Recently, I bought a new iPod. Hadn’t used one in a few years (since college, when I had to walk at least 30 minutes / day to get to classes))
My work, while usually pretty interesting, involves some tasks repeated over…and over…and over.
So while I expected to use said iPod for music, I’m finding that podcasts keep me sane. Specifically, interesting podcasts. I have a few now that I listen to religiously; I would love more.
All of these I love to death. But I’m running out of content. They’re all great, but update once a week maybe. I need more mind food to keep me sane. I do have a few music podcasts but I find that at work I much prefer interesting info over music while I do my thing.
If you like This American Life you’d probably enjoy The Moth podcast. Granted it’s only updated once a week and the stories are less than 10 minutes, but they usually have good stuff.
What about Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me? It’s good for a laugh. (News quiz show that pokes fun at current events.)
I also listen to Dan Savage’s Lovecast, which is a podcast version of a sex/relationship advice column. He has a great sense of humor and the questions range from the mundane to the insane.
I listen to all of those. I also like Wait…wait…don’t tell me, Hardcore History, the NPR live concert series, and Stuff You Missed in History Class.
Hardcore History is brilliant, but only updates about every 45 days. When it does update it’s great. If you are into politics the host of Hardcore History also does a political podcast called Common Sense, which is explicitly non partisan (anti partisan even), if very slightly right wing leaning. It’s interesting, but not for everyone.
I am giving a few others a try right now, but I haven’t made up my mind about them. They are
The Moth Podcast (live stories told in front of an audience without notes. Usually about 14 minutes)
Decoder Ring Theater (Radio plays done in the style of old time serials.)
Filmspotting (Film reviews, but more than just reviews. You sort of have to listen to one. I haven’t decided if these guys are windbags or not yet, but for now I am listening.)
There are also some fun Scientific American podcasts that I download but never actually get around to listening to. 60 second science, 60 second psych, and 60 second earth.
I walk for an hour+ every day and spend lots of time commuting as well, plus I listen to podcasts when I cook, so I have a huge selection. It depends on your interests, of course, but I listen to all of the following (and find them tolerable to extremely interesting)
Movie Podcasts:
Battleship Pretension
Filmspotting
The /Filmcast
(these three are hit or miss)
Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo’s Film Reviews (my favorite)
A.V. Talk (from the Onion, quite entertaining)
The Business (not reviews, but interviews with people connected to the movie business–interesting and unusual perspectives)
The Treatment (another public radio show that doubles as a podcast, more conventional interviews)
Comedy or People Bullshitting:
Jordan and Jesse Go (one of my favorites!)
You Look Nice Today (seldom updated, but hilarious)
The Nerdist (newish but usually pretty good)
SmodCast (hit or miss)
The Bugle (hilarious Daily-show-esque parody news/discussion with that British Guy from the Daily show :D)
In the Vein of This American Life
Risk
Wiretap
Too Much Information
The Memory Palace (very short episodes, but good quality)
A Life Well Wasted (about video games, but in a This American Life kinda way!)
General Pop Culture
Slate’s Culture Gabfest (pretentious fun)
Hatecast (I forget if it’s made by Salon or Slate, sorry guys! Just snark, but self-aware!)
The Sound of Young America (great interviews with writers/musicians/directors/comedians)
Public Radio–the venerable Fresh Air and also Studio 360
Sound Opinions (about music, but mostly talking–very interesting: interviews, reviews, etc.)
I’m a podcast adict, as well. Here’s a selection of what I listen to:
Most of the Quick and Dirty Tips network
Most of the Slate podcasts (Culturefest, political gabfest, double X gabfest, daily)
NPR (Science Friday, Wait Wait, Your Health) HowStuffWorks.com (Stuff you missed in History Class, Tech stuff, Stuff Mom Never told you)
Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe
Skeptoid
Historyzine (History of the War of Spanish Succesion. VERY interesting)
A Gobbet o’ Pus
Plus several gaming podcasts (D&D, The Tome, and AGC)
And how can we have gotten multiple posts into this thread without mentioning The Straight Dope podcast!?!?
Another podcast addict here. I probably listen to to many but what else do I have in my life?
Bell’s in the Batfry - Fun, wacky, family friendly fun for all. Decoder Ring Theatre performs original, full cast audio plays in the style of old time radio shows. Every year the do a run of Adventures of the Red Panda and a run of Black Jack Justice plus what they call their Summer Showcase which can be anything. Their pretty good at straight drama but usually work at least some humor into the shows. The Best of Youtube - self explanatory really The Ethicist - answers to ethical questions Griddlecakes Radio - Family friendly storytelling podcast. It’s usually funny, often touching and very well produced. It’s not updated very often but the archive is still up so give it a listen. History According to Bob - History podcast that covers several topics each week. Usually he runs four to five subject at a time with each topic getting its own 10-20 minute show every week. Indiefeed: Blues Music - contemporary blues music selections Podquiz - Weekly, 20 minute trivia quiz Happily Domesticated - Short, Reader’s Digest style slice-of-life comedy essays Skeptoid - Critical analysis of pop phenomenon. Funny in a smug sort of way. Generally well thought out and very well produced. The Sporkful - Guys arguing about favorite foods. teknikal diffikulties - Extremely funny show that has been branching out into serialized comedy/drama. The host ‘cayenne’ Chris Conroy does almost all of the voices himself. Right now is probably not the best entry point for a new listener because he’s just getting into his latest season of The Account. You’re better off going into the archives and getting some of the straight comedy shows from the last couple of years. If you like them then get The Account.
On top of these, I listen to several NPR shows (Wait, wait don’t tell me, Car Talk, Krulwich on Science, and the Sunday Puzzle) and of course, the Straight Dope.
indie-feed anything really, and i started to listen to the ethicist but the reader’s “sense of humor” got progressively annoying to the point that i had to stop listening to it completely. also, the quality of the ethical debate ranged from mildly interesting to completely mundane. one of them was about the ethics behind choosing office space for tenured/non-tenured professors at William and Mary? yawn.
I missed the fact that the Straight Dope had a podcast. Must clicky. Anyhoo…
The infrequently updated Irrational Public Radio is a wonderful thing if you’re a public radio listener; the parody is often subtle, well-considered and spot-on. Episodes are short - five to fifteen minutes tops. Likewise John Hodgmans’ **Today in the Past ** (sorry, no link) - very short, very bizarre. Anywhere from 15 seconds to 1.5 minutes, updated daily.
If you’re looking for something more edu-ma-cational, try In Our Timewith Melvyn Bragg. It covers an astonishing array of historical, cultural and scientific topics. Not every episode is gripping but I’ve found that often the topics that I think will be the most boring are surprisingly interesting. Try a few episodes.
And the Reduced Shakespeare Company have a good podcast, which gives an interesting and entertaining look behind the scenes of their business.
My daily fix is the Adam Carolla podcast. Great interviews, usually an hour long. Adam is really quick-witted, and it’s fun to listen to him when he’s with a stimulating guest. Kevin Pollak’s Chat show- another interview show. His early ones were marathon length - the record holder is Eddie Izzard at two hours and forty-four minutes. He’s trying to cut them back to ninety minutes now, but if his guest is good, he’ll just keep going.
Most of my favorites have already been touched on here, but here are a few more:
The Bowery Boys: New York City history podcast by two guys who obviously love NYC and its history. At its best when they’re both there; unfortunately one is frequently absent due to work, but it’s still good with just the one. The History of Rome: It does what it says on the tin. Mike Duncan, the host, has a delightfully dry sense of humor with a very light touch that he uses to very good effect. There’s quite a backlog of these now–we just hit the end of Marcus Aurelius’s reign, and the beginning of the long, slow decline. Napoleon 101, or The Napoleon Bonaparte Podcast: A couple of Napoleon buffs talking Napoleon. Best part, aside from their enthusiasm, is again the back and forth between the two of them. I’m not sure if this is actually updating any more, but there are 40-50 hour-plus episodes that cover Napoleon’s career, plus interviews with Napoleon scholars.
Obviously I like history. A few non-historical:
Slate’s Daily Podcast: Someone mentioned the Culture Gabfest–this feed includes that, as well as the Political Gabfest, the Sports Gabfest, the Double X Gabfest/Book Club, and… uh, something else to fill in the other day, currently Sporkful but often just someone reading an article from Slate. I ultimately just subscribed to the individual podcast feeds for politics, sports, and culture, but this gives you the chance to listen to them all and make your decision after a few weeks. QuackCast: An infectious disease doctor skewers various alternative medicine nuttery. Goes over my head at times, but is usually accessible to the layman. The most recent, “Nine Questions, Nine Answers,” was particularly good–he answered nine questions that an anti-vaxxer claimed those in favor of vaccines couldn’t/wouldn’t.
Now I think I’m going to have to go check out some of the ones you folks have mentioned… .
Doug Loves Movies - Comedian Doug Benson hosts a live show each week at the UCB Theater in LA w/ two or three guests (usually comedians but sometimes actors) and they just talk about movies and play some movie related games. Almost always hilarious.
**Comedy Death Ray Radio **- Podcast version of an internet radio show hosted by Scott Aukerman. Always have great guests, usually playing characters of some sort (Paul F. Tompkins as Ice-T is always a riot) and they play comedy songs throughout the show. Good stuff.
I am a fan of a number of the podcasts already mentioned (esp. This American Life, Savage Love, RadioLab, The Bugle, and The History of Rome). The only thing I really adore that hasn’t been brought up, I think, is Twelve Byzantine Emperors, which is no longer updating but is really entertaining. (My dad listened to the last podcast with me and having not heard any of the rest, was totally spellbound.)
I know there are some other TBE fans out there on the Dope, so I just wanted to add that when checking out some of the other recs in this thread, I discovered that Lars Brownworth, the guy who made TBE, has done a couple other history podcasts as well! I’m looking forward to checking them out. Yay, uh, history!
Anyway, most of my favorites have been mentioned, I think. Ones I like that haven’t been mentioned yet:
The Dr. Dean Edell show – the podcast is a link to his radio show, news updaes, commercials and all. Irritating, but it works for me since his flagship radio station is out of Santa Rosa, CA – very close to my hometown of Ukiah – and I kind of enjoy listening to the hometown news. Anyway, I love the guy so much that I’m willing to do a little fast-forwarding to listen to his show. Dr. Dean was the original Quackcast-style skeptical doctor.
Irreligiosophy – 2 former Mormons dissing religion. Pretty well researched and funny, although VERY snarky. They don’t stick to Mormonism, but branch out into all religions. Some of their in-jokes get kind of tired after a while and the snark can sometimes overrun the humor, but it’s definately worth a listen, if you aren’t easily offended.
Useless Information Podcast: If you like Things You Missed In History Class, you’ll like this one.