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After having an iPod for a little over a year, I've finally discovered the joy that is podcasting.
Yeah...I'm a little slow when it comes to this technology stuff.
For those of you who don't know what a podcast is (I somehow find it unlikely anyone on Hatrack doesn't know what one is...but you never know), it's essentially an internet radio show that you can download onto your mp3 player or computer. A lot of radio shows are beginning to podcast their episodes, but there's still a lot of shows that are only found online.
Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to find out what podcasts we all listen to.
I'm really just feeding my own growing addiction, and look forward to listen to what everyone else is listening to.
To start thing off, here's my list. (I just copied the info from the podcasts themselves. I know it looks like I'm schilling for these people. Sorry.)
-The History of Rome A weekly podcast tracing the rise, decline and fall of the Roman Empire
-Never Not Funny TV personality and comedian Jimmy Pardo is bringing his razor-sharp wit and conversational skills to the world of podcasting. Every week, he?ll sit down with a friend in comedy to shoot the breeze, share some stories and laugh at life. Join him, won?t you?
-The Non-Prophets Hosted by Denis Loubet, Matt Dillahunty and Schilling. Blasphemously entertaining current events commentary from Austin's loudest, funniest atheists, on the front lines against the fundie onslaught!
-NPR: Wait, Wait...Don't tell me! NPR's weekly current events quiz. Have a laugh and test your news knowledge while figuring out what's real and what we've made up.
-Point of Inquiry Point of Inquiry is the premiere podcast of the Center for Inquiry, drawing on CFI's relationship with the leading minds of the day including Nobel Prize-winning scientists, public intellectuals, social critics and thinkers, and renowned entertainers.
-The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe A weekly Podcast talkshow discussing the latest news and topics from the world of the paranormal, fringe science, and controversial claims from a scientific point of view.
-Common Sense with Dan Carlin A blend of audio commentary and news analysis by one of the leading thinkers among today's politically independent crowd.
-Dogma Free America News and views about dogma from around the country and around the world. At Dogma Free America we look at the dogmas and try to imagine a dogma free world.
-Preston and Steve's Podcast Standard morning radio, out of Philadelphia.
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If it makes you feel any better, Javert, I had heard of podcasts before, but didn't utilize them. Thanks for sharing the info!
Posts: 155 | Registered: Jul 2006
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I'm subscribed to a few video podcasts, but I can't really ever get into the audio ones.
I guess I'll post the ones I subscribe to anyway. I used to have more, but I got bored with quite a few, so I'm always checking out new ones to see if I might like them.
The New Yorker Animated Cartoons: I find these quite funny.
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Thank you, Javert. I have now discovered how to study for any sort of Roman history I may need. Posts: 3932 | Registered: Sep 1999
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The only podcasts I listen to are yarn or harry potter related. I'm hoping to use them more when I get an ipod (very soon) to work at my loom.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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I was about to start this very thread. I started downloading podcasts at the beginning of the year, but gave it up when I lost a reliable internet connection. I'm currently downloading a glut of them, still working out which ones I like and don't like.
This American Life - Best podcast, hands down. Great stories on every kind of topic. Each one is about an hour long and contains three stories on a common theme. There's a new one every week.
TEDTalks - Video podcast, usually 15-25 minutes long. Each podcast is a presentation from an annual conference (Technology, Entertainment, Design) held in California. I've only watched a few so far, but the quality seems consistently high. The presentation by Lawrence Lessig on user generated content is really good, both in its content and its presentation.
NPR: Most E-Mailed Stories - Daily podcast consisting of the radio shows that received the most interest on the NPR website. Makes for an interesting collection of news and stories. I'm not always interested in every bit, but like it more often than not.
The New Yorker Animated Cartoons - It takes the classic New Yorker cartoons and turns them into 20-second animations. Rather amusing.
I have a bunch more on my computer, but haven't listened to them enough to reccomend.
Posts: 2149 | Registered: Aug 2000
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I'll second Miro's first two(i have no knowledge of the second two ). This American Life is my favorite show on the radio.
I also download The Philosophy Podcast though it's not updated regularly. It's readings from random philosophical essays and texts.
Posts: 8741 | Registered: Apr 2001
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I've tried out a number of podcasts, but unless they're very short (< 20 minutes per episode) and updated sporadically enough that when a new one comes out it's an exciting surprise, I just don't listen to them. I can't seem to find the time. When do you guys listen to your podcasts?
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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GeeksOn: This is a “podcast by geeks, for geeks.” They’re not really my type of geeks, though– they kind of stick to the entertainment portion of geekdom, reviewing and discussing literature, books, movies, and video games. I keep waiting for them to rag on Vista, but so far it hasn’t happened. (Or if it has, I missed it)
They do have a good time on their show, and they manage to keep it lively. There are four guys, and they’ve got wide enough differences in viewpoint to make for a good mix. They also run some great interviews– Orson Scott Card has been on and so has George RR Martin.
All Songs Considered– From NPR, this podcast features live concerts and tracks from artists across the spectrum. At least, that’s what the premise is SUPPOSED to be. That’s what I signed up to the podcast for. However, lately, the podcast has been featuring scads of bands that all sound like they were grown in the same indie-potting soil. They should change the name of the show to ‘All Indie/Emo Rock Bands Considered.’
Of course, then they drop great concerts on you, like the most recent one– Fred Thompson, a two hour extravaganza of guitar and poetry. Gems like this are what makes wading through the fad of skinny, atonal, wannabe-beat poets worth it.
The Writer’s Almanac– Garrison Keillor, that drowsy-voiced magician from NPR, narrates historical happenings and reads a poem or two. It’s a brilliant podcast. History and poetry, and one of the best entertainers of our time? Heck, yes. Of course I subscribe. What’s especially wonderful is that the poetry featured is all across the board– classics, modern, post-modern…cubist? I don’t know. ‘All Songs Considered’ should take a page from the Writer’s Almanac and diversify their offerings.
Odyssey- Odyssey is a six week writers workshop at Anselm college. They’ve recorded some of the great authors they’ve had as guests, and put the recordings to podcasts. The podcasts run about 15 minutes apiece; I really enjoy them.
Time Waster’s Guide Radio: This is a new podcast, and honestly, the only reason I picked it up was because Stacy Whitman was a guest. Stacy is an editor at Mirrorstone, which is a division of Wizards of the Coast, who showed some interest in a novelization of my story ‘Blackberry Witch,’ and in my as-yet-unfinished-fantasy-series, ‘The Lord of All Fools.’ Stacy is also an acquaintance of Eric James Stone, who I’ve talked about before, and who currently merits no further mention. Except to say that I’m still jealous of his genius, and that he’s spending six weeks at the Odyssey workshop. Jerkface. :shakes his fist at EJS:
At any rate, this is a good podcast– a bit long.
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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Macbreak Weekly: has a very nice, knowledgeable and easy to listen to panel that discusses recent developments in the Mac world. TWiT
This Week in Tech - This one is mostly so I have something to listen to while on the way to and from work. But it's the same guys that do Macbreak, so it's not that bad. TWiT
iTunes - Meet the Author: interesting series that only has 3 entries, but I can't say no to readings by George R.R. Martin, Alan Alda and Stephen Colbert. Hopefully future releases will be equally awesome. (iTunes only)
Bungie Studios Podcast - I'm a Bungie nut and have been for a long time. This is just fun. Bungie.net
Downloadable Content - I also love Penny Arcade. This one's sporadic, but it's fun when it happens. Penny Arcade
Sam and Jim Go to Hollywood: The story of two guys that sell their successful restaurant in Minnesota and decide to follow their lifelong dream of writing for television. They're both very personable and funny, and they have not a little bit of writing talent. They give good advice and a peek into the craziness that is writing in Hollywood. Sam and Jim Go to Hollywood
EDIT: You can find all of these on iTunes, but I've added urls for them anywho.
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NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me: Seconded. If you only download one news/political podcast, make it this one.
Odyssey - Thirded.
Townhall Weekend Journal - Best of that week's conservative talk radio. No, not the guys you're thinking of. These are the good guys, like Hugh Hewitt and Dennis Prager.
Jillian Michaels radio show - Tricky to find (you have to go to KFI Sundays and just pick out the Jillian Michaels) but good if you're into the health/fitness/weight loss thing. I usually listen to that one when I'm walking. If you're into tech stuff (what gagets are new, etc) Leo LaPort's tech talk of the same feed is great.
I also get fiction from Escape Pod and Escape Pod classic when the mood strikes me.
And I do some quirky ones, like the iTricks.com Penn & Teller news podcast and Dennis Miller's radio show and a show for writers called "The Survivalist's Guide to Writing" or something like that.
Great thread, BTW. I look forward to trying out some of these.
Posts: 1894 | Registered: Aug 2000
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(Many of the DW podcasts are in German, but not all are and they have a lot that they offer -- very much worth taking a quick look at that page to see if there's anything up your alley)
And that's it for me. I should poke around for a few more.
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The Skeptics Guide to The Universe: http://theskepticsguide.org/ A weekly podcast covering recent news about the paranormal, alternative medicine, and fringe science. They also tend to have some very interesting guests on the show.
The Nature Podcast: http://www.nature.com/nature/podcast A weekly podcast from the Nature journal of science covering recent science news. They tend to have a lot of interviews with the scientist behind the stories they are discussing.
Downloadable Content: http://penny-arcade.com This one is mostly for fans of penny arcade, and pretty much consists of the creators of the strip planning out the next comic. For anyone who likes the strip it can get really funny at times.
Gaming Steve: http://gamingsteve.com/ A pretty good gaming podcast. He mostly comments on recent gaming news and releases. At the moment he isn't really updating anymore, although I'm pretty sure he plans to start putting out a regular show again sometime in the future.
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My children bought me an iPod for Christmas, and I'd like to start listening to podcasts while I knit. I haven't yet, and I'm not sure how to download them - is it just like adding music to i-tunes? I'll have to wait until I get home tonight to look into it, but I'd be really interested in some of the NPR ones.
Posts: 2069 | Registered: May 2001
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PotterCast produced by The Leaky Cauldron, and on occasion, The Instance, a World of Warcraft one Posts: 349 | Registered: Jul 2006
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Escape Pod (already mentioned): They buy non-exclusive rights to science fiction and fantasy short stories and then distribute it for free. I don't like every story, but there's a lot of great stories there by well-known authors.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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Harry Shearer's Le Show is one of my favorite news shows. For anyone who doesn't know who he is he does tons of voices on The Simpsons, and has been in some of the Chrisopher Guest movies. The show is fantastic. It's all politics and current events. His delivery is very sarcastic and very dry. He has some great segments and he also does lot of impersonations and sketches. Then to top it off he throws in a bit of eclectic music each week.
Posts: 8741 | Registered: Apr 2001
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quote:Odyssey is a six week writers workshop at Anselm college.
Saint Anselm College, where I got my ridiculously expensive B.A.
Right now I only listen to one podcast, the BSG one. Of course, it hasn't been updated in ages because BSG doesn't start again until March. >_<
Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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Philosophy: The Classics The Philosophy Podcast Philosophy 185: Heidegger Some other philosophy podcasts (I have only listened to a couple episodes total... heh) History of Rome Heart of Darkness Classic Tales Podcast Aesop's Fable Podcast
Only ones I have actually listened to are a few of the classic tales and Aesop's fables. I am subscribed to all of those though. Oh, and one on Hannibal.
Posts: 2705 | Registered: Sep 2006
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quote:Originally posted by lem: Will be buying a podcast soon.
An mp3 player? Ipod?
Anyways, I'd like to again give a nod to The Skeptics Guide to the Universe and add a mention for Astronomy Cast. I'd especially recommend checking out their series on the planets of the solar system. It's a bit long, with a 25 to 45 minute show for each planet, but it was very informative and interesting.
Posts: 2437 | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:Originally posted by TomDavidson: Since there is no subtle way to listen to a podcast at work, I do not listen to podcasts.
Is that due to the nature of your work, or because you don't own a pair of headphones? Because I think we can all chip in and get you a real nice pair, Tom. Posts: 3852 | Registered: Feb 2002
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Thanks to this thread I have gotten into Le Show (love it!) and The Skeptics Guide to the Universe. I like the content of Skeptics, but I think the hosts act like a bunch of condescending jack-asses to believers. If they lost the contempt and name calling I would enjoy the show a lot more.
Posts: 2445 | Registered: Oct 2004
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-This American Life (NPR) hosted By Ira Glass. This podcast is now free for new episodes, and the archives are free to listen, but charge .99 to download. The show focuses on a new theme each week, and contains several acts, with different aspects of that theme. For instance, last week's "matchmakers," had a story about a woman who set up organ donations, a couple of sponsored an afgan wedding, and a story about a girl who was set up on a horrible blind date by a friend. The stories are often poignant, and the reporting is solid, careful, and well produced.
-The Adam Carolla Show. Former host of Loveline, The Man show, and Too Late with Adam Carolla, as well as producer of Crank Yankers. This is a morning drive time radio show featuring newsgirl Teresa Strasser. Favorite topics are issues of class and race, education, technology, music and film. Carolla often has good insights into living a full life, and understanding one's place in the world, and how to work towards one's goals.
-The Don and Mike Show. An afternoon show I used to listen to in highschool, sometimes I tune in for the news portion or interesting segments... but it's mostly been out of steam after the various fcc shenanigans of the past 4 years.
-Sunday Baroque Conversations. Periodic podcasts of interviews with interesting baroque music aficionados and academics or recording and performing artists. Mostly music oriented.
-Dr. Drew. A health and life advice show with the host of loveline. This show is two hours a day, focusing on general health topics and health in the news, eating advice, addiction, psychology, exercise, and medical technology information and interviews. Dr. Drew is the most informative and realistic health personality in radio- he aims at being the most trustworthy, patient-oriented adviser to the public on health issues.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Here's a little thread necromancy for your day.
I've been a long time listener of many of the popular podcasts here, like This American Life, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, Fresh Air, Radiolab, The Moth and the rest. But lately I've been trying to branch out and find some new stuff. There are a few I'm really starting to get into, so I thought I'd share.
First off, there's Gresham College Audio. I don't know a lot about Gresham College other than what's on its Wikipedia page. But they sponsor free public lectures by some of the most learned people in England. Obviously this podcast is hit and miss. But the variety of topics and quality of the lecturers have been great enough that it's hard not to find something stunning if you look.
I've only been listening a few weeks, but some of my favorites are: An Even Shorter History of Nearly Everything: A lecture primarily about the history of The Royal Society. The Language of the King James Bible: A series of lectures in honor of the KJV's 400th anniversary. Keep It Short: A lecture on Bach's "Magnificat" by Sir Christopher Hogwood, of whom I've long been a fan. Does Bursting One Bubble Lead to Another?: An overview of financial cycles that is made more interesting by the fact that it's given by a member of Parliament.
There are several others I was going to mention, but I think I'll stop at a manageable four. Go through the archives and you're sure to find something on the list that strikes your fancy, whatever that is.
(Also, this post has grown long enough that I'll get to my other discoveries later.)
Posts: 2804 | Registered: May 2003
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Comedian, SNL alumni and creator/producer/host of Last Comic Standing Jay Mohr has had a podcast called Mohr Stories for a while under Kevin Smith's network of Smodcast. Every week Jay does a show with different comedians, producers and even his own manager Barry Katz was surprisingly hilarious, the show is all about who Jay thinks is funny and enjoys talking to. I find that is the greatest premise around. Understand though that this is not for the faint of heart, they are comedians with no one booing them and no censors fining them, it can be strange to hear comedians trying to make other professionals laugh.
Also his wife Nikki Cox joins the show at complete random times for different reasons and more than holds her own, as a weekly listener I kinda wait for her insights and humor.
Posts: 2302 | Registered: Aug 2008
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I've never heard that one. But it seems like every comedian working today has a podcast. Mostly in the chat show format. I've listened to several, and have a couple that I follow intermittently. But you kind of have to pick and choose, as you couldn't keep up with all of them if it was your full time job. And most of them are 1-2 hours per episode, which can kill even the most fascinating conversations. One day a comedian is going to learn how to edit, and they're going to rule the podcasting universe.
I don't subscribe to any of the comedian-chat-show podcasts, but the ones I kind of keep on my radar and pick through most frequently are Marc Maron's WTF and The Nerdist. Even those I'm a little ambivalent about.
Maron can veer toward self important hipster territory, but he can be a pretty good interviewer when he's on, and occasionally he's brilliant. If you hurry, you can hear the Norm MacDonald episode while it's still free (he archives the old ones and charges for them), and you won't be sorry. Also, there is a recent interview with Todd Glass, in which he comes out of the closet and talks about his homosexuality. I don't know if Maron can take credit for how riveting that episode was, but it's about as good as that genre of podcast ever gets.
The Nerdist manages to get some very good guests, but they're not the greatest at structuring interviews, and the panel format often leaves them stumbling over each other and forgetting all about the guests. Nevertheless, if you want to listen to one of the best episodes of anything ever, pick up their interview with Penn Jillette from a few months back. I'll forgive them for any faults after a show that good.
I'll look up the Jay Mohr show based on your recommendation. Any particular standout episodes I should start with?
Posts: 2804 | Registered: May 2003
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Episode three has his manager Barry Katz talking about old clients like Tracy Morgan, Dave Chappelle and Dane cook, shedding light on how the industry works and if a manager does the best job possible his client will no longer need a manager at all.
Number seventeen has Patrice O'neal not long before he passed.
Number thirty-four features comedian Daryl Wright telling stories about going to jail for accidentally shooting a crack head, and being mistaken for a white comic and booked to do a solo show in a small Texas town. I really liked this show and plan on seeing Wright when he comes through my area, not something I can say for every comedian that has been on the podcast.
Posts: 2302 | Registered: Aug 2008
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Neil deGrasse Tyson and various comedians and scientists talk about science and pop culture. I really dig it.
Posts: 856 | Registered: Jun 2007
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It's a comedy podcast, but it has two important characteristics that set it apart from others: it usually comes in under an hour, and it's not an interview show.
It's a three-person panel, none of which I was too familiar with before I heard this podcast, but they're all very quick-witted and funny. Every week they bring on a guest and talk about a movie. Usually a terrible movie, often a notorious flop.
I've only heard three episodes so far, so I may change my mind later. But here's the only endorsement of this show that is necessary. The three episodes I listened to covered the films Birdemic: Shock and Terror, Punisher: War Zone and I Know Who Killed Me. And when I finished, I added all three movies to my Netflix queue.
I'm not usually a fan of terrible movies. But it's impossible to hear the panel talk about even the worst of these stinkers without wanting to see them.
Posts: 2804 | Registered: May 2003
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Lot's of sports radio, usually the Tony Kornheiser Show and ESPN First Take with Skip Bayless & Steven A. Smith.
Posts: 6 | Registered: Feb 2012
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Not sure if non-UK residents will be able to download/listen, but I listen to In Our Time which bills itself as the History of Ideas. I listen to the History of Science and Science ones but there's LOTS to choose from and all of them are super interesting. There's a host, Melvyn Bragg and then three academi guests who discuss the subject.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Teshi: Not sure if non-UK residents will be able to download/listen, but I listen to In Our Time which bills itself as the History of Ideas. I listen to the History of Science and Science ones but there's LOTS to choose from and all of them are super interesting. There's a host, Melvyn Bragg and then three academi guests who discuss the subject.
I've been listening to that one for a while, and I'm highly impressed by the concept, but I'm often frustrated by the execution. The rapid-fire panel format often comes off as people hastily displaying their expertise, rather than trying to teach anything. Sometimes I feel like I can't get anything out of it unless I know about 3/4 of what they're talking about already.
That said, I have heard a few episodes that were quite good. For example, I listened to an episode today from the "culture" archives on Richard Wagner. There was some genuinely interesting information in there that was well presented, along with a bit of interchange and debate between the panelists. If all the episodes were as good as that one, I'd listen to it all the time.
quote:Originally posted by Javert: I listen to Supervillain Corner. It's posted weekly and is short so easy to listen to.
Of course, I'm horribly biased, because I write, perform and produce it.
Sweet! I just downloaded two episodes. I'll listen next week and let you know.
[edit: I spoke too soon. I tried to download your podcast, but it failed. I'll try again later.]
Posts: 2804 | Registered: May 2003
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quote:The rapid-fire panel format often comes off as people hastily displaying their expertise, rather than trying to teach anything. Sometimes I feel like I can't get anything out of it unless I know about 3/4 of what they're talking about already.
Hm. I suppose I do listen mostly to the science and history of science ones, so I'm making connections with things I already know. I have quite a broad knowledge based besides so I'm familiar with concepts even if I'm not familiar with the particular instance of a thing (I'm familiar with geological layers being signifiers of a particular wide-spread event and used to date paleontology or archaeology, even if I had never heard of the KT Boundery before, for example).
However, I never got the sense that it was a time for people to spew their knowledge in a meaningless way. Melvyn Bragg's clearly asked his experts for information before and then developed a show giving them a chance to study up on the particular topics he will be covering. And they are experts in the field, rather than generalists, so they do have specialised knowledge that they don't always do a good job of explaining, but you can usually get 70% of what is being said, even if you're on a bus or something.
Anyway, just felt the need to defend it!
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Javert: I just listened to a few episodes of Supervillain Corner, and it was really cool. I don't know if I'm exactly in your target audience, but even as an outsider I found it to be way more creative than many podcasts I've heard, and very well executed. I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to. Well done.
Posts: 2804 | Registered: May 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Speed: Javert: I just listened to a few episodes of Supervillain Corner, and it was really cool. I don't know if I'm exactly in your target audience, but even as an outsider I found it to be way more creative than many podcasts I've heard, and very well executed. I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to. Well done.
Thanks so much!
Doing it is very much an experiment in seeing if I can create something original every week. And I enjoy doing it, so I'll keep it up.
Just out of curiosity, what episodes/hosts did you listen to?
Posts: 3852 | Registered: Feb 2002
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