The Podcast Review

RadoWest is one of the finest examples of radio making the transition to podcast.  They have a generous offering of archives in the iTunes store, and the shows appear quickly and promptly on a daily basis.  The RSS feed is equally well parsed; with a descriptive title and date, and short summary.  The podcast is a daily 50 minute experience and offers up some of the best current affairs and general interest stories out there.  There is an in-focus interview with engaging culture makers, and the host, Doug Fabrizio, is well prepared and asks all the right questions.

Successful podcasts are usually highly focused, or the general interest; it is dangerous to fall in between these two ends.  RadioWest fits the general bill quite well.

this has made my highly protected, and coveted, daily listening list.  Well done Doug.

rss feed
itunes link
home page

The ABC is Australia’s national broadcaster (publicly funded) and Radio National is the flagship radio network; producing original, serious content that has wide applicability.  About half of the following programs are very Aussie-centric, but the other half can apply to almost any listener.  There’s plenty here to discover and explore -

360: radio documentaries (rss feed / itunes page)
All in the Mind: consciousness and mental malfunction (rss feed / itunes link)
Artworks: summary of the week’s high art news (rss feed / itunes link)

Australia Talks: daily talk back and call-in show (rss feed / itunes link)
Away!: aboriginal affairs (rss feed / itunes page)
Background Briefing: big ticket current affairs, weekly (rss feed / itunes page)

Big Ideas: lecture series from prominent people (rss feed / itunes page)
CounterPoint: counterviews to the current thinking (rss feed / itunes link)
Edpod: educational news and views (rss feed / itunes link)

Encounter: the clash of morality and modern life (rss feed / itunes page)
Health Report: medical science, weekly (rss feed / itunes link)
Hindsight: looking back at Australian history (rss feed / itunes link)

Late Night Live: lively political discussion (rss feed / itunes link)
Law Report: applied and practical legal matters (rss feed / itunes page)
Life Matters: daily interviews on lifestyle matters (rss feed / itunes link)

Music Show: weekly overview of the professional music scene (rss feed / itunes link)
Science Show: weekly magazine of interesting research from around the world (rss feed / itunes link)
Spirit of Things: earnest questioning of the spiritual path and modernity (rss feed / itunes page)

Verbatim: lengthy interviews with long-lived Aussies (rss feed / itunes link)

shows have a 4 week archive, before the mp3’s disappear into the ABC website.  This is a generous allowance, and strikes a fine balance between accessibility and having to maintain an extended bandwidth presence via the iTunes store.  Very fair.

many of these shows were my mainstays before I discovered the world of podcasting, and I have so many fond memories of a small transistor radio and headphones plugged into my mind.  Many ideas, many worlds opened up via these presenters and guests.  So much to be grateful for.  Hope you can find some joy here.

the ABC Program Site for Radio National

I have to say up-front that Sci-Fi Talk is an amazing enterprise.  Began at the beginning of the year, there is now an archive of 100 Interviews with the Actors and Creators of SCI-FI.  Actually, the mandate extends further than that; it covers the associated realms of Fantasy and Horror, in both tv and movie formats.  The host, Tony Tellado, has invested an enormous amount of WILL into this venture; and one can only marvel at the final result.

There is insight and perspective; straight from the originators’ mouths.  Before, such access would have only been granted to the media elite, but in today’s decentralised, information-free times, everyone can become a conduit of  truth and story.  And that is what Tony does.  Let those who animate our tv screens and imaginations speak their answers about what it was like to participate in these Sci-Fi ventures.  Amazing.

the interviews are a tight 20 minutes in length, although they do stray above this occasionally.  There is no fluff or time-wasting, it’s straight into the interview itself.  Audio quality is only so-so, as the main means of conveyance is by phone line, which can be patchy at best.

Science Fiction has a way of presaging the future by only 10 or 15 years; and in that respect it is somewhat frightening.  What *exactly* are these writers and creators tapping into when they set their minds free?

subscribe – enjoy – and be astonished.  5 Stars.

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this is a very enjoyable weekly show that covers the week’s cultural happenings in a panel discussion format.  The 4 hosts are Jody, Stephen Metcalfe, Dana Stephens, and Julia.  They are wonderfully verbal and linguistically skilled; throwing in a dictionaries’ worth of adjectives and conjunctive pronouns; very rarely have I heard the word ‘delimit‘ used so many times in so short a span of time; aural wonder for those inclined to artistic spinning of language.

the shows themselves course over the 45 minute mark; with 3 main stories, and suitable endorsements (ie sponsor segments) thrown in.  If you are looking for intelligent, leftist, slightly wanky observations on the state of American Culture, this is the place to sign up.  This episode which kicks off with a keen putdown of 30 Rock is a winner.

Cultural Happenings come to define the stories that we live by; through analysis and pithy thought, we can come to a greater and deeper understanding of the forces that move us this way or that.  Culture is the bedrock which ultimately binds us together.  Those who fail to understand it, become pawns of it.  Let us look, examine, and cogitate.  And use extinct words as much as we can.  Out.

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itunes link
home page

I’ve been listening to this podcast for about a year now.  It was one of the shows that turned me into a true convert; so good was the material, so regular was the release.

KERA is a public radio and television operation that serves North Texas.  One of it’s flagship radio shows is Think – with Krys Boyd.  Each weekday, two in depth interviews take place, with call ins from the public at the end.  Krys is a fine host; intelligent, quick witted, and totally affable.  She creates a sympathy with the guests, allowing them to reveal their stories and life insight.  One of the amazing qualities of the show is the quality of the guests that are drawn in; people in the local area, providing insights on the region, but also Thinkers and Writers that pursue a more general theme; topics that extend to the wider world.

this is possibly the best general themed podcast that I know of.  It covers the arts, politics, economics, humanism, and pragmatics.  A wide ranging fare, guaranteed to trigger Thought.

KERA’s Think is a true winner.

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iTunes link.

BusinessWeek remains one of the mainstays of print culture.  As a nexus point of money, companies, innovation, and lifestyle, it says a lot about who we are – how we spend our working lives, and how the general economy is oiled.  Through money we perceive into the heart of man.

BusinessWeek gives over its front cover to one main story each issue.  It is a big ticket item, designed to entice and draw in the casual audience.  As such, it has wide applicability, a flavor of scandal, and an intriguing title.  As such, it is a manufactured beast.

this podcast – BusinessWeek – Behind the Cover – exposes the making of this cover story.  What instigated it, who wrote it, how it panned out, and what was exposed.  In a neat 15 minutes you get the story behind the story.

this is a great podcast that has been running for 4 years now; a true mainstay.

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itunes link
all BusinessWeek podcasts

most people find the japanese inscrutable; their cultural imprint seems so different from everyone else’s, and their rhythm of life is rather unique – they seem to have untold hours of time to become obsessive about this small slice of reality or that.  They certainly are a stranger peoples.

Patrick Macias is someone who has penetrated this culture.  An American who loves Japanese pop, he is currently editor of  Otaku USA magazine.  He also has books published under his name, and splits his time between Tokyo and San Francisco.  He knows the landscape.

what makes this podcast different is how authentic it is.  It isn’t done on a laptop in a room, isn’t in a sound studio, isn’t formal.  Patrick takes a digital tape recorder (or the nearest modern equivalent), heads into the streets, and hooks up with a friend.  Their walking conversations are then recorded as they observe Japanese life around them.  The oddities, the quirks, the strange shopping districts.

Anime features very strongly, as does the collector toy scene.  You may not be interested in these things, but hearing about the collectors and the trades will draw anyone in.  The haggling, bargaining inside stores is fascinating.  The sitting down at cafes, the dinner at exotic restaurants – the conversation is sparkling and lively.

the cuts are spliced together, so all the good bits are put together into a 20 minute fun package.  Intro music is different each time and is always an unexpected slanting of Japanese pop.

Hot Tears of Shame is truly a journey of Discovery; into the land of the rising sun.

itunes link (only last 3 shows listed)
show page (find all 35 episodes)
main blog

no rss feed for the podcast

sometimes it’s hard to stay in touch, despite the myriad of information sources we have around us.  Under a swamp of incoming sources, how best to distinguish the signals from the mere noise?  Finding our own information filters is a necessary part of adapting to the digital / internet lifestyle.  It’s the only way we can stay sane.

WYNC is a New York based radio station that has been in operation since 1922.  One of its flagship programs is the morning news show called ‘The Takeaway”.  The full four hour broadcast is available in the itunes store (link here) but most people aren’t going to plough through that.  A nice way to get a slice of it is through their “Story of the Day” cut, served up in podcast format

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itunes link

the cuts themselves are a handy 10 minutes in length; enough to get into an issue and ask a few questions.  Expert opinions are sought, and the host juggles the various viewpoints with ease.  Topics are, quite understandably, often hot button political issues of the day; for eg, healthcare reform, and Obama’s seemingly omnipresent media whoring.  But societal issues feature too: with stories around digital distraction, and race amnesia having made an appearance.  All in all, it’s a wide ranging diet, and a nice little complement to your daily media intake.

well presented and well argued – well done.

this is a podcast with some killer beats.  It is a 45 minute show, and each episode is DJ-ed by a different pair of pros from the LA club scene.  Such legends as Daddy Kev, Gaslamp Killer, and D-Styles have been featured already.  The music is raw, at times brutal, and thoroughly explicit.  Cover your ears if you at all prudish.

music exists in manifold forms; it always morphs into what a culture needs.  At times, we need to be exposed to a mirror of how things truly are.  So these sounds are rough, vital, and clenching.  How many exist in this world of ours.

challenge yourself … with some new sounds.

itunes link (8 shows so far)
home page (download the mp3’s directly)

no rss feed at present

who are the makers of culture?  and more importantly, how does it filter down to us?  Is it a bottom up process, or is it something dictated from on-high by book publishers and tv networks?  how does a group or individual create a following?  all fascinating questions, and all pertinent to this long running podcast (there are over 300 shows, going back to March 2006).

The host is Jesse Thorn, and the show is a twice weekly podcast that interviews prominent ‘culture’ makers for half an hour.  The show is ad and promo free and is syndicated across various public radio stations around the US.  Production quality is very high, and the audio is crystal clear; hearing this show makes one appreciate the skills it takes to master a professional radio show.

the guests are an array of comedians, writers and entertainers.  The interviews are light, and the interviewer is smart and wordy.  Show float along, and drip with stories, anecdotes, and personal probing.  If you are at all interested in those who lead ‘tribes’ in our society, this podcast is a must-listen.  Thoroughly entertaining and bright.

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itunes link