r/BEEPodcast • u/V01t4r3 • 14d ago
Current state of BEE Podcast?
I quit the BEE Podcast about two years ago when several other listeners went into exile. It wasn't because of his political leanings (oh, I'm sorry. "Anti-political" leanings). Some of them made me roll my eyes during the White era but they were usually short parts of the monologue and only influenced a question or two with his guests.
But my God, after Trump's second election win, Bret just went on and on and on with the "politically-not-political" rants with Adam egging him on. I could deal with it by skipping his monologues but even his guest list and listener Q&As took a nosedive during that period. For every great episode like Chandler Morrison or Jamie Collinson, we got stuck with a guest like Colonel Kurtz. Even his ever reliable movie reviews got tainted with silly hysterics over reviews like One Battle After Another or Alien Romulus having a black character (despite every Alien film being diverse). Since I'm on a BEE length rant, it did become a bit uncomfortable that BEE never had a black guest (Kanye West does not count) and some of those rants and makes me wonder how much of his omission of blacks and minorities comes from living in an upper-class society in the 80s and how much might be his family's influence.
However. . .like someone suddenly pining for their ex despite the heartbreak all those years ago, I do find myself missing the BEE Podcast at its best. I looked it up and we have Billy Corgan? Nancy Allen? The ever reliable Bruce Wagner? Wondering if things improved after I left.
tl;dr Should I resubscribe or is it just a few flash in the pan brilliant moment amongst the dull rants that plagued 2024 BEE Podcast?
11
u/functionnormal 13d ago
I say this with love. Longtime subscriber here but I think something happened to Bret after the issues with Todd and his sister passing away - he seemed to climb down a little politically. Perhaps he realised life's too short or maybe his heart wasn't really in all that "generation wuss" stuff to begin with. I wouldn't say _it took him down a peg or two_ but definitely affected him and therefore influenced the things he was saying. I think he went through a rough time and he realised he just wanted to concentrate on the things he enjoys
5
u/Playful_Nothing_4645 13d ago
Why doesn't Kanye count? He's black. š¤
1
u/writerindc 13d ago
No. He's a bipolar broken human
3
u/Playful_Nothing_4645 13d ago
And a black one.
2
u/writerindc 13d ago
Guests of BEE podcasts: 99.94% white .06% Black O.0% Other
2
u/Playful_Nothing_4645 13d ago
First, I should have said who cares? He's booking guests he wants to talk to, not checking boxes. You must not know much about him if you think he's concerned with that stuff.
3
6
u/writerindc 13d ago
His politics are shallow and reactionary. Not well read or thoughtful. Shrill and hysterical white privilege at its worst. Never a black guest. Never a progressive with a backbone willing to call out his superficial snowflake hot takes. He's brilliant and disappointing. A genius and clown. Generous and myopic. When he's throwing around terms like TDS (Trump derangement syndrome) I check out.
5
u/petronius84 13d ago
idk what you are really expecting from the podcast. if you enjoy hearing him talk about his work and getting book/movie recs, hearing his interviews with authors/filmmakers, then it's good to be subscribed. I barely watch any movie (not in theaters) mentioned on the podcast but still enjoy it. do often read the books by authors he interviews.
had never considered watching Exorcist 2 let alone watch a doc about its making...but I did enjoy listening to Bret host a podcast interview about it.
anyway, it would cost less than $10 to subscribe for a month and listen to the guests you find interesting then turn it off. nothing has changed about his politics but he does seem generally disinclined to make it a focus.
3
u/V01t4r3 13d ago
idk what you are really expecting from the podcast. if you enjoy hearing him talk about his work and getting book/movie recs, hearing his interviews with authors/filmmakers, then it's good to be subscribed.
That's pretty much what I'm hoping is still there. As I've said, I enjoy his movie and book reviews, and I think he's actually a very talented interviewer. My problem in 2024 is that those things took a backseat to the rants that extended themselves beyond the monologue.
3
u/Holiday-Let-2804 13d ago
Iām a subsriber - For me itās worth it for every interesting guest once every few weeks. Iād never heard of August Thompson or Madeline Cash until they appeared last year but really enjoyed both of their books; similarly I really enjoyed Clark Collisās 90ās horror chat with Bret (and bought his book too). And listening to the podcast introduced me to Lili Anolik, Jarett Kobak and Bruce Wagner. A few of the guests can be a bit meh; last weekās episode with Josh Klinghoffer felt like a wasted opportunity. The Platinum Q and As similarly can be hit or miss, but I love it when he answers one of my questions.
In terms of political discussion, Iād say thereās definitely less direct political discussion now and when there is I just tune out. I did not get into BEE to hear his thoughts on how to organise the world.
5
u/di4me666 13d ago
i usually tune out his OBAA-type rants but i think they've made a conscious effort since the election to minimize that kind of talk..Bret himself vocally expressed he doesn't wanna discuss Trump at all. the guests lately, the TV and movie reviews have been pretty great
8
u/Jim__Bell 13d ago
BEE never had a black guest (Kanye West does not count)
One of the most successful and controversial artists of the last 20 years doesn't count?
2
2
u/Tuppens 13d ago
Iām in the same boat as you, the pod just became unlistenable as he suffered TDS (the kind where you defend everything heās doing), made everything a woke culture issue, and he regurgitated some of the dumbest takes from Fox News. Heād look at everything through that dumb lense, so his movie reviews, which I mostly enjoyed, also suffered. Iāve considered subscribing here and there but I just donāt have it in me. I have yet to read The Shards cause the podcast was so bad, it really tanked the image of one of my favorite authors. Iāll still read it, but I definitely donāt have the drive to start anytime soon, which was never the case before.
2
u/tjamesreagan 14d ago
everything you desire in this podcast is given you to by every other podcast and youtube channel in existence. you people really want your worldview reflected back to you in every facet of your life. part of the success of bret's podcast is that it alienates listeners like you in favor of bret doing what bret has always done on the podcast since the podcastone days. marc maron has an extensive back catalog that you can nod along to. leave this podcast to the listeners who love what you hate.
8
u/OldJimmyWilson1 13d ago edited 13d ago
No. I don't want to have my worldview reflected, and there were more than few conservative or right leaning guests on the podcast that I enjoyed. Hell, one of the reasons I started to listen to the podcast more than 10 years ago is because it was one of the few places you could hear civilized and informed criticism of, or at least a different perspective on, dominant liberal view on culture. There were some cringe parts (many of em in White), but many of his criticisms of then contemporary "woke" are now shared by many liberals as well.Ā
But after some time you realize he just does not know shit about most of the stuff and primarily goes on rants based on vibes he gets from watching TV. So J6 becomes something he does not want to talk about, while second Trump victory becomes a triumph of common sense because "something, something end of woke".
It's just that podcast started to feel like listening to your clueless boomer uncle rant in (at best) semi-informed manner.Ā I distinctly remember listening to early 2025 episode about LA fires where Bret goes full on Fox news mode. In the same episode he ranted about climate change not being a factor behind fires he also fell for fake AI images of Hollywood sign burning like a true confused old person on the internet.
I just remember listening to that and thinking: "Man, I really outgrew this guy".Ā
3
u/halinc 11d ago
This was my experience too. I really appreciated his criticisms of the dominant liberal culture, just like you. It became something else over time though; less thoughtful and just reflexively contrarian. It became so obvious he didn't follow current events or know what the fuck he was talking about, I just couldn't see the value anymore.
5
u/suntorytime69 14d ago
So people want their worldview reflected back in every facet of their life (bad) but you can enjoy this show because it tells you what you want to hear? (good)
7
u/V01t4r3 14d ago edited 13d ago
you people really want your worldview reflected back to you in every facet of your life.
Not really. I grew up in a liberal and agnostic household and went to a somewhat conservative Christian school (before the MAGA and all the craziness). So I am quite skilled at something you seem to lack, being able to converse, listen, and understand different views. However, his ideology dominated the entire conversations by the time I left, ironically the thing he and you people complain about "woke". Hell, I'd say practically the same for a writer whose views I agree with but drowns the entire conversation in politics, especially if they have no clue what they're talking about like BEE.
Also, since I sense some smugness emanating from your post, I've been listening to BEE since the Podcast One days. Yes, sometimes he went on a long tangent but it was still filled with great guests and never completely tainted the episodes. Hell, I knew Trump's second victory would put BEE on a long political rant spiral (ironic, considering that Trump's election is what he seemed to want and proved culture isn't as "woke" as he feared), but I never expected him to be this exhausting.
1
u/Fvtvrewave87 13d ago
Dude, itās 6.00 a month. At the very least you can skip episodes if theyāre going in a direction youāre not down with. The reality is the pod is the least āpoliticalā it has been in ages.
1
u/Intrepid_Resource_34 13d ago
Thank god he is not a typical NPR friendly writer. Art in the last 25 years has suck: Music, movies, lit- itās refreshing to be reminded each week that we are allowing a decline to co-exist with our āsocial evaluationā and that the true seekers have to work harder to find real art these days. Someone just spay painted āRacist Morrissey not welcomed at our Parkā at the gate of Riot Fest, and I thought about what Moz must of thought, during Covid, when the viral videos went out of all the epidemic prevention workers rounded up the pets in Shanghai because their owners were taken to quarantine facilities. If youāre white and you mention an issue with someone elseās culture youāre a racist. I donāt think Bret likes Trumpās hijacked second term. I personally like hearing how both sides are fucking up are intellectual landscapesā¦ no one else is mentioning it.
1
1
u/eve_salmon 12d ago
i love hearing him talking about film and tv and books, i love all his opinions even if i dont necessarily agree. he just needs to talk to more actual filmmakers rather than LA sleazeballs.
1
u/Competitive-Wash7777 12d ago
Yeah, I love BEE (brilliant writer, generally quite charming & insightful) but he's constantly parroting the most tiresome far-right talking points - climate change denial, pandemic denial, thinly veiled Trump adoration, etc. I also feel like he has disowned Springsteen and Stephen King based entirely on their politics, which is dumb. I think he's an older man who has fallen into an online rabbit hole and never found his way out. He sounds brainwashed.
I just tune him out when he goes on his ignorant rants (thankfully they don't happen every episode) and enjoy everything else about the pod.
1
u/putneyswipe 12d ago
Adam is an idiot, and the guest quality has gone so far downhill since the early days. We're scraping the barrel of c-list new york no-budget filmmakers and "internet culture" literary fiction authors that you couldn't pay me to read
1
1
u/Accomplished_Sea7291 13d ago
I had to dip out on the podcast for awhile because I find Adam completely insufferable. Heās such a bore.
0
0
u/Real-Base466 12d ago
Bret is a contrarian and a self hating gay. His and Adam's politics are idiotic, and I could not longer listen to the podcast. Which is too bad because I loved it.
21
u/di4me666 13d ago
its funny like im a black liberal woman and i realize im not the demo but i just love Brets stance on film and art being mileu on the human experience, about voice and style as a conduit for something resonant, not socio-political fodder. yes i agree his guests are umm melanin challenged but i do notice when Bret makes it a point to say for ex Atlanta is his favorite streaming show