Podcasts!

[Umbran]

So, as reported elsewhere, I've finally gotten myself a digital media player. I've got 80 minutes a day of pleasant walking to fill with media. Music and audiobooks may fill a good portion of that, but I might as well also dive into the phenomenon of the podcast...

So, tell me, folks, about your favorite podcasts! They don't have to be gaming-related. Just things that are well-done, informative, funny, interesting, or otherwise listening to.

 

[Crothian]

Mostly, I've found podcasts sound like a bad amatuer college radio station. I listened to tons of gaming ones for the Ennies and very few were interesting and well done. I like Darker Days becasue it stays on topic and covers White Wolf World of Darkness games both old and new and I relaly like those games.

Non gaming I enjoy the Mike and Mike podcast from ESPN. Sometimes though like with the NBA free agency coming tomorrow they cover one topic way too much. I like their shows that really cover lots of different sports topics.

I used to listen to an interesting one done by NASA and I liked the science aspect of it. But I just haven't had the time to really listen to mcuh lately so I'm not sure what it is like now.

 

[IronWolf]

I've been listening to this one, co-hosted by Steel_wind here:

Chroniclesathfinder Podcast

It is focused on Pathfinder though, but has been enjoyable so far - they are only two episodes in.

 

[Umbran]

I used to listen to an interesting one done by NASA and I liked the science aspect of it. But I just haven't had the time to really listen to mcuh lately so I'm not sure what it is like now.

Woof and Woot! It turns out NASA's got a ton of different podcasts - some audio, some video:

NASA - NASA Podcasting

And that led me to the Astronomy Cast:

http://www.astronomycast.com/

 

[Morrus]

Mostly, I've found podcasts sound like a bad amatuer college radio station.

The majority do, especially the gaming ones. But there are still many which are very high quality made by professionals.

I listen to a wide variety of them - the BBC podcasts are of superb quality, especially their comedy ones (although probably of limited appeal outside the UK due to their topical nature).

I also listen to podcasts from a number of comedians. The Ricky Gervais podcats are hilarious, although I think maybe you can only get them as audiobooks now - not sure. He still does some podcasts, but they're pretty much just short adverts. But he, Stephen Merchant, and Karl Pilkington did many hilarious podcasts a few years ago.

 

[darjr]

I've been listening to Are We Alone from seti for years. It's fun and covers a wide array of science topics and interviews. It use to contain a lot of commercials early on but they've been taken out for a long time now.

 

[Merkuri]

If you like science stuff you should look into the podcasts put out by Nova and HowStuffWorks.com.

One of my favorites is Critical Hit, which is a 4e D&D live play podcast. The GM put together a very interesting story and the players have some really memorable characters. The sound quality is good as well.

If you like fiction, you can also check out Escape Pod, Pseudopod, Podcastle, and The Drabblecast, which are all podcasts that have one short story a week. Their sound quality is usually excellent.

 

[Krug]

Stfuff I listen to:

A History of the World in 100 Objects: BBC - Podcasts - A History of the World in 100 Objects

How Stuff Works: HowStuffWorks - Learn How Everything Works!

Freakonomics: Introducing Freakonomics Radio: A Podcast About the Hidden Side of Everything - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com

 

[Fast Learner]

NPR is full of good shows that are all available as podcasts. None of these suggestions are along the lines of the stuffy, slow, hippy NPR as seen on Saturday Night Live skits.

This American Life is all kinds of awesome, personal stories told incredibly well.

Also amazing is Radio Lab, which covers science topics in truly fascinating ways.

Terry Gross is, in my opinion, literally the best interviewer in the world. There are tons of fascinating interviews available from her show, Fresh Air.

Lastly I'll recommend Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, a weekly news "quiz" where the participants are comedians and the pace is fast and always entertaining. This is the only one of my recommendations where there's somewhat of a liberal politics slant, depending on who the comedians are (P. J. O'Rourke is a common contestant and he's quite conservative, so it does vary). I only mention this because if you're super right-wing conservative, some of the humor in it won't be very funny.

 

[Piratecat]

I'll echo the recommendation for This American Life.

My favorite podcasts, the ones I eagerly await updates on, in my order of preference:

NPR's Wait Wait.. Don't Tell Me! Podcast
Stuff You Missed in History Class (from How Stuff Works)
Dan Carlin's Hardcore History
The Moth Podcast
RISK! (true tales boldly told)
Onion Radio News

Grab 'em through iTunes or google them.