I listen to a lot (I also have a long commute, and tend to listen to podcasts when I exercise). According to my phone, my current pinball ones are Bro, C2C, Eclectic, Flippin' and Mashing, For Amusement Only, H2H, Mrs. Pin, Pinball News & Pinball Mag, Pinball Profile, Pinheadz, Pinball Podcast, Rip Tide, Special When Lit, Pinball Players, Slam Tilt, Spinner is Lit, This Flippin, TWIP, and TILT THRU. And I easily keep up with that volume, coupled with some news podcasts, video game podcasts, and history podcasts.

Now, many of the above do not even average a monthly release (C2C, F&M, Pinheadz, Rip Tide, Spinner, and TILT THRU all seem to be less than monthly at this point), and a couple more are on a monthly schedule (Bro and PN & PM). Easy to keep up with, in other words.

Most of the podcasts that are weekly (or more frequent) also cover news. Since the news is small (as in, pinball is so narrow any weekly podcast can pretty easily summarize all the news for you), perhaps you want to evaluate among those (TWIP, H2H, Slam, and Special) if you are just after the news in an audio fashion. That said, I'd just hit the fast forward button if I find a subject repetitive or dull or whatnot. Usually I enjoy hearing the different perspectives, and there are some pretty extreme variances in opinion out there.

Definitely. Almost all the podcasts I listen to are at 1.3x to 1.5x.

So mean.

+1 on this, if you like history this is awesome. Probably the first podcast I ever subscribed to. Sadly, it is infrequent. If you like the history of conflict, give Revolutions a try (hosted by Mike Duncan; he's far more frequent with releasing than Dan and it's a similar style).

Pivoting back to topic...

Yes, one sees the same thing on the video game side. I believe on their latest episode The Pinball Podcast announced a change to their format to no longer give focus to covering the news (since so many weekly podcasts are doing it now). jar155 can likely confirm.

On EGP we usually only talk about the "bigger" news stories, since we're every other week (again, the weeklies are just going to hit all the detailed news items better).

Bro and PN & PM cover the bigger news on the monthly schedule, if one's into that.

Overall, I find the non-weekly shows tend to rely on news less and use a greater percentage of time to discuss broad topics, deep dives, or theoretical pinball talks. So, it all just depends what someone likes. I like a lot of variety. I've shed a lot of shows that didn't work for me, and sometimes I drop a show, wait a few months, and then give it another try to see if they've changed enough to fit my interests.

I think this came up a while ago in another thread, but it lends itself to this topic so I'll opine a bit on it. The issue is one of access. Video games have an entire journalism industry that has cropped up (and have their own growing pains, such as scandals regarding reviews). People have full-time jobs covering the field, lots of employees at companies information can flow from, etc.

In the world of pinball podcasting, you basically have two choices:
1) Have the industry invite you in (this may be informal or formal). They offer you sneak-peaks, details, and a lot of transparency, but you are hit with an NDA or told the intel is off the record. Nutshell, you know everything, but can say nothing because that's what you agreed to.
2) Be able to say what you want, but often not know anything particularly unique. Also have a harder time accessing industry insiders, since you don't have a strong prior relationship with the organization already established.

For EGP, Tony and I went route #2 (and I'd like to think we've always been honest in our assessments because of it, but that's for the audience to determine). Of course, I see a difference between being honest and being deliberately rude (and maybe we cross that line at times, for entertainment purposes, but truthfulness and brutality do not need to be hand-in-hand). We do not try to get access to upcoming title information behind the scenes, and thus we know next to nothing on those subjects. Our requests for information are sometimes answered but often ignored as well (I don't have Gomez on speed-dial). We do not try to "become friends" with people who work for pinball manufacturers (I think that's the big one... it's hard to say your friend's game sucks for a lot of people and personally it's just easier for me to avoid the situation entirely), but it's a small hobby. Podcasters are first and foremost fans, and that fandom can lead down a path of wanting access and being in the know (and then being stuck with information that cannot be revealed).

Ironically, even with all these steps, I still will get someone out of the blue offering up a detail not for the audience. And it can happen brutally fast (as in, I might get an email that says, "Hey, heard you talking about our next game, this isn't for public consumption but [INSERT REVEAL HERE]"). Seriously, there isn't even an opportunity to say no thanks sometimes, they just spill the beans while telling you it isn't to be revealed. So you either reveal and burn that bridge and disrespect the trust they put in you, or you keep your mouth shut.