What Do I Listen To? 2010
by Michael Camilleri
These just seem to get later every year, don’t they? Initially it was January, then February, now it’s March.
It’s probably good that I waited a couple of months, though, because there’s a few new ones that have snuck in just in time. Let’s see what I’m listening to this year and how many sentences I can end with a preposition.
The Brainy Gamer Podcast
http://feeds.feedburner.com/brainygamerpodcast
Hands down, still the best video game podcast I’ve ever listened to. There appears to be no rhyme or reason to the schedule other than Michael puts one out when he’s got someone to talk to and something to say. This is a formula that results in a few podcasts throughout the year but my God they’re good.
Downloadable Content
http://feeds.penny-arcade.com/padlc/
There hasn’t been a podcast since June 2009 and, given that there were only 8 podcasts in 2009 alone, it’s tempting to write this one off to the dead pool. The only reason not to? It’s just so good and I have faith.
Dungeons & Dragons Podcast
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/rsspodcast.xml
I subscribe to this podcast solely to be able to listen to the Penny Arcade guys (and whoever they have with them at the time) play D&D. If you have even a remote interest in roleplaying or board games, you must listen to it. So funny.
Front Page
http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/podcasts/frontpage.xml
The New York Times recently started making this into more of a ‘value added’ podcast by adding things like short interviews with reporters to the podcast. I’m not sure it really does add any extra value but for a quick wrap-up of what’s going on, I rate it highly.
The Japan Considered Podcast
http://feeds.feedburner.com/JapanConsideredPodcast
I’m still subscribed but there hasn’t been a new podcast since February 2009. I think it’s gone.
JapanesePod101.com
http://www.japanesepod101.com/wp-feed-audio.php
I’m still listening to Peter, Naomi and the rest of the crew over at Japanese Pod. I no longer bothering with the newbie and beginner lessons but the intermediate podcasts are still at a level I find challenging.
New Yorker: Comment
http://feeds.newyorker.com/services/rssfeeds/comment_podcast.xml
If you believe liberals are sanctimonious blow-hards, this podcast is not for you.
New Yorker: The Political Scene
http://feeds.newyorker.com/services/rss/feed/campaign_trail.xml
Dorothy Wickenden leads the best weekly discussion of US politics that brings together the depth and analysis for which the New Yorker is renowned. There are occasions where I wish they’d dwell on an issue for a little bit longer but it’s probably for the best that they don’t. Whereas I eventually tired of the Slate Political Podcast, this one is still going strong.
NHK English News
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/rj/podcast/rss/english.xml
This is one that I’m sure I’ve been listening to for ages. Why I didn’t have it on last year’s list, I’m not sure. It’s obviously an incredibly Japan-centric news show but if that’s what you’re looking for, I haven’t found better.
Slate’s Spoiler Specials
http://www.slate.com/podcast/id/2144834/
I am so far behind in the movies that I’ve seen that this has now blown out to 16 podcasts that I have yet to listen to. I can only imagine how much more awesome I’d find this if I didn’t listen to everything about 8 months after the world had move on.
The Pipeline
http://feeds.feedburner.com/thepipelineshow
This is one of the news ones that I just started listening to. Dan Benjamin of the Talk Show fame (see below) spends about 30 minutes interviewing a designer or web developer. If you’re interested in design and the web, this is a great podcast. Dan has had a crackerjack line-up of guests so far and my only concern is that he’s going to run out of awesome people to interview every week.
The Talk Show
http://thetalkshow.net/index.xml
Here’s another one that I think is gone (this is becoming something of a theme). I keep it in iTunes for the same reason as the others, though: when there’s a new episode I’m listening to it immediately.
アクセス
http://www.tbsradio.jp/ac/index.xml
I still don’t understand what ガガンボン means and I still don’t understand most of what’s being said but it’s my goal in life to one day be able to answer both those questions.
東京slow style
http://www.tokyoslowstyle.jp/podcast.xml
Here’s a new one that I started listening to this year. It’s a recording of a radio show in Japan. We don’t have so many of these in Australia — at least not aimed at younger people — but in Japan they seem a lot more popular. If you’re familiar with Triple J’s Hack, it’s kind of like that, only just about an interesting place or business in Tokyo.
37signals Podcast
http://feeds.feedburner.com/37signals_podcast
I think there’s a real danger this is just not going to have the legs to keep my interest for the next 12 months — you can only listen to the 37signals message so many times before it becomes repetitive — but it’s only been a month or two and I’m still listening!
So that’s who’s on there but who fell off the list?
- GWJ Conference Call I had the same problem with the GWJ guys that I seem to have with almost all gaming-related podcasts: after a while they just become too repetitive. I think it’s no coincidence the ones that remain on my iPod are the ones without a schedule that release a show only when there’s a show worth releasing.
- Slate Magazine Daily Podcast Sacrilege! Yes, I’ve stopped listening to John, David and Emily. After the election was over I’m afraid it felt like the same discussions were being had each week and it was just going around in circles. The other Slate podcasts, although fun to listen to, weren’t the reason I was sticking around.
- University of Sydney Podcasts As interesting as these often were, I just couldn’t justify the time. When I thought about the 2 hours that you could sink into one of these, that’s a lot of Japanese study I could be doing instead.
OK, Andrew. You didn’t answer my call last year. Don’t let me down now!
Comments
Hmm, not sure if my attempt at commenting worked. This is a test post.
Right, I suspect my approach to podcasts may be slightly different than yours, podcasts are almost entirely something to listen to whilst I am doing something else, driving, gaming, working, cleaning etc.
It would seem I can’t just paste what I wrote here, so you will have to head to my mostly neglected Livejournal.
Sorry Andrew :( It did work but they were eaten by the spam filter! I could have got them back out but now I like the fact I may have encouraged you to post to your blog so I’ll leave that up instead!
Seems reasonable. Now I think about it, it would have most of the flags of a spam comment. Lots of links and poor writing =P.
Based in your info I think I’ll give Brainy Gamer a shot once I finish listening to my current set of audiobooks.
I can’t sing the praises of Brainy Gamer highly enough. He also runs a blog at http://www.brainygamer.com/ which is worth checking out if you want to see if it’d be your cup of tea.
Looks like an interesting bunch of podcasts there (New Yorker and Slate in particular look worth checking out). If you’re curious about Aussie ones, I get the ‘Insiders’ audio podcast, meaning you miss the images that TV obviously provides, but I found it useful for keeping abreast with events at home.
I like Radio National’s “The Conversation Hour” with Richard Fidler. Well, I sometimes catch a few minutes of the programme on the car radio as it’s going out live, and often think I should download the podcast because they are very interesting.
But then I realise I’m too lazy to listen to podcasts – for some reason I did read the transcripts back when they took the effort to do them, so I dunno – maybe I’m psychologically unsuited to podcasts :-P
@Jacqui I was into Insiders for a while but I confess I felt things became a bit monotonous after a while. I really enjoyed listening to it in the lead up to the last election, though, so maybe I need to tune back in :)
Listen to ‘This American Life’, ‘RadioLab’ and ‘The Moth’.
Never listen to another podcast because none are as good. Protip.
So based on your description Brainy Gamer ceases to be a one man show and at least has a guest each episode?
I just listened to the first episode and it’s really too long for a single person to just be talking into a microphone. I grabbed all of the episodes and am now out of space on my iPod, stupid mere 64GB model.
@Chris I like Richard Fidler so I’ll check that out. Just out of interest, do you have an iPod or another type of music playing device? I can’t imagine listening to podcasts on anything other than an iPod.
@Dave I’ve subscribed to the Moth to check it out. I think I’ve tried Radiolab in the past and found it not for me. Ditto with This American Life.
@Andrew Yeah, the Brainy Gamer podcast is almost always a confabulation where he gets a bunch of interesting people together and asks them questions.
Have you had a chance to listen to any yet? What did you think?
My phone can play MP3s but I never use it to listen to stuff. I’m in front of a PC all day at work and half of most evenings, so I don’t usually miss gadgets at any other time. I think my car stereo has an AUX input, so I suppose I could play MP3s through it if I wanted to…
Serious? TAL is my favourite non-fiction show in any medium, that it’s free public radio from Chicago just makes it better.
Did you give it much of a try?
Well I’m up to Episode 17 now. The show had two stages of improvement thus far, the first was adding a proper opening, closing and section breaks it is amazing the improvement to listenability those aspect add, the second is the interviews, it is great to have other voices and opinions on the show.
It’s always strange listening through archives like this with a show about a topic I’ve been interested in a while, listening to the speculation about Spore, Playstation home and Bioshock 2 etc. It has been pretty interesting thus far. I really should check out the blog.
@Chris Oh, the reason I was asking was because I can’t imagine listening to podcasts without an iPod. The fact that the iPod remembers where you’re up to in a podcast is the killer feature. I’m impressed by anyone that listens on their computer :)
@Dave The main problem with TAL for me is the length. I had the same problem with the Conversations with Richard Fidler podcast that Jacqui suggested. The first week was great but listening to it caused all my other podcasts to back up and then there was another episode released :(
Maybe I need to dedicate some time outside of travelling to listening to them.
TAL would be no fun if you didn’t listen to it in one session. I generally listen to it in bed or while pottering on the net. It’s the length of one tv show and better than anything on free to air.
If you want to give it another try, maybe try one of these:
Mistakes Were Made Mind Games The Fix Is In Party School Notes From Camp Fall Guy
”Pro Se” might interest you too, since it has a sort of legal bent.
I’ve set myself a reminder to download it tonight!
Mike, I don’t use my livejournal anymore. If I do get back on, I’ve signed up on a new one annie_chromatic.
No worries :)