META: MGoPodcasts in China
So...I made the wise decision of moving to China right before football season and did so without a vpn. Everything seemed hunky-dory at first (except for the whole pandemic part where I have to quarantine and be swabbed by people in hazmat suits). I can download all my podcasts on Apple Podcasts. I can watch the Tigers on MLB.TV but I cannot download or listen to any new MGoPodcasts. None of the direct links to the podcast on the main page work. Why are these being blocked? Seth who have you angered??? Other podcast apps such as spotify simply don't work in China at all apparently.
By any chance are there other Michigan fans in China that can help me out with how to download the podcasts? Surely you must feel some sympathy for someone jonesing for Michigan content a week before kickoff.
September 1st, 2021 at 1:42 AM ^
Can you download the files directly from the site? China blocks things that might be subversive.
September 1st, 2021 at 5:38 AM ^
Congrats on being an enemy of the CCP
September 1st, 2021 at 7:40 AM ^
I think this is a great advertising opportunity here. Remember, Monty Python's "Meaning Of Life" was initially banned in Norway, and Sweden took the opportunity to advertise the film as "so funny, it was banned in Norway". The MGoPodcast could be "so good, it was banned in China".
September 1st, 2021 at 9:42 AM ^
When the hot takes get too hot
September 1st, 2021 at 2:26 PM ^
We had too many Covid threads to pass the CCP censorship.
September 1st, 2021 at 6:15 PM ^
Nope. The "Direct download link" doesnt work. mgoblog.com itself loads fine (unlike other sites). I assume it has something to do with the site where the podcast is uploaded or hosted or whatever the correct term is. All my other podcasts download fine (Bill Simmons, Baseball Tonight, NPR Politics, SYSK, PMT, etc.). Alas....I will figure it out somehow.
September 1st, 2021 at 6:08 AM ^
China is asshoe
September 1st, 2021 at 7:25 AM ^
Well, this thread isn't going to help the OP get MgoBlog content by CCP authorities.
September 1st, 2021 at 8:56 AM ^
There was a thread a while back on how Harbaugh was going to ban the color red and my wild guess is that this is what tripped the censor algorithm.
This is where I could make a cheap joke about both China and OSU being evil empires who wear red, but that’s not really accurate. One is a pseudo-totalitarian entity hellbent on complete domination while so thin-skinned and cultish that they’re utterly intolerant of dissent, and the other has a Great Wall and giant pandas.
September 1st, 2021 at 10:08 AM ^
And eggrolls!
September 1st, 2021 at 10:54 AM ^
Interestingly enough (and I tried to double-check this on the infallible internet), egg rolls are probably more American in origin than Chinese, so there might just be as many egg rolls in the 614 then in China, but I honestly have no forking idea if that's so.
September 1st, 2021 at 9:31 PM ^
I lived in China for a year. Most of the menu items on an American Chinese restaurant menu are just that, Americanized sort of Chinese food. I miss real Chinese food.
September 1st, 2021 at 1:06 PM ^
Nope, no egg rolls in China! Just spring rolls.
September 1st, 2021 at 10:08 AM ^
I can't speak to what's going on in China but I'm listening to the pod on Apple Podcasts as we speak.
September 1st, 2021 at 10:39 AM ^
Get a VPN. If you're a foreigner living in China you should have one for accessing things like email and news sites. If you don't know how to get one, speak with other expats there who can help better than mgoblog commenters.
September 1st, 2021 at 1:19 PM ^
Totally agree, other expats will know. VPNs are a cat and mouse game with the censors, one service/server gets shut down, others pop up. You're lucky if you can get a long term, stable source beyond the great firewall. But one can infer that the reason they keep popping up is that there is a huge demand, foreign and domestic, for uncensored internet access, so it's out there
September 1st, 2021 at 1:05 PM ^
I have been traveling to China for 30 years, generally twice a year. Of course I have not been since Covid, last time I was there was October of 2019.
You need a VPN. I use Express VPN. It always worked well for me.
September 1st, 2021 at 6:44 PM ^
I use Express VPN when I'm in China. But I haven't been back since the pandemic started, and the crackdown on Hong Kong. Many of the best VPN servers were in HK, but they usually have options in several countries. Express is inexpensive and has great support.
Where in China are you? My experience has been that the Great Firewall is suffocating in the Eastern cities, but weirdly inconsistent in the West.