Most of what I do with my time, in case anyone who reads this either a. doesn’t know me or b. can’t discern this out of what I write, is consume various media. Recently I’ve cut back on TV (after a horrible few weeks of feverish adolescent lust for the absurdly addictive Heroes I felt it necessary for my sanity), I’m not reading many novels at the moment, and I haven’t put much time into games (save for a few, which I’ll write about later this week). I’ve also – shockingly – almost entirely cut back on reading my various sites in an attempt to spend less time sitting in front of a computer.
So with all of these things playing a minimal role in my life, where does my near-boundless appetite for consumption sate itself? Radio. In the form of podcasts, of course.
This all started with my first iPod several months back, the transition from an old 30 gb Creative Zen to my current 16 gb iPod touch requiring some downsizing of my bored-and-boring music collection. I cut 25 gb out, got some new music, and still found myself needing something new. So I started clicking on podcasts in iTunes, downloading whatever looked interesting and deleting most after a few listens. Some of the ones I liked led me to others, and those to others, most of which in turn got culled in short order.
But some stuck, and I now have an excellent collection of podcasts large enough to fill almost all of the moments left empty by the absence of other media. Throughout the next week I’ll be writing about these shows; the ones that really capture my attention and keep me coming back to listen. Check back here for links, reviews, suggestions, and downright evangelical plugs for my favourite podcasts.
Tomorrow: Search Engine.
Yay! I am a podcast consumer myself. It just seems wasteful to buy groceries, travel to and from work, walk, etc. without a podcast. I’m excited to see what you’ve found. My favorite so far is THIS AMERICAN LIFE which is a weekly show on various topics from WBEZ in Chicago. Check it out.
Podcasts are indeed wonderful. As is This American Life – my number #2 favourite podcast, very close behind WNYC’s RadioLab (both of which I’ll be writing about later this week). I’ve recently been going through the archives of TAL (which unfortunately can’t be downloaded, just streamed on your computer) and there are so many awesome ones on their favourites pages. Glad to hear you enjoy it too, and thanks for reading/commenting!
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