what podcasts do you recommend?

February 13, 2005 9:45 PM

Podcatchers, with so many feeds available, which podcasts do you recommend?

Thousands to choose from, where should I begin? I already enjoy Evil Genius, Slashdot Review, and the Air America Radio feeds. What are the really interesting ones? Also, if any MeFites have a podcast of their own, feel free to let me know. I'd like to check it out. My email is in my profile.

posted by mds35 to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

Response by poster: [Someone in charge care to chime in...] Is this thread the kind where self-posting would be okay?
posted by mds35 at 9:56 PM on February 13, 2005

Two things happened, almost simultaneously, that made me a believer in podcasts:

1. NetNewsWire 2.0 started supporting the enclosure tag, thus eliminating the need for a separate podcast app.

2. On the Media started podcasting.

Now, I'm hooked. Sadly, OTM is really the only really worthwhile content I've found. So, I too anxiously await more feeds.
posted by jimray at 11:09 PM on February 13, 2005

I listen to OTM as well
I also get a kick out of Jason Forrest's Advanced D&D podcasted show from WFMU's evergrowing list of podcasts
posted by soplerfo at 7:03 AM on February 14, 2005

Oh yeah, I also tried Al Franken's Air America podcast but found the quality to be really crappy and unlistenable.

I just stumbled on a feed of Pitchfork's free mp3s listed here
looks interesting. I might give some of the other Air America stuff a shot too.
posted by soplerfo at 7:13 AM on February 14, 2005

Can someone explain how (if) podcasting is any different than someone just making a recording (be it a lecture, real radio show, or custom "radio show") and releasing it (periodically or not) on mp3 for people to put on their iPods?

I don't get why it's become such a fad, and have a heavy distaste for fads which are actually nothing new; so I'm hoping there is something very clever about it that I'm just not seeing.
posted by cyrusdogstar at 9:13 AM on February 14, 2005

cyrusdogstar: It's only really different in that there's an rss feed involved.

I use the software at ipodder.org to check for updates to the rss feeds and add the mp3-podcasts to my itunes library automatically. I have smart playlists setup so that I get only new podcasts transfered to the ipod.

So yeah, it's not much different from what you describe, but there's an added convienance that makes it somewhat more interesting and useful.

Using my examples above - before the podcasts existed, I used to only occasionally go and check out Jason Forrest's WFMU show, now I'm sure to catch it every week. Same with OTM. I'd never go and download their streams manually every day/week even if they were in mp3 format already.
posted by soplerfo at 9:40 AM on February 14, 2005

If you like board games, boardgamegeek's Geek Speak isn't too bad.

Me, I'm with cyrusdogstar. Don't get it.
posted by majcher at 6:20 PM on February 14, 2005