Five podcasts I listen to
I was creating podcasts for quite a while before I actually started listening to them frequently (other than the stuff posted to our site). I mostly would listen on a hit-and-run basis, visiting sites and listening to an individual episode once and then typically not visiting again for a while.
What changed? Well, I bought an iPod and started running again for one thing. For another, I started listening to them at work in iTunes on my computer.
I am subscribed to 35 or 40 podcasts now, and listen to 10 or 15 of them frequently. Some of them are from friends. Some of them are from small independent media companies. Some of them are from Big Traditional Media (que fade to dark, rain storm, and thunder crash). Many are based in Georgia. Many aren't. I enjoy them all for very different reasons.
I'll probably have to do a "five more podcasts I listen to" post later, because this certainly isn't comprehensive or meant as a "best of." I'd love for you to share some podcasts you listen to in the comments (or in a blog post here or on your own site). I'm avoiding listing podcasts hosted here, because you already know that I listen to those and think they're awesome.
Here goes...
Escape Pod
www.escapepod.org
Hosted by Steve Eley, who lives in Atlanta, Escape Pod is a podcast with readings of science fiction short stories written by acclaimed authors.
My favorites lately have been the Union Dues stories written Jeffrey R. DeRego. The Union is like a dysfunctional Justice League which operates like a faceless corporation. The central characters have extrodinary powers, but are often also dysfunctional. One had a cocaine habit. The stories seem to have been getting darker as they've gone along. And I dig that.
This podcast is almost entirely responsible for my interest in other short fiction podcasts. Highly recommended. We intereviewed Steve about a year and a half ago in an episode of Mostly ITP:
The Bobby Blackwolf Show
www.allgames.com/radio.asp?show=blackwolf
I don't write about it much, but I am a video game nerd. There was a time when few things excited me more than getting my issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly in the mail.
Websites like Gamespot, IGN, 1Up and Next Generation have taken EGM's place for my video game news fix, and Bobby's show helps me understand the subtext behind that news better and brings things I've missed to my attention. Plus, the callers often say very funny things.
The snobbery of the mainstream press toward the video game industry has always boggled my mind. It's a multi-billion dollar industry with a lot of interesting things going on in it. Sit down with a copy of Grand Theft Auto 4 for a couple of hours and tell me a movie has ever engaged you that deeply. That's at least worth reporting on, even if it's frightening or strange in some way to you. Yet, it's treated like it's pro wrestling.
The Kudzu Vine
www.blogtalkradio.com/kudzu
Our friends Bernita, Mel and Catherine from Blog for Democracy all occasionally contribute to this show, which is the best podcast of its kind in the state that I know of. By "its kind" I mean a political talk shoe with a declared partisan tilt. The Ga. Politics Podcast and What Is Goin' On (two other podcasts that are somewhat similar and often lumped together) have a leftward tilt, but are not explicitly partisan.
The hosts David and Tim (along with the aforementioned contributors) get some great guests on the shows, often sitting Congressmen and Congressional candidates from Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Lousiana. Tim has this great booming voice with a drawl that sounds like a minister lecturing sinners on the evils of alcohol, except he's instead talking about something bad a Republican has done.
the fabric podcast
www.fabriclondon.com/podcast/
Thomas turned me on to this one. It's a music podcast produced by the Fabric night club in London, featuring a new guest host every episode. Hosts are people who have been making music one way or another for years. The only thing consistent about it is there is no consistency. The songs are almost always obscure and occasionally strange, and are based on what has inspired the host. Probably my favorite music podcast, though music is so dependent on my mood that you could ask me tomorrow and I might say something else.
This American Life
www.thislife.org
I fully expect "listening to This American Life" to be an item on Stuff White People Like soon if it hasn't been written about already. But it's as good as everyone says it is. To give but one example, listening to Episode 355: The Giant Pool of Money is an enlightening and terrifying look into the causes behind the current mortgage/credit crisis. This really is the gold standard of both radio and podcasts.