Best Of the Left is Truly the Best of the (Leaning) Left

I’ll say this right off the bat: this review is going to turn some people off. So be it. I haven’t written a review in a while but when I realized there wasn’t a review of Best of the Left on Great Pods, I knew what I had to do.

Best of the Left, a podcast hosted by Jay! (yes, he spells it with an exclamation point, which is funny to me because I used to do the same) Tomlinson, is a weekly show that compiles the best segments of, essentially, leftist media. Each episode revolves around a general topic like affordable housing, or the ongoing Palestinian genocide perpetrated by the apartheid state of Israel, or AI. Jay! then scours the (mostly) American media landscape to give listeners a good sense of what those on the left are saying about these topics in bite-sized segments that, when amalgamated, give you a complete, leftist view of a topic.

I’ve been listening to Best of the Left since 2022 but it’s been around for much longer than that. Officially launched in 06 as a web-based show, it’s one of the longest running ‘news’ shows around. It’s even won a few awards, which, tip of the hat to Jay! here, isn’t easy to do.

Now then, for the actual review.

I generally would recommend this show to pretty much anyone. If you find yourself anywhere on the left side of our political divide (circle really, but we’re not going to get into political theory here for the sake of brevity), this show does an excellent job of summing up the general feelings of those who hold left or left-leaning beliefs on any given topic. You’ll find yourself hearing snippets from Medhi Hasan one minute then an obscure, drivetime radio show out of Poughkeepsie the next. Jay! truly does an excellent job of sourcing his material and I mean this truly; I am in awe of all the different media outlets he has time to sample from. If, like me, you don’t have or make the time to keep track of what’s being said on MSNBC and every leftist podcast, this one will certainly keep you up to date.

For those on the other side of the spectrum, this can be a helpful tool for you too. It’s always good to keep up to date with what those you don’t agree with are saying. Maybe you get that on Twitter. Maybe you watch MSNBC. If not, this podcast will be useful for you to keep up.

I do, however, need to highlight a few negatives.

First, if you’re not someone who enjoys the arrangement that is common for political media (bloviating, iron-willed talking heads ranting and yelling over each other), some of the snippets are, in a word, grating. To those of you who say that giving these assholes more of a platform is the only reason their voices matter at all, I tend to agree with you. What counts for journalism in this day and age is, often, absolute trash. But that doesn’t mean we can tune it out. These Biff Tannens may be nothing but hair gel and teleprompters, but they are listened to by hundreds of thousands to millions around the world and sadly shape a lot of what is thought of as leftist positions. So knowing what they’re saying is pretty important.

Which takes me to my next point. As I hinted at in the title, the show isn’t really focused on the complete left. As a progressive so far out on the left branch I can reach out and tinkle the right, I often find myself truly agreeing with only half of the segments each show and dismissing the others as milquetoast. Here in the US, the left is a BIG bucket that includes what many would label as truly centrist. In a bid to touch on all these different points on the spectrum, Jay! does bring in perspectives that aren’t truly left. However, this doesn’t make them any less important to hear. I saw a tweet recently that said sorry to all those Democrats who feel like I’m too harsh on them. I punch right and that’s where you are. That’s why I continue to listen to Best of the Left even when I don’t hear myself represented in the complete episode. This show gives me an understanding of what Biden-loving “liberals” are talking about. Which is helpful when I need to refute my father’s hatred of AOC and ‘wokeness’. The fact that Jay! is able to mix in some true leftist thought and progressive ideas is just the icing on the cake.

Overall, I’m truly appreciative of Jay!’s hard work on this show. I don’t listen to every episode. I can’t care about all these topics. AI? I know it’s important. I do. But I don’t care. We’re all fucked from it anyway so I let other people care about AI. But I listen to most. I’ve flirted with becoming a member so I can get the bonus segments (usually one or two per show plus an extra roundtable discussing ideas with others who, like Jay!, are more left than the show itself) and that’s something I’ll probably end up doing at some point. Mostly because I think shows like this are important and the beautiful use of podcasts: to educate.

Go check it out and Jay! if you read this, thanks for your hard work!

Score: 4.5 out of 5.

You can find out more about Best of the Left on their website, or on Great Pods.