Podcasts

I love podcasts, and I listen to enough of them regularly that I never run out of new listening material. Here’s my list of favorites:

1. This American Life–I used to listen to this pretty regularly when we lived in Iowa, had a car, and would usually spend a fair amount of time in it on weekends (hey, get your mind out of the gutter!). I was so happy a few months ago when they started releasing their show as a weekly podcast, especially since I never listen to the radio now that we no longer have a car. In Terry Gross’s Fresh Air interview with Ira Glass a couple weeks ago, he made a comment about not having a radio voice. But I have to say, I LOVE his voice. That show would not be the same without Ira Glass’s voice!

2. Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!–Same situation as above, although I’ve been listening to this one longer because it’s been available longer. Along with Ira Glass, Peter Sagal is my other radio voice crush. I will even go so far as to say that I would rather have his voice than Carl Kasell’s on my home answering machine.

3. Car Talk’s Call of the Week–I’d be much happier if they would release the whole show as a podcast, although you can stream it from their website. But I’m usually either writing or editing when I’m sitting in front of my computer, and listening to Car Talk is not conducive to working on technical material, so I very rarely get to hear the whole show anymore.

4. Fresh Air–I only recently started listening to this podcast. It’s the only one on my list that is released more than once per week, ensuring that I never run out of listening material. Terry Gross is so good at interviewing, and has such a soothing voice, that it doesn’t even matter what each show’s subject matter is. I will listen to just about anything she does (although I’ve heard about the Gene Simmons interview and am glad I missed it). I’m even becoming a David Bianculli fan, and I’d never heard of him before I started listening to this podcast.

5. Lime & Violet–This is the only knitting podcast I listen to regularly, but there are a few more that I still need to try. Although there are more technically informative podcasts out there, these ladies always make me laugh.

6. PotterCast–Yeah, I’m a nerd. I used to roll my eyes at the very idea of Harry Potter podcasts, but seriously, this is a good one. They land great interviews and there’s a nice rapport among the regular contributors.

I also listen occasionally to Cast On, but there’s a lot in it about spinning and I’m not really into that. I do plan to download some episodes if we end up taking a trip to New York in April. That’s 8+ hours in a bus, people.

I’ve tried a few bookish podcasts but haven’t yet found one that I really like, although I do have some audiobooks loaded on the ipod in case I’m ever in the mood. I also have some music on there, of course, and maybe I’ll talk about that sometime, but podcasts take up the vast majority of my ipod time.