Saturday, October 01, 2016

Does Anyone Listen To The Radio Anymore?

The morning after the Hillary/Trump debate, I decided to pause my usual podcast/audiobook listening to hear radio commentary on the event. What a miserable time that turned out to be. On my drive in to work, over half that time was spent on commercials. What talk there was, occurred in snippets.
I have become spoiled by podcasts. I am used to listening to hour long conversations, rather than 8 minute segments.
Yesterday, I accidently killed my podcast list within the app and have been slowly rebuilding it over the past 24 hours. Here are my primaries that were added back immediately.
  • Skeptics Guide to the Universe - This one is fairly new for me, but has become a favorite. Great science and critical thinking information and discussion - and accessible to a layman like me.
  • Nerdist - A deep catalog of conversations with various artists, musicians, actors, etc. My music and movie choices have been expanded due to this show. Did you know Iggy Pop is fascinating to listen to and seems to be a really great guy? My world expanded.
  • Real Time - I don't have HBO, but they put the whole show up on Podcast each week. I think Bill has some of the best panels out there.
  • Fatman on Batman - I love Kevin Smith. He is a great guy and his enthusiasm for life, comics, and movies is contagious. He also is crazy profane, so it's not for everyone.
  • Beyond The Pale - My brother and sister-in-law do a podcast in Hong Kong. It focuses on the more progressive end of Christianity, but also includes plenty of movies, politics, and adult beverages. I have been on their show a number of times and we are talking about doing it again soon when a topic presents itself. Got any ideas?
While I am rebuilding my podcast database, what are your suggestions for must-listens?

4 comments:

Sherry said...

I find that Democracy Now is informative. And Richard Wolfe with Democracy at Work. This election cycle has turned me into a democratic socialist. 🤔

Michelle said...

I agree--radio can be so grating compared to the conversational format of a lot of podcasts. I have a few that I listen to regularly that you may or may not like, but here they are if you want to give any a try...

Pop Culture Happy Hour-- Not an NPR show, but some NPR writers and editors who like movies, books, etc. talk about recent pop culture topics, have occasional quizzes (Regrettable Television Pop Quiz is a common one), and end the show with movies, books, games, or anything pop culture-related that is making each of them happy that week. It's pretty fun. Going through the archives and looking for topics of interest for you might be a good way to get a feel for the group.

Welcome to Night Vale-- If you like a dollop of weird, this is a fictional (OR IS IT?) broadcast from Night Vale...a western town where every conspiracy theory is true. You get snippets of weird goings on each week, and there are threads that follow through as the episodes go on. It's like News from Lake Wobegon if it were in the Twilight Zone.

The Thinking Atheist-- I'm sure you know about this one. It's very good, although I've found myself drifting away from it and some other atheist things. It's like I'm in the phase where I'm just getting back to the life I would've lived had I not been born into religion. BUT...I do like to come back to it once in awhile, and I NEVER miss the Ghost Stories episode near Halloween every year, where Seth Andrews takes a break from freethought topics and does a fun, spooky show.

Mustard on Movies-- Jenny and David are a young Swedish couple living in Berlin, and they love to talk about movies. They are only on episode 7, so are just getting their footing, but I enjoy getting suggestions for movies to watch--especially foreign films they know that I haven't heard of. Primarily, they have a YouTube channel and blog about the minimalist lifestyle they lead, but movies are a big passion for both of them, and they record the podcast for fun on Saturday mornings.

Other than that, I listen to a lot of NPR stuff that I can't catch on traditional radio.


Bob said...

Yes I still listen to radio -- but I'm old!

Andrew said...

Michelle- I hear you about drifting away from some things. Even here on my blog... I only write on it every month or so... compared to the old days of a few articles each week.

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