I just started a new job at which I can literally listen to my iPod through all eight hours of my shift. The job is mind-numbingly tedious, but with the help of some entertaining podcasts it becomes quite tolerable. I’ve been scouring iTunes’ selection for the last week, and I’ve found a few gems and a few duds.
I’m finding it difficult to locate a good news program. I’m looking for something that’s updated daily (or at least Monday through Friday), lasts at least thirty minutes, and covers the main news stories for that day.
That’s my only request. Other than that, feel free to just throw 'em out there.
It’s probably about 50% conservative commentary and the rest is a discussion of the news and various other topics. I paricularly like his interviews with David Allen White, a literature professor specializing in Shakespeare. If you don’t want to hear a conservative point of view you probably won’t like him. If you find it interesting you might want to try some of the others at townhall.com. For instance, Dennis Prager:
Ask A Ninja - By this point, a classic of podcasting. This American Life - The NPR show. A classic of radio. CBC Radio 3 - Canadian independent music. I’m not Canadian, but it’s the best music podcast I’ve found, period. Sex Is Fun - NOT PORN. Falls somewhere between education and pro-sexuality advocacy. Podiobooks.com - Original novels by dozens of writers. The Geek Survival Guide - Gives advice for the everyman about surviving werewolf attacks, rampaging Godzillas, etc. Updates rather irregularly, unfortunately. JapanesePod101 - Really excellent Japanese course featuring an American host living in Japan, and lots of native speakers. You don’t need to buy the extra content (flashcards, etc.) to learn quickly and easily. The same people offer some other languages that I can’t recall at the moment. Farpoint Media has several good ones - depending on your tastes, Kick Ass Mystic Ninjas, Slice of SciFi, Winging It 3D, and Calls for Cthulu are all excellent.
Would you consider paying for a podcast? There are two podcasts I pay for. The Rachel Maddow Show (via Air America Premium) is an excellent show, mostly news and commentary - no listener call-ins. The other one, the Stephanie Miller Show, is a more conventional political talk radio. Both have liberal bias.
I haven’t really found a free, daily podcast worth listening to, except a couple of short NPR clips (hourly news and the Story of the Day).
QuackCast : Infectious disease physician Dr. Mark Crislip talks about “alternative medicine” modalities and how all the evidence they present is not backed by rigorous scientific data. He presents real cites and is very thorough.
The Skeptic’s Guide to The Universe : A weekly show about skeptical topics, with a lot of really interesting interviews with people about science or skepticism topics. So much fun to listen to
I listen to podcasts about 4-8 hours a day while pet sitting. Here are some of my iTunes faves, by catagory.
News, politics, current events:
Carnegie Council Podcast
Commonwealth Club Radio Program
From Our Own Correspondent
KCRW’s Left, Right and Center
National Press Club
NPR: It’s All Politics
PRI: The Changing World
Supreme Court Watch /Newshour with Jim Lehrer
To The Point
Educational
All in the Mind
American Experience / PBS
American History before 1870
CBC Radio: The Best of Ideas
C-SPAN - After Words
Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History
History 7B: From the Civil War to the Present
The History Network (military)
The History of Rome
Philosophy Bites
UChannel Podcast
Vanderbilt University Podcast
We The People Stories
WNYC’s Radio Lab
The World Beyond the Headlines from the University of Chicago
WPSU - Penn State Forum
Just for Fun!
Broken Sea - Doctor Who (podcast serial drama)
The Classic Tales Podcast
Common Sense with Dan Carlin
The Ethicist
Joe Frank Radio
Legal Lad’s Quick and Dirty Tips for a More Lawful Life
NPR: In Character
NPR: This I Believe
NPR: Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!
The Onion Radio News
Savage Love Podcast
Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena
This American Life
Wormwood: A serialized mystery
and several serial dramas from Darker Projects.
I also urge you to go check out http://librivox.org/ for a huge library of free audiobooks of all kinds, all works in the public domain, read by volunteers.
I have three news podcasts to recommend -
BBC Global News - a half-hour round-up of the best stories from around the world. Updated every 12 hours.
CBC Hourly News - a five minute recap of the top Canadian stories, updated every hour
CBC The World at Six - a half-hour of the top stories from Canada and around the world, updated daily
I’ve been listening to Lars Brownworth’s 12 Byzantine Rulers, and a set of lectures from Berkeley by Thomas Laqueur on European History.
One of my favourite music based podcasts is the Traneumentary, following the life and music of John Coltrane through excerpts and interviews.
Sonny Rollins has a video podcast available as well.
NPR Jazz profiles is also a great source about jazz. I don’t mean to hijack your thread , but if anyone knows of any other jazz documentary/history podcasts, I’d love to hear about them.
Gay Pimpin’ with Jonny McGovern
The Ben & Dave Show
here! with Josh and Sara
All LGBT-oriented, if you’re into that sort of thing.
If you like old time radio, iTunes has a ton of OTR podcasts. The Big Broadcast seems to have the greatest variety of any I’ve found. There are also show-specific podcasts for a number of the old serials. Second the recommendation above for Wormwood.
The Slate daily podcast is usually pretty good, although only 5-10 minutes in length. They do have weekly “gabfests” which usually run about a half-hour.
