to know what it’s like to play, so continuing to describe them for more than a few minutes is really a waste of time. Further, when you’re just listing games without any debate over whether they are good games, you’re just creating an infinite list with no way to differentiate between all these things. Candice is too nice to ever push back and will just keep saying she wants to play it. We can’t play everything! There are plenty of interesting topics within the industry that are much more interesting to listen to than simple audio listicles.

Second, there is a technique common in podcasting which is not practiced with this one where when one person talks, the other people are silent. This makes the listening experience much better because they can easily identify what’s being said. It also makes editing easier. Plus, unless the hosts are in the same room, there will always be some delay between the reactions and the causes of those reactions such that it can be very distracting. To me, it’s worse than when someone says umm and uhh a lot. If the hosts are silent, they won’t have that issue.

Third, episodes could be edited down to about half their current length without sacrificing much important content. Currently these episodes run super long due to all the continuous banter. If the chats and discussions are tightened up a bit, keeping it to an hour per episode would be easy. I hate having my time wasted so when all I’m hearing is a lot of banter, I tune out.

Again, love Candice. Saw her at GenCon this year and I wish I said hi. But this podcast is currently kind of a mess and when I already have so much I’m listening to, tuning in for over an hour is not a good use of my time.

Candace is amazing. She has such enthusiasm for the hobby, and it is incredibly infectious—even in an audio-only format. As a white, male gamer, it is so important that our hobby includes more variety in the perspectives, viewpoints, and experiences shared—especially to new gamers. I can’t think of a better resource for someone who really wants to dive into more about board gaming. I can’t wait for more!

Plus, as someone who listens to 30+ hours of podcasts per week, I really appreciate that each episode has VERY detailed time-stamps that allow the user to skip to what they want to hear.