Yet Another Cycling Forum
Off Topic => The Pub => Arts and Entertainment => Topic started by: woollypigs on 23 November, 2014, 10:14:37 pm
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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?
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- 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
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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.
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I like the radiolab ones.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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+1 for The Infinite Monkey Cage. I always seem to miss the start of a new series when it's on the wireless.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 ?
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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!)
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Dan Carlins Hardcore History is worth a listen.
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While we are at it, which android pod cast player do you use ?
Podkicker
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Stitcher's a good app for podcasts too
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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!
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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?
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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).
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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.
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The ability to download on schedule and search for other podcast, I think is the main features.
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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 ... :(
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Just found two more in the Popular Science category :
Dr Karl on Triple J/ABS in Australia. We found it while driving about on Tasmanian, radio call in with questions ranging from medicine, science , engineering etc. Good quick and easy to understand answers. It only miss out on the good music they play on the live show.
http://www.abc.net.au/science/drkarl/scienceontriplej/
The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe is a weekly Podcast talkshow discussing the latest news and topics from the world of the paranormal, fringe science, and controversial claims from a scientific point of view. Haven't heard the show yet, but got pointed to it when one of the Dr's was one the above podcast.
http://www.theskepticsguide.org/
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I've recently found "ReplyAll", which has some good tech stories.
Less recently but from the same people the "StartUp" podcast, about, well startups. The new season is following a pair of women entrepreneurs and some of the crap they have to handle that men don't.
I'm sure I've listed others in another thread...
Bike Show
Radio 3 Building a library (I point students to this when discussing how to do a critical review)
Friday night comedy
BBC inside science
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Add Speed Metal Cycling to my list too.
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There's always Wittertainment (http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/fivelive/kermode/rss.xml)
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Adam Buxton has recently started a new podcast. It's just him chatting to his celeb mates but it passes the time and is entertaining in places.
He has Joe Cornish lined up as a guest soon, which should be well worth listening to.
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Yes, looking forward to that one.
Here are some of the ones I currently subscribe to.
A couple of 'word' ones:
- The Allusionist. Helen Zaltzman. Words in general, tending towards etymology.
- Lexicon Valley from the Slate. As above, but longer, and without Helen Zaltzman. The ones where they have Bob Zimmer as a guest and go into a single word or phrase in detail, usually beyond the earliest OED citation, are very good. Recent ones: Heebie Jeebies, Seersucker, Fuck, Quiz, Cockamamie, Get One's Goat, Gringo, Pumpernickel.
US Politics:
MSNBC - The Rachel Maddow Show. Just an audio version of her daily TV show. If you're under the impression that Americans are all libertarian, gun toting, small/no government, anti-immigration, Tea-party, pro-Lifers then this is the antidote for you. But, for the next year I suspect most of it is going to be shining a light on the Republican nominees espousing those views.
The Moth.
Soon to be on R4Extra. Punters on stage telling anecdotes from their own lives.
Mortified.
Similar to the above, but readings from adolescent writings, usually diaries.
And my favourite of the growing number of Podcast Saturday morning radio shows with (mainly) chaps just chatting nonsense and with the music removed (think Jonathan Ross, Rhod Gilbert, Graham Norton, Frank Skinner):
Elis James and John Robins.
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- The Allusionist. Helen Zaltzman. Words in general, tending towards etymology.
I listened to the first one of those and didn't like it so haven't listened to any more. Tbh, I've gone a bit off Answer Me This as well - mainly because lately they've seemed a bit half-hearted about it and some of the answers they've given have had me shouting at the tellyipod. In particular, there was one about the meaning of macaroni in the song Yankee Doodle, which as any fule kno is nothing to do with pasta. And I can live without Olly Mann's Media Cunt podcast too (may not be it's actual name).
Lexicon Valley sounds interesting though - I'll check it out.
The Moth.
Soon to be on R4Extra. Punters on stage telling anecdotes from their own lives.
I heard the recent Moth Radio Hour on 4 Extra and loved it. Another I shall have to investigate further. Seems to share a lot of the good qualities of Radiolab and This American Life.
Mortified.
Similar to the above, but readings from adolescent writings, usually diaries.
Oh, that sounds perfect! Why have I not heard of it before?
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I only learned that Yankee Doodle's macaroni wasn't some sort of pasta-themed nonse on his part this week. And I've already forgotten what it actually is.
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Macaroni was a term to mean the height of fashion, hence stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni.
I like movie podcasts like Doug Loves Movies, and I was there too.
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I only learned that Yankee Doodle's macaroni wasn't some sort of pasta-themed nonse on his part this week. And I've already forgotten what it actually is.
Macaroni was a term to mean the height of fashion, hence stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni.
Yes, and the reason the term means the height of fashion is that all things Italian were fashionable in the 18th century.
However, my understanding is that macaroni in this case refers to those sweet, fragrant meringuey/cakey things known as macarons when they come up on telly bakery competitions, which makes a lot more sense to me than the idea of a foppish dandy being excited at the prospect of tube-shaped pasta in cheese sauce.
Having said that, the consensus of the internet seems to be that the Macaroni Club was where fashionable young 18th-century homosexuals went to eat pasta. And as we all know, the internet is usually right.
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NPR curates a selection of podcast episodes: http://earbud.fm/
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- Lexicon Valley from the Slate. The ones where they have Bob Zimmer as a guest and go into a single word or phrase in detail, usually beyond the earliest OED citation, are very good. Recent ones: Heebie Jeebies, Seersucker, Fuck, Quiz, Cockamamie, Get One's Goat, Gringo, Pumpernickel.
I've been working my way through the back catalogue of these. Fantastic. Thanks for the tip. The one on the C-bomb was brilliant, but I've also been completely gripped by some of the less sensational ones, eg the one I listened to last night on demonstrative pronouns, which I never would have guessed would be such a fertile subject for discussion.
Mortified.
Similar to the above, but readings from adolescent writings, usually diaries.
I've also been working my way through these. In fact, I have worked my way through all of them. Wonderful, albeit sometimes very uncomfortable listening, and there's a slightly creepy voyeuristic element to some of the stories.
I also gave The Allusionist another go and it turns out I quite like it.
And I've succumbed to the constant bombardment of ads for Radiotopia on The Allusionist and downloaded some eps of 99% Invisible to listen to at some point, when I get around to it.
NPR curates a selection of podcast episodes: http://earbud.fm/
Ooh, nice. I like the idea of having recommendations for particularly good individual episodes.
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One of the good things about Mortified is the intro. I like to recite along with it. Not such a good idea when on the bike and waiting at traffic lights within the hearing range of pedestrians.
And I've succumbed to the constant bombardment of ads
I thought you were going to say you had bought something from Audible, or Square Space or Stamps.com. The unfortunate price to pay for American national public radio, I fear. It undermines the credibility of Ira Glass when he has to say, at the end of every This American Life , 'Putting the pub back into public radio'. You can tell he knows it doesn't make sense.
Glad you like Lexicon Valley citoyen. It's not just the content I think, it's the presentation. I love it when lexicographers get all expletivey.
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Dan Carlin, Hardcore history. A series of long form lectures on a variety of topics. Enjoyable if you like history etc.
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Radio4 have a mini-series on Sat mornings about podcasts. This led me to the madness that is:
www.worstideaofalltime.com/
A nightmare, a podcast, a weekly podcast review of Grown Ups 2 - 52 times in a row.
I actually started with the 2nd series; where they repeatedly watch Sex and the City II. First one I tried was very funny.
If you prefer your comedy more celebral, www.DuncanTrussell.com is very good. (warning: may have leftish leanings ... )
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Serial is back (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/11/business/media/serial-season-2-bowe-bergdahl-recalls-his-afghan-odyssey.html?_r=0). I hope they're using the same music.
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I hope they keep the "Mail... kimp?" adverts at the beginning :)
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I'm quite enjoying Mike Duncan's History of Rome:
https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Mike+Duncan%22
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This thread needs a bit of a kick (unless there's a more recent one I can't find).
Current faves.
Comedy:
Athletico Mince - Bob Mortimer and Andy Dawson. Sublime BM silliness and no more than 9% football talk (that was a promise from the earlier shows but they don't get anywhere near that now). I've come close to having to pull to the side of the road and stop when 'Peter Beardsley' reads from his joke book. Top of the list for a reason.
That Peter Crouch Podcast - Closer to about 90% football. Behind the scenes look at the pro football scene, through PC's varied career. The blokey bonhomie may pall after a while, but so far PC has been a revelation.
A Very Fatal Murder - From the Onion people. The second series has just started, the first series was a pitch-perfect satire of all of those real crime podcasts (looking at you, Serial I).
Brian and Roger - a sometimes painful listen, sometimes funny, about a fictional one-sided relationship between two losers, one highly manipulative and always on the make, the other friendless but wanting to please. As revealed, exclusively, in the form of voicemails between the 2.
The Beef and Dairy Network - not what it sounds like it might be, which is partly where its appeal lies. Quirkily funny most of the time, but sometimes, for me, the flights of fancy fly too far away.
Non-British politics (I find the British variety too depressing) and History:
The Rachel Maddow Show - taken straight from her MSNBC tv show. Daily updates on (mainly) Trump and GOP shenanigans. She takes you through the latest and upcoming events, always with a view on precedent, or absence thereof, with a brief interview with someone, invariably from the left, to explain the finer details. Ads have just begin to creep in, but they're short and are limited to MSNBC trailers.
Pod Save America - Youngish guns from the Obama Whitehouse. The shine is beginning to tarnish a bit, and the show itself together with the interviews are a little too long for me so its dropping down my pecking order a little (so why it's in a list of faves, I'm not sure).
Conflicted - a 6-parter (now finished) on Middle East politics and conflicts. Two people talking through and opining on, in turn: 9/11, War on Terror, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, and returning jihadists. The 2 people being Saudi born ex-Jihadi turned MI6 spy Aimen Dean, and American ex-monk/current writer Thomas Small. I learnt a lot.
The British History Podcast.
Up to ep 315 and still only on AEthelred! 20-odd minutes at a time, sometimes washing over me, sometimes not (so don't test me on anything). One of those 'I've started so I have to keep going now'.
Other regulars, not quite reaching the level of 'fave':
Reply All
538
The New Yorker Politics and More
WTF with Marc Maron (very dependent on interviewee)
Various Pappys formats
Slate Political podcast
BBC Profile
In Our Time (depends on subject)
The Cycling Podcast (except for days following boring Giro sprint stages)
Flammecast
The Horne Section
The Bugle
Adam Buxton (depends on interviewee)
RHLSTP (ditto)
BBC Witness
Inside the Comedian (improv interview on fictionalized version of various comedian's life)
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https://www.earhustlesq.com/
This is probably the best pod cast I have heard, production, edit, music, stories, the people, subjects. I totally binged it in a few weeks after I found it back in Nov. The dog didn't like it cause she got walked extra long each time I had that pod cast on.
Not the subject I was looking for, but it sucked in me, grabbed me by the ear drums and dragged me along for three seasons. Been counting down to season four since, which starts on June 5.
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Dan Carlins Hardcore History is worth a listen.
This - I am addicted to it. Tackles really tough (morally repugnant) issues a lot with great balance and you learn a lot of history.
Best ones for me are his opus on WWI (Blueprint for Armageddon), still free to download - 6 loooong episodes, but you can dip in and out.
Wrath of the Khans (history of the Mongol invasion - linked to Hitler and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee believe it or not)
Ghosts of the Ostfront.
Honourable mention for Logical Insanity
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Mike Duncan's History of Rome is the old classic history podcast - I started my journey into cycling going up and down the Taff Trail in Cardiff listening to that :-D
Even older classic on that front is 12 Byzantine Emperors.
Mike Duncan has a really good follow up calledRevolutions- never really understood the French Revolution until I listened to that (though Dan Carlin gives a good potted history of why it's so important to our modern world also in episode 1 of Blueprint for Armageddon).
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Athletico Mince - Bob Mortimer and Andy Dawson. Sublime BM silliness...
I did give that a go a while back but found it not all that interesting. Might give it another try.
That Peter Crouch Podcast
I've been put off this one by the endless trailers on 5live. Blokey bonhomie is not my thing, tbh.
The Beef and Dairy Network - not what it sounds like it might be, which is partly where its appeal lies. Quirkily funny most of the time, but sometimes, for me, the flights of fancy fly too far away.
I loved this for the first few months, very funny, but then I found the one joke wore a bit thin. Slightly surprised it's still going, tbh.
Various Pappys formats
I still love flatslam - the quickfire round joke has gone so far beyond being unfunny that it is funny again.
Some interesting mentions in your other picks that I haven't come across - might give some of them a go. Thanks for the recommendations.
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https://www.earhustlesq.com/
This is probably the best pod cast I have heard, production, edit, music, stories, the people, subjects. I totally binged it in a few weeks after I found it back in Nov. The dog didn't like it cause she got walked extra long each time I had that pod cast on.
Not the subject I was looking for, but it sucked in me, grabbed me by the ear drums and dragged me along for three seasons. Been counting down to season four since, which starts on June 5.
I got lead to Ear Hustle via Kitchen Sisters - another podcast on NPR. I initially thought I wouldn't like it, but like Wooly am gripped. I think because it takes you through all the emotions, then back again, you keep wanting more. I have to admit I cheered when Erlon got his release date.
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A podcast that I'm currently enjoying is "The Trawl". Where Jemma Forte and Marina Purkiss, as they put it, "Trawl through twitter so that you don't have to."
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-trawl-podcast/id1634883984
On the history of Britain podcast, I've finally got to the battle of Hastings. Episode 391 for heaven's sake! Who knew there was so much history that was just passed over by our schooling?
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Some of my current favourites include:
Atlas Obscura - they say "a guide to the world's strange, incredible and wondrous places" which is about right. A bit US - heavy but that's OK.
Sticky Notes - if classical music is your thing this is worth a listen. I really enjoy it.
13 Minutes to the Moon is an older series about the 1st moon landing with interviews with a load of the people involved, with a second series on Apollo 13. Fascinating, especially the first series.
If you are into Formula 1 then "Beyond the Grid" is very good.
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This thread https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=119841.0 (https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=119841.0) has lots of recent suggestions.