An Expedition Through Conversational Chaos
Choosing the best episodes of “Roderick On The Line” is like trying to pick your favourite child, if your children were all interesting, neurotic, and prone to going off on tangents about flannel shirts and the cultural significance of airplane food. With nearly 600 episodes of John Roderick and Merlin Mann’s rambling phone conversations, selecting the top episodes is both a labor of love and an exercise in masochism, requiring one to relive countless hours of stories about broken appliances, failed dating attempts, and John’s mysterious past as either a world traveler or elaborate fiction writer.
These episodes represent the perfect storm of Roderick’s storytelling prowess and Mann’s uncommon sense, creating moments of conversational awesomeness that will make you laugh, think, and question why you’re so emotionally invested in two middle-aged men discussing the proper way to organize a junk drawer. Whether you’re a longtime listener looking to revisit the classics or a newcomer trying to understand what all the fuss is about, these episodes showcase everything that makes ROTL the most beautifully semi-hinged podcast on the internet.
Ep. 376: “Wrong Kind of Vacation”
Listen on: MerlinMann.com | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast | Pocket Casts
John’s quiet life involved danger.
Ep. 55: “A Welsh Troll”
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Life with a German disease.
Ep. 529: “Not Everything is Everything”
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We’re not at the time of yarn yet.
Ep. 149: “The Humility Opportunities”
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John has a little bit of hair anxiety.
Ep. 341: “The Head of Two-Thousand”
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John started to have a cool.
Ep. 238: “We’re Not Farmers”
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How’s Peepaw?
Ep. 119: “A Cocaine Economy”
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John knows this house is BUILT of pot.
Ep. 25: “Supertrain”
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Teching makes; radioactive devil dogs; faking the patois poorly; Anakin’s dubious aocncept; plus, a detailed glmopse into your exciting new role in John’s comprehensive plan.
Ep. 182: “House Trotter”
Listen on: MerlinMann.com | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast | Pocket Casts
Acid Droplets Beans Pork.
Ep. 378: “Lion, Tiger, Horse, Monkey”
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John has rarely driven a card hard and hung it up wet.
Ep. 21: “Dead Rubber Girl in My Closet”
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Oates, Alfalfa, and some numerous options for love.
Ep. 169: “Again With the Pie”
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We’re all baked out of trauma.
Ep. 441: “The Blessing of the White Dog”
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It’s not John’s tool.
Ep. 64: “Sunset University”
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Let’s say you had a two-frog cannon.
Ep. 379: “Garbage Island”
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John feels like the world is changing.
Ep. 176: “The Opossum Had Distracted Me”
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John brooks no truck.
Ep. 300: “The Airplane Doesn’t Care”
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John had a motorcycle ride with himself.
Ep. 14: “Big City Apology”
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A lot of problems.
Ep. 178: “Action Movie Doctor”
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Deus Ex Valvina.
Ep. 381: “Slots in Some Imaginary Future”
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John was the chase vehicle.
Ep. 69: “Campfire Spaghetti Party”
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People would treat you so differently if you were literally riding a bear.
Ep. 446: “God Made the Rat”
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John was interrogating the apartment.
Ep. 165: “This Explains Everything”
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It was worse than fighting boar.
Ep. 377: “The Stravinsky of Toilet Paper”
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John deserves unenjoyment.
Ep. 428: “Pyramid of Spoons”
Listen on: MerlinMann.com | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast | Pocket Casts
Do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy?
Read our review of Roderick on the Line