Interesting Podcasts

[escortrod]

I spend half of my waking hours listening to what I consider to be interesting podcasts. My current favourites are:

 

- "BBC Woman's Hour": discusses interesting topics, and I find that many of the significant challenges and issues faced by women are shared by gay men;

 

- "How to be Amazing": hosted by Michael Ian Black, interesting individuals are interviewed about their lives. More often than not they are at the top of their respective fields, and have interesting observations to offer;

 

- "No Such Thing as a Fish": from the researchers who supply facts for the TV programme QI, this podcast is full of interesting facts. To be taken with a pinch of salt;

 

- "More or Less: Behind the Stats": BBC radio show that researches and explains in-depth statistics that are in the news. Just brilliant;

 

- "This American Life": do I even need to explain?;

 

- "Car Talk": I love cars and mechanical engineering. This podcast is also funny and sort-of insightful;

 

- "Seriously...": another BBC podcast, which presents the 'best' or most interesting documentary of the week from BBC radio.

 

Those are my current favourite podcasts, though I listen to others. What would you all recommend I add to my library?

[Zman]

You have excellent taste, Rod. Here's some that I like:

 

Comedy/Game Show:

Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me! - Humorous new quiz. NPR (US)

Because News - Also Humorous new quiz (but from Canadian perspective) CBC (Canada)

Comedy Factory - Sketch comedy mostly. CBC

The Irrelevant Show - Sketch comedy. CBC

 

Science magazine shows:

Quarks and Quarks - CBC

Inside Science - BBC

 

Various Topics:

Under the Influence - CBC (about the advertising industry).

Bowery Boys - New York City History.

[mike carey]

A few from me.

 

'We the People' about politics and life, hosted by Josh Zepps, an Australian in NYC. Both of these perspectives come out.

 

'G'day Patriots', an Australian perspective on US politics. One of the participants is a US academic who works in Australia. It purports to come from 'a bunker in Kaleen', a Canberra suburb.

 

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/theminefield/

'The Minefield' looks at the ethics and philosphy of political and social issues. Radio National, the ABC network on which it is broadcast podcasts most of its content. There's a host of other interesting stuff it you browse the dropdown list next to 'Programs' at the top of the page. Some are specifically Australian but many cover wider issues.

[nynakedtop]

on a brief hiatus, but they say they are back by the end of march, and their previous podcasts are worth a listen - a great critical voice that incorporates humor, critical race theory, and political/social talk

 

https://www.politicallyreactive.com/

[Chuckball]

I think that when I see people listening only to music through their early buds they are missing out on so much quality radio. I have a Base Bluetooth speaker. I pair it up with my last generation smart phone that has been dedicated to receiving signals on the Tune in radio app and start my day listening to Radio Ireland. I then switch to WNYC public radio and on weekends I catch that great Canadian programming Z man wrote about.

[foxy]

Two of my favorites.

 

The Moth

Real people telling real stories.

 

Tell Me Something I Don't Know

[rvwnsd]

I like TED talks

[+ OliverSaks]

Invisibilia - from NPR / TAL (I think)

 

Neuroscience / Psychology / science with a human, narrative element.

[+ SundayZip]

I too am becoming a podcast junkie. Some of my favorites:

 

Intelligence Squared US Debates: two teams debate a topic. I find myself yelling at the debaters.

Slate Political Gabfest: there's lots of political podcasts but I especially like the personalities of these folks.

NPR Politics: ditto what I said above.

NPR Planet Money: everything from economic theory to how money effects love

Radiolab: Don't know how to describe it... just interesting stuff.

[Mo Mason]

I don't know what a podcast is. News that you listen to on an iPod? I'm retarded.

 

[escortrod]

I don't know what a podcast is. News that you listen to on an iPod? I'm retarded.

 

I was in the middle of typing my own definition, but I realised that Wikipedia explains the concept much more succinctly:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast

 

"A podcast is an episodic series of digital media files which a user can set up so that new episodes are automatically downloaded via web syndication to the user's own local computer or portable media player.[1]

 

The word arose as a portmanteau of "iPod" (a brand of media player) and "broadcast". Thus, the files distributed are typically in audio or video formats, but may sometimes include other file formats such as PDF or ePub."

[Mo Mason]

Thanks for all of that.. but it may as well be written in Japanese. That sounds like a YouTube video to me... same thing only with Apple products.

[escortrod]

Ah. No. It's not exclusive to Apple. Good podcast apps are available on all platforms.

 

Generally speaking podcasts are episodic, and often divided into series. They are similar to radio shows, but you can download and keep each episode. Many of the best podcasts are in fact radio shows, but re-edited and often with additional content added. About half of the podcasts I listen to are self published, which is the beauty of the system.

[rvwnsd]

I too am becoming a podcast junkie. Some of my favorites:

 

Intelligence Squared US Debates: two teams debate a topic. I find myself yelling at the debaters.

Slate Political Gabfest: there's lots of political podcasts but I especially like the personalities of these folks.

NPR Politics: ditto what I said above.

NPR Planet Money: everything from economic theory to how money effects love

Radiolab: Don't know how to describe it... just interesting stuff.

LOVE RadioLab. I catch it on NPR.

[+ SundayZip]

I don't know what a podcast is. News that you listen to on an iPod? I'm retarded.

 

It took many auditions to cast actors to play the pod roles in the new, spongebob movie, but now they have their "podcast".

[adannyboy]

Hi

When this thread started, we were in a little of a hiatus, but wanted to share a podcast my friends and I do called "On the Dresser".

 

It's convos on sex, gender, culture, and politics from the perspective of queer sex workers and sex educators.

 

Right now we're on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, and SoundCloud (SoundCloud.com/onthedresser)

 

[+ Keith30309]

Hi

When this thread started, we were in a little of a hiatus, but wanted to share a podcast my friends and I do called "On the Dresser".

 

It's convos on sex, gender, culture, and politics from the perspective of queer sex workers and sex educators.

 

Right now we're on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, and SoundCloud. There's a link to SoundCloud in my signature below.

 

Found it! Lots of interesting topics.

 

(BTW, it may just be me but I can't see your signature unless I open your profile.)

[escortrod]

Ooo, I forgot about this thread. I will be sure to add On the Dresser! I have also recently started listening to the Judge John Hodgman podcast, and Risk!. Both are excellent.

[+ Lance_Navarro]

One word,

 

Shit-town

(or S*Town)