The Minnesota-Based I Drink Your Podcast Finds Its Footing

In July I wrote about a brand-new Minnesota-based podcast I’d be checking out: I Drink Your Podcast, in which some friends join together to banter about movies that came out in 2007. Why 2007? According to the hosts, it was one of the best years for movies. They aren’t just discussing the best movies of this year, however, but also the worst.

There are four hosts: Wesley, Ben, Matt, and Emily. As the name of the podcast would suggest, they talk about what they are drinking, give a summary of the movie, and end with a game show segment called “Battle of The Twits.” The structure of the podcast was a bit rough at first. There were no stings (sound clips) to introduce segments of the show, and no host introductions, and the show would go off the rails on an unrelated topic. However, the past several episodes have made a huge improvement.

I Drink Your Podcast started out as a really long show that was dominated by the “Battle of The Twits” segment, a bizarre contest between two of the hosts in which they have scenarios or questions they have to answer, and one of the other hosts chooses who gave the better answer. (For example, in the Juno episode, two of the hosts had to write their own “Penny Saver” (newspaper ad) based on any subject.) The length of the show has definitely shortened in more recent episodes, which makes it more appealing for casual podcast listeners, and there isn’t as much time spent on that last segment of the show, which I consider a good thing.

The ideas for the game show segment are original and interesting—it just doesn’t fit well in a podcast format. The hosts seem more eager to create these questions and scenarios than to actually talk about the movies. If that is the direction the show wants to go in, then it needs to be rebranded. The reason I say that is because, in the Juno episode, only 30 minutes were spent on talking about the actual movie, and the “Battle of The Twits” was an hour long. There were so many good moments in Juno that were missed, and I sighed a bit when they were done talking about the movie itself.

Despite that, one of the hosts, Emily, is particularly refreshing to listen to. Granted, she hasn’t seen a lot of these movies, but she seems so excited to be there. She is the one generally trying to make sure everyone stays on topic, though her voice is drowned out sometimes. Some of the best moments from the shows are when Emily has facts to share about each movie. To use the Juno episode again, she gave facts about the production, and it was fascinating to hear about Diablo Cody’s writing process.

I Drink Your Podcast has some hiccups, and I think they are still trying to find their audience, but they have improved tremendously in just a matter of months. They already have guests on the show and have also been creating their own stings! Give them time, and I think it will be a fantastic podcast that is driven by passion and effort.