Sunday Morning Shards: “The Podcast Edition”
So ever since the release of iTunes 4.9 and their lavish embrace of podcasting (say what?), I’ve been meaning to post about the podcasts I regularly download. Consider it this week’s edition of Sunday Mornings Shards. Due to the rigors of book touring, I’m long overdue so please consider gently.
Podcasts: I’ve been stung. I’m a full-blown radio addict (at least 3 hours a day, often many more) and have craved something like "TiVo for radio" for at least a few years now. Thanks to sites like Public Radio Fan and friends now working in the business, I hear often about new radio programs I’d like to try. But there’s no way to guarentee or even hope that I’ll be in front of my computer at X time on Y day and have an uninterrupted hour to enjoy it. Which is why podcasting is such a great thing. You subscribe to a "feed" (so need to worry about what that is. it’s a stupid term anyway) from the podcast produceer (Podcast Alley is a great directory of them) and use a piece of software to download the program to your desktop. Now you don’t have to be listening to the radio at exactly the right time to hear On the Media. Now, On the Media comes to you and you listen to it whenever you like.
Pre-iTunes 4.9, I used a piece of software called PlayPod, which was fine. I still had to relabel everything after downloading and move it to appropriate folders on iTunes so I could listen to podcasts while commuting or at the gym. Since i use iTunes anyway for updating my iPod, 4.9 puts them all in one place, labels everything and lets me stop a podcast in the middle then pick up again without having to hold my thumb on Fast Forward for 20 minutes.
So 4.9 has been great for my purposes. Not every show I like has a podcast (Fresh Air, This American Life, what up?) so for those I use Radio Time and Audio Hijack which are ok but improving I hear.
Below is a list of what podcasts I listen to in order of frequency. I’ve included the subscription URL, which you put into iTunes or whatever software you use for downloading, when it asks you to "subscribe".
As soon as I get it:
On the Media (subscribe): Weekly roundup of media-related news and features out of New York City. I used to miss this show every Sunday because it conflicted with my friend Roman’s program.
Rumor has it OTM’s listenership has doubled thanks to podcasting
Dawn & Drew Show (subscribe): Wisconsin husband and wife blathering 3-5 times a week. Much much funnier than it sounds. Some of the first podcasting "celebs."
Ebert & Roeper Movie Reviews (Subscribed through iTunes): I just found this. I never remember to watch their show on TV. This weekly version has no commercials.
Assload of programing from KCRW (info): Los Angeles’s KCRW was the first major public radio station to take the lead in podcasting, offering nearly all of their non-music program for download as soon after broadcast. I listen to their 5 minute commentaries (Art Talk, On the Beat and Overbooked) without fail and their half-hour entertainment shows (The Treatment, The Business, Bookworm) while driving, flying or cleaning house. The Politics of Culture works better in the abstract than in execution but I love the title so I hold out hope.
Future Tense (subscribe): Five minute commentaries (this one on technology) are great for breaks in work or the cool down period on a treadmill.
Writer’s Voice Radio (subscribe): Weekly interview show for book lovers from my local radio station. Podcasting for them is a stroke of genius.
Pinky’s Paperhaus (subscribed through iTunes): "Podcasting Writers Who Rock." Writers DJ and talk about books. Produced by the indomitable Carolyn Kellog.
Sometime Yes, Sometimes No:
Forum (subscribe): San Francisco’s signature call-in public affairs program will have 1 or 2 topics a week Im interested in. But since they are an hour long, I usually save up and listen when on a long trip.
Dailysonic (subscribe): Morning Edition for Generation X. Out of NYC. Great program but the daily barrage keeps me a few shows behind.
IT Conversations (subscribe): I pick and choose speeches from different tech conferences that interest me. Tons and tons of stuff here so you have to be descriminating.
The Theory of Everything (subscribe): Benjamin Walker’s Boston-based weekly program is genius. Imagine Andy Kauffman getting his hands on This American Life. I have to be in the right frame of mind for it but when I am, Daymmmnnnnnnn.
Friends and ‘casts I’m trying out:
My friend Eric Rice is a media empire of one. His podcast The Eric Rice Show (subscribe) is the tip of the iceberg.
Baratunde Thurston is a Boston-based comedian I’ve befriended over the last year or so. He does a homegrown radio show called The Front Porch Podcast (subscribe) that I dig.
ThoughtCast is another show out of Boston that interviews scholars and academics (subscribe).
I’m also subscribed to iPodarmy, The Book Cast and NextBook’s podcast, even though I haven’t listened to them yet.
What are your favorite podcasts?