Recommend me a (non-gaming) podcast

ruhk wrote:

I've noticed podcasts getting increasingly lengthy, as well, which is why I'm thankful for the 2x audio scrubbing option on the iPhone/iPod. It was a little odd listening that way at first, but now it feels weird listening to a podcast at normal speed.

I would struggle to get through the word-for-word version of The Economist podcast each week before using the 2x option. They average about seven and a half hours each, but they can balloon up to nearly ten hours when they have a special report section.

Nightmare wrote:

See, I *like* longer podcasts. The GWJCC is too short now, I can barely get a commute and a half out of it these days. My drives get longer and my podcasts get shorter. :(

You are not alone. Long commute + 40 hours of work = lots of time to fill my ears with music and podcasts.

Dyni wrote:
Nightmare wrote:

See, I *like* longer podcasts. The GWJCC is too short now, I can barely get a commute and a half out of it these days. My drives get longer and my podcasts get shorter. :(

You are not alone. Long commute + 40 hours of work = lots of time to fill my ears with music and podcasts.

Same here. I'm all excited when three or four podcasts I like come in but then I seem to burn through them in no time (I'm so luck that I can work while listening to podcasts. If I was an editor rather than a designer I'd be screwed.)

Higgledy wrote:

I'm all excited when three or four podcasts I like...

Well, there's your problem right there.

edosan wrote:
Higgledy wrote:

I'm all excited when three or four podcasts I like...

Well, there's your problem right there.

That's 3 or 4 that arrive in one morning. I have 49 on my list (although some of those are SBNL (subscribe but never listen.))

oilypenguin wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:

Caveat: When you're intending a feeling of meditation or rumination, speed is not your friend. Something in the range of Striving or a guided meditation podcast do not benefit from rushing. History of Rome, however, could use a link.

FTFY

(you're not wrong, though)

Thanks for putting in the link. I subscribed this morning and got through the first 4 podcasts on the way into work. This will certainly be a great addition to my normal podcasts I listen to each week. I enjoy the deliberate pace of it; not everything has to be delivered at warp 10 you know.

And see? This is why I post the link every few months. Enjoy, tboon!

If you like The History of Rome podcast and are interested in learning more about the Greeks, then I heartily recommend Yale University's Ancient Greek History podcast available on iTunes U.

It's essentially a recording of Donald Kagan giving his Intro to Ancient Greek History lecture. Who's Donald Kagan, you ask? He's the Sterling Professor of Classics and History at Yale University who literally wrote the book (technically twelve of them) on ancient Greek history. His lectures are very accessible and they include wonderful little verbal meanderings that make you appreciate just how knowledgeable he is about the ancient Greeks.

If you're looking for more entertainment than education, then check out Frank Key's Hooting Yard podcast. How to describe it? It's basically nonsense stories that rival Louis Caroll at his "Jabberywocky" best. The beauty of this podcast is that you never know where Key's is going to take things and it just becomes a joy to hear what ludicrous thing comes out of his mouth next.

If you enjoy The Drabblecast, then you'll dig the Hooting Yard. And if you don't know what The Drabblecast is, then you best subscribe pronto.

OG_slinger wrote:

It's essentially a recording of Donald Kagan giving his Intro to Ancient Greek History lecture. Who's Donald Kagan, you ask? He's the Sterling Professor of Classics and History at Yale University who literally wrote the book (technically twelve of them) on ancient Greek history. His lectures are very accessible and they include wonderful little verbal meanderings that make you appreciate just how knowledgeable he is about the ancient Greeks.

Thanks for that. I recently read his book on The Peloponnesian War, it was really good. I also have his book on Thucydides on my book pile.

OG_slinger wrote:

If you like The History of Rome podcast and are interested in learning more about the Greeks, then I heartily recommend Yale University's Ancient Greek History podcast available on iTunes U.

It's essentially a recording of Donald Kagan giving his Intro to Ancient Greek History lecture. Who's Donald Kagan, you ask? He's the Sterling Professor of Classics and History at Yale University who literally wrote the book (technically twelve of them) on ancient Greek history. His lectures are very accessible and they include wonderful little verbal meanderings that make you appreciate just how knowledgeable he is about the ancient Greeks.

For those of us that don't like iTunes:

http://oyc.yale.edu/classics/introdu...

Sweet, thanks, edosan.

I have really started to love What the f*ck with Marc Maron. He goes twice weekly, interviewing a different comedian, writer, actor. It is not always for yucks though. His interviews with Gallagher and Carlos Mencia get pretty uncomfortable.

I will echo Nerdist as well, always funny, good host chemistry.

KingGorilla wrote:

I will echo Nerdist as well, always funny, good host chemistry.

I just started listening to the Nerdist podcast. The first one I listened to was the one they recorded at South by Southwest. It wasn't really a good first impression (I tend not to like "on location" podcasts for some reason). The second one I listened to was the Nathan Fillion episode. That episode alone was good enough to get me to download the whole backlog.

Beware: podcast-related navel gazing ahead
I used to only listen to game related podcasts but I'm now done to two (Bombcast and GWJ). I have been adding a lot of comedy podcasts lately (JJGo, How did that get made, Nerdist, Comedy Death Ray). I think the main reason behind this shift in listening is because of Idle Thumbs. I just want podcasts that feature a funny group of people that have conversations.

KingGorilla wrote:

His interviews with Gallagher and Carlos Mencia get pretty uncomfortable.

Oh man, the couple around the Carlos Mencia... incident were hilarious.

iaintgotnopants wrote:

(JJGo, How did that get made, Nerdist, Comedy Death Ray).

Don't forget the rest of the Maximum Fun network! Especially MBMBAM!

Surely someone from more tech-savvy part of the Hive Mind will be able to help me with this:

edit: heeey, nevermind. I'm so clever.

The Quarter to Three site has podcasts on both movies and games, which tend to run between an hour-and-a-half and two hours.

The movie podcasts (with Tom Chick, Kelly Wand, and Christien Murawski) discuss a recent movie including spoilers and then go on to some other chosen topic, usually some facet of movies that they liked best. Some of the summaries are downright sublime. A personal favorite is the Inception podcast. There is swearing, although nothing much more than on GWJ. There's a new one every week.

The game podcasts take a couple of guys (Tom Chick and a member from the local Qt3 fora) and they discuss some game. These can be a little more varying, depending on if you like the game in question and they tend to talk about a lot of other things before they get to the actual game, but when they do, those parts can be really really good. Was on a sort-of hiatus, but has started updating more regularly recently.

The Comedy Death-Ray spinoff series Mike Detective is really good. It's a nonsensical parody of 40's-era hardboiled noir radio serials in 5-10 minute increments. It's also co-written by an acquaintance of mine from college. /shill.

Fell Fire wrote:

The movie podcasts (with Tom Chick, Kelly Wand, and Christien Murawski) discuss a recent movie including spoilers and then go on to some other chosen topic, usually some facet of movies that they liked best. Some of the summaries are downright sublime. A personal favorite is the Inception podcast. There is swearing, although nothing much more than on GWJ. There's a new one every week.

Kelly's synopses are comedy gold. The ones for Tron:Legacy, Machete and Clash of the Titans are particularly amazing.

Anyway, I quite enjoy Rum Doings, with John Walker - of Rock, Paper, Shotgun fame - and Nick Mailer. It's usually forty-five minutes of them drinking something -- sometimes even rum -- doing their best to talk about their topic of the week -- usually something like "have we forgotten the true meaning of Easter" or "Do we have too much immigration" -- as little as possible. Although sometimes they have a guest like Ben Goldacre or a BBC comedy writer on and stay shockingly on topic.

I'm always looking forward to my weekly dose of BBC's The Food Programme. There's just one criticism: too damn short! Only half an hour! I need my dose, and sub-30 mins is not enough!

Their choice of topics is pretty all encompassing, the latest programme was about the role of the mafia in Sicilian food production and how the food producers decided to fight mafia extortion. Absolutely fascinating. Also, it's so refreshing to listen to the oldschool, non-American English now and then.

Alien Love Gardener wrote:

Although sometimes they have a guest like Ben Goldacre

I'm in! Thanks!

I'll say it again, Radiolab is my favorite podcast time and again. I wish they did it more often, but it's got fairly high production values, so I understand why.

Also love Night of the Living Podcast which is an ensemble podcast about horror movies. It's not for everyone, and it takes some listening to get into it as it's basically some friends sitting around in a room all talking at the same time. They have a great segment called "Straight to Video Russian Roulette" where they randomly pick a member who has to watch some usually awful straight to video horror movie and give a review on it.

El-Producto wrote:

Also love Night of the Living Podcast which is an ensemble podcast about horror movies. It's not for everyone, and it takes some listening to get into it as it's basically some friends sitting around in a room all talking at the same time. They have a great segment called "Straight to Video Russian Roulette" where they randomly pick a member who has to watch some usually awful straight to video horror movie and give a review on it.

I'm going to give it a go but it sounds like just the sort of podcast that drives me crazy

My favorite non-gaming podcasts since this thread is resurrected.

- The BS Report with Bill Simmons
- Fresh Air - NPR
- Real Time with Bill Maher
- This American Life - NPR
- Planet Money - NPR
- The Ricky Gervais Show (technically podcasts, but got bundled into audiobooks for iTunes)

Higgledy wrote:
El-Producto wrote:

Also love Night of the Living Podcast which is an ensemble podcast about horror movies. It's not for everyone, and it takes some listening to get into it as it's basically some friends sitting around in a room all talking at the same time. They have a great segment called "Straight to Video Russian Roulette" where they randomly pick a member who has to watch some usually awful straight to video horror movie and give a review on it.

I'm going to give it a go but it sounds like just the sort of podcast that drives me crazy :)

Yeah, please take a BIG YMMV with it. When I first tried listening it drove me nuts.. but it's the kind of show that once you get to know the people involved you start to like it.
Another show I really like that deals with Genre movies is Outside the Cinema.

El-Producto wrote:

I'll say it again, Radiolab is my favorite podcast time and again. I wish they did it more often, but it's got fairly high production values, so I understand why.

No! It's so precious precisely because it doesn't appear too often.

If you want more Radiolab... then just go and listen to back catalogue. That's what I'm planning to do in the summer.

The piece practically works as a radio play. You could listen to it again and again, now or a year from now. Actually, that’s the goal: Abumrad has often said that he edits with the fourth or fifth listen in mind.

Gonna pop in and pimp more comedy. Greg Proops of Star Wars Ep 1 fame has a stage show podcast recording-it is usually bi weekly 1 hour podcast. He mostly mocks headlines or makes essoteric remarks about B movie starlets of years past. He went on a 45 minute verbal affair about Faster p*ssycat Kill Kill. It is called The Smartest Man in the World.

I just started Comedy Death Ray Radio. God is that funny. Scott Aukerman sits down with different comedians, actors, improv folks for an hour or so. Sometimes they will bring characters, Andy Daly sure did this last week.

Lastly Sklarbro Country. The Sklar Brothers take what we loved about Cheap Seats and take it to the podcast world. I am a sport fan, and I still miss a good number of their references when they get into baseball or football before 1960. They will often have different comedy or sport guests on as well.

El-Producto wrote:
Higgledy wrote:
El-Producto wrote:

Also love Night of the Living Podcast which is an ensemble podcast about horror movies. It's not for everyone, and it takes some listening to get into it as it's basically some friends sitting around in a room all talking at the same time. They have a great segment called "Straight to Video Russian Roulette" where they randomly pick a member who has to watch some usually awful straight to video horror movie and give a review on it.

I'm going to give it a go but it sounds like just the sort of podcast that drives me crazy :)

Yeah, please take a BIG YMMV with it.

The latest episode had the same effect on me as it did you. I started by thinking they were just babbling and throwing out half formed opinions on everyone and everything but by the end, especially after "Straight to Video Russian Roulette," I'd decided to listen to more.

Most of my favorite podcasts come from networks, and they are:

- Slate's group of podcasts. Well reasoned, intelligent discourse, especially the Political Gabfest and Hang Up and Listen
- NPR has been lauded in previous posts, but I'll continue. You can learn so much: Car Talk (Although the chuckle-hut aspect can get a bit much), It's All Politics, Planet Money, Hang up and Listen. They're great.
- Focusing on the jobs aspect of "Gamers with Jobs", Manager Tools/Career Tools have some good career guidance. I don't always agree with their advice, but if you've ever had an issue at work, they probably have a podcast topic about it and what their advice is.
- Whiskey Media gets a lot of plaudits here for the Giant Bombcast, but the less popular ones I enjoy. Tested has been a favorite for a few months, especially with Gary Whitta (of PC Gamer fame) as a semi-regular correspondent. They have a real chemistry, which I think is key to a good podcast. Beyond the Screened Door is nice as well.

Speaking of chemistry, the group of podcasts that got me into listen to podcasts (The Twit network), I haven't listed to for a long, long while. I got tired of them air-dropping four people with no chemistry together who were on there solely to promote their own website/social product/themselves. Has it gotten any better?

I always enjoy the Start the week podcast from the BBC. I tend to store them up to listen to when I'm in the mood.