Karen asked me to send her a list of the podcasts I listen to on a regular basis, and I thought I'd post it here (out of the perhaps mistaken belief that every aspect of my life could be interesting to someone else). I spend a lot of time listening to podcasts, since my job requires me to spend a lot of time in my car and since the unique geography of northern California makes it difficult to listen to any one radio station for very long.
Here are some of my favorites. Although I've provided links, all of them are available on iTunes:
Writers and Writing
I Should Be Writing: Writer Mur Lafferty chronicles her daily struggles, with shows dedicated to the difficulties of finding an agent, improving dialogue, writing love scenes and remaining motivated. She also answers listener questions and presents interviews with her favorite authors. For me, the show is a weekly shot in the arm; it's what I listen to whenever I'm tempted to give up or procrastinate.
KQED: The Writers' Block: Authors of recently-published books read a short section of their work — the first chapter, a series of poems, or an entire short story or play. The show has introduced me to some of my favorite new authors, including Kelly Link and Paul Malmont, and it's great to hear these stories "in their own words."
NPR Books Podcast: Author interviews, book reviews — if it's literary and it's appeared on National Public Radio, it ends up here, in a smorgasbord drawn from other shows.
WGBH Forum Network: Readings and lectures by scholars, authors, artists, scientists and policymakers.
Stories
Decoder Ring Theatre: Full-cast audio drama in the tradition of old-time radio. Featured programs include "Black Jack Justice," a hard-boiled detective series; "Deck Gibson, Far Reach Commander," a space opera; and "The Red Panda Adventures," the pulp-styled tales of "Canada's Greatest Super-Hero."
Escape Pod: Science-fiction short stories. The audio quality is sometimes spotty, but the stories themselves are usually terrific. Other podcasts by the same creators include Pseudopod (for horror) and Podcastle (for fantasy).
The Shadow: Episodes of the radio drama that ran from 1937 to 1954, featuring Orson Welles and others as the hero "who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men."
Novels
Brave Men Run: Nate Charters is having a hard enough time coping with high school bullies, an overbearing mother and his first love when he discovers that superhumans are real, that they're terrifying, and that he may be one of them. By Matthew Wayne Selznick.
Heaven: Best friends Kate and Daniel die, go to Heaven and find their troubles are just beginning. The two take part in a multi-volume journey through the afterlife, in which they encounter gods, demons, cosmic hobos, Cat Hell — and love. By Mur Lafferty.
Playing For Keeps: To Keepsie Branson and her friends with useless super-powers, the super-villains of Seventh City are an annoyance — and the super-heroes are worse. When war breaks out between the two sides, however, Branson discovers you don't need to be super to be a hero. By Mur Lafferty.
The Takeover: An audio drama that asks listeners to consider which is worse: to be downsized from your job during a recession, or to become a brain-eating zombie?
The Wonderful World of NPR
NPR Science Friday Podcast: I love Science Friday, but it's tough for me to sit through an entire broadcast. The podcast feed allows me to pick and choose only those segments that interest me — usually anything to do with bats, dinosaurs or space exploration. [Edit: They've changed the feed so this is no longer true, but it's still a great podcast].
On The Media: WNYC's weekly examination of media issues is a great behind-the-scenes look at the journalism and publishing industries while they still exist.
Only A Game: Yes, it's a sports show — but WBUR's program focuses on those activities that don't make the sports page, like a senior women's basketball league, the Kenyon College swim team and lingerie football. And Charlie Pierce rocks.
This American Life: So popular is this Chicago Public Radio slice-of-life program that vandals in Oakland have begun tagging buildings with the name of host Ira Glass. Recent episodes are less amusing and more depressing than they used to be, but TAL's reporting on the mortgage crisis and health care reform is among the best anywhere.
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me: You know how some people will grudgingly admit they learn more about the news from "The Daily Show" than they do from, say, the actual news? That's the way I feel about this quiz show — and I work at a newspaper.
History and Philosophy
Backstory with the American History Guys: Three history professors from the University of Virginia explain how issues and events like racism, the media, financial panics and Christmas have evolved from the 17th century through the 21st. e
Philosophy Bites: Authors David Edmonds and Nigel Warburton invite experts to discuss often-controversial topics in philosophy in segments of 15 to 20 minutes. The British accents are a bonus.
Sparkletack: Thanks to Richard Miller's podcast, I can never look at San Francisco the same way again. Each episode explores the secrets, mysteries and quirks of the city — how many of the Bay Area's dead were moved from one cemetery to another before being banned from the city altogether, for example, or why there's a monument to Robert Louis Stevenson in Chinatown. The podcast has been dormant for a while, but its archives are definitely worth plumbing.
The History of Rome: I've learned more about Rome — and by extension, Western civilization — in the last year thanks to Mike Duncan's short, snarky podcasts than I have in years of lectures, texts and miniseries.
The Napoleon Bonaparte Podcast: Napoleon for Dummies author J. David Markham and host Cameron Reilly take listeners through every battle, every event and every major stage of the Emperor's life, from his birth on Corsica to the controversy surrounding his death on St. Helena. I love this show in part because, like me, it's filled with long, rambling digressions about trivia.
The Thomas Jefferson Hour: This is my favorite show of the bunch. Scholar Clay Jenkinson spends half of each show channeling the third President, giving Jefferson's perspective on issues of his day — slavery, the Founding Fathers, pirates, gun control — and ours. The other half of the show finds an out-of-character Jenkinson and host David Swenson discussing how Jefferson's scientific, artistic and agricultural achievements — as well as his ideals — continue to influence the modern world.
To me, there's something wonderful about taking the kind of issues that get people in the 21st century frothing at the mouth and engaging in a calm, rational, 18th-century discussion about them. Listening to this show helps me to relax, and gives me hope for the future of this our happy republic.
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