Back to Work

http://feeds.feedburner.com/back2work
Merlin Man (he of Inbox Zero fame) and 5by5′s Dan Benjamin have joined forces to waste at least an hour of your week and prevent you from getting back to work. I jest, of course. The idea is to discuss strategies to help you work better. I’m not sure how well that works but I’m enjoying listening to it anyway.

The Brainy Gamer Podcast

http://feeds.feedburner.com/brainygamerpodcast
The only thing that’s disappointing about the Brainy Gamer Podcast is that there aren’t more of them. Michael Abbott was almost entirely responsible for me buying a PS3 (which might not sound like an achievement but, given the state of my relationship with Sony, is really more akin to the Paris Peace Accords).

Build and Analyse

http://feeds.feedburner.com/buildanalyze
One of the new podcasts and I’m listening to and, like most of the new additions, a member of the 5by5 network. Dan Benjamin (of The Talk Show and the Pipeline fame) has expanded his podcasting empire throughout 2010 and, together with Tumblr co-founder and Instapaper owner/developer, Marco Arment, discusses iOS, Mac and mobile web development. It’s pretty Apple-centric at present but they do detour into coffee from time to time.

Downloadable Content

http://feeds.penny-arcade.com/padlc/
I’m pretty sure this one is gone and yet I hang on just in case.

Dungeons & Dragons Podcast

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/rsspodcast.xml
Downloadable Content may have bit the bullet but the boys from Penny Arcade still make an appearance every so often on the D&D Podcast and, when they do, I put everything else on hold.

Front Page

http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/podcasts/frontpage.xml
The Front Page is one of the casualties of the end of my commute. Without a daily trek to and from work I’m often a few days behind at which point listening to the news is kind of beside the point. I do still like this podcast, though, so I’m hoping I can fit it into my schedule somewhere.

Hypercritical

http://feeds.feedburner.com/hypercritical
This is probably my favourite new podcast. John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss issues relevant to the tech world. There’s an Apple angle often but it’s often about issues bigger than just Macs and iPhone. John’s observations are incredibly insightful and, because he doesn’t have a regular outlet (John has a blog but doesn’t update it that much), this is the best place to hear his thoughts.

The Japan Considered Podcast

http://feeds.feedburner.com/JapanConsideredPodcast
Am still subscribed to this but, in my heart of hearts, I know it’s gone.

JapanesePod101.com

http://www.japanesepod101.com/wp-feed-audio.php
I have about 40 of these backed up. I promise I will get to them.

The Moth Podcast

http://feeds.feedburner.com/themothpodcast
I can’t believe I’ve only been listening to this for a year but it’s a terrific podcast. Recommended by Dave.

New Yorker: Comment

http://feeds.newyorker.com/services/rssfeeds/comment_podcast.xml
The Comment section of the New Yorker is a short essay that begins every issue of the magazine. At least 50% of these will be written by Hendrik Hertzberg and be about the filibuster.

New Yorker: The Political Scene

http://feeds.newyorker.com/services/rss/feed/campaign_trail.xml
This is still my favourite discussion of politics. Although their discussion of the recent earthquake in Japan was laughably poor, there’s usually a nice smattering of experts to talk about whatever issue is most timely.

NHK English News

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/rj/podcast/rss/english.xml
Same problem as the Front Page podcast. I wish NHK put out their Japanese-language news as a podcast.

Slate’s Spoiler Specials

http://www.slate.com/podcast/id/2144834/
I’ve caught up from last year and am now only 11 podcasts behind. I still have /Lust, Caution/ on the list, though.

The Pipeline

http://feeds.feedburner.com/thepipelineshow
If you don’t include The Talk Show (see below) this was the first 5by5 show I started listening to and it’s still one of the best. Hosted by Dan Benjamin, I thought this one might run out of steam as Benjamin worked his way through friends and associates. Thankfully, that’s not the case (or he just has an incredible rolodex).

The Talk Show

http://thetalkshow.net/index.xml
Suspended for a brief ‘two week’ hiatus, The Talk Show has returned as part of the 5by5 network. Notable for a running segment in which hosts John Gruber and Dan Benjamin dissect a new James Bond film each week (they’re working their way through the series in order). This alone makes it worthwhile.

東京slow style

http://www.tokyoslowstyle.jp/podcast.xml
I still listen to Sasha as he continues exploring odd and different parts of Tokyo. This is the only podcast I’ve ever listened to which seemed to use an animated GIF as the image it displays on an iPod/iPhone. I assume it’s an animated GIF because as the show plays it cycles through images relevant to what’s being talked about. Kind of impressive just for the effort that goes into that side of things.

8-4 Play

http://eightfour.libsyn.com/rss
There’s not a lot of video game-related podcasts in this list any more but this is a new one that’s found its way on there. 8-4 Play is a translation company based in Tokyo. The reason I’m listening to the podcast? The company is home to Mark McDonald (formerly of EGM) and he leads a biweekly podcast with the rest of the 8-4 Play crew. The Japan angle is excellent for me.

37signals Podcast

http://feeds.feedburner.com/37signals_podcast
It’s not as regular as it was when it started out but if you enjoy listening to the guys from 37signals, you’ll enjoy this.

So that’s who’s on there but who fell off the list? Only one podcast! Incredible! And it only fell off because it stopped being recorded.

• アクセス The podcast was cancelled! Now I’m never going to find out what ガガンボン means.

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!

The Brainy Gamer Podcast

http://feeds.feedburner.com/brainygamerpodcast

Last year my schedule was chock-full of gaming podcasts but since the demise of 1UP I’ve managed to whittle it down to two. I started listening to the Brainy Gamer podcast over the New Year. New episodes don’t appear to come out on any schedule that I can see but if the three 1.5-hour long holiday episodes were anything to go by this is the podcast to listen to if you want intelligent analysis of the latest games.

Downloadable Content

http://feeds.penny-arcade.com/padlc/

The irregular podcast for the web comic Penny Arcade stays on the iPod. Artist Mike Krahulik and writer Jerry Holkins are sharp and witty observers on video gaming culture and their discussions of the issues that inspire their comic is as good–if not better–than the finished result. One wishes it were updated more often but I guess that’s what makes each new episode so special.

Front Page

http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/podcasts/frontpage.xml

Another one to return, the Front Page podcast is still the best 5-minute summary of the big stories of the day I’ve found. More than just the headlines you get a feel for what the story is about. It’s published relative to New York’s time zone so it’s about a half a day behind the news but I still find it useful for keeping up with what’s going on.

GWJ Conference Call

http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/taxonomy/term/408/0/feed

New for 2009, the Gamers with Jobs Conference Call is the eponymous podcast for the Gamers with Jobs web site. Usually featuring four regulars, Shawn Andrich, Sean Sands, Julian Murdoch and Rob Borges, the production quality is top-notch and although the show is regular 90 minutes or so in length it never drags. Refreshingly the boys are as conversant about PC gaming as they are about the latest titles to hit the 360 and PS3 so I find it a great all-in-one replacement for 1UP Yours! and GFW Radio.

The Japan Considered Podcast

http://feeds.feedburner.com/JapanConsideredPodcast

Still on the iPod is Dr Robert C Angel’s podcast about Japanese domestic politics and international relations. Dr Angel retired from his teaching gig at the end of last year so my fingers are crossed he can keep to a weekly schedule. Even if he does miss the odd one it’s hard to blame him. He runs the Japan Considered Project for free and uses his considerable network of contacts to interview a number of Japan experts you’d rarely get to hear otherwise.

JapanesePod101.com

http://www.japanesepod101.com/wp-feed-audio.php

One of this year’s rookies, I started listening to JapanesePod101.com about six months ago. A new episode is published each weekday with a slightly confusing schedule. Monday is their newbie series, Tuesday is their beginner series, Wednesday alternates between their lower-intermediate series and an onamatopoeia class, Thursday alternates between their upper-intermediate series and a short audio blog entry about Japan, and Friday is a video lesson. The site operates on a freemium model and if you subscribe you get access to level-specific feeds. To be honest, it was better last year when a new episode of the Lower-Intermediate (my level) and Upper-Intermediate series came out every week but when you don’t pay any money it’s hard to complain.

New Yorker: Comment

http://feeds.newyorker.com/services/rssfeeds/comment_podcast.xml

A reading of the weekly comment article from the latest edition of the New Yorker returns in 2009. If you’re a little worried about how the New Yorker‘s signature blend of upper class wit and overall snootiness translates into audio form rest assured they have a rotating cast of three of the most posh-sounding announcers outside of the BBC and Classical FM.

New Yorker: The Policital Scene

http://feeds.newyorker.com/services/rss/feed/campaign_trail.xml

Presented by Dorothy Wickenden, the Political Scene is the New Yorker‘s version of Slate’s Political Gabfest. As you’d expect it’s a lot more focused and at only about half the length tends not to deal with as many topics of discussion. That said, it’s an excellent overview of the political comings and goings in Washington for that week and the calibre of their writers means it’s always interesting. New to the iPod but definitely staying.

Slate’s Spoiler Specials

http://www.slate.com/podcast/id/2144834/

One of the bevy of Slate podcasts that remain on my listening listen. Slate‘s film critic, Dana Stevens, continues to go where other reviewers fear to tread. This is the podcast that discusses movies without regard to spoilers and as such is better listened to after you’ve seen a film. Unfortunately given the delay between movies coming out in the US and their release in Japan I’ve got quite a backlog building up. Hopefully I can cut it down to a more manageable size when I return to Australia.

Slate Magazine Daily Podcast

http://www.slate.com/podcast/

Since 2008 Slate has expanded its podcasts to include the Culture Gabfest and the Big Money podcast. Both are excellent talkfests about popular culture and economics respectively. The Audio Book Club is still there, as is the Political Gabfest. When it’s not one of the regular longform podcasts, Dale Willman reads a popular story from the site.

The Gabfests, Big Money and the Audio Book Club are also podcast separately if that grabs your fancy.

The Talk Show

http://thetalkshow.net/index.xml

Dan Benjamin and John Gruber, Mac nerds extraordinaire, remain on the list into 2009. They still do some of the best deadpan banter and although they often stray from topic (last week was a 15-minute show entirely about gridiron) I never seem to mind (even when it’s entirely about gridiron).

University of Sydney Podcasts

http://www.usyd.edu.au/podcasts/2006/rss.xml

They don’t come around every week but the University of Sydney has some fantastic guest lecturers (as you’d expect) and some bright spark thought it was a shame that you had to actually be at the university to hear them. Sometimes they’re a little boring (the medical science one I couldn’t make it through) but for the most part they’re brilliant lecturers you’d normally have to pay good money to hear speak.

アクセス

http://www.tbsradio.jp/ac/index.xml

Although I didn’t include it on last year’s list I have been listening to TBS’s アクセス (Access) since 2007. It’s a Japanese language podcast about current affairs and politics in Japan. To be perfectly honest, I think I understand about 10% of what they say but since that’s up from 5% last year it’s something of an improvement. I still don’t understand what ガガンボン means, though.

So that’s who’s on there but who fell off the list?

• ABC Insiders I stopped listening after becoming frustrated at the lack of detailed analysis (and at Andrew Bolt).
• Background Briefing I couldn’t justify the time it took to listen to. Thirty minutes is a long time and too often it was about a topic in which I had little to no interest.
• Backstory I really miss this one but I really felt the time on the train would be more productive studying Japanese.
• EGM Live* I stopped listening to this before it morphed into 1UP Radio. All the presenters I liked departed and it wasn’t doing anything 1UP Yours! didn’t do better.
• GFW Radio Another 1UP podcast I stopped listening to before it was renamed. I’m sorry to say once Jeff Green and Shawn Elliot left there wasn’t a lot keeping me there.
• KCRW’s The Treatment The delay between a film’s release in the US and its release in Japan just made the backlog of these too long to ever get through.
• Newsmaker I can’t remember if I stopped listening or if they stopped podcasting. Either way, not a good sign.
• OpCast Too often it was about a topic I had no interest in or it really needed you to read the op-ed first. Since I listen to podcasts away from the Internet this isn’t an option for me.
• Slate Explainer Podcast Another one I was really sad to drop. Again, I wanted to focus on Japanese and truth be told I didn’t need to know any of this stuff.
• TalkCrunch I don’t know if they ever did fix that feed.
• This Week in Law This podcast had real promise but the level of preparation got to me after a while. Frequently guests were unable to answer questions because they didn’t have an opinion on the matter. Why are you there, then?
• 1UP Yours! It seems to have gone the way of the dodo since the sale of 1UP to UGO. And without Shane will it ever be the same?

Well that’s it for this year. What about you? What’re you listening to? (Yes, I am talking directly to you, Andrew.)

For the most part iTunes is pretty good at what it does. But every now and then there are problems. One that’s popped up a few times recently has been iTunes’ failure to auto delete podcasts once I’ve listened to them.

With the setup I currently have, it should do this for all podcasts unless I explicitly flag one as ‘Do Not Auto Delete’. Most of the time it works but occasionally iTunes makes the executive decision that I really shouldn’t lose that episode of Slate’s Explainer podcast and refuses to let it go. When I right-click on the podcast I find it’s been set not to auto delete. What gives?

I’ve had a quick look with Google but I haven’t had any luck finding an answer. Everyone else that has a similar problem simply hasn’t listened to a podcast to the end. This is not the case in my situation (you can see in the screenshot that the podcast has been listened to and I can confirm I didn’t stop it early, it went all the way through).

Anyone have any suggestions?

ABC Insiders

http://www.abc.net.au/insiders/podcast/insiderspodcast.xml

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Insiders is a weekly political chat show where a panel of guests, usually journalists, talk about the preceding week’s political news. I find it a good way to keep up to speed with political events in Australia while getting some analysis at the same time. The show is broadcast on Sunday mornings on ABC Television but is, thankfully, podcast in audio form. For those of you with funky new iPods video podcasts are not a barrier to entry but for the vast majority of us I say ‘thank you, ABC’ for letting us all listen in.

Background Briefing

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/feeds/bbing.xml

Another program from the ABC, this time their radio division. Radio National’s Background Briefing is a weekly, approximately 45-minute in-depth look into a particular issue. Sometimes the issue is of particular relevance to the news stories of that week but more often than not it’s just something important you should know more about.

Backstory

http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/podcasts/backstory.xml

Backstory is one of the many New York Times podcasts I subscribe to and features reporters from the Times discussing the back story to a particular issue that’s in the news. It’s especially good for putting things like financial stories into context for those of us who aren’t university-educated economists. There’s supposed to be a new one every day but I find it’s more like a few a week.

Downloadable Content

http://feeds.penny-arcade.com/padlc/

The web comic Penny Arcade is a staple of my browsing and is highly recommended for fans of video games and watchers of the video games industry. Downloadable Content is usually the recorded conversation of creators Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins developing their latest strip. This is reason enough for me to listen to it but the fact Krahulik and Holkins are hilarious makes it a must-listen. Although their release schedule is sporadic it’s probably for the best. I can only laugh out loud so often on the train before the Hankyu Corporation bans me from travelling with them forever.

EGM Live*

http://www.1up.com/flat/Podcasts/egmpodcasts.xml

EGM styles itself as the premier video game magazine out there and who am I to argue? EGM Live* involves some of its editorial staff coming together each Monday (US time) to discuss the latest in the video game industry. There’s often an interview thrown in and a question of the week competition at the end for good measure. It’s not the best podcast from the 1UP network and now that they’ve stopped their review roundup I’d say it’s really one for the die-hards.

Front Page

http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/podcasts/frontpage.xml

I started listening to Front Page after searching for a good daily news podcast to listen to. Using the front page of The New York Times as its starting point this 5-minute show features a reporter essentially summarising the contents of the newspaper for that day. As you’d imagine you don’t get a lot of depth but if you want to quickly know what’s a big deal today (or yesterday since because of the North American time zone it comes out a day late for those of us in the Far East) I highly recommend it.

GFW Radio

http://www.1up.com/flat/Podcasts/cgwpodcasts.xml

Yes, you do detect a pattern. I listen to a lot of video game-related podcasts and a lot of news-related podcasts. This one is in the former category and has the editorial staff of Games For Windows: The Official Magazine coming together every Tuesday (or Wednesday, or Thursday, or Friday… they’re not very punctual) to talk about, well almost never video games. GFW Radio is renowned for its rambling discussions that rarely involve much more than a tangential relationship to video games. Still, somehow it works.

The Japan Considered Podcast

http://feeds.feedburner.com/JapanConsideredPodcast

Are you interested in Japanese politics but can’t read Japanese? Right, just me, then. Well for me, the Japan Considered Podcast is a godsend. For half an hour every week Dr Robert C Angel gives us the benefit of his understanding of Japan’s domestic political scene. It’s always over far too soon and the delay between when the podcast is recorded and when it goes up sometimes makes it a week late. However, neither of those factors stop it from being the best podcast about Japanese politics out there.

KCRW’s The Treatment

http://media.kcrw.com/podcast/show/tt

Movie critic Elvis Mitchell has seen every film ever made so that makes him uniquely suited to discussing films with any actor, director or writer who strolls into his studio. Mitchell records an interview every week and spends 30 minutes going into the kind of depth most interviewers can never attain. If you ever wish those 5-minute US talk show ‘chats’ were a bit longer, give it a listen.

New Yorker: Comment

http://feeds.newyorker.com/services/rssfeeds/comment_podcast.xml

A piece from the comment section of the New Yorker magazine is read to you by one of those professionally-trained voiceover people. Politically-oriented, they usually raise or discuss issues in a way you haven’t heard yet.

Newsmaker

http://feeds.feedburner.com/reuters/audio/newsmakerus/rss/mp3/

Released several times a week from the Reuters news agency, Newsmaker gives you a brief overview of a particular issue that’s in the news. Like Backstory above it normally puts the topic into a broader context. Very short, I kind of wish they went on for a bit longer.

OpCast

http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/podcasts/oped.xml

A weekly interview with one of the contributors to Op-Ed pages that week. Often the contribution is political but that’s not always the case and in fact sometimes the best ones are those that come right out of left field. My favourite from last year was probably the reading of a short story commissioned by the Times for Christmas.

Slate’s Spoiler Specials

http://www.slate.com/podcast/id/2144834/

Are you ever frustrated by how movie reviews always have to dance around the plot for fear of giving it away? Then the Spoiler Special is for you. Slate‘s film critic, Dana Stevens, typically leads a discussion about a recent film. It’s not the best podcast ever made but I find it enjoyable listening.

Slate Explainer Podcasts

http://www.slate.com/podcast/id/2129874/

The Slate Explainer Podcast is released every weekday that tries to answer a question related to the news of the past couple of days. The question is selected from amongst those written to the Explainer so if you’ve got a burning question don’t just listen, write in. Awesome resource for those preparing for the weekly trivia contest down at their local pub.

Slate Magazine Daily Podcast

http://www.slate.com/podcast/

My final Slate podcast and my favourite one. The Daily Podcast is usually a reading of one of the popular stories from the pages of Slate. I say usually because sometimes instead of a story, it’s Slate’s Audio Book Club and sometimes it’s Slate’s Political Gabfest. The Book Club is what it sounds like and is recommended but the Gabfest is what I really look forward to. A 30-minute roundtable discussion of the political issues that week in the US, it features great analysis from Slate’s political correspondent, John Dickerson, and insightful commentary from editors David Plotz and Emily Bazelon. Despite the heavy subject matter it’s always delivered in a light hearted tone and the camaraderie between all three is probably my favourite part.

The Gabfest and the Audio Book Club are also podcast separately if that’s all you’re looking for.

The Talk Show

http://thetalkshow.net/index.xml

I’ve blogged about The Talk Show before and most of what I complained about is still a part of it, although the last few episodes haven’t involved the same degree of navel-gazing (thank God). Oh, but what is The Talk Show? It’s two Mac nerds talking about stuff (typically, but not always, Mac-related). Does that sound like something you want to listen to? I guess that’s what makes us different. Or the same. Depending on how you answered. If you didn’t answer, congratulations, it was rhetorical and shouldn’t have really been responded to.

TalkCrunch

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Talkcrunch

Once upon a time there was a podcast and it was called TalkCrunch. And it was good. It featured TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington interviewing important figures in the tech community. And then the feed broke and in spite of the fact that keen observers pointed it out nothing was ever done to fix it and no more podcasts were ever heard again.

Please fix your feed, Michael!

This Week in Law

http://leo.am/podcasts/twil/

Despite what the name might suggest this is a twice monthly podcast involving lawyers discussing issues involving the intersection of law and technology. It sounds like it should be awesome but to be honest I find it so-so most of the time. The discussion isn’t particularly structured, the participants rarely seem prepared to go into much detail and there’s usually too many people involved when you consider they’re all hooked up by Skype (there’s a lot of ‘Oh, um, was that to me?’).

1UP Yours

http://www.1up.com/flat/Podcasts/podcasts.xml

My last podcast and usually the longest one I listen to. Every Friday an assortment of 1UP staffers come together to chat about video games. It often runs over 2 hours so I wouldn’t recommend listening to it unless you really have nothing better to do. The banter between the speakers is what keeps me listening even though I regularly want to reach out and strangle Shane Bettenhausen whenever he makes some idiotic defence of Sony.

Well that’s it for this instalment. Stay tuned for my next exciting adventure wherein I’ll look at the different socks I own and rate them based on their comfort level and aesthetic appeal.

This isn’t really a review since, well, I don’t think I’m really qualified to write a review of a podcast. And also I’m not even sure how you review a podcast (although I see Digg persists in trying). So instead it’s just a few criticisms I have after having listened to the past ten episodes (episode 9 has been lost to the mists of time).

I’ve come into contact with Benjamin’s work infrequently but I’m a regular reader of Daring Fireball and generally enjoy reading or listening to whatever Gruber has to say. Although I’m of the opinion that he lavishes Apple with a little too much praise from time to time, he’s hardly a cultist and even when he is praising Apple it’s usually in a way that’s significantly different from the way in which everyone else is doing it.

I put that out there just to make the point that I’m a fan. At least of Gruber. And yet having said that I find a few things continue to drive me crazy with the Talk Show. Benjamin and Gruber have made it clear on a few podcasts that there’s is a ‘different kind’ of podcast, one that eschews a more structured format for something more free form. More like a conversation one overhears at a restaurant than a lecture delivered by a panel. This is all well and good and I’m not necessarily against that. What I am against is the incessant navel-gazing that occurs. Almost every show so far has devoted a significant amount of time to Benjamin and Gruber talking about the show. This is fine for your first few episodes but it’s episode 11 now. It’s time to move beyond that. The fun conversations to overhear aren’t the ones where people consistently talk about the conversation they’re having.

The other problem I have is that Benjamin and Gruber are a little too close in point of view. Although they refer to having had disagreements and not always seeing eye-to-eye there’s precious little evidence from what we’ve heard that they’re anything but twins separated at birth (I exaggerate, slightly). The reason this is a problem is that occasionally one of the hosts says something which is ridiculous (like Gruber suggesting FairPlay DRM is reasonable) and no one calls him out on it and makes him defend that position. I don’t want two guys at each other’s throats but listening to people constantly agree with each other can get a little old.

Still, at the end of the day, that’s about all I have to really complain about. Sure, I could do without the mandatory reference to Stanley Kubrick every episode but I suppose that’s the sort of thing that builds the ‘character’ of the show. And it’s really not a bad show. If you’re interested in Apple, or you’re already a fan of either Benjamin or Gruber, you’re likely to find it an enjoyable way to pass a half hour.