Ben Cannon
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bencannon.bsky.social
Ben Cannon
@bencannon.bsky.social
440 followers 290 following 67 posts
Podcast obsessed writer covering the medium on @avclub.com. Montreal by way of Chicago.

https://www.avclub.com/author/cannonfire83
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bencannon.bsky.social
Wake up babe, a new Ernest Hemingway short story just dropped.
A Facebook Marketplace listing which reads, Virginity Rocks Hoodie. There is a photo of said hoodie, a forest green garment with the words “Virginity Rocks” printed across the chest. Below, under Condition, it says, “Never worn.”
June 12, 2025 at 9:09 PM
bencannon.bsky.social
But wait, there’s more!
May 9, 2025 at 3:24 PM
bencannon.bsky.social
This clip from the NYT homepage is a staggering example of why podcasts just shouldn’t have video.

Like, negative charisma and just so amateurish, with the same slow zoom applied to every clip.

(No audio, I’m not going to subject you to Ross Douthat)
April 11, 2025 at 5:57 PM
bencannon.bsky.social
Nothing says winning like logging on to check your retirement and being greeted with this notification:
An alert which reads, in part, "History tells us to stay the course."
April 4, 2025 at 2:35 PM
bencannon.bsky.social
I feel like a dang psychic. I wrote these grafs for @avclub.com about absurdist comedy podcast Beef And Dairy Network last week.

Read the whole piece here: www.avclub.com/podcast-cano...
A snippet from a feature on The A.V. Club about the podcast Beef And Dairy Network which reads, “Is there another show whose moment of relevance has come quite so suddenly and unexpectedly as that of the Beef And Dairy Network podcast? Welsh comedian Benjamin Partridge, the show’s creator and host, could hardly have predicted it when he started the show a decade ago, but his deliciously postmodern program chronicling the comic absurdities of a monomaniacally beef-obsessed alternate reality looks pretty close to our current one these days.” Story from first screenshot, continued: “Our present paradigm is somehow more ridiculous than that of the show, with social media awash in everything beef and dairy—whether it’s eating raw offal, quaffing raw milk, or the baffling ascendancy of tallow as a sort of panacea—being peddled by influencers and grifters alike, including the actual United States Secretary for Health and Human Services at a Steak ‘n Shake (by Biglari—Doughboys fans are loving this parenthetical).”
April 3, 2025 at 1:04 PM
bencannon.bsky.social
Such an awesome move by Pocket Casts to open up access to its web player for everyone, free of charge.

Even more, I love that they're doubling down on the openness and freedom of the podcast medium with this move.

blog.pocketcasts.com/2025/03/11/w...
The Bigger Picture We're not just making our Web Player open, we're making a statement. Podcasting is one of the last open corners of the internet, and we're here to keep it that way. With this move, sharing podcasts is easier than ever. No paywalls, no closed platforms, just open links that work anywhere. Whether you're sending a must-listen episode to a friend or embedding a show on your website, Pocket Casts remains committed to giving all podcasters, big or small, the tools to reach their audiences freely and without barriers. If you believe in a future where podcasting remains open, and accessible to all, join us.
March 11, 2025 at 4:35 PM
bencannon.bsky.social
Love to connect with my audience!
A comment from user Starz are Back!? that reads, "Shit sound like homework"
January 27, 2025 at 7:06 PM
bencannon.bsky.social
Just an incredible manifesto, and the sort of thing I've been thinking on and working towards for years. I love to see things moving in this direction.

I've been asking the same question over at The A.V. Club about the audio world's own Cahiers du cinema as well.
"If this absence of critical analysis for a medium sounds like small potatoes, consider the growth film culture has achieved through writing and discussion. Cahiers du cinéma, Pauline Kael, Roger Ebert—even Nathan Rabin—all helped to advance our shared lexicon for regarding and dissecting movies. Critics don’t exist as some sort of golden mean, evaluating works in a purely Manichaean light. They help to instill new ways of seeing and experiencing, subtly shaping our faculties through their examination of technique, structure, message, and tone. To paraphrase some classic Ebert wisdom, a critic isn’t simply concerned with what a work is about, but more how it is about it."
December 5, 2024 at 3:16 PM
bencannon.bsky.social
I just need someone to bear witness that I spent nearly 1/5th of my life in 2024 listening to a podcast…
A screenshot displaying the entirely unacceptable sum of time I spent listening to podcasts in 2024: 75 days, 19 hours, 11 minutes. Shudder.
December 5, 2024 at 2:03 PM
bencannon.bsky.social
Can't get over the quality of this cake that was part of billionaire Michael Rubin's celebrity White Party in the Hamptons.
A white sheet cake with the words "Go Shorty It's Your Birthday" rather lazily scrawled on it in black frosting, surrounded by candles.
July 5, 2023 at 4:29 AM