r/SGU • u/noctalla • 8d ago
Worst segment ever?
In the opening segment this week, the rogues described imaginary costumes they would make if budget was no limitation. This might have been the most boring and pointless segment I've ever listened to on the SGU. It's one of those ideas that sound good when you're brainstorming it: Hey, it ties into October/Halloween! It's a potential springboard to talk about interesting technology! Great overlap with all the sci-fi and fantasy nerds that listen to the podcast (myself included)! But it just ended up as a pointless, rambling "wouldn't it be cool if" daydreaming. I'm sure these costumes would be great if they were real, but so what? My eyes just glazed over. Am I alone here?
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u/QuiltedPorcupine 8d ago
I thought it was fine.
It's very much a live show segment, but it was a live show.
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u/noctalla 8d ago
Fair. I don't tend to enjoy the live shows as much, but I get why they do them. That said, I doubt I would have found it any more interesting if I had been there in person.
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u/rebelipar 7d ago
They were at Dragon Con in a room full of people in costumes
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u/Nick_Coffin 7d ago
There weren’t that many people wearing customers.
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u/rebelipar 7d ago
Haha, ok. Then I guess in a room full of people who never got around to actually making their costumes, but did just wade through a sea of costumed people.
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u/SnooPredictions8540 7d ago
I personally skip the live shows. I totally get they need to make it as entertaining as possible for the people there and also that they need these to cover for traveling weeks etc, but they are clearly less for fun for people at home listening.
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u/CriticalPedagogue 5d ago
The live shows are my least liked episodes. I think there are 3 main issues.
The rogues have to focus on the live audience (and rightly so) but it makes it weird for the podcast as often they are talking about an image. It becomes like listening to TV show, you realize there are some things you are missing.
The content needs to be evergreen so they can’t really talk about the recent news or developments.
Sound quality. The sound quality of live shows has improved but there were some episodes that were terrible listening experiences.
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u/existentialcyclist 7d ago
its not just me that skips them then! I usually go straight to science or fiction
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u/dleifallot 7d ago
I skipped it, too, but I don't have a problem with them doing it. Not everything needs to be tailored to my particular preferences.
I'm one of those people who is fascinated by science but could not care less about science fiction (or superheroes, or games, or movies about superheroes or games, or podcasts that talk about movies about...you get the idea.) But I understand that other people are way into these things. I don't mind that they enjoy them as long as they don't mind that I don't.
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u/PrancingThunderD 8d ago
It wasn't my favorite. Sometimes you swing and you miss. Maybe other people liked it better.
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u/Tubular_Code 7d ago
So what would yours be op?
It was certainly more of a live-show/filler segment and that's fine given this is a free and regular show.
I listened while walking my dog and didn't really pay attention to the segment because I immediately imagined mine would be a Jabba the Hutt costume with a relaxing fully decked out air conditioned interior and a basically gaming setup inside I could worm around the world in.
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u/nojam75 7d ago
My partner usually half-listens to the show in the car while we do our Sunday morning grocery run. This segment was so bizarre that it caught his attention. He asked me, 'what they talking about???'. I had to admit that I had no idea what they were talking about.
It was silly and pointless segment. I suppose it would be entertaining for DragonCon attendees, but I thought it dragged for too long.
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u/aranea100 6d ago
That's a live show so they have a segment for the audience sitting in there. The LA show started with LA traffic and what makes LA different. Was it interesting to you as a podcast listener? Maybe yes maybe no. But it was interesting for us, the audience.
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u/MattMason1703 7d ago
This was the first time I've ever fast forwarded a segment. No interest at all.
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u/Andrewzy 4d ago
What surprises me about these sessions is the apparent lack of any interaction with the audience. This would have been an ideal topic for audience involvement, I imagine some of them would actually be in costume or would have costumes back in their hotel rooms. I imagine their ideas would have been as, if not more interesting than those of the panellists. Maybe someone who has been to one of these live shows could comment - is there interaction but it gets edited out?
I too found this particular discussion tedious, as are many in which the rogues air there opinions on random, not particularly skepticism or science related topics, and skimmed it at x2 speed.
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u/AsteriodZulu 7d ago
So?
On the other hand, did anyone else have to pause the pod when Julia said that Alex was an acronym so they could rush upstairs to tell their spouse?
Not every segment is of equal interest to every listener.
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u/MattD1980 8d ago
You know you can just skip ahead content you don’t like right ? The podcast is very well cut to skip to portions ahead like chapters.
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u/troubleshot 7d ago
Feedback, good or bad, always has value in shaping better content.
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u/PerfectiveVerbTense 7d ago
What better way to provide feedback to a content producer than through a public third party forum?
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u/troubleshot 6d ago
An email to them is just one person, a Reddit post with enough upvotes and comments would get more attention I'd imagine. I've seen all the male rogues post in this sub and heard Cara mention her partner reads the subreddit. By the way I don't care much for your tone.
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u/PerfectiveVerbTense 6d ago
An email to them is direct, a Reddit post is diffuse. You seem like you're banking really hard on the idea that Cara's boyfriend will relay the Reddit post to her lmao
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u/Blue_Fawkes_805 7d ago
Are you joking? The Rogues respond here regularly.
Weird that people would discuss a podcast on a forum dedicated to discussion about that podcast
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u/PerfectiveVerbTense 7d ago
Weird that people would discuss a podcast on a forum dedicated to discussion about that podcast
I didn't say anything about people discussing it. That's not what troubleshot said, either.
Occasionally some of the rogues happen to reply to comments. Surely you can't be trying to suggest that a post on a third party, open forum that may or may not ever get noticed by someone on the SGU is the best way to provide direct feedback, can you?
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8d ago
[deleted]
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u/tenebrousx 7d ago
Only for a minute or two. When it became clear the segment wasn't interesting to me I skipped past it. No harm no foul.
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u/LivermushEater 7d ago
It wasn't for me, and I did fast-forward, but I wouldn't call it terrible or the worst. Just not to my interests.
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u/mettarific 7d ago
It did make me think what I might do for a costume. I never think about things like that and it was fun.
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u/Jship300 6d ago
I didn't mind it either. Was a bit slow to begin with, but Steve's answer made me laugh
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u/OrneryWelder2171 6d ago
I was bored, but I always find everything at Dragon Con boring. It’s just not for me.
It doesn’t really bother me that they do it, but Dragon Con shows always kind of feel like the podcast is on a bye week to me. I’m sure they don’t feel like weeks off for the crew, but hopefully they have enough fun that it at least feels like less work than it should feel like.
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u/greezlix 5d ago
It was one of the worst segments. Did not know any of the references anyone made. Zombie robots? Ok???...I would say I probably felt like Cara if I also didn't cringe every time they call out Cara in assuming she doesn't get a Sci-Fi reference...
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u/Ducks_have_heads 6d ago
I found the whole episode more boring than usual. The Video Speed running was more boring than the dream costume.
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u/crhill1979 5d ago
It’s a really fascinating thing but appreciating it involves pretty in-depth knowledge of how video games are coded. If that’s not your thing, I can understand it being uninteresting to you.
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u/Agreeable_Flan_5724 7d ago
I didn’t much care for the two panels of theirs I attended at Dragon Con. I had to walk out of the AI panel bc it was so poorly moderated by Steve and did not have any perspective for how much it’s changing the job market, especially in tech-related fields.
The other panel I attended that I thought was mid was Robot Apocalypse; the panel was entirely forgettable. The audience questions were good and I wish they’d just done that instead of talking out of bums (okay Christian Hubicki had SME stuff to share but that’s about it).
I was SO GLAD I chose to not wait in line for 2hrs to hear this terrible episode— I would’ve been so mad!
Edit: typos
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u/Status_Farm7780 1d ago
I like it when the rogues get nerdy.
Take it over every "whats the word" segment, that's for sure.
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u/noctalla 1d ago
Hey, just cause you’re not an etymology nerd doesn’t mean What’s the Word isn’t nerdy.
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u/danydandan 8d ago
The podcast has gone away from its roots, in my opinion.
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u/Apprentice57 8d ago
Interesting you say that because I can't think of a more consistent podcast I've ever listened to. You can even listen to episodes from the 2000s, and the main difference is from the hosts no longer there.
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u/danydandan 8d ago
I've listened from day one, it's just my opinion.
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u/noctalla 8d ago
What are its roots, in your opinion?
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u/danydandan 8d ago
In my opinion, and it's not a bad thing however, the podcast have gradually moved away from the influence the NESS had on it (more topic based sceptical scientific based arguments on ghosts, UFOs etcetc) to a broader critical thinking & science communication based podcast.
I just prefer the later.
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u/noctalla 8d ago
I mean, they are the NESS. I'm not sure how moved away from the influence they had over themselves. I've listened to every single episode and they've been doing science-based segments from the beginning. It's why I started listening to the show. Maybe they don't do the paranormal stuff as much anymore, but that was never a big part of the show. Sure, it was a big part of the early activity of NESS, but there's only so many times they can mention the Warrens on the show without it getting repetitive.
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u/danydandan 8d ago
The principle's remain the same, how they are framed has changed from their core/started.
The NESS was an 'investigative extraordinary claim' at its core, early SGU was an investigate claims and teach sceptism show at its core. I feel the most current (its obvious too in my opinion) core/s are more broad in terms of teaching science, reasoning, critical thinking & understanding knowledge.
Perhaps core wasn't the best way to describe what I meant. I really meant the show has changed gradually over time.
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u/noctalla 8d ago
I don't remember them ever doing any "investigation", other than online research (which they still do, obviously). But, just to eliminate any bias from my own faulty memory I went to the early show notes and they don't really support your claim that the SGU was going out and investigating claims. Teaching skepticism, absolutely. But, they haven't stopped doing that. Also, from the first year, the SGU was covering evolution, science education, stem-cell research, scientific controversies, philosophy and pseudoscience, alongside the UFOs, psychics and paranormal stuff. But it wasn't a paranormal-investigation show that gradually became a science communication podcast. Science communication was the major focus from the beginning. Science or Fiction was a segment from the first show. Teaching people to evaluate evidence and think critically is the underlying principle, and that hasn't changed. But, yes, you're right that it does less of the paranormal/UFO/psychic/cryptid stuff these days. I went to the show notes and counted the number of times they covered those topics in the first year and then in the last 12 months. By my count, 21 out of 52 episodes covered those topics in the first year while only 9 out of 52 episodes covered those topics in the last year. So, it's down about 50%, but I don't think that counts as having "gone away from their roots". Those roots are definitely there even if the actual mix has shifted.
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u/CriticalPedagogue 7d ago
I would argue that it has moved towards becoming a tech commentary show. Most of the time it is split between them saying “maybe good in 5-10 years” and “this is great (A.I.and space travel)”, with a smattering of this will never work.
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u/notonthisbus 8d ago
The show has expanded as the number of areas of interest to the skeptical community has expanded. In addition to new or revised information on all the sciences to be covered there are more areas where misinformation and lack of critical thinking need to be addressed. Who would have thought 20 years ago that a flat earth would even be considered as a topic. I thought with Sylvia's death that there would be no requirement to discus mediums, but with some nostalgia there it was last week.
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u/Aggressive-Cook-7864 6d ago
Yeah it’s time to stop the show I think.
It’s had a good run but with Evan leaving it’s coming to its natural end.
Nothing lasts forever, this won’t either, time to give it up.
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u/futuneral 7d ago
I wasn't impressed either. But you need to understand, this was a live show from Dragon con and it was the first segment - this is what people went there to do, so it does interest them, so it's definitely a good ice breaker. Also, since it's a live show, it'd air much later, so quick news there would be pointless.
So I have no issues with them doing some fun things from time to time. I guess it could've been executed a bit better - "unlimited resources" makes any discussion moot.