Comments on: What podcasts do you listen to?

Question: What podcasts do you listen to?

cgg — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 08:39:48 -0800

What podcasts do you listen to? I'm on the hunt for some new podcasts to keep me entertained on the slowing-becoming-dreary-as-the-weather-turns walk to work.

Ideally, I'm looking for podcasts that have new content on a fairly regular basis, preferably daily or once a week (give or take). I'm primarily interested in comedy/random conversation, technology and possibly lifestyle/entertainment, but i'm open to recommendations for anything that's relatively light hearted; I'm not really looking to have to actively think too much. Funny is good.

Because I'm listening while walking, audio podcasts are what I'm after, or video podcasts where the primary content is actually what's being said, not what's being shown.

Currently, the only podcast I'm addicted to is Kevin Smith's Smodcast. I'm also listening to some of the CBC's lighter stuff.

So -- any ideas?

By: fairytale of los angeles

fairytale of los angeles — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 08:47:44 -0800

MeFi's own Jesse Thorn's The Sound of Young America and Jordan, Jesse Go! should be right up your alley. http://www.maximumfun.org/ or iTMS for archives.

By: phearlez

phearlez — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 08:52:23 -0800

I'm a big fan of Filmspotting - it and Coverville (which clearly fails your test) are my only two don't-miss podcasts, where as others sometimes go unlistened-to for weeks at a time.

By: Science!

Science! — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 08:55:55 -0800

Comedy/Random conversation : You can not get more random than You Look Nice Today.
Also, The Bugle. They don't think about the news, so you don't have to.
Also, Tank Riot . Though the last half dozen episodes have been lame, you can selectively download topics that interest you.

By: Sidhedevil

Sidhedevil — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 08:56:02 -0800

Dr. Karl and the Naked Scientist.

By: plastic_animals

plastic_animals — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 08:56:25 -0800

There's a huge archive of Jean Shepherd broadcasts on iTMS. Most are about 45 minutes long. A few are topical and dated, but there are many, many that are storytelling gold.

By: Camofrog

Camofrog — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:00:42 -0800

Lately I've been hooked on Too Beautiful To Live, a Seattle hipsterish talk show ... a nice balance to the more serious stuff.

By: mmascolino

mmascolino — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:03:58 -0800

2nd the Sound of Young America and Jordan, Jesse Go! The archives of both would keep you busy for a long time.

The mp3 version of Diggnation meets some of your criteria. Most of the time 95% of the show can be appreciated with out the video.

It's only about 50 seconds a day, but The Onion Radio News usually hits the spot. Never Not Funny also meets your requirements for comedy.

As for lifestyle/entertainment, any of the big NPR/Public Radio talk shows would do the trick if you are willing to scan episode summaries and delete the ones that don't interest you. That's what I do. Example shows include: Fresh Air, The Leonard Lopate Show, The Brian Lehrer Show and Filmspotting. Most of these cover non-entertainment things so you just have to pick and choose your battles (except for Filmspotting which is all about movies but you might not be into some of their more esoteric coverage).

By: Ponderance

Ponderance — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:09:57 -0800

If you like art the Bad at Sports podcast is excellent. www.badatsports.com

Also The Best Show on WFMU is the funniest thing out there! It is not to be missed!

By: Dick Paris

Dick Paris — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:10:50 -0800

Wait wait...don't tell me

By: PsuDab93

PsuDab93 — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:11:30 -0800

Seconding "You Look Nice Today".

Also, you may want to check out the Podcasts from "The Moth", which consists of live storytelling from a diverse cast of characters.

By: chrisamiller

chrisamiller — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:19:41 -0800

Lots of good answers under the podcasts tag

By: aheckler

aheckler — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:31:20 -0800

Obligatory This American Life mention.

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:39:52 -0800

Everything from Leo Laporte at Twit.tv. Everything!
Also: (sorry for the lack of links, I'm at work)
Stack Overflow
Dan Carlin's Hardcore History
Dan Carlin's Common Sense (non-partisan politics)
BBC History Magazine
Ask A Ninja
TVO Big Ideas
EconTalk (econtalk.org)
gdgt weekly (the guys that created Gizmodo and Engadget)
Harvard Business Review Ideas
John Cleese's Podcast
The Onion Podcast
SALT - Seminars on Long Term Thinking
TED Talks
The Skeptics Guide to the Universe
Scientific Amerian's 60 Second Science

By: Kirn

Kirn — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:46:52 -0800

My picks are all British, but:
- Definitely seconding The Bugle. Weekly.
- Adam and Joe, ex-student-humour-paragons of my younger years but still very funny. Weekly.
- The Collings and Herrin podcasts are funny, deliberately very rough around the edges but usually good and can be excellent. Weekly.
- Downloadable Content (The Penny Arcade Podcast) - you might need to know your video games for this one, but it fits pretty neatly into comedy/chat/technology. Very intermittently updated though - sometimes it's quite frequent, but it's been a month or two now.
- The Ricky Gervais Show - you have to pay for this one, but I think it's hilarious. It's £3.95 a season on iTunes, the 1st season being 12 half-hour episodes. It finished recently, and I miss it.

By: ShawnString

ShawnString — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:47:44 -0800

along the same lines as Diggnation (and whatya know with Alex Albrecht even) may I suggest The Totally Rad Show? Its a review show (mainly, they do do some video heavy stuff) of movies, video games, comics, and TV shows. Great chemistry between Alex, Dan, and Jeff. Funny Stuff. And they all bring a very specific view to the party as well.

By: wocka wocka wocka

wocka wocka wocka — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:02:48 -0800

If you aren't fearful of being offended, crass conversation or the like..Keith and the Girl. It had me literally LOL'ing at my desk at work to tears on occasion.

By: bonobothegreat

bonobothegreat — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:08:39 -0800

This is a great AskMe question!
The Bugle is great and a couple more are...
Steven Fry's podgrams and
Spline Cast (informal in-house interviews with Pixar directors and animators like Brad Bird, Andrew Stanton, Ed Catmull plus boisterous round-table discussions)

By: arcticseal

arcticseal — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:36:59 -0800

The Bugle (Time Online) is eagerly anticipated every week.
Fighting Talk (BBC R5) - weekly sports punditry, does cover a lot of football, but frequently hilarious even if you're not a sports fan.
Wait Wait Don't Tell Me is weekly and excellent. They had Spock on this week, what's not to like?

By: The corpse in the library

The corpse in the library — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:39:55 -0800

The Bugle
Ouch!
Slate Gabfest

By: spec80

spec80 — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:13:27 -0800

RadioLab. It's about SCIENCE!!!!!!!

By: Rhaomi

Rhaomi — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:50:41 -0800

Voices of Tomorrow is the audio version of 365 tomorrows, and highlights a new sci-fi short story every few days as read by their authors.

By: snoe

snoe — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 12:46:49 -0800

I drive to work, so I tend to favor longer-format, non-video stuff:

The Savage Lovecast is an audio version of Dan Savage's sex- (and relationship-) advice column -- NSFW, but really really fun.

Aside from the Slate Gabfest, mentioned above, Slate has a couple more podcasts worth checking out -- I like The Big Money, the Spoiler Specials, and the Explainer.

The New Yorker has some good stuff too.

By: Happy Dave

Happy Dave — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 14:46:34 -0800

Are you a gamer? The Gamers With Jobs Conference Call podcast is freaking awesome. It's basically three or four of the regulars chatting about games, addressing a single topic (like 'do games being more cinematic make them better or worse' for example) and then doing listener emails. They also regularly have amazing interviews (they interviewed Felicia Day after Dr Horrible for example) and special guests (Ken Levine of Bioshock has been on three or four times). It's every Wednesday, usually an hour to an hour and a half. Mucho recommended.

Also seconding You Look Nice Today - took me a while to get with the style they have (which is surreal and a bit disconcerting) but it's very, very funny.

By: tomble

tomble — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:01:00 -0800

The Ask Mr Biggs podcast takes real calls to call in lines and reworks them into a funny new call in show. It's slickly produced and very funny.

By: Happy Dave

Happy Dave — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:01:38 -0800

Ooh, also, if you like downtempo or chillout music, Dave's Lounge is freaking great. Not least for the little zen-like thought that Dave offers at the beginning of each one. Highly recommended.

By: mrgoldenbrown

mrgoldenbrown — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:47:19 -0800

NPR's CarTalk (cartalk.com) is ostensibly a call in show about car repair, but it features plenty of random conversation and comedy.

By: schrodycat

schrodycat — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 18:13:09 -0800

The New Yorker Fiction Podcast. Short stories from the magazine's archives chosen and read by authors, followed by a short discussion.

By: bkeene12

bkeene12 — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:48:05 -0800

60 Second Science. Quick, thought provoking and entertaining. Plus, you get a new one every week day. Scientific American puts them out there.

By: Mael Oui

Mael Oui — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 22:39:17 -0800

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Fry, of course. They're both national treasures.

There's also The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd, a 'family friendly new twist on Old Time Radio'! I found out about this podcast because Joel Hodgson and Frank Conniff of MST3K guest starred (as did Dr. Demento and Jeffrey Tambor!).

By: sambosambo

sambosambo — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 08:05:16 -0800

iTunes store links to a couple short podcasts that I like:

NPR's "This I Believe" can be a nice affirmation for your day, and "Hmmm.... Krulwich on Science" features Radio Lab's Robert Krulwich in a light 'n easy 5-minute science topic.

Also, "Real Time with Bill Maher" features the entire audio from the week's episode, and extra segments.

By: Widepath

Widepath — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 09:23:43 -0800

If you like the light comedy chat/riffing type of show, like Never Not Funny or Jordan, Jesse, Go! I would recommend you try Stop Podcasting Yourself. It has a Canadian flavor that you'll want to savor!

By: phritosan

phritosan — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 08:45:51 -0800

i've been listening to Keith and the Girl for years now. almost 800 episodes, all at least an hour.

By: melorama

melorama — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 19:24:53 -0800

The Best Show on WFMU, with Tom Scharpling, (as Jessie Thorn would agree) is one of the funniest podcasts/radio shows in existence today.

Scharpling and Jon Wurster (drummer for Superchunk) are brilliant torch-bearers for the unheralded genre of "long-form radio comedy"

Conan OBrien, Patton Oswalt, Paul F Tompkins, Fred Armisen, Amy Poehler, Horatio Sanz, Matt Walsh, Ben Gibbard, Ted Leo, Zach Galifianakis, and many other monsters of comedy/indie music are all avowed fans of TBSOWFMU.

Stereolaffs has a great full length sample mp3 from Scharpling & Wurster's classic "Music Scholar" bit, in which you will learn the logical connection between Matchbox 20 and The Velvet Underground.