Recommend me a (non-gaming) podcast

Actually while "Out of the Game" does deal with gaming, they seem to talk more about geek culture than anything else.

I've recently discovered the Overthinking It podcast ( http://www.overthinkingit.com ) and have been listening to it lately. Sometimes inconsistent but fairly amusing.

How to Succeed in Evil.

More of a podbook that a podcast, but it's free, unique, and funny.

I've really enjoyed The Motley Fool Money weekly podcast. It's a good way to keep up with what's going on in the world of finance.

The Now Playing podcast covers movies, generally geeky ones. They did a fantastic retrospective of all of the Star Trek movies, going into lots of juicy details of what went on behind the scenes.

I found out about The Best Show Gems podcast on the AV Club, and I've been catching up ever since. It's a long-form comedy radio show whose host (Tom Scharpling) has his partner and others call up and pretend to be weirdos in the community, often trying to sell listeners on their terrible business. It's a bit hard to describe, but listen to the first one ("Club Pizazz") and see if you like it. Personally, I was doubled-over laughing by the end, when it degenerates into a series of over-the-top death threats against the host.

Another absolutely great music podcast: Morning Becomes Eclectic from KCRW.

OG_slinger wrote:

How to Succeed in Evil.

More of a podbook that a podcast, but it's free, unique, and funny.

Wow, I didn't even know about this and there are 70 episodes to listen to already. I've been subscribed to The Seanachai for ages but haven't listened to a lot of the most recent episodes and completely missed the announcement. Thanks!

Thowky wrote:
OG_slinger wrote:

How to Succeed in Evil.

More of a podbook that a podcast, but it's free, unique, and funny.

Wow, I didn't even know about this and there are 70 episodes to listen to already. I've been subscribed to The Seanachai for ages but haven't listened to a lot of the most recent episodes and completely missed the announcement. Thanks!

I loved the original series, it was one of the few winners from my "podio-drama" exploration I did a while ago along with the shows I mentioned earlier. Good to see there is more!

While not exactly a podcast, Henry Rollins has a radio show on KCRW Saturday nights at 6pm PST. Some of his fans have been awesome enough to record each weekly show and post them all at Rollins Archive. Each weekly 2-hour-long show is divided into two separate MP3s, each dated for order, so you can listen to some absolutely spectacular (and sometimes completely off-the-wall) selections by the Man Himself. I download them each weekend after the broadcast and they are automatically added to an itunes Smart Playlist so I can listen to them in succession, usually hooked up to the A/V system so we listen to them at work.

UCRC wrote:

Filthy enablers! All of you! What am I going to do with 40 subscriptions of Vibe 44 (!) podcast subscriptions?

I'm now at 70 BEFORE the at least 15 I have opened in tabs from this thread since my last post... you've got a ways to go.

I do actually keep up with them most of the time, as I do a lot of driving and on top of that my job right now is pretty solitary.

I recommend Common Sense with Dan Carlin. It's a very good political podcast that takes a careful look at all issues. Carlin is very open-minded in all things, and while I don't agree with him on all issues, his approach to disecting issues is admirable.

Grubber788 wrote:

I recommend Common Sense with Dan Carlin. It's a very good political podcast that takes a careful look at all issues. Carlin is very open-minded in all things, and while I don't agree with him on all issues, his approach to disecting issues is admirable.

I just downloaded the latest of these this morning to check out. From someone's earlier recommendation I really got hooked on his Hardcore History podcast. Awesome stuff. Now I've burned through all of the episodes up on iTunes and have to wait for the new ones to come out.

In general I tend to be relatively uninformed when it comes to politics and most people who talk about it bore me to tears. I'm hoping Dan's political commentary is as engaging as his historical.

fleabagmatt wrote:

In general I tend to be relatively uninformed when it comes to politics and most people who talk about it bore me to tears. I'm hoping Dan's political commentary is as engaging as his historical.

It is. He has a fresh perspective backed by a deep knowledge of world history. I'm always pleased when I see the blue dot telling me there is a new Common Sense episode.

General Crespin wrote:
UCRC wrote:

Filthy enablers! All of you! What am I going to do with 40 subscriptions of Vibe 44 (!) podcast subscriptions?

I'm now at 70 BEFORE the at least 15 I have opened in tabs from this thread since my last post... you've got a ways to go.

I do actually keep up with them most of the time, as I do a lot of driving and on top of that my job right now is pretty solitary.

Yeah, best thing is that as a student (yep, I'm one of younger GWJers) I still have two months of summer break, so I easily have 4-5 hours to listen to podcasts every day while cycling/hiking/doing chores.
Also, I'm trying to build big podcast collection for next academic year, because I won't even have too much time to read or browse Internet too much, so podcasts (which I listen to while commuting) will be only way to stay in touch with civilization ;]

* Johnjay and Rich At Their Best
* Johnjay and Rich: War of the Roses
* Confession Wednesday
* Second Date Update

Johnjay & Rich is a morning show from Arizona. They're awesome. They have separate podcasts for certain segments, and a "catch-all" podcast feed too. Great stuff.

* 2600: The Hacker Quarterly
* Hacker Public Radio
* Security Now
* PaulDotCom

Hacker & computer security shows. Hacker Public Radio is particularly interesting, in that it's a "community" podcast - anyone can produce and submit a show.

* Rare Frequency
* Brainwashed Radio
* Electronic Explorations
* Sounds of the Apocalypse
* solipsistic NATION
* heute:pop:morgen
* The Hydrogen Cafe
* low light mixes
* Spacemusic hosted by *TC*
* Ultima Thule Ambient Radio
* Requiem Metal

Lots of music!

Rare Frequency "is devoted to experimental, electronic, improv, noise, avant-pop, and other out-there music." It's a radio show that plays on Boston College's radio station, and the host has written for some of my favorite web & print music rags, including Dusted, Grooves Magazine, and Signal to Noise.

Brainwashed Radio is from the brainwashed.com online music site, which caters to industrial, post-rock, post-industrial, experimental electronic, avant rock, and so on. They also have a companion video podcast that updates in spurts.

Electronic Explorations is described well by its name. If your concept of electronic music is more than just mindless dance floor loops, this is the show for you. Best electronic-focused music podcast going.

Sounds of the Apocalypse calls itself "an ongoing soundtrack to the end of the world". It's all about doom metal, dark ambient, industrial/post-industrial, noise, drone-doom... a really awesome dark soundtrack.

solipsistic NATION used to be a radio show in San Diego, but now it's podcast-only. It's a pretty broad overview of electronic music, from dance genres to mashups to more of the more experimental genres (though not so much as the other electronic music shows here).

heute:pop:morgen is a show from a German dude who works for Last.fm. He describes the show as being "electronic post-pop". Probably a good descriptive name, it's geared towards pop with an electronic angle. Electro-pop, indie pop, even stuff like David Bowie ("Life on Mars" was the first track of the last show I listened to). Definitely a nice counterpoint to the more abstract, esoteric, anti-pop stuff from some of the other shows here.

The next four are all ambient/space music. Hydrogen Cafe and low light mixes are, as the latter's name suggests, continuous ambient mixes.

Requiem Metal shows chronicle one artist at a time, mostly from the classic metal, progressive, and doom genres. (Most recent show's on Judas Priest, before that was Anathema, Candlemass, Cathedral, Bruce Dickinson, etc)

Also, dittos on NPR's All Songs Considered and Morning Becomes Eclectic.

Hey, that's good stuff I posted right there. Don't let it go to waste!

*Legion* wrote:

Hey, that's good stuff I posted right there. Don't let it go to waste!

I'll give some of them a try. I always need more podcasts.

It might have been mentioned already, but I've recently discovered NPR's 'On Point' with Tom Ashbrook. I could do without the callers they take (some of which are depressing because they're completely ignorant), but it's a smart, informative show.

Higgledy wrote:
fleabagmatt wrote:

In general I tend to be relatively uninformed when it comes to politics and most people who talk about it bore me to tears. I'm hoping Dan's political commentary is as engaging as his historical.

It is. He has a fresh perspective backed by a deep knowledge of world history. I'm always pleased when I see the blue dot telling me there is a new Common Sense episode.

I've just listened to most of Ghosts of Ostfront and have to disagree. It just sounds like dramatic reading of history book. In itself it isn't that bad, but what pissed me off was use of adjective 'hardcore'. Huh? What's so 'hardcore' about it? He sounds like he really believes that what he says really is some sort of buried-deep history and when I hear him speak I envision him sitting before me raising his brows and doing "Eh? Eh? Didn't know that, did you?!" expression.
That said, I've got to add that I'm history buff and amateur historian so my view might be distorted. Are other episodes any better?

Try listening to some of the older ones, UCRC.
The Ostfront trilogy was probably a bit of a retread for most "history buffs".
I really enjoy his presentation, which is a lot of my reason for liking the show. It's not about being imparted some little known facts for me. I like History and I like Carlin's delivery. Match made in heaven. And it's a LOT more interesting to listen to than most of the other history podcasts out there, that's for damn sure.
(I liked Steppe Stories, Punic Nightmares, Macedonian Soap Opera, Bubonic Nukes, Desperate Times, hell, pretty much all of them. Not as big on his interviews, though I am a HUGE James Burke/Connections fan.)

I love Carlin's podcasts, but listening to Common Sense keeps pissing me off. Not about his ideas, but that he's 100% correct that our government is f*cked and is almost completely beyond reclaiming.

Someone asked me recently if I knew of a podcast that basically did a weekly, hour-long roundup of the biggest news of the week across the world. BBC, CBC and NPR all do daily news podcasts but I couldn't find a weekly one. Any tips?
Thanks.

Dysplastic wrote:

Someone asked me recently if I knew of a podcast that basically did a weekly, hour-long roundup of the biggest news of the week across the world. BBC, CBC and NPR all do daily news podcasts but I couldn't find a weekly one. Any tips?
Thanks.

Oh, good question. If you find anything don't forget to post here, I'll look for something too.

WWDT is fun, but more for people who've already heard the news

Diane Rehm sounds cool. I'll give it a shot.

Dysplastic wrote:

WWDT is fun, but more for people who've already heard the news

Diane Rehm sounds cool. I'll give it a shot.

I've always had trouble listening to Rehm. She makes no effort to be objective, her leftist leanings shine through in every story I've heard from her. And, while I respect the battle she faced with cancer, her voice is very hard to listen to for an extended period.

After burning through X Minus One, Escape Pod, Pseudopod, Relic Radio, and a bunch of other fiction podcasts, I had to look for fresh meat. If you liked those podcasts, you should give these a listen to:

The Drabblecast: This is a weird, but awesome little podcast by Norm Sherman. He'll typically do an intro; a Drabble, which is a reader submitted story of exactly 100 words; and, then an offbeat fiction story that has production values through the roof. What I love the most is this guy will pull together an original song for you if you make a big donation. The one after The Babel Probe (which is an insanely good sci fi story) was fantastic.

Variant Frequencies: This one typically puts out darker fiction, with a heavy bent towards sci fi. Their early stuff, especially The Failed Cities Monologues, is very original and engaging. I'm working through their newer stuff and haven't been let down yet.

Well Told Tales: I subscribed to this one on a lark and, oh baby, it's probably the best one out of the lot. It puts out a mix of fiction stories--some sci fi, some horror, some just plain old damn good fiction. This podcast seems to produce stories from unknown writers, but they are universally outstanding in quality. They use professional voice actors to tell them, so they're, um, well told.

Dysplastic wrote:

Someone asked me recently if I knew of a podcast that basically did a weekly, hour-long roundup of the biggest news of the week across the world. BBC, CBC and NPR all do daily news podcasts but I couldn't find a weekly one. Any tips?
Thanks.

I'm a fan of NPR's Foreign Dispatch podcast (available on iTunes). It is, as its name suggests, focused on non-American news, but it does a good job of highlighting interesting foreign affairs stories.

Tom Keene's Bloomberg On the Economy Podcast.

http://www.bloomberg.com/tvradio/pod...

Some of the best interviews on the web are done by Tom Keene of Bloomberg. I subscribe to them on itunes.

He gets almost everyone from every political stripe.

He has everyone from Krugman, Roubini, Taleb (Black Swan), to Scholes (Nobel award winning Taleb's nemesis), and Thomas Sowell.

He talks Health Care Reform with actual experts, not pundits.
Besides Health Care Reform, other topics that I remember off the top of my head are Water Economics, Slavery and the South, a series about Lincoln, TARP, investment guru John Templeton, and Oil Economics.

Just thought I would bump this, as I am resubscribing to all my podcasts on my laptop (left my desktop in Texas) and this thread has been invaluable, I've also AGAIN added new shows to my list.

EDIT: Also, can I subscribe to Stuff You Missed in History Class and Stuff You Should Know outside of iTunes? I can only find an RSS link for BrainStuff.

You can export iTunes podcasts to OPML files and get the RSS feed URL out of that.

Here is the one for Stuff you Missed in History Class: http://www.howstuffworks.com/podcast...