Blogcoven

At my last high-level strategy meeting with Savage, one of the agenda items was podcasting. I am an enormous fan of podcasts, I listen to a great many of them. I used to listen to the radio a lot when I was an undergrad, and podcasts are like the radio, but where you get to pick the subject and the show every time.

That’s a great advantage for me, because I really don’t have much interest in sport, and outside of office hours the radio is pretty much wall-to-wall sports shows.

I thought I might share my links to some of the shows that I listen to, for the benefit of most and the detriment of some.

Arguably the best tech podcast from the UK was LugRadio, but it’s dead now.

• The first recommendation is This Week in Tech, which is presented by the Mr. Rogers of Podcasting, Leo Laporte. TWiT is the flagship of a whole huge list of podcasts and live content, with Laporte in the middle. He was a presenter on G4/TechTV along with Kevin Rose and others, and he makes extensive use of that echo chamber network to get good guests. http://twit.tv/twit
• The Second recommendation is actually a radio show, but since there is no NPR station in Ireland, I opt for the This American Life podcast. It’s lefty and urban-centered, but the stories they tell are usually fascinating, and they stick with topics for more depth than most journalism gives. Recent episodes have included a great overview of the financial crash, and a day spent with the employees and customers of a rest stop off the interstate. The main component in all their stories is a first-hand account from the people involved. It feels more genuine and more interesting than a third party account. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Podcast.aspx
• This American Life put me on to The Moth, which is a story-telling forum where people give accounts of outlandish events in their lives, like participating naked in an on-stage Bacchanal at Burning Man, or the tale of a lone American woman crossing through African civil war territory and what happens when the soldiers stop the truck and take her away. The stories seem more fantastic, but the requirement that they be told without notes makes them spontaneous and amusing. http://www.themoth.org/podcast
• This Week in Law is hosted by Denise Howell, and is a podcast about legal issues that have come up in the tech domain. It’s particularly interesting to get the lawyer’s-eye-view on DRM, copyright and cases like the recent MySpace Harassment Saga. http://www.twit.tv/twil
• The Economist and The Guardian both have excellent podcast directories with content both short and long. http://audiovideo.economist.com/ http://www.guardian.co.uk/podcasts
• Finally, two gaming podcasts are worth a listen. All Games Considered won the Ennies for best podcast, and they seem to get really good interviews and coverage of what’s going on in the P’n'P RPG world. Yog Radio is specifically concerned with Call of Cthulhu and includes some brilliant guest talks and coverage of scenarios and source books. http://www.agcpodcast.info/ http://www.yog-sothoth.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=60