Which podcast to have ?

[woollypigs]

I'm dipping my toes into the podcast world (again). I have been clicking about trying to find some, but most I find are boring. Found a few news/quiz/satirical from the BEEP and NPR that is ok.

What it needs to be is entertaining but also if I could learn something, though not too much mind tend to drift. Need to be able to concentrate on the mutt that I'm walking too

So any recommendations? 

[D.A.L.E.]

• No Such Thing As A Fish
• Infinite Monkey Cage
• Stuff You Should Know
• Richard Herrings Leicester Square Theatre Podcast
• Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4

[woollypigs]

• Infinite Monkey Cage

Thanks for this one - well fun and mad That one and No Such Thing As A Fish I haven'y heard about. Friday Night Comedy is in my queue.

[nikki]

I like the radiolab ones.

[D.A.L.E.]

• Infinite Monkey Cage

Thanks for this one - well fun and mad That one and No Such Thing As A Fish I haven'y heard about. Friday Night Comedy is in my queue.

Stuff You Should Know is bizarre. It's just two blokes yammering on about a niche subject, so should be rubbish, but it is actually brilliant.

[tiermat]

For background noise I really like Preston and Steve.

They do a morning show on WMMR in Philadelphia, and the podcast is their show with (most) of the music cut out.

[geraldc]

NPR TED talks, This American Life, Serial.

Radiolab is good. They recently did the history of AIDS/patient zero, that was very good. They also had one on transdermal cranial stimulation that really fired up my interest.

There are lots of BBC history podcasts that are buried in their website that are worth a listen.

[Mr Larrington]

+1 for The Infinite Monkey Cage.  I always seem to miss the start of a new series when it's on the wireless.

[Chris N]

Radio 4's In Our Time is usually worth a listen, and I really like Stuff You Should Know, Naked Scientists, the Food programme and BBC Inside Science.

[woollypigs]

Thanks all, some good ones there. The mutt is going to be tired of me - dragging her out so I can listen to podcasts

For background noise I really like Preston and Steve.

They do a morning show on WMMR in Philadelphia, and the podcast is their show with (most) of the music cut out.

That reminds me of a random US radio show I found on winamp's radio list years ago. A early morning show (5.30am to 9.30am?) for a suburb outside Dallas, I think. We used to have it on in the late afternoon in the office and it had us in stitches, it was utterly wrong, fun, taking the piss etc etc. Sadly it got taken of the online air because of advertising rights or some such, since they got a massive following online following from around the world.

[Nuncio]

The Bugle - satire and silliness.

R4's Profile.  15 minutes on someone in the news. Benedict Cumberbatch last week, Mrs Mugabe this.  They usually try and get a balanced portrait but I think they had some difficulties this week.

Janey Godley. Glaswegian mother and daughter comedian combination, just chatting and swearing and commenting on current affairs, both familial and global.  I mainly listen for the unusual vowel sounds.

File on Four.

Serial, but you'd need to start at the beginning. This is something of a podcast phenomenon but I'm not sure why. It's a single case, true-life crime investigation, output weekly, with the strong chance that by the end we'll not be much nearer knowing the truth.  But I'm still hooked.

Slate's The Gist, with Mike Pesca.  c30 minutes Mon-Fri. A lot of the American cultural references go straight over my head, but I'm learning stuff too.

[mattc]

Quite a few worthwhile recs:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=site:yacf.co.uk+podcast&client=tablet-android-archos&espv=1&biw=960&bih=600&source=lnms&sa=X&ei=tEBzVIqyLfK1sASl7IGoBg&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAA

And of course EVERY cyclist should hear this one:
http://www.veloclubdonlogan.co.uk/2011/02/vcdl-episode-9-obree.html

VCDL have sadly recently quit, but the archive is probably worth a trawl.

[Pancho]

While on the topic, what do you need to do to listen to podcasts?

I imagine they are just audio files that you download but, this being 2014, they've been given a fancy name and you need an app rather than a URL and your native media player.

I have dabbled in the past but didn't really get to grips with it all.

I want something that will auto-download things as they become available and play them easily. Ideally, I'd like it to hook up to my car without faff (it's a BMW and seems to wirelessly connect (and wiredly connect, I think) to phones and tablets).

Then I want some means of finding stuff to listen to. The podcast app I played with seemed to have some sort of search option but I always wondered who ran the server and whether it was censored[1].

And are there people who curate stuff. A bit like a radio 4 editor who'll craft together the gems from the junk.

[1] Just Jobsian censorship rather than Orwellian. Although I suppose Facebook or Apple-store censorship is just privatised Orwellian censorship.

[mattc]

A URL is still all you need!

I find the listings sites (e.g. libsyn) are quicker to use than most host pages (e.g. BBC's own pod page).

I haven't used an app yet; in theory they should be much 'better'. I do suspect they might constrain your choices implicitly, but if you want auto-download they may be the only option.

Discussions like this one are probably more useful than simply blundering through listings - there is soooo much crap out there sadly.

[woollypigs]

Yup the url to the RSS feed and you get them. Even VLC does it, I think you can even get various plugins for your browser that would do it. I found a program called BeyondPod on Android - full featured free for seven days then around £5 - might change to a free one (though that means entering all the RSS feeds again).

While we are at it, which android pod cast player do you use ?

[Vince]

From the Beeb:
More or Less from Radio 4, challenges statistical claims in an often humourous way
Be-Spoked from Radio 5, if you like grunting and heavy breathing (Recording a live commentary whilst riding a cyclo-cross event may not be wise!)

[pcolbeck]

Dan Carlins Hardcore History is worth a listen.

[Chris N]

While we are at it, which android pod cast player do you use ?

Podkicker

[geraldc]

Stitcher's a good app for podcasts too

[citoyen]

Serial, but you'd need to start at the beginning. This is something of a podcast phenomenon but I'm not sure why. It's a single case, true-life crime investigation, output weekly, with the strong chance that by the end we'll not be much nearer knowing the truth.  But I'm still hooked.

I'm hooked too. I've long been a fan of This American Life and I think Serial works because it combines TAL's qualities of first-rate forensic journalism and engaging storytelling in a more expansive format that allows you to really get involved. Besides, everyone loves a good murder mystery, don't they?

It reminds me of The Wire in many ways - or, more precisely, it reminds me of David Simon's book Homicide, on which The Wire was based. And not just because it's set in Baltimore!

[geraldc]

Did listening to one of the Serial episodes make you curious what it would be like to just run through the woods naked at lunch time?

[Biggsy]

Off topic:

How about audio books as well?  I'm currently listening to Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs (available legally via eBay or naughtilly via bit torrent).  Trouble is, I fall asleep and lose my place (though not while walking a dog).

[woollypigs]

Yup audio books do that too me. I find that satire, comedy, news broadcast and the like,  I can dip in and out off. Without feeling that I have lost the plot and have to rewind.

[woollypigs]

The ability to download on schedule and search for other podcast, I think is the main features. 

[mattc]

While we are at it, which android pod cast player do you use ?

Podkicker

Euurgh!
Installed this,  and got it downloading stuff OK (Marathon Talk as it happens!), all easy so far. but ...

The downloaded files have ludicrous 20char hex prefixes. So my MP3 player displays nothing useful at all.
Will have to try summat else I think ...