Let’s Find Some Good Podcasts

Posted by Martin R on April 5, 2008
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[More blog entries about ; , .]

I’ve been laid low all day with a cold. To entertain myself while unable to read, I’ve listened to podcasts, and when I ran out of shows I subscribe to I started checking out Podcast Alley‘s top-10. Unfortunately, most people being morons after all, the top-10 aren’t any good. Take it from me: you needn’t really bother with Keith and the Girl, Red Bar Radio or Nobody Likes Onions.

So, Dear Reader, you clearly aren’t a moron: in aggregate, Aard’s readers should be a much better authority than the unwashed masses when it comes to podcasts. Please tell me your favourite podcasts with a sentence or two explaining what they’re about, and I’ll list them here. I’ll start off with my own favourites.

  • Escape Pod. Science fiction short stories.

  • Podcastle. Fantasy short stories.
  • Digital Planet. Global news about how digital communication tech changes society.
  • Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe. Skeptical and scientific news and interviews.
  • Skepticality. Skeptical and scientific news and interviews.
  • Zooterkin at the JREF forum recommends browsing through the BBC podcasts. “Quite a range of programmes, from comedy to current affairs to sport to science to film reviews. Some even have some sceptical content, most notably the topical comedy programme, The Now Show, which often has digs at such topics as ‘Dr’ Gillian McKeith.”
  • Snorkfröken directs us to the mind-altering Psychedelic Salon
  • The Brummell suggests Variant Frequencies for more sf short fiction,
    • Logically Critical for an archive of good skeptical programs,

    • Quirks and Quarks for more science news and interviews,
    • Savage Love for sex advice and discussion,
    • The Economist: “World news, primarily from a business / economics perspective, but it’s the best source I’ve found for political news about parts of the world I’ve never visited”,
    • Nature, and
    • Science.
  • EDK points out two good comedy shows, Never Not Funny and The 40 Year Old Boy.

  • Barn Owl suggests a good leftie politics show, Democracy Now.
  • M.o.a. Tech Guy has an archaeopodcast for us, Stone Pages Archeo News.
  • Anne-Marie recommends the Naked Scientist podcast.
  • In the opposite vein I can’t get enough of the evolution feed from SermonAudio.com. It is some of the funniest stuff a science minded individual can listen to. Real fire and brimstone stuff.
  • I am also a big fan of video games and I like the CAGcast, 1upYours ,and GFW Radio.
  • A great film podcast is Movies You Should See.
  • I just recently started listening to Ask Mr. Biggs, which is really addictive. It uses the callers audio from radio call in shows edited together with a new fake radio show, with hilarious results. Definitely check it out.
  • I also have been listening to The Moth Podcast which is a live to tape monologue show that has some really interesting stories.
  • If you don’t listen to NPR on the radio, you should at least be listening to their podcasts. This American Life is a MUST.
  • Also, there are a whole bunch of really interesting lecture series available on iTunes U. I have been listening to IB 31: Animal Behavior – Spring 2008 which is done through UC Berkley and I really recommend that one if you want to get a more advanced understanding of what evolution has done.
  • This thread lists many of my favorites… http://forums.randi.org/showthread.p…hlight=podcast
  • http://geologicpodcast.com/
  • http://www.nonprophetsradio.com/
  • http://www.abc.net.au/rn/allinthemind/
  • http://reasondriven.blogspot.com/
  • http://www.drzach.net/podcast.htm
  • http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.in…3BGfTM83JphxuA
  • http://triplej.net.au/safran/
  • http://brainsciencepodcast.com/
  • http://www.infidelguy.com/
  • http://mnatheists.org/
  • http://mindcore.podbean.com/
  • http://www.theskepticsguide.org/skep…nfo.asp?pid=47
  • http://www.sciencefriday.com/video/
  • http://www.thenakedscientists.com/
  • http://hellboundalleee.blogspot.com/
  • http://ffrf.org/radio/
  • http://www.nyas.org/snc/podcasts.asp…&TrackCD=pcast
  • http://www.nsta.org/publications/laboutloud.aspx
  • http://www.mrdeity.com/
  • http://www.inoculatedmind.com/
  • http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/
  • http://www.pointofinquiry.org/
  • Slate’s Explainer Podcast. http://www.slate.com/podcast/id/2129874/
  • Seminars About Long Term Thinking. http://www.longnow.org/projects/seminars/SALT.xml
  • X Minus One. 50s science fiction radio drama.
  • Vegas Vic’s Tiki Lounge
  • The Presiflager’s Podcast
  • The Quackcast
  • Ben Goldacre
  • Point of Inquiry, CFI’s podcast with great interviews. http://www.pointofinquiry.org/
  • Skeptoid. http://skeptoid.com/
  • Astronomy Cast. http://www.astronomycast.com/
  • Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me (weekly news quiz)
  • Car Talk (even if you don’t have a car).
  • PRI’s Fair Game. A weekdaily funny-ironic news program.
  • This week in science
  • Atheist Experience
  • Atheist Viewpoint
  • Non-Prophets
  • NPR’s Science Friday shorts
  • Scientific American podcast
  • Humanist Network News
  • Reasonable Doubts
  • Reason Driven Podcast
  • Infidel Guy
  • Rational Response Squad
  • Sex is Fun from greatsexgames.com, very gabby
  • Feast of Fools (Gay Fun Show). gabby and hilarious.
  • Truth Driven Thinking
  • LSAT logic in every day life
  • Logically Critical
  • TED Talks
  • Swingercast
  • Polyamory Weekly
  • SGU 5×5
  • Addicted to Race
  • RH Reality Check
  • Evolution 101
  • Richard Carrier
  • FreethoughtRadio’s constant stream and it’s now segmented podcast
  • Naked Scientists
  • 60 Second Science
  • First Amendment Minute
  • Bertrand Russel
  • American Freethought
  • The biblical errancy show, “Coffee, freethought & gnosis”
  • Sex with Silkyshrew
  • SR P1′s “Spanarna” in Swedish
  • Deutsche Welle’s “Langsam gesprochene Nachrichten” in German
  • http://www.econtalk.org/ Economics – but more from the standpoint of political philosophy (no predictions or commentary on current macroeconomics), very eclectic topics
  • Since you are interested in music, you might want to check out the
    Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) and their little tap into new Norwegian (and Scandinavian) music. This is only tracks with a few new artists and their music each week.

  • WNUR’s This is Hell “… comprised of interviews of people who write-on, study, or have been at the heart of current (as well as some past) social, economic, and political issues.”
  • Skeptical Viewer: http://www.skepticalviewer.com/category/podcasts/feed/
  • Not Insane Podcast: http://notinsane.libsyn.com/
  • Public Lecture Podcast: These podcasts from the University of Bath’s public lecture series feature leading names from the worlds of science, humanities and engineering talking about the latest research in their field. http://www.bath.ac.uk/podcast/
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Comments

  1. #1 decrepitoldfool
    April 5, 2008

    Awesome! I was just headed off to the gym and had already listened to every podcast on my MP3 player. Their “cardio-media” is conservative talk shows and movies too bad to be good, but not bad enough to be funny.

    Hope you feel better soon.

  2. #2 SnorkFröken Fröken
    April 5, 2008

    http://www.matrixmasters.com/podcasts/

  3. #3 TheBrummell
    April 5, 2008

    You already hit Escape Pod, which may be the best of the science fiction podcasts. But, there are a couple of other good postcasts of various genres out there:

    Variant Frequencies: http://www.variantfrequencies.com/
    Similar in many ways to Escape Pod – science fiction stories read out loud, often with multiple voice actors

    Logically Critical: http://www.logicallycritical.net/Welcome.html
    A series of verbal essays on various topics in skeptical thinking. Note that new ‘casts are not being produced, but the existing archive is quite good.

    CBC Radio’s Quirks and Quarks: http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/
    The venerable radio program in Canada podcasts their episodes, too. Science news and interviews, primarily from a Canadian perspective but plenty of international news and interviews.

    Savage Love: http://podcasts.thestranger.com/savagelove/
    Dan Savage, sex-advice-columnist, takes calls from people and discusses all things sexual. Who knew listening to other people describe odd fetishes could be so enlightening?

    The Economist: http://audiovideo.economist.com/
    World news, primarily from a business / economics perspective, but it’s the best source I’ve found for political news about parts of the world I’ve never visited.

    Science and Nature do podcasts, too, usually covering prominent stories in recent issues of those journals:
    http://www.sciencemag.org/about/podcast.dtl
    http://www.nature.com/nature/podcast/

  4. #4 edk
    April 5, 2008

    Never Not Funny, hosted by standup comic Jimmy Pardo. Title says it all.
    http://podcast.jimmypardo.com/NeverNotFunny/Podcast/Podcast.html

    The 40 Year Old Boy, hosted by standup comic Mike Schmidt, but whose true calling is podcasting. 20 minutes of hilarious anecdotes, told extremely well.
    http://www.switchpod.com/users/mikeschmidt/feed.xml

  5. #5 Barn Owl
    April 5, 2008

    Democracy Now! podcasts are great:

    (http://www.democracynow.org/podcasting)

    Also known as the War and Peace Report, and as “the largest community media collaboration in the US”. Features a special report on the life and legacy of M.L. King Jr. at the moment, due to the sad anniversary of his assassination.

    Of course to a Swede, DN will sound like normal news, not the left wing socialist moonbat radio program that it is considered to be by many in the US…. ;-)

    Hope you feel better soon!

  6. #6 Derek Colanduno
    April 5, 2008

    Thanks for giving Skepticality a mention! Oh, and for a cool side note, the JREF gang, INCLUDING James Randi are call coming to Dragon*Con this year. I am the director for the new Skeptic track at the con, and we have quite an impressive line up this year! :)

  7. #7 Martin R
    April 5, 2008

    Hey, Derek, great to see you stopping by! Your voice is in my handheld!

  8. #8 more of a tech guy
    April 5, 2008

    Have you come across Stone Pages Archeo News? If you can access iTunes, it’s fun surfing the links other listeners of the podcast subscribed to since they don’t depend on popularity with the masses.

  9. #9 Anne-Marie
    April 5, 2008

    The Naked Scientist!

  10. #10 Ben_Wraith
    April 5, 2008

    Other people have already suggested several good ones.

    Slate’s Explainer Podcast is an incredibly informative 3 minutes on specific current issues.

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

    A lot of the SALT talks about long term thinking are fascinating. From the blurb:

    SALT – Seminars About Long Term Thinking
    The series looks from many angles and backgrounds at the subject of long term thinking and responsibility. Examples of speakers in the series range from musician Brian Eno, author Bruce Sterling, anthropologist Jared Diamond, technologist Ray Kurzweil, and game creator Will Wright…
    http://www.longnow.org/projects/seminars/SALT.xml

  11. #11 HP
    April 5, 2008

    It’s not a podcast, but if you like science fiction audio, go to the Internet Archive and download more episodes of X Minus One than you can handle. (Seriously, there’s 134 half-hour episodes there — you could listen for three days straight.)

    This was an American radio drama that aired back in the 1950s. Full-scale, big-budget dramatizations of stories straight from the pages of Galaxy Magazine. Big-name actors, full orchestral score, and real classic golden-age SF — Asimov, Heinlein, Bradbury, Pohl, Bester, etc. — it’s not the usual space opera and bug-eyed monsters you associate with 50s sci-fi movies. Many stories were dramatized before the magazine even hit the newsstand.

    As far as music podcasts go, I’m a big fan of Vegas Vic’s Tiki Lounge (your choice of feeds at the link), but I have notoriously unusual taste in music. Vic podcasts a bit infrequently these days, but you should be able to pilfer his archives as well.

  12. #12 Bob Calder
    April 5, 2008

    I like The Presiflager’s Podcast and its sister the Quackcast brought to you by Pusware LLC. lol

    Also don’t forget Ben Goldacre!

  13. #13 kb
    April 5, 2008

    Point of Inquiry, CFI’s podcast with great interviews.
    http://www.pointofinquiry.org/

    Skeptoid.
    http://skeptoid.com/

    Astronomy Cast.
    http://www.astronomycast.com/

  14. #14 KK
    April 5, 2008

    No one’s mentioned NPR yet? I recommend Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me (weekly news quiz) and Car Talk (even if you don’t have a car). I’ve also gotten into PRI’s Fair Game, a weekdaily funny-ironic news program.

  15. #15 carr2d2
    April 6, 2008

    i like this week in science.

  16. #16 Aerik
    April 6, 2008

    Skeptics Guide to the Universe

    Skepticality

    Skeptoid aka “evil skeptoid debunkatron”

    Atheist Experience

    Atheist Viewpoint

    Non-Prophets

    This Week in Science

    NPR’s Science Friday shorts

    Scientific American podcast

    Nature podcast

    Humanist Network News

    Reasonable Doubts

    Reason Driven Podcast

    Point of Inquiry

    Infidel Guy

    Rational Response Squad

    Sex is Fun from greatsexgames.com, very gabby

    Feast of Fools (Gay Fun Show). gabby and hilarious.

    Truth Driven Thinking

    Quackcast

    LSAT logic in every day life

    Logically Critical

    TED Talks

    Swingercast

    Polyamory Weekly

    SGU 5×5

    Addicted to Race

    RH Reality Check

    Evolution 101

    Richard Carrier **

    PodCastle

    FreethoughtRadio’s constant stream and it’s now segmented podcast

    Naked Scientists

    60 Second Science

    First Amendment Minute **

    Bertrand Russel **

    American Freethought

    I also listened to all the podcasts coming from freethoughtmedia.com, which included the biblical errancy show, “coffee, freethought & gnosis”, and “sex with silkyshrew”

    ** several of these podcasts are either on hiatus or no longer in production.

  17. #17 Pär
    April 7, 2008

    I limit myself to two regular podcasts: SR P1′s “Spanarna” in Swedish, and Deutsche Welle’s “Langsam gesprochene Nachrichten” in German.

  18. #18 bwv
    April 7, 2008

    http://www.econtalk.org/

    Economics – but more from the standpoint of political philosophy (no predictions or commentary on current macroeconomics), but very eclectic topics such as

    Vermeer and Global Trade in the 17th Century
    http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2008/02/brook_on_vermee.html

    or

    William Easterly on global poverty and aid:

    http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2008/02/easterly_on_gro.html

  19. #19 AmyP
    April 7, 2008

    Like Pär, I’m also a fan of Spanarna. I also listen to På minuten and Vetandets värld from Swedish radio.

    On the Amnerican side, I listen to NPR’s Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me and PRI’s This American Life.

  20. #20 Poseitun
    April 8, 2008

    Since you are interested in music, you might want to check out the Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) and their little tap into new Norwegian (and Scandinavian) music. This is only tracks with a few new artists and their music each week.

    http://www11.nrk.no/urort/player/podcast.aspx?ds=list&listid=1

  21. #21 Stephen
    April 9, 2008

    Two recommendations:

    Skeptical Viewer: http://www.skepticalviewer.com/category/podcasts/feed/

    Not Insane Podcast: http://notinsane.libsyn.com/

    I won’t claim that they’re disinterested recommendations.

  22. #22 Mathias Klang
    April 9, 2008

    Public Lecture Podcast: These podcasts from the University of Bath’s public lecture series feature leading names from the worlds of science, humanities and engineering talking about the latest research in their field.

    http://www.bath.ac.uk/podcast/

    Some of my favorites are:
    General Sir Rupert Smith: The utility of force
    Professor Allan Kellehear: The history of death and dying
    Steve Jones: Why creationism is wrong and evolution is right
    Lord Desai: Why is poverty persistent?
    Professor Jacque Lynn Foltyn: Dead sexy: The corpse is the new “porn star” of pop culture

  23. #23 Peter
    April 11, 2008

    Get a sense of humor you fu**ing douche. Nobody likes onions is probably the funniest radio/pod-show ever. Stuck up people like you is what is ruining our beloved Sweden.

    Ät en påse skit

  24. #24 TJ
    April 11, 2008

    “I started checking out Podcast Alley’s top-10. Unfortunately, most people being morons after all, the top-10 aren’t any good. Take it from me: you needn’t really bother with Keith and the Girl, Red Bar Radio or Nobody Likes Onions.”

    Most people who listen to podcasts use the directory in iTunes, due to the fact that iTunes is the primary podcatching software of most people. Most people being idiots, you can find This American Life along with 3-4 other podcasts, The Economist podcast, National Geographic podcast, Discovery Channel podcast, and more on the list.

    I listen to SGU, Skepticality, Skeptoid, LSAT Logic, This American Life, Life of a Law Student, The Word Nerds, and Nobody Likes Onions.

  25. #25 Anon
    April 11, 2008

    You, Sir, may be quite intelligent, but have whatsoever no sense of humour. I wish you many hours of great pain.

  26. #26 Darkage
    April 11, 2008

    Relax a little more on your uptight social views, And relisten to Nobody Likes Onions.
    It will be worth it.

  27. #27 Adrian
    April 11, 2008

    sorry the great humor of NLO and RBR isn’t good enough for the humorless constipated population of sweden.

  28. #28 Lord Byron
    April 11, 2008

    Oh, man, I wish I could be as deep, cool, intellectual, free-thinking, any-other-smug-self-satisfied-adjective as you! It must be so great (not to mention easy) to be able to buy totally into the mainstream, prevailing philosophies/trends of our time. You don’t even have to think for yourself anymore! Super-cool. Darn, I totally know I didn’t reach your standard for snide, ironic humor! I so fail at life; why don’t I just kill myself now? If anything that strays outside of your preordained standards of “cool, witty, comedy” strikes ME as funny, then I deserve to be ostracized as the loser I am. Oh, God…I must be one of those morons that you say most people are (not you, of course–NEVER you)!

  29. #29 THE MEXICAN
    April 11, 2008

    Uh, hey moron. NLO is not your average cup of tea. Just because it’s not your fancy, DRINK PISS. Congrats for all of your achievements, very admirable. Great! You’re not better than anyone. You’ll die just like me and everyone else. Since you had enough initiative to make bad comments about NLO, then tune in to episode 296 to hear their rebuttal. I’d rather listen to them than your boring shit. Go fuck a shaved goat you science jock. Enjoy your BORING LIFE ffffaaaaaggggoooot! FUCK YOUR MOTHER AND DRINK SWEDISH CAT URINE!

  30. #30 THE MEXICAN
    April 11, 2008

    OH, I forgot to ask if they have hair plugs in Sweden you balding fagggggoooot! Do they? Why don’t you devote your boring studies to balding. Maybe you can find a cure and help men across the world. (Including myself) Then you wouldn’t be so bitter about your hairless dome and wouldn’t bash good podcasts. HA! Go figure! SKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADOOOOOOOOOOOO NIGGAAAAAAAAAA!

  31. #31 eddaf
    April 12, 2008

    nlo wins

  32. #32 adfsdfsaf
    April 12, 2008

    NLOSIR

  33. #33 Sacc
    April 12, 2008

    Now, that last comment was just moronic.

    I invite you tto reconsider NLO do, it is quite humorous.

  34. #34 Pancakes
    April 12, 2008

    I likey the Onions.

    Kita kita!

  35. #35 Michael D. Barton, FCD
    April 21, 2008

    I’ve got some listed here:
    http://thedispersalofdarwin.blogspot.com/2007/12/history-of-science-podcasts.html

    BBC’s In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg
    California Academy of Science’s Science in Action
    CBC’s How to Think About Science
    Distillations (Chemistry)
    The DNA Files
    Exploring Environmental History
    Faraday Institute Lectures
    medicalhistory
    Museum Detective
    NMSR’s Science Watch
    NPR’s Krulwich on Science
    NPR’s Science Friday
    The Royal Society
    Sorting Out Science

  36. #36 stands2reason
    May 1, 2008

    Cnet.com has some good and entertaining podcasts if you’re into tech. My particular favorite is Buzz Out Loud.