Thanks to John for taking care of the site for the last week or so. Much as I would love to get online more, right now my paid job takes priority over pecking out diatribes on the internet.
Given that time is precious real estate at the moment, why not spend it on podcasting? The short backstory goes that some friends bought me an ipod for a recent birthday (that makes me a leo, as bloggers properly should be). It took me about a week to run through my meager music library enough times to want to put the thing down. Searching around for some other way to use my new toy ,with an emphasis on free (sorry, books on tape), I realized that I could check up on podcasted NPR shows that I missed for whatever reason during the week. Then I realized that I could pick up shows that I don’t even get in Pittsburgh, then I realized that practically every content provider worth its salt puts out a podcast and I guess one thing led to another. Now I wear a tiny digital noisebox practically everywhere. Public radio addicts be warned.
Anyhow, blogger’s priviledge, here is a short list of podcasts that I highly recommend. Consider the comments an open floor for dissents and recommends that aren’t on my list.
* NPR shows that most people know about: This American Life; Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me; The Splendid Table; Car Talk; Fresh Air; Diane Rehm; Science Friday; Kojo Nnamdi tech tuesday; On The Media; Living On Earth. In Our Time from BBC came with good reviews but for some reason my podcast has never loaded a show. Feh.
* More obscure: Counterspin from FAIR: humorless, one-sided, strident. Think of an opposite-world Newsbusters, or Media Matters without a search function. Invited experts can make it worth tuning in. Engines of our Ingenuity: five-minute profiles of the social and historical context of important inventions. Perky and fun. Thistlepod: ambrosia for celtic music fans, although splicing an hour show into a seven minute clipfest makes me go back and forth about cutting it from my lineup. Radio Lab from WNYC: it is embarrassing to admit how slavishly I wait for this podcast to update. The weekly topic format roughly recapitulates American Life and Studio 360 but the humor, production values and inspired use of science completely set it apart from anything else.
* Accessible science shows: Science and Nature both put out cheeky podcasts that highlight cooler developments from their respective journals. Only Nature‘s weekly half hour counts as an actual show; Science‘s one-minute updates and weekly five minutes fall somewhere between a chat with the barista and a grunt. For some reason, although Nature is already pretty accessible, the same group also puts out a listenable Bill Nye-level weekly show called Naked Scientists.
* Non-accessible science shows: Don’t bother tuning into Cell unless you read trade journals for fun. Seriously. The monthly show expands usefully on recent content in a very important journal but the jargon is denser than a wannabe milblogger.
If that seems like a pretty long list, I guess it is. It will probably shorten a bit (I’m looking at you, Fiona Ritchie) when I do less image manipulation/benchwork and write more. But for now there still exist a few hours each week when I probably would listen to something if I knew about it. Suggestions?