8.30.2009

... for my listening pleasure

Having written previously about my lack of tenacity concerning new interests/projects, I would like to mention one abiding interest - podcasts!

I've had my Zune for over 2 years (upgraded once) and here is the short list of podcasts that I continue to listen to religiously:

This American Life A stimulating weekly radio/TV/free podcast, centered around changing weekly themes and stories that illustrate that theme.

The Moth Great unrehearsed stories direct from the storyteller, spoken in front of a live audience. My favorite podcast!

PRI: Selected Shorts Wonderfully narrated works of short fiction in front of a live audience.

I highly recommend all three of the above. While I have listened to many various other podcasts and found them entertaining, none have stood the test of time quite as well.

An honorable mention goes to the following, as a kind of guilty pleasure:

Smodcast Kevin Smith & Scott Mosier (the movies Dogma, Clerks, Jay & Silent Bob, etc.), waxing unpoetic and often quite lascivious about anything and everything, but hilarious enough to keep me laughing on long drives. Not for the prude!

Other podcasts have either fallen by the wayside or are so hit-and-miss that I hesitate to recommend them, and a few more are still in testing stages.

Within the last few months I've also become a member of Audible, and have been enjoying audiobooks regularly (which has cut down on my podcast time). I did find that I'm picky as hell concerning the voice of the narrator. I'd give Neil Gaiman first place as best narrator, and second place goes to Shaun Dooley, who sadly only has narrated 3 books that I can find - hopefully more are in the works. Maybe that's another blog post.

Oh, where's the Esperanto podcasts you ask? Good question, beyond a few radio shows from various countries, the net is powerfully lacking in Esperanto podcasts. If anyone knows of any - let me know!

2 comments:

  1. Podcasts... I haven't gotten into them yet because they still confuse me, but your post makes them intriguing. Do you need a special gadget to view them? Are they like YouTube videos?

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  2. They are audio files - you can listen to them from your computer or an mp3 player. Some are combination video/audio, but I prefer plain audio. I grew up listening to radio shows like Prairie Home Companion and Spider's Web with my family on public radio, and also loved being read aloud to by my mother and various teachers. You should give them a try!

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