podcastaway
September 11, 2008
Lately, I've been thinking about podcasts. These thoughts have been motivated by my spending a lot of knitting time with my iPod as my boon companion and needing more options as well as by Doula K getting an iPod and asking what's on mine. Kill two birds, I thought. Hence, this --
The 'casts that I listen to regularly are:
-- The Bugle: The Daily Show's John Oliver and *not* The Daily Show but amusing in his own right's Andy Zaltzman do unmentionable things to the week's news. While not every minute of every broadcast is fall-down funny, it hits enough that it's well worth a half-hour. Plus, there's just something about Oliver's voice in my head that I find, um, pleasurable.
-- Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me: The first thing I listen to each week -- and without it I never would have discovered the genius of Roy Blount, Jr. Someday I'd like to be a listener-contestant.
-- Radio Lab: I Can Haz New Episodes, Plz?
-- Science Times from the New York Times: I'm never certain why the world needs fiction when reality is just so wonderfully weird.
-- Good Food: I tend to let these pile up and listen to them as a last resort. I enjoy the show but a lot of it is useless to me, given that I don't live in Southern California. I would, however, love to have a podcast of just Jonathan Gold's restaurant recs.
-- This American Life: I run hot and cold on TAL. I'm glad it exists, mind, but it seems to be turning into a parody of itself. It could also be that I'm just bitter because they turned down one of my story ideas. I feel the same way, btw, about the NYT's Book Review. So get out that big grain of salt and lick it.
-- The Kitchen Sisters / Walks of a Lifetime. When they have new episodes, they move to the top of the queue. New ones are few and far between, however.
I'm also a big fan of audiobooks and am currently working my way through Terry Pratchett's Discworld, which I never managed to get through in print but love in audio form.
So here's the question - which podcasts am I missing? What do you listen to? Bring it on...
Wait, Wait, and TAL are my biggies, as are Lime & Violet (because they make me laugh) and Sticks and String (both because it's thoughtful and because I'm a sucker for an accent.) The Naked Scientist is fun, as well.
Posted by: Melanie | September 11, 2008 at 11:49 AM
Haven't listened in a while, because I've fallen out of the podcasting habit for logistical reasons, but you might want to check out the knitting action at http://www.cast-on.com/. Lots of an-American-knitter-in-Wales knitterly goodness.
Posted by: Ellen | September 11, 2008 at 12:56 PM
I don't listen to podcasts. But I have to tell you, as a former Angeleno, Jonathan Gold's reccomendations are overrated.
Posted by: Anna | September 11, 2008 at 01:07 PM
I enjoy Car Talk more as a podcast than in real-life, because I can skip the puzzler and chitchat and just listen to the car calls, which is what I like. We also listen to Science Friday.
Posted by: Heidi | September 11, 2008 at 04:51 PM
The audiobook of A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel, read by the author. Perfection.
Posted by: anonymous | September 12, 2008 at 03:55 AM
Thank you, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for The Bugle. A new pleasure! Woot!
Posted by: Melanie | September 12, 2008 at 12:34 PM
Thanks for sharing those! I'm going to give the Kitchen Sisters and Radiolab a listen. I run to music, but I love listening to podcasts while I walk. Or when I drive long distances.
I'm a big Fresh Air fan, although there are so many that I often pick and choose from them. I also like David Dye's World Cafe show. There are some wonderful musicians featured on his show.
I've been really spoiled Podcasting. If I'm in a car and listening to a show and I can't quite hear it, I get so annoyed because I can't go back and listen again! And don't even get me started talking about the wonders of DVR....
Posted by: Lee | September 12, 2008 at 12:35 PM
My stoopid public radio show ("PRI's Sound & Spirit with Ellen Kushner") is not officially available for podcasts, as we don't have the music rights to the 15-20 albums we use in each show . . . but you can listen to over 100 shows streamed online (and I'm told if you're clever with computers you can, in fact, download them - shhh!):
http://www.wgbh.org/pages/pri/spirit/listen.html
Posted by: ellen Kushner | September 15, 2008 at 06:54 PM
More music than talk, but plenty of that, too - this is my favorite show on WNYC, and I'm so glad it's podcast now!!
http://feeds.wnyc.org/wnyc/newsounds
Posted by: ellen Kushner | September 15, 2008 at 10:03 PM