Podcasts?

Mim

Hey all! Well, I'm looking into podcasts and I wanted to see what you guys would advise as worthy enough to be put on my ipod.

I'm looking for something political (that's neutral, I want facts not opinions), funny (and free), historical (but not boring), and maybe something spiritual? Right now I'm subscribed to "Some Other Castle" and "Grammar Girl"

Anything else for English majors/Anything else you just think is really awesome, please recommend away.

Other video game/comic podcasts are a plus.

Thanks!

Weretaco

I have a decent list of podcasts I go through on my blackberry.
Tech: TWIT stuff. They have a podcast covering pretty much each flavour of tech you're interested in. http://twit.tv
Comedy: Adam Carolla of course. http://www.adamcarolla.com/ACPBlog/
News/Documentary/Interesting stuff: BBC has some great podcasts which you can narrow down from their site. http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/
Wacky News stuff: No agenda (Adam Curry and John C Dvorak). Full of crackpot theories and amusing takes on the news. http://www.noagendashow.com/

Kyougu

Humor? Smodcast.

Saddler

The News From Lake Wobegon is always good. Garrison Keillor had another podcast called The Writer's Almanac; I'm not sure if it's still being produced, but it might be available somewhere.

The only video game podcast I listen to any more is Retronauts, because I'm always familiar with the subject matter, and it's quite entertaining.

Fallingman

Humour: the Friday Night Comedy Podcast from the BBC. The news will be British/International, and so may or may not appeal.

Mim

Fallingman wrote: »

Humour: the Friday Night Comedy Podcast from the BBC. The news will be British/International, and so may or may not appeal.

International works as well, but I'm also hoping to know more about our (my) political system.

Mgcw

Hardcore History with Dan Carlin: http://www.dancarlin.com/dchh.xml - Great series of discussions about historical events, figures, etc. Hosted by Dan Carlin. Very casual and fun, not dry or stuffy and usually done from a very unique view. The focus is on being interesting.

noir_blood

For humor, if you're even the smallest fan of Kevin Smith's work, defiantely check out Smodcast. This American Life features different stories/theme every week, some are funny, some are sad, but almsot always they end up being really interesting. Comedy Death-Ray Radio is a hone hour internet comedy radio show. Sometimes it's too umm 'radioy" but it's a good time killer.

saltiness

This American Life!

Mim

Okay, what about comic podcasts? I'm so out of the loop when it comes to comics and I need a podcast to point me in the right direction!

ANTVGM64

Allow me to recomend the Allegedly-Speaking.com podcast. It's a little hokey, a little funny, talks about a wide variety of subjects, and plays some kickass tunes too.

www.allegedly-speaking.com

(the site's not particularly up and running atm, but the podcast is!)

Bionic Monkey

Mim wrote: »

Hey all! Well, I'm looking into podcasts and I wanted to see what you guys would advise as worthy enough to be put on my ipod.

I'm looking for something political (that's neutral, I want facts not opinions), funny (and free), historical (but not boring), and maybe something spiritual? Right now I'm subscribed to "Some Other Castle" and "Grammar Girl"

Anything else for English majors/Anything else you just think is really awesome, please recommend away.

Other video game/comic podcasts are a plus.

Thanks!

Are you looking for something that's all those at once? Because I think you'll be looking for a while.

For funny, I like http://www.cortandfatboy.com/
They were radio DJ's that just put their show up online, but they were fired a few months ago, and just kept up with the podcast, which has only gotten better since. One of them is actually a regular poster here on the forums, and they basically talk about all the shit we talk about here, including movies, games, TV shows, comics, music and games.

Speaker

The History of Rome by Mike Duncan - I cannot recommend this enough.
The Jefferson Hour by Clay Jenkinson - I cannot recommend this enough.

Also good:
Binge Thinking History by Tony Cox
Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean (mostly about early Christianity) by Philip Harland
Twelve Byzantine Rulers by Lars Brownworth
Rhetoric 101 by Daniel Coffeen

Fletcher

for humor/english language, maybe try stephen fry's podgrams

there are only a few, and he doesn't seem to be making more, but they are great

and he is packed full of delicious dry wit

Mgcw

Speaker wrote: »

The History of Rome by Mike Duncan - I cannot recommend this enough.

I love this one, too, I'll definitely check out your other recommendations.

RandomEngy

The Bugle is a funny, political-oriented podcast with John Oliver (of Daily Show fame) and Andy Zaltzman. It's 30 minutes a week and consistently funny.

noir_blood

For comics, Ifanboy is the only one I really listen to. It's mostly reviews though, so if you care about being spoiled, it might not work out for you.

Willeth

Fallingman wrote: »

Humour: the Friday Night Comedy Podcast from the BBC. The news will be British/International, and so may or may not appeal.

I can only recommend half of this. When it's the News Quiz, fine. When it's the Now Show, you might like it for a few series until you realise they're just repeating themselves.

Now, this is going to be a bit of a list, but I recommend subscribing to these and listening to a few shows before making your mind up. These are all iTunes links, so you should be able to click each and subscribe directly.


For comedy, I'm going to plunge in for the following:

Keith and the Girl: Daily - American comedian Keith Malley and Israeli singer Chemda Khalili, a couple who podcast from their house, interview comics and interesting people in general.

Tweet Me Harder: Cartoonists Kris Straub and David Malki talk about something and then take as many tangents as possible throughout the show.

Rum Doings: British videogame writer John Walker and his friend Nick Mailer choose a topic and then deliberately don't talk about it for the entire show, because the best parts of any podcast are when people go off-topic.


Gaming-wise:

A Life Well Wasted is required. Game writer Robert Ashley's very professionally-produced series about the people involved in gaming.

Irrational Behavior, the podcast for Irrational Games, has just started, headed by ex-games writer Shawn Elliott. There's only been one episode thus far but it's been really interesting - it's not just a PR thing. In fact, under the heading of ex-GFW guys, the EA podcast has been interesting on and off since its inception, but it does obviously have an EA marketing bent to it (that Jeff Green does his best to combat, to be fair).

The CAGcast is the podcast for CheapAssGamer. It's just three guys talking vidjagames, which isn't exactly new in podcasting, but they're genuinely likable people and in three years I've not considered unsubscribing.


Of no particular topic are:

XO, which is an interesting one. It was inspired by ALWW, TAL and similar and is one Canadian guy's thoughts on anything and everything. This is pretty closely linked to KATG (the guy is a friend of theirs and once-regular guest. He's also a huge PA fan, if it helps) but is fully enjoyable on its own. I recommend the episode where he reads one of his failed Harlequin romance attempts.

The Moth is a weekly show of people telling stories on stage at the Moth storytelling club. They can be funny, depressing, moving, or anything, really - the only brief is 'people with a story to tell'. Recently, for example, they had journalist David Carr talking about his experience as a heroin addict and his priorities with his children.


As a final thought, what do you think of Grammar Girl? I always found her stuff to be a little too scripted and stilted, and a little too elementary for my taste. Has she loosened up a little?

EDIT: Also, don't forget to check the Staff Favourites. You can access that by going to the podcast section of the iTunes Store - the link should be on the right-hand side. Listed there under News and Politics is The Monocle Weekly, which might be worth checking out. There's also Ancient Places TV for history and travel, which I might grab myself, actually.

etdragon

Mim wrote: »

Hey all! Well, I'm looking into podcasts and I wanted to see what you guys would advise as worthy enough to be put on my ipod.

I'm looking for something political (that's neutral, I want facts not opinions), funny (and free), historical (but not boring), and maybe something spiritual? Right now I'm subscribed to "Some Other Castle" and "Grammar Girl"

Anything else for English majors/Anything else you just think is really awesome, please recommend away.

Other video game/comic podcasts are a plus.

Thanks!

Oh man I feel super special that you are subscribed to my podcast

Also for other ones that I listen to, I really enjoy Rebel FM which is another gaming podcast and I think those guys are hilarious. I also look forward to the Giant Bombcast for a combo of gaming info and general ridiculousness.

Dalboz

I always make sure to recommend "The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe." Really good science podcast.

Good luck finding a political podcast that's actually neutral. I like "Left, Right, and Center" from KCRW.

For an English major, "A Way With Words" is a decent podcast.

And I'll also second "This American Life."

LoveIsUnity

I don't know what aspect of English you're interested in, but UC Berkeley releases entire courses as podcasts, and I've had a good time with the English ones. I have an MA in English lit and I found it really enjoyable to get new perspectives on material I was already familiar with. Even more importantly, it's a nice way to fill in gaps. I primarily study 19th C. Brit Lit and Lit. Theory, so it was nice to listen to a podcast all about American Literature before 1900.

I Win Swordfights

You Look Nice Today for funny!

Mostlyjoe13

Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me! from National Public Radio is a favorite of mine.

Also. Tom vs. The Flash is a great comicbook cast.

Crowleston

This American Life - Tear Jerkers
The Moth - Great Stories
Adam Carolla - Humor
Hardcore History - Interesting Historical Topics, doesn't update ioften enough but you can listen to the back catalog over and over
I Love Movies - Doug Benson, he's pretty funny.
The Totally Rad Show - Better in video than audio, but still respectable reviews of Video Games, Comics, TV and Movies
Today in the Past - John Hodgman, quick and humorous
iFanboy - Comics

Fallingman

Willeth wrote: »

Fallingman wrote: »

Humour: the Friday Night Comedy Podcast from the BBC. The news will be British/International, and so may or may not appeal.

I can only recommend half of this. When it's the News Quiz, fine. When it's the Now Show, you might like it for a few series until you realise they're just repeating themselves.

Ha.

I'm the opposite. I think the Now Show is the stronger one... But I do enjoy the news quiz... They tried a new one too recently - I couldn't be doing with it.

Mim

Thank you all for the suggestions! My podcasts are going to be full. I wouldn't have asked but in a previous thread I mentioned how my external hard drive crashed and my ipod had been updated with the wrong stuff. So I basically lost everything for the most part. I think.

Anyways, I'll be checking these out!

And @etdragon : I also follow you on twitter (sorry, that seems stalker-ish now..)! I plan to write fan mail one day but as for now I just enjoy listening. I'm always smiling while listening to your podcast, which makes people freak out on the train.

Grey_Area

Try this - BBC4 podcast series of A History of the World in 100 Objects, which looks at human development over the last several thousand years as seen from the objects we left behing. It starts with flint tools and hand axes and moves through basic sculptures to clay pot designs and so on. The series spans the world and I found it very interesting. 30-something quarter hour podcasts here.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/ahow/all

Tavataar

I second Wait Wait Don't Tell Me!

The Car Talk podcast is also free and always entertaining and educational!

kuhlmeye

I love Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. Its a good way to get a humorous update on news.

I also enjoy Fresh Air from NPR, depending on the guest.