# Recommend me (free, or nearly so) Podcasts! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 6, 2007, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-free-or-nearly-so-podcasts/386885 "2007-01-06T00:50:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Operation\_Ripper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/34f0e0/32.png) [@Operation\_Ripper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Operation_Ripper)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-free-or-nearly-so-podcasts/386885/1 "2007-01-06T00:50:51Z")
I’m currently trolling through all the free podcasts on iTunes, snatching a lot of old time radio and scifi stuff, anyone have recommendations for others? of any genre ---
**Author:** ![Operation\_Ripper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/34f0e0/32.png) [@Operation\_Ripper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Operation_Ripper)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-free-or-nearly-so-podcasts/386885/2 "2007-01-06T01:05:02Z")
Feh, strike that “free” stuff, got the Gervais material so money is no object. ---
**Author:** ![Hodge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Hodge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hodge)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-free-or-nearly-so-podcasts/386885/3 "2007-01-06T02:59:10Z")
I’m not so much into podcasts, per se, but I really enjoy radioplays and audiobooks. [See here](http://www.telltaleweekly.org/) for a cool place for cheap and free material. ---
**Author:** ![phungi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phungi/32/395_2.png) [@phungi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phungi)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-free-or-nearly-so-podcasts/386885/4 "2007-01-06T04:08:46Z")
[Coverville.com](http://www.coverville.com) posts 2 podcasts per week… it si a 30-40 minute show of cover tunes. Check it out… all the shows are archived for your picking/choosing. ---
**Author:** ![Archergal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-free-or-nearly-so-podcasts/386885/5 "2007-01-06T04:27:06Z")
Hmm, it would probably be easier to recommend if you’d tell us more of what you like. My favorites : I listen to a good many knitting or crafting podcasts. My favorite of those is probably [Lime and Violet](http://limenviolet.blogspot.com/) . [Escape Pod](http://www.escapepod.org) reads a new science fiction story each week. Their sister podcast, [Pseudopod](http://pseudopod.org/), has a new horror story up each week. [Cory Doctorow](http://craphound.com/) podcasts his short stories and news about his life on an irregular basis. The various [Farpoint Media](http://www.farpointmedia.net/) podcasts (Dragon Page Cover to Cover, Slice of Sci-Fi, The Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas, and Michael and Evo’s Wingin’ It) are all favorites. [Librivox](http://librivox.org/), the volunteer project to get public domain books read by volunteers, has a podcast of some of its new releases. These are audio books. They just finished up with Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, and are now on King Lear. Reader quality is variable, but most are pretty good. You can get NPR’s [Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me](http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=35&ft=2&f=35) and [This American Life](http://www.thisamericanlife.org/) on podcast now. I also really like Radio Australia’s [All In the Mind](http://www.abc.net.au/allinthemind/default.htm). And Bazooka Joe’s [Small World](http://www.smallworldpodcast.com/) podcasts has music on a couple of shows, and interviews with interesting and quirky folks on others. For life from a witty woman’s point of view, check out Leann’s [Tag in the Seam](http://tagintheseam.mat9.com/). She’s sharp and funny. And if you like dogs, I recommend [Dogcast Radio](http://dogcastradio.com/). I don’t listen to music much, but I love listening to all these podcasts. ---
**Author:** ![Operation\_Ripper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/34f0e0/32.png) [@Operation\_Ripper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Operation_Ripper)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-free-or-nearly-so-podcasts/386885/6 "2007-01-06T05:36:32Z")
Well, just started downloading the Fiesta Bowl, got a message on my laptop that was running out of space, synced by Nano, then erased every download on laptop to make more room, finished the Fiesta Bowl download, then synced it to Nano, and have nothing on it now but that, @#@#@#@##@, Apple iPod W#R@!!@#!@#. ---
**Author:** ![whistlepig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/73ab20/32.png) [@whistlepig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whistlepig)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-free-or-nearly-so-podcasts/386885/7 "2007-01-06T15:53:03Z")
The “Wall Street Journal This Morning” and “Definitely Not The Opera” are the two I listen to most. ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-free-or-nearly-so-podcasts/386885/8 "2007-01-06T17:18:36Z")
If you’re into computers / technology, you might like some of the [TWiT network podcasts](http://www.twit.tv/). The titular podcast, This Week in Tech (TWiT) was originally called “Revenge of the ScreenSavers” and is hosted by Leo Laporte and features other former TechTV alumni. There are 16 different podcasts right now. I usually listen to TWiT, Security Now, and FLOSS Weekly. ---
**Author:** ![KSO](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@KSO](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KSO)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-free-or-nearly-so-podcasts/386885/9 "2007-01-06T17:38:17Z")
James Lileks, The Diner. What a podcast should be. ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-free-or-nearly-so-podcasts/386885/10 "2007-01-06T18:03:08Z")
Penn Jillette’s radio show is available by podcast. You can get it off iTunes, or at his website: [www.pennradio.com](http://www.pennradio.com) Good stuff. ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-free-or-nearly-so-podcasts/386885/11 "2007-01-06T18:47:38Z")
We’ve done this thread before but here are mine. I just use the Itunes directory so I don’t have links. Most of these have been mentioned in other threads. There are a number of good BBC podcasts. **In Our Time** is a sort of educational thing where they talk on some topic for about 45 minutes. **World News Bulletin** is just that, a very brief update. **KCRW’s Le Show (Harry Shearer)** is about an hour of Harry Shearer (of Simpsons fame and from Christopher Guest movies) commenting on the news and bashing the Bush administration. **History According to Bob** is a thing where a professor speaks on a different topic each time. They’re somewhat out of context though, like he’ll talk about the assassination of a Persian king (Darius III) when I’d never even heard of the particular empire before. **The Adam Carolla Show [KLSX]** is hit and miss. I listened to Loveline when I was in high school but I just skip through these; they have a file for each segment. Sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s trash. Also sometimes I get sick of him talking about how rich he is now and whatnot. **ABC News Shuffle** is a brief informal/behind-the scenes dicussion by Hari Sreenivasan (from World News Now) and Jake Tapper. ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-free-or-nearly-so-podcasts/386885/12 "2007-01-06T18:55:04Z")
[QUOTE=Archergal] [Escape Pod](http://www.escapepod.org) reads a new science fiction story each week. Their sister podcast, [Pseudopod](http://pseudopod.org/), has a new horror story up each week. [/QUOTE] As well as those two, there’s another fiction podcast I subscribe to; [Variant Frequencies](http://variantfrequencies.libsyn.com/). It’s a mix of sci-fi, horror and fantasy (and some odd bands in-between, they say). Tech-wise, I listen to [Digital Planet](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4849402.stm) from the BBC, the British [Stuff mag’s podcast](http://stuff.tv/podcasts/) and [The Sunday Papers](http://web.mac.com/britishmac/iWeb/British%20Mac/The%20Sunday%20Papers/The%20Sunday%20Papers.html) Others subscribed to include [Scrubs](http://www.nbc.com/Scrubs/commentary.shtml) (commentary by cast & crew to play while watching the show), [The Popular Mechanics Show](http://www.popularmechanics.com/) and [Dom Joly Vs The Planet](http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,31429,00.html) If it’s okay to also recommend video podcasts, then my list would include: [dl.tv](http://dl.tv/), [InDigital](http://revision3.com/indigital), [GeekBrief.TV](http://geekbriefwp.podshow.com/) and [Hak5](http://www.hak5.org/). All of those are tech related. I’m also fond of the [Make: podcasts](http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/make_podcast/), being a bit of a tinkerer (their weekend projects are quite good). Apart from all those, there’s also [Channel Frederator](http://www.channelfrederator.com/) (cartoons), [Refrederator](http://www.refrederator.com/) (old cartoons), [The Wubbcast](http://www.wubbcast.com/) (cartoons for preschoolers - and their dads), [Shallow Shorts](http://shallowshorts.libsyn.com/) (short films, animations, etc.) and [thisisaknife](http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/T/thisisaknife/index.jsp). ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-free-or-nearly-so-podcasts/386885/13 "2007-01-06T19:19:42Z")
There are several good skeptical podcasts out there, too, if that floats your boat. I suscribe to (in the order of my personal preference): [The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe](http://www.theskepticsguide.org) [Point of Inquiry](http://www.pointofinquiry.org) [Skepticality](http://www.skepticality.com) and [Quackcast](http://www.quackcast.com) The first three are generically skeptical, with shows about all types of paranormal stuff. The last focuses on alternative medical claims. All are usually very informative and entertaining. My very first suggestion (upthread, Penn Radio) is more entertaining than informative, usually, but is _very_ entertaining indeed. My iPod is in the shop right now and I miss it for my Penn show more than anything else. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-free-or-nearly-so-podcasts/386885/14 "2007-01-07T17:36:10Z")
On Itunes they have all 24 podcasts of the documentary series on the Folkways records. Fan-freaking-tastic. Commentary and lots of songs internal to the podcasts. They have PBS all things _whatever_ podcasts, i get tech and music.