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Good Podcasts and Podcatchers?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the take-your-internet-audio-with-you dept.

Chimera512 asks: "I've heard quite a bit about podcasts and software for aggregating podcasts, most of the software I've tried to use have been mediocre at best. where do you find podcasts that are worth listening to? What do you use to aggregate them? Ideally something that allows me to simply copy the stream URL into the program and have it download and/or transfer the file to my MP3 player."

90 comments

  1. Mozilla Thunderbird by denverradiosucks · · Score: 1

    Mozilla Thunderbird has a great RSS reader, supporting downloading of podcasts onto your computer. Unfortunately, it won't send to your MP3 player, but that's not very difficult to do with another app.

  2. iTunes? by GusherJizmac · · Score: 3, Informative

    iTunes makes it pretty simple, especially if you have an iPod or other MP3 player (yes iTunes will work with other MP3 players, assuming you are just interested in playing mp3s)

    --
    http://www.naildrivin5.com/davec
    1. Re:iTunes? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      iTunes is a horrible interface, and their podcast functionality is even worse.

      I recently discovered a few new podcasts I want to listen to. After accessing them in my iPod, I find that they are not in ascending order of release date. I can't even configure it that way. More so, the iPod exits to the previous menu after the cast has played. I can understand why, but if I want to listen to one after another, I have to go back into the menu and select the next one. Shit, sometimes I have to guess which the next one is.

      Try dragging the podcasts to your iPod. You can't add it to the Podcast menu that way, only the Artist list. Instead, you have to use the iTunes "Podcast" manager everytime you want to add/remove a podcast, and you can't even choose specific broadcasts within the subscription. All or nothing.

      Fuck Apple and their lame ass user interface.

    2. Re:iTunes? by kevinl · · Score: 1

      I also use iTunes. It does the job just fine, but requires Windows-XP or a Mac. I occasionally use my Tivo for one-shot podcast listening as well.

      Finding good podcasts is a challenge. Everyone has different tastes, and there's a lot of just plain crap out there. But here are a some that I like:

      National Public Radio has lots of good news-related podcasts. The NPR Story of the Day cast is worth a listen, and Wait... Wait Don't Tell Me is hilarious.

      Coverville is a popular music podcast. The show's host is very entertaining and well informed.

      If you're into a cappella music, AcappellaU and the Acapodcast are two of my favorites.

    3. Re:iTunes? by linefeed0 · · Score: 1

      Except Apple and iTunes should be shot for having a separate interface to put podcasts into their store that has nothing to do with having them on the web, and isn't compatible with any other podcatcher. At least I haven't yet found a (free) podcast I cared about that was only on iTunes since everyone does the RSS first anyway (and I think iTunes uses the RSS internally). However, I would encourage people not to use iTunes and in particular the ITMS for podcatching for this very reason.

      Come on, Apple. Open standards, not lock-in. At least for free content. It's not that hard. Apple deserves no credit for their closed-off pseudo-web bullshit.

    4. Re:iTunes? by joshsisk · · Score: 1

      On my iPod, the podcasts are listed with the newest one at the top... this is on the "Podcasts" screen, I'm not sure how it would display if you viewed by artist or genre or something.

      And yes, in iTunes just click the little download button next to a particular episode of a subscription to download a particular one. And if you don't want one on your iPod that you have downloaded, uncheck it. If you want one back on your iPod that has "expired" (they do this after a certain amount of time), just check it. That's what the checkboxes are for - things that are checked get synced to yor iPod.

      The best way I have found to listen to recent podcasts is by making a playlist with them in it. I bet you can also make a smart playlist to play all podcasts from the last 24 hours in chronological order, but i have not tried that since i only listen to 2-3 podcasts.

    5. Re:iTunes? by Furmy · · Score: 1

      Finding good podcasts is a challenge.
      Here's one! CBC Radio 3.
      New music, many styles. Available in M4A, MP3, and OGG Vorbis.

    6. Re:iTunes? by gozar · · Score: 2, Informative
      Except Apple and iTunes should be shot for having a separate interface to put podcasts into their store that has nothing to do with having them on the web, and isn't compatible with any other podcatcher. At least I haven't yet found a (free) podcast I cared about that was only on iTunes since everyone does the RSS first anyway (and I think iTunes uses the RSS internally). However, I would encourage people not to use iTunes and in particular the ITMS for podcatching for this very reason. Come on, Apple. Open standards, not lock-in. At least for free content. It's not that hard. Apple deserves no credit for their closed-off pseudo-web bullshit.

      iTunes uses a website's RSS feed to grab the latest episodes just like every other podcatcher. In fact, you can export your podcast feeds as an opml file to import into any other RSS aggregator. This also works in the reverse, if you start out using Juice receiver and want to move to iTunes, just export your feeds from Juice and import them into iTunes. You can also bypass subscribing from the iTunes music store. Just go to the Advanced menu, select Subscribe to Podcast, and paste in the RSS feed url.

      There isn't anything proprietary about the way iTunes works with podcasts... In fact, I would recommend using iTunes for someone starting out. You can always move to something else later.

      --
      What, me worry?
    7. Re:iTunes? by Uber+Banker · · Score: 1

      If you're interested in good quality economic analysis, yes a niche but its also an easy way to get some understanding of the economy from top sources, try the Bloomberg Economic podcast. They have a knowledgable host who interviews a range of economists about economic and finance stories of the week, updated around 3 times per week. Learning curve isn't too steep, and it surpasses most newspaper columns IMHO (as they should - interviews with leading names by the leading economic and financial data analysis company).

    8. Re:iTunes? by wcb4 · · Score: 1

      Apple has introduced dozens of new tgs into the RSS spec just to handle wonderful iTunes specific stuff. The feeds designed for iTunes will work in other aggregators, for now. I am sure that eventually the will introduce and require soemthign that breaks other podcatchers

      --
      I reject your reality ... and substitute my own.
    9. Re:iTunes? by Squozen · · Score: 1

      I'd highly doubt it - RSS is designed to accommodate what Apple is doing.

    10. Re:iTunes? by Ardeet · · Score: 1

      linefeed0, this is my major bug bear with iTunes. I installed it as I was curious to see how they presented their podcasts (in particular the Free Talk Live one which I listen to). As I access a couple of PCs it annoys the hell out of me that I have to have their software installed to check out what's going on. It's also annoying that for something that I can look up straight away through my browser (such as Podcast Alley, which I use) that to do the same thing on iTunes I have to fire up their software.

  3. I subscribe to very few by bheer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    but Zoe's Radio has got to be one of the better ones, she RJs very well for someone so young:
    Podcast feed: http://webjay.org/by/iancr/zoe5c27sradioshow.xml

    Then let's not forget the (supershort but funny) Onion Radio News.

    When BSG's on air, Ron Moore's podcasts are also good listening.

    --
    Go somewhere random
  4. Hint... by Otter · · Score: 2, Informative

    The prefix "pod" gives a clue as to what the ideal software/player combo is...

    --
    What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
    1. Re:Hint... by charlesnw · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Thats suffix

      --
      Charles Wyble System Engineer
    2. Re:Hint... by mpathetiq · · Score: 0, Redundant

      pod- is a suffix.

      --
      Post-rock/Ambient/Drone and other noise.
    3. Re:Hint... by mpathetiq · · Score: 1

      errr... pod- is a prefix.

      --
      Post-rock/Ambient/Drone and other noise.
    4. Re:Hint... by charlesnw · · Score: 1

      What I meant was that in the context of the orignial post, which I presume was refering to ipod. So I said in his context I think he meant suffix. :)

      --
      Charles Wyble System Engineer
    5. Re:Hint... by Otter · · Score: 1
      No, I meant prefix, as in "podcast".

      But in the spirit of Friday afternoon, let's call it a draw and go home...

      --
      What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
    6. Re:Hint... by japhmi · · Score: 1

      I belive 'adfix' (which describes something which can be a prefix or a suffix) is better suited

      --
      "Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys" P. J. O'Rourke
  5. Don't look any farther by Fitzghon · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Just use iTunes. You can subscribe to podcasts by url, and choose to have them downloaded to your iPod, etc.
    In terms of podcasts, though, you really need to find ones you like. I listen to Gaming Steve (http://www.gamingsteve.com/) but that's MY taste. You need to find what you like for yourself.

    Fitzghon

    1. Re:Don't look any farther by OneSeventeen · · Score: 3, Informative

      While iTunes works well for this, some of us still don't own iPods, and don't like installing a huge program like iTunes just for the podcasting feature.

      My current favorite is winamp, although if Democracy Player ever became stable, it would be #1 in my book.

      The only Podcast I listen to is The Frequency, dedicated primarily to Christian Music News, reviews, and interviews. (without being super cheesy)

      --
      "Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed." -C.S. Lewis
  6. Browse by Eightyford · · Score: 3, Informative

    I use this site to browse podcasts. Lots of good ones are there, for all areas of interest.

    --
    Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters
  7. iTunes by Dr.+Sp0ng · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Well, the obvious answer is to use the iTunes music store with an iPod - most podcasts worth listening to are on iTunes. The problem is that there are very few worth listening to. Most of them are consist of some guy with a nasal voice and no broadcasting skills, talking about something that would be better served by a regular blog post, and saying it poorly - "Uh... er... well..." and so on.

    I've found that the only podcasts I end up listening to on a regular basis are the NPR ones (you can either get to them through npr.org or through iTunes).

  8. Good Podcasts by lemkepf · · Score: 1

    I listen to a few...

    The Signal; A podcast about Firefly and Serenity.
    http://signal.serenityfirefly.com/

    TWIT; Basically Leo Laporte and his crew talk about tech stuff for an hour.
    http://www.twit.tv/

    Slice of SciFi; for all the science fiction news you could shake a stick at.
    http://www.sliceofscifi.com/

    FireflyTalk is good too...
    http://fireflytalk.libsyn.com/

    1. Re:Good Podcasts by Kethinov · · Score: 1
      Battlestar Galactica Commentary
      This is utterly fantastic. Best podcast around.
      --
      You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
  9. Word of Mouth and iTunes by rueger · · Score: 2, Insightful

    In fact, one of the challenges being identified by Public Broadcasters and others is how to let potential listeners know about downloadable/podcasted content.

    I'd say that right now it comes down to luck and word of mouth. I'm finding that I tend to stick to content from "professional" broadcasters. So much of the rest of existing podcasts are "produced" by half drunk frat boys being potty mouths and playing indy rock.

    As far as clients, iTunes really does podcasts pretty well. iPodder, at least on my old PC seemed to be a resource hog in some fashion.

    --
    Three Squirrels
  10. mplayer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    ...which can turn any realaudio stream (from e.g. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/ or any of the "listen again" pages) into a podcast.

  11. ExtraLife Radio by Laserwulf · · Score: 1

    ExtraLife Radio is the only one that has kept my interest. The host, Scott, and his friends humorously discuss just about anything geeky: WoW, sci-fi, B-movies, gaming in general, etc.

    --
    "Make cyberlove, not cyberwar!" -Khaed(544779)
  12. My list by blefler · · Score: 1, Interesting
    • Cinecast is an excellent movie review podcasts the IMO beats the snot out of Ebert & Whoever (of course you can catch their podcast as well.) RSS Feed
    • Keith and the Girl still stands as one of my regulars, although not for everyone, but very funny. RSS Feed
    • Coverville is a wonderful high production values music podcast that features only covers of songs. I love it. RSS Feed

    As for RSS feed readers/podcatchers (another hated word mashup), I still use the original Juice receiver (previously called iPodder). It has plenty of flaws, but every time I give other feed readers a try I always come back to it. I still haven't found one that will synch with my iRiver correctly. I use the new version of WinAmp for that.

    I don't know why everyone always recommends using iTunes. I abhor their podcast interface and always get confused as it dumps me in and out of my library, search, back to their store, etc. Hate hate hate!

    --
    - Bill
    www.GloBible.com
  13. Podcasting info by solid_liq · · Score: 1

    To answer half your question (the how), just buy the latest issue of Linux Journal http://www.linuxjournal.com/. The latest issue's theme is podcasting.

  14. Juice Receiver formerly iPodder by UnderScan · · Score: 4, Informative

    Apple iTunes & iPods are the dominant software & hardware audio players, but not everone has an iPod or wants to use Apple iTunes. If you do not use Apple iTunes, then you might like to check out Juice Receiver [1]. Juice uses RSS feeds to download podcasts to your computer. Juice is platform-independent, so you can use it from virtually any computer and play the files on any MP3 device. If you need assistance with it, then see the Juice FAQ [2] and the Juice User Guide (PDF) [3].

    [1] http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/
    [2] http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/faq/index.php
    [3] http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/docs/JuiceUse rGuide.pdf

  15. IT Conversations by Anonymous+Cowdog · · Score: 1

    As you have noticed, podcasts generally suck - too much egotism, friendpotism, and what-I-had-for-breakfast.

    Instead, check out IT Conversations. Hopefully others will suggest additional similar sources of high quality interviews and talks beyond just the NPR stuff, which often tends to be a rehash of what appeared on the Interweb several days earlier.

    1. Re:IT Conversations by digitalgiblet · · Score: 1
      I second the motion for IT Conversations.

      My favorite, however, is TrailCast. It is for hikers and focuses on long-haul thru-hikers on the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, etc.

      Sound quality is good. The guy who produces it has done a great job of setting up a high quality recording studio in his bathroom. :-)

      My biggest beef with 95% of podcasts is that they are made with $5 microphones on a big, noisy PC and it shows.

      Trailcast sounds great and the content is always cool. I love listening to tales of trails from people who have done some insane things like hike the "triple crown" in one year. That is the PCT, AT AND Continental Divide Trail which total up to about 7,500 miles. In one year. Yowza. The two guys who did this were AVERAGING about 40-45 miles per day.

      Highly recommended. The podcast that is, not hiking the triple crown in one year...

    2. Re:IT Conversations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i also reccommend IT conversations as well, its what got me hoooked on the podcasting... another couple of shows i catch regulary that are tech related

      dotnetrocks - this is great if you code in .net and keep up with MS, they have mastered the audio if you ask me.. i got interviewed on the dallas leg of the roadtrip...
      http://www.dotnetrocks.com/

      gilmorgang - lots of the future of tech talk kinda jazz, but some of its pretty sharp and accurate, they get some big interviews, can get old and is a bit long at times..
      http://gillmorgang.podshow.com/

      venture voice - general discussion about the venture capital markets, both people who have received VC funding and people who lend it... lots of entrepreneurs...
      http://www.venturevoice.com/

      talkcrunch- techcrunch via podcast, lots of web 2.0 guys not that i like the term web 2.0 but i do like all the new sites, and the people behind them...
      http://www.talkcrunch.com/

    3. Re:IT Conversations by Anonymous+Cowdog · · Score: 1

      >The two guys who did this were AVERAGING about 40-45 miles per day.

      That's hard core, if not hard to believe. If you walk 4 miles an hour, which is a pretty fast pace especially carrying a pack, that's over 10 hours of solid walking a day. If it's true, these guys are not experiencing much of the trails compared to what normal hikers would.

      Figure up at six, hit the trail by 6:30, eat on the run, take an hour's worth of 10 minute breaks during the day, plus an hour for lunch, and an hour to make camp. That puts you in a position to start preparing dinner at around 6:30 PM. Cook (or add water to you dried peas or whatever), eat, and hit the sack at 10:00PM or so. Maybe get a bath in once in a while. Thanks for sharing the link. Look forward to checking it out.

    4. Re:IT Conversations by digitalgiblet · · Score: 1
      No kidding. Hard core doesn't even begin to describe these guys.

      The first guy goes by the trail name "Flyin' Brian" (Brian Robinson) and he was the first to hike all three trails in one year. The second guy, Mat Hazley (trail-name Squeaky), was the first to hike them all without skipping around. Brian switched from the AT to the Continental Divide Trail so that he could avoid the deep snows in New England and then came back to the AT to finish.

      Squeaky didn't cook. He said he ate poptarts for breakfast then power bars all day. He made it through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park section of the AT (about 73+ miles) in ONE DAY.

      You are right about not experiencing the trail in as much detail, but these guys were specifically going for records. I believe Brian is now a competitive trail runner.

      Another good podcast in the series is about "The Barefoot Sisters" who yo-yo hiked the AT in one year (that means going all the way, then turning around and walking back) and they did about 1000 miles of it barefoot.

      One thing about trailcast is that it definitely makes you want to get out there. I'm not interested in speed or records, but I would like to through hike the AT one day. At various points in my life I've either had enough money or time to try it, but never both at the same time...

  16. NPR by kevin_conaway · · Score: 1

    NPR and Marketplace post podcasts of some of their more popular shows.

    Check your local stations as well.

  17. http://www.codesermon.org/ by cariaso1 · · Score: 1

    I think a lot of the developers on /. would digg codesermon.org. 15 minute talks on a single programming topic.

  18. Podget by lky · · Score: 1

    I like Podget (http://podget.sf.net./ Its a simple bash script optimized for running as a cron-job so I've got all the latest podcasts every morning. Then a simple upload to my Ipod with GtkPod (http://gtkpod.sf.net/ as I check the weather in the morning.

    Why sit and wait for downloads when its time to go?

    1. Re:Podget by lky · · Score: 1

      Oh and check out http://distortedview.com./

      Its audio pornography and hilarious.

  19. KDE / Zen Nomad by underpope · · Score: 1

    One of my favorite podcasts is Escape Pod. Well worth a listen to. I also enjoy NASA's podcast as well as Space.com's. I also listen the the DragonPage shows as Mur Lafferty's two shows (I Should Be Writing and Geek Fu Action Grip). As for my environment; well, I have a Creative Labs Zen Nomad XTra which my wife bought me for Christmas a couple of years ago. Since I use KDE as my desktop environment, I use KZenExplorer to hook up to it, and KPodder as my aggregator; it downloads the feeds into specific directories in my home directory, and I can just drag and drop them to my MP3 player. KZenExplorer is available for Kubuntu through the multiverse repositories, but I had to install KPodder from source.

    --
    "A statesman is a dead politician. Lord knows we need more statesmen." Opus
  20. Juice by slavemowgli · · Score: 1

    Juice is quite nice, for the most part. There's a bug in the current release which will cause trouble if you have filenames with non-7 bit ASCII characters in them, but outside of that, it works quite nicely.

    --
    quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
  21. Science podcasts (little offtopic) by karvind · · Score: 1
    There was an earlier Slashdot story on this.

    Sometimes I just browse through iTunes podcast library for certain keywords (eg literature english) and then sort it by popularity. Many times you will get the better ones (eg from BBC or stanford radio etc) and not some random dude ranting in his basement.

    And sometimes I just lurk for questions like these where other users tell about their favorite podcasts and then I go and check them out ..

  22. Free Talk Live by ted_nugent · · Score: 2, Informative

    Free Talk Live is about the only podcast I listen to. Podcast Alley is a pretty decent directory.

    --

    Free the West Memphis Three!

    1. Re:Free Talk Live by GimmeFuel · · Score: 2, Informative
      FTL rocks.

      They're not the normal "hey, let's go buy a $100 microphone and record ourselves talking shit then put it on a webpage" podcast. (You know who you are) They're a syndicated radio show that's been putting their archives up for download completely free since day one, almost three and a half years ago, when these "podcast" things existed, but there wasn't even a bandwagon to jump on yet.

      Since they're primarily a radio show, the audio quality and production values are much higher than most other podcasts out there. You don't have to be an audiophile to recognize that most podcasts out there sound like underwater shit. The hosts also know what they're doing, having worked in "real" radio before.

      They take calls and e-mails from podcast listeners, live internet stream listeners and radio listeners alike. In fact, podcast and live stream listeners make up the majority of their calls on weekdays, as the majority of their affiliates carry the Saturday show only.

      --
      live(free) || die;
    2. Re:Free Talk Live by Ardeet · · Score: 1

      Would have to agree with you on Podcast Alley having a great selection. I wasn't as wrapped in the iTunes directory and while it's only a feeling, it seemed to me that there was just a bit too much glitz.

    3. Re:Free Talk Live by tmccann · · Score: 1

      I Agree...Free Talk Live is Great! Listening to it is the most important part of my day. I highly recommend it -- it may change your life.

      I also enjoy:

      I wrote my own personal aggregator...it's similar to bashpodder...it is just a PHP script to download them every day.

    4. Re:Free Talk Live by Ardeet · · Score: 1

      I forgot to mention in a previous post that one aspect of Free Talk Live that fellow /.ers may find interesting is their bulletin board (http://bbs.freetalklive.com./ There are several sections on Issues and Promoting Liberty that contain a large number of well reasoned posts (and some wildly emotional ones too :) )

    5. Re:Free Talk Live by sidepocket · · Score: 0

      anarchist ;)

    6. Re:Free Talk Live by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Quoth sidepocket:
      anarchist ;)

      Hell, YES! Actually, though, I prefer the term "Anarcho-capitalist"

      The reasoning for my beliefs is simply and beautifully presented in this Flash animation:
      http://isil.org/resources/introduction.swf

      A bunch of anarchists, minarchists, Libertarians, and small-government Republicans hang out on the FTL BBS. Come on by and browse a bit :D

  23. meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I like
    * CBC Radio 3 podcast: http://www.cbcradio3.com/podcast/standard/
    * Jazz and Conversation: http://feeds.feedburner.com/quietfm/FEhS

    I use Google's feed reader: http://www.google.com/reader/. It has a simple but decent podcast interface with an audio player in the browser and a link to the MP3 that can easily be downloaded to your MP3 player.

    1. Re:meh by JimmehAH · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I second Google Reader.

      I've also found Penn Jillette's podcast to be entertaining, even if I don't agree with everything he says.

  24. Dammit! by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 2, Funny

    My podcast isn't ready yet, so I've missed a perfectly good opportunity to hype it up on Slashdot. Could someone be a pal and dupe this question in another week or so?

    --
    Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
    1. Re:Dammit! by NumberGod · · Score: 1

      Sure.

      I mean, it's not like they'll notice the dupe.

  25. Simple, look at your MP3 player, and your interest by jeaster · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Those two pieces of information will have to be your starting point. My iRiver and Ipodder work just fine together. YMMV. As for podcasts, look for things that interest you. I am a newly converted catholic, and one of my favorite podcasts is from Father Roderick: ( http://www.catholicinsider.com/ ) I enjoy his information, style, and POV. You may not. On the other hand, I enjoy a big breasted potty mouthed chick by the name of Soccergirl (TM). Fun, and the voice/quality is usually pretty good. Also, she has boobies, always a plus. :) ( http://soccergirl.podshow.com/ ) Good luck, there is a lot of stuff out there that *I* find interesting.

  26. Free Talk Live by FTL_Ian · · Score: 1

    My show, Free Talk Live: http://freetalklive.com/ Not just a podcast, but also a live stream and a radio show on in 14 markets!

    --
    Free Talk Live: Talk Radio YOU Control http://freetalklive.com
  27. I can't believe no one said this yet... by CupBeEmpty · · Score: 1

    Obviously the best out there for new music is The Indie Sermons of the Rt. Rev Fischer (RSS).

    I might be biased because its mine.

    More seriously there are some from a non-geek perspective (it's good to get out a bit):

    Dreadful Snake Radio (RSS
    A middle aged former musician turned corporate guy. He mixes his love of folk/blues in with his world travels. It is a little "what I did today" but what he does daily is amazing. Everything from podcasting while doing a 5k with his son, while biking in Beijing, at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, to Church (state sponsored) in Beijing on Christmas.

    Rocket Boom
    Just great. (actually a video cast)

    Earth & Sky (RSS)
    A great public radio science show. It is not always just new science, it is a lot of explanations that you have probably always been curious about. And it is the best way to stay up to date on cool science events (eclipses, meteor showers, that kind of thing)

  28. Music Podcasts by TheGreatGraySkwid · · Score: 1

    I listen almost exclusively to music podcasts, since I find amateurs talking at a mic only slightly less annoying than professionals on the radio talking at a mic, but just like blogs, the best way to find good podcasts is to find one you like, then find what other podcasts that podcast's website links to.

    My favorite music podcasts, though, are:
    The Beat Oracle (Downtempo Electronica and smart hip-hop)
    The Data Sound (Indie Alternative with some eclectic touches)
    the letter g (very eclectic from week to week, could be hip-hop, could be electronica, could be alternative)
    Space Music (Downtempo and Ambient Electronica brought to you from the Netherlands)
    Beats In Space (Electronica and Hip-hop, maybe slightly dancier than tBO above)

    Enjoy!

    --
    The Humblest Mollusk on the Net
  29. Finding good Podcasts by bloosqr · · Score: 1

    I have recently started running a podcast myself

    The focus of this podcast is reasonably specific : electro,new wave, goth, industrial, ebm, synth, electroclash, new wave :

    http://www.bloosqr.com/

    When I first started advertising I have posted to all the 'aggregators" and I can tell you from looking
    at my logs, no one comes from those things. The Itunes searching thing works reasonably well. What does work is looking at myspace/livejournal groups that have similar interests at least for electro/synth..
    So I would say it really depends on what you like, if you listen to emo, find the emo groups, if you listen to goth, the goth groups, college indie, the college indie groups. Online magazines will have a links/radio section (for us its industrial nation and sideline as the big two).

    If your genre/music interests isn't really specialized to have magazines the two aggregators that seem to actually be useful are

        Try the apple itunes directories via searching and

    podcast directory

      http://www.podcastdirectory.com/

    the best

    -bloosqr

  30. Scott Sigler (and others) and Wizz RSS by Wolfbone · · Score: 1

    Apart from all the excellent NPR podcasts around, the most entertaining and impressive thing I've come across in the pod-o-sphere is the wonderful phenomenon of "podiobooks". The premier innovator and author/narrator/podcaster in this genre is Mr. Scott Sigler of Earthcore fame. If you missed the hugely enjoyable Earthcore experience you can still catch up with it (details at http://scottsigler.net/ ) and then get stuck in to Sigler's more recent Ancestor and (now in progress) Infection. There are many other great authors appearing at sites such as http://podiobooks.com/ and http://podcastalley.com/ (I'm currently listening to Singularity by Bill DeSmedt, courtesy of podiobooks). As for software, I know what you mean about the paucity of good stuff out there but I recently found the Wizz RSS newsreader extension for Firefox ( http://www.wizzcomputers.com/ )and it's really damned good. It even let me import the OPML file (whatever the fsck that is) for my podiobooks.com subscriptions.

  31. Re:Simple, look at your MP3 player, and your inter by Rude+Turnip · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Cool, another fan of Father Roderick! I'm not a Catholic or a Christian in general, but I listen to his Daily Breakfast podcast every day. He's definitely changed my idea of the stereotypical view of a priest. He's a huge fan of things like Star Wars and Harry Potter, and even does specialty podcasts that explore the mythological concepts in both. Among other things, he's a huge fan of the TV shows, "24" and "Lost." He once geeked out for about 10 minutes talking about how cool it was to have the cops chasing him while playing Need For Speed Most Wanted.

    The most insightful thing I ever heard him say was a commentary about sex and violence in movies and video games. In general, he's not against it if it's integral to the story at hand. And, to paraphrase him, "Do you realize how much sex and violence there is in the Bible?" He's also very open about the history of the Catholic church and talks about how a lot of its holidays (such as easter and christmas) have pagan origins. Recently, he had a lengthy discussion and criticism about the church regarding all the sex abuse scandals.

    All of Fr. Roderick's shows are under the umbrella of his fledgling Starquest Podcast Network, that includes the podcasts of a couple others that he's working with. The web site for SQPN is at www.sqpn.com.

    --
    Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
  32. A good news podcast by battlesysadmin · · Score: 1

    I like Free Talk Live: http://www.freetalklive.com/ . They make the show available in different formats, you can download show archives in BitTorrents, you can discuss the show on their forum or on their wiki, and it's all free. For quite a while they were in the top three political podcasts according to PodCast Alley http://www.podcastalley.com/ *happy listening* -lois

  33. If you're interested in learning Japanese... by fangr · · Score: 1

    I'm planning on travelling to Japan in a few months, so I went searching to see if there was a podcast dedicated to teaching Japanese. I found a couple, but there is one that stands head and shoulders above the rest. While the others I tried sounded like they had the Japanese equivalent of Ben Stein reading text from a beginning Japanese textbook, the people at JapanesePod101.com all seem to enjoy what they're doing. As far as I've gotten (about 1 month in), their teaching style is pretty much "Imagine you're in a restaurant and ...", "So you're in the train station and ...", "So you're looking for a taxi ..." and providing the types of simple phrases you're going to need to survive in those types of situations. Theirs is far from a textbook presentation, but I often feel like they're having a conversation where I'm just happening to learn Japanese (and I like it that way). If you're looking to learn some basic Japanese - I highly recommend it.

  34. iTunes Agent by ematic · · Score: 3, Interesting

    For convenient podcast downloads for NON-iPod MP3 players, try iTunes + iTunes Agent.

    iTunes
    http://www.apple.com/itunes/

    iTunes Agent - use any MP3 player with iTunes
    http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=54 9637

    My Morning Playlist
    Nature Podcast (science journal)
    http://www.nature.com/nature/podcast/

    NPR 5-minute News Summary
    NPR Health & Science
    NPR Technology
    http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_directory.p hp?type=topic

    Democracy NOW! (news - better than NPR in some ways)
    http://democracynow.org/podcast_help.shtml#feeds

    Diggnation (latest general blog news from digg.com)
    http://revision3.com/diggnation

    This Week in Tech (weekly tech news)
    http://twit.tv/podcastinfo

    Security Now! (tech/security news)
    http://www.grc.com/SecurityNow.htm

    President's Weekly Radio Address (comedy)
    http://weeklyradioaddress.com/

    and I used to listen to Ricky Gervais (comedy), but he charges $$ now.
    http://www.rickygervais.com/podcast.php

    --

    idm owns me
  35. If you like movies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Then these:

    coolshite
    cinecast

    are great.

    I also listen to diggnation religiously Even though I never look at digg.com, I love to listen to Alex and Kevin's riffs on the stories.

  36. Free Talk Live (freetalklive.com) by Ardeet · · Score: 1

    I've listened to a number of podcasts and one of the few that I've actually kept listening to is Free Talk Live (http://freetalklive.com./ It may seem odd for an Aussie to listen to a US talk show, a couple of listens will probably convince you why. These guys will talk about anything to anyone around the world (and they regularly do this). Their main focus is Freedom and Liberty and their message of how we can obtain this is pertinent to any location. The two blokes who always host it are so passionate about their message that it gets me in every time. If you like talk radio, or are even curious then I reckon it's worth your time to give them a go. For my podcatcher I use iPodder. This has been reliable and consistent and while it may not be the flashiest one around it does the job consistently. Ardeet

  37. Left Right And Center by blackmonday · · Score: 1

    I'm a regular listener of "Left Right and Center", an NPR political show based out KCRW in Santa Monica College. Like all NPR podcasts, it's free. If only they'd put out "This American Life" as a podcast! A boy can wish.

    1. Re:Left Right And Center by yderf · · Score: 1

      "This American Life" is the one that I have been dying for. I even wrote some scripts to convert the audio of the shows to mp3s so I could listen to them, but I'd prefer them to do all the work for me.

  38. Good Podcasts by Gulthek · · Score: 1

    All available through iTunes:

    ChinesePod
    JapanesePod101
    Nature Podcast (as in the scientific journal)
    NOVA | PBS
    Battlestar Galactica Commentary
    NPR's Science Friday
    Scientific American Podcast
    Slacker Astronomy
    The Beat Oracle
    The Onion Radio News

  39. Piddlepodder by Craig+Maloney · · Score: 1

    I've written a script in Perl called Piddlepodder. Just copy the XML feed URL into the feeds file, set it in cron, and forget about it. I've got lots of feature request that eventually I'll have time to put in there.

    http://sourceforge.net/projects/piddlepodder

    Hope this helps!

  40. Subscribe frequently, unsubscribe without remorse by dmorin · · Score: 1

    I used to pick and choose podcasts carefully trying to get a balance of different areas I was interested in. Screw it. There's too many. Hit a directory, browse, and whenever you see anything that looks vaguely of interest, subscribe. If you find that you hate it, unsubscribe. There's really no commitment beyond that. What I've found is that if I pick a top ten of podcasts I love, then there will be down periods where I've listened to all of them and then have nothing new. So instead I keep a very wide variety from stuff I just right to as soon as it comes in (Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, Squadcast, Scott Sigler, Startup Nation...) to stuff that makes good filler (Siskel and Ebert Reviews, The Onion, NPR Story of the Day...) to stuff that it's just good to have in case I have some time to sit and appreciate it (IT Conversations). If you listen on a commute like I do, look for podcasts in the 8-20 minute time frame. Your odds of acutally listening to one or two podcasts in full is optimal. If you have many that are an hour or more, then you really have to be in some dedicated listening situation like the gym.

    --
    www.HearMySoulSpeak.com
  41. Free Talk Live! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hey,
    I do listen to Scott Sigler and soccer girl, listed by some other people, but my favorite podcast is Free Talk Live http://freetalklive.com/ [freetalklive.com]
    It's an interesting political show about freedom and liberty. I strong recommend it to anyone who understands english. (That means YOU).

    1. Re:Free Talk Live! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      looks like there's a lot of hippie astroturfers out for "free talk live" today.

    2. Re:Free Talk Live! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, comeon, we're not hippies- we believe in freedom, smaller government, less taxes. Afterall, government screws up just about everything that it does.
      But if you feel like bringing the discussion to us, check out http://bbs.freetalklive.com/

  42. Suggestions From Friends by chad9023 · · Score: 1

    Like almost everything, I find the best way to find good quality podcasts is from friend suggestions. On that note, may I suggest RadioTiki to everyone... by far the funniest podcast I listen to. In fact, they're doing a show tonight!

  43. BashPodder; iPod Shuffle Database Builder by Noksagt · · Score: 1

    My favorite podcatcher is BashPodder, a minimalist bash script that uses wget to grab enclosures for you. Fast, light, stable, easy to modify. I typically use an iPod shuffle which I charge overnight, so one can also make a script to check if it is mounted, copy or move files to it, and run iPod Shuffle Database Builder.

    For better reccomendations, you might give us an idea of which OS you're using, if you have always-on internet, whether you'd prefer to grab content at least once a day or manually (with or without having to manually launch a program or to have a background service/daemon running at all times), and other features you would like in your pod catcher.

  44. Juice by Belgand · · Score: 1

    Juice (formerly iPodder) is pretty much the go-to standard... or at least it was until iTunes added podcasting support. Personally I use iTunes and only because it integrates much better than iPodder ever did, but that's entirely a personal choice.

    As far as Podcasts go here are some of my favorites:

    Coverville : An excellent podcast devoted to covers. Always excellent.

    Reel Reviews Radio : Short (and the occasional Cinephile long-form) discussions of various films. The subtitle of "Films Worth Watching" probably describes it best. Sometimes I've found stuff that I've overlooked other times it proved to be the kick in the pants that I needed to finally get around to watching something I've been interested in.

    The Dawn and Drew Show : I like it personally. Then again, I also loathe Howard Stern so there's no easy decisions to be made. Free-form discussion by a husband and wife team where he's the straight man and she tends to be effusive and offensive (well... to some I guess).

    The Tim and Tony Show : Two guys talk about various sexual topics. About the same intellectual level as Dawn and Drew.

    The Apparat Programme (Podcast at http://feeds.feedburner.com/Apparat , info best found at http://www.warrenellis.com/ : Influential British comic writer Warren Ellis' occasionally posts new entries in his podcast which is basically just music that interests him.

    They Might Be Giants Podcast : Well... if you're a fan it's an excellent podcast for Their music. Then again they've always managed to heavily experiment with new forms of music delivery.

  45. Use a podcast directory by Roadmaster · · Score: 1

    either podcast alley or the itunes search worked OK for me; it's easy to find podcasts relating to topics you're interested in. I personally listen to k9cast (about dogs), phedippidations, for runners (even though i'm not one of them) and dawn & drew (say what you want but they're hilarious when you're not in the mood for something more serious). I found all these podcasts and more by searching for specific topics on the search engines.

  46. my favorite podcasts by webagogue · · Score: 1

    If you want to laugh out loud about geek stuff, you can't go wrong with http://www.geekdrome.com/ and http://www.lugradio.org/.

    --

    Knowledge is valuable. Ignorance is dangerous. Censorship is unacceptable. http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10
  47. RhythmBox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The latest versions of Rhythmbox (such as are in Ubuntu Dapper) have a built-in PodCast downloader.

  48. I have heard of a good windows based aggregator by cjmnews · · Score: 1

    It's called WinPodder which I heard about on the Daily Breakfast. I have not personally tried it as I am comfortable with iTunes.

    I usually find my podcasts on iTunes, but occasionally use Podcast Alley to search for topics I like. Listen to a few and unsubscribe from the bad ones.

    I like the PC Gamer Podcast and am still trying out the PSP podcasts from PG Revolution not 100% sold on it yet, but it has held my interest for a few weeks now.

    --
    You can lose something that is loose, so tighten the loose item so you don't lose it.
  49. Lugradio by chiskop · · Score: 1

    Lugradio is a fortnightly British radio show that takes a relaxed, humorous look at Linux and open source. Has useful and informative features such as "What the Fook Book Truck", "Hype or Shite". Hosted by Jono Bacon and some others. Language will probably offend.

  50. Podcasts - what kind? by douglaid · · Score: 0

    Originally, podcasts were limited to tunes. If that is what you are loking for, the advice of others is all that you need. But podcasts aren't limited to music. Any MP3 file can become a podcast. I subscribe to the "genealogy guys" ( my interest is genealogy, but the American stuff, including this podcast, is of limited use to me here in Australia with British ancestors), and an Australian radio health report. There are lists on the Web. One resource site is http://www.podcast.net/

  51. iTunes not much use on Linux by pestie · · Score: 1

    While iTunes works well for this, some of us still don't own iPods, and don't like installing a huge program like iTunes just for the podcasting feature.

    And some of us don't run Windoze or MacOS. There's this crazy new thing called "Linux" out there these days - maybe some of you Slashdot folks have heard of it? ;-)

  52. Good political podcast. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This guy bills himself as an independent, neither left or right. His viewpoint can be all over the place, but I like that even if I don't always agree with him. In addition, his podcast has top-notch production values since he used to do a live radio show locally, here in Eugene, for a couple of years.

    http://hbnnews.com/

  53. ipodder by jbrader · · Score: 1

    You don't mention your OS and I'm not sure if it's cross platform or not but on linux ipodder works great. And for debian and ubuntu it's in the reps.

    --
    You are so boring that when I see you my feet go to sleep.
  54. Sports Podcast by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you like sports I would highly recommend Colin Cowherd's podcast from ESPNRadio, http://insider.espn.go.com/proxy/proxy.dll/insider /radio/archive?name=herd_podcast&action=login&appR edirect=http%3A%2F%2Finsider.espn.go.com%2Fproxy%2 Fproxy.dll%2Finsider%2Fradio%2Farchive%3Fname%3Dhe rd_podcast

    He is by far the best sports talk on the internet. He goes beyond sports and discusses life and societal issues as they relate to sports.

  55. Podcast time capsule by SweetLil · · Score: 1

    Besides listening to my "regular" podcasts I found lately an interesting one with a different approach. The project behind that podcast collects audio material from visitors of their website. The goal is to create an audio time capsule. Not everything is worth listening but there is some funny stuff.

    http://www.millionsecondshomepage.com/list.php