The Profit – The Radio Dan Show

Now that we are in 2015 I can sit back and reflect on the last year and the awesome things I saw and did. Some of these things didn’t start in 2014 but if I saw them that year then it counts, baby! Here are a few of them (really, just the ones I could think of):

Grand Budapest Hotel

Still my favorite movie of 2014 is Wes Anderson’s latest and I believe greatest. If you haven’t seen it by now, please rectify that.

Highly Questionable on ESPN

When it comes to ESPN’s talking heads shows people seem to be in agreement about loving Pardon The Interruption most of all. I get that, sometimes I watch it too. It’s a great show with two knowledgeable sports guys (Michael Wilbon & Tony Kornheiser) who go back and forth about what’s going on in sports today. Great. But it’s no Highly Questionable.

Dan Le Batard, his father Gonzalo, and Bomani Jones make the best sports team you could possibly want. Highly Questionable does something that most other shows about sports don’t seem to do: they make it fun. Le Batard and Jones both know their stuff and frequently when they fall on opposite sides of an issue I’m not sure who to go with since both make great arguments. The show is fast and funny and as you can see by the picture above, not afraid to tackle the important issues in sports.

Maron on The Today Show

I love Marc Maron. I love the Today Show. Every morning on Today they have these four minute interviews with celebrities about this and that and really they not very entertaining. The interview is usually too short for anything interesting to happen. But not when Mr. Maron showed up and made Today host Tamron Hall a little uncomfortable.

See for yourself.

Shake It Off by Taylor Swift

I was no fan of Taylor Swfit until this year. Now, I’m working how to justify marrying her. Funny how one video can change things. You probably have already seen the video for so I won’t post it here. Instead I will post my own initial reaction to it from The Radio Dan Show.

Foster The People

Foster The People started the year off right with the new album Supermodel, which has been in my rotation since it came out in January of 2014. I’m down with pretty much every cut on that album.

Their previous album, Torches, is STILL in my rotation from 2011, which might be a little silly of me, but hey I loves me some FTP.

This was also the only band I saw in concert this year and yes it was totally awesome. And my daughter was clever enough to get my a copy of Supermodel on vinyl. Neato!

Last Week Tonight

I don’t watch the Daily Show or The Colbert Report, however HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver managed to breakthrough my ‘no humorous news show’ policy which I think I just invented. Anyway it’s hilarious and you should be watching it.

If you don’t have HBO, don’t fret. They have put most of the features from Last Week Tonight on YouTube. Enjoy!

The Americans

I don’t really know why The Americans isn’t a bigger deal than it is. It’s smart, interesting and has some of the best acting on television. The story of Russian spies living in the US in the early 80’s was even better in it’s second season. Season three starts Jan. 28th on FX. Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell just might be doing the best acting on television these days.

The Profit

In Marcus We Trust. Each week on CNBC’s The Profit, super rich business guy Marcus Lemonis goes to a failing business and tries to fix it. However he doesn’t go in and do some fairy godmother like makeover. No, instead he buys half the business (or however much he can get) and puts himself in charge. What I love best is that things don’t always work out. Sometimes everything goes well and sometimes Marcus and his big bank account walk away.

Talkers NYC

talkRumble — Pictured: (l-r): Mike Gallagher, Bubba the Love Sponge, Joyce Kaufman, David Webb, Kevin McCullough, Alan Colmes, Thom Hartmann.

Talkers Magazine holds a talk radio convention every year in New York City. This is the first year I attended and it was a great time. It was very interesting to be in the same room with some of the most well known people in the talk radio industry. Who knows, I may have even learned a thing or two! Not to mention I did get to hang out with my Switching Channels co-host Darryl Roberts.

Newsies on Broadway

Photo linked from Broadway.org. Credit: Heidi Gutman

When the movie Newsies came out in 1992 I can remember thinking, “I ain’t seeing this singing and dancing Disney crap!” Fast forward to June of 2014 and walking out of the Nederlander Theater after seeing the Broadway version of Newsies I can remember thinking, “I can’t wait to see this again!”

Newsies is a fun musical with great dance numbers and basically a bunch of people jumping all over the place around a unique large metallic set. I haven’t seen a lot of live shows, but this was by far the best one I’ve seen. It’s currently touring the country, and while the cast is different than the crew I saw on Broadway, it’s certainly worth your time.

LA Podfest 2014

The other trip I made this year was to Los Angeles to the LA Podfest. Which is really more like a comedy festival featuring podcasters. While there I met some great people and was able to score some interviews with podcasters way more well known than myself, like Todd Glass, Jimmy Pardo, Ryan Sickler, and Marc Maron. You can check those out here. I am already counting down the days to LA Podfest 2015 (which is the weekend of Sept. 18th) and will be actively trying to convince Darryl Roberts to go with me.

Okay, so that was some of the awesome things I experienced in 2014. What about you? What was cool for you in 2014? Let me know in the comment section below.