Podcasting has had its challenges over the past couple of years and we even once questioned whether it would survive! But at heart we at ReadWriteWeb love listening to podcasts, nearly as much as we love reading blogs. So we decided to find out the favorite podcasts of our readers and writers. We put the call out on Twitter and got a great response. The results are below, together with the favorites of the ReadWriteWeb authors.
We'd like to continue the discussion in the comments - and also tell us how you listen to podcasts these days. I usually listen to them while walking the dog. But everyone is different, so tell us your preferred podcast listening method.
Also @drnormal from Strange Love Live wanted to know: which do you prefer, audio or video podcasts? Let us know in the comments.
Richard MacManus
Marshall Kirkpatrick (walking the dog while listening to podcasts is a common theme here at RWW)
Sarah Perez
Frederic Lardinois
Lidija Davis doesn't listen to podcasts, but she participates in one - The Drilldown.
We got a great response from our friends on Twitter (follow @rww on Twitter if you want to participate in future polls). A number of podcasts were mentioned multiple times. Here are 10 of those that randomly caught our eye:
Below is the full unstructured list from friends of RWW! Sorry there are no links, but generally you can copy and paste an item into Google to find out more...
Kate LaFrance: Stephen Pierce's blog dtalpha.com.
Roger Harris: Nature magazine, Scientific American, NPR
Terri Ellman: This American Life and Wait! Wait! Don't Tell Me.
Kenny Hyder: the maccast & atomfilms
Mike Billeter: Marvel's own Mighty Marvel Podcast and The B.S. Report with Bill Simmons (ESPN).
Rob Inskeep: Killer Innovations - http://bit.ly/killer and, on a lighter note The Instance - http://bit.ly/Instance
Mike Keliher: You Look Nice Today, On the Media, Shill, Inside PR, For Immediate Release
eco2oh: Cool Hunting Video (brilliant art/culture/design snack) Tiki Bar TV, Eban's Lounge Podcast Selection, Dishy Mix
Joseph Miller: This American Life, TWiT, Stanford Entrepreneurship.
Simon Young: http://forimmediaterelease.biz, http://jaffejuice.com/, http://twistimage.com/blog, and of course http://ijump.tv :)
ipevo: Inside Mac Radio
itamarw: The Bugle (Times Online), BOL
Mike Robinson: BBC Friday night comedy http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/... TED Talks, always interesting... http://www.ted.com/index.ph...
kitalooclef: More Hip than Hippie, You Look Nice Today, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, Real Time with Bill Mahr, The World's Tech podcast
Paul Laroquod: ill doctrine; Cult of UHF; Quirks & Quarks; Art & Story; Sessler's Soapbox.
Andrew Korf: Ian Masters on KPFK.org: http://www.ianmasters.org/
Rob Cottingham: For Immediate Release, Lullabot, Six Pixels of Separation, CBCRadio Comedy Factory, Manager Tools
Kevin Marks: RadioLab; In Our Time; This American Life; BBC Friday night Comedy; On The Media more at my last.fm account kevinmarks
Daniel Howe: The Father Bob Show - He's a disgruntled elderly priest from Melbourne who likes to speak his mind http://is.gd/bQ92
Iben Rodriguez: WNYC-RadioLab, VODcars, PBCC-Sunday-Sermons, ScienceFriday, and Berkeley-Groks.
chase squires: Marketplace ( http://marketplace.publicra... ) and the Stuck in the 80s podcast ( http://blogs.tampabay.com/80s/ )
Adam Ritchie: sound opinions from american public media, nyt popcast, npr all songs considered, boston globe page one, rocketboom
Erin | Books in 140: This American Life, CBC's Writers & Company, New York Times Book Review, New Yorker podcasts
Steve O'Hear: TWiT, phonesshow (prev smartphoneshow), mobile with the guru
Charles: "The Lew Rockwell Show" http://lewrockwell.com/podc...
Kim Gaskins: Savage Love http://is.gd/2rG0
Ethan Watrall: iFanboy, Quirks & Quarks, Wormwood, Leviathan Chronicles, OnBoardGames
Kevin Pedraja: This American Life, Fresh Air, NPR Morning News Summary, KEXP Song of the Day, Beautiful Places in HD
Kiran Max Weber: Future Tense, Core Intuition, gdgt, StackOverflow and TWiT. Gillmor Gang would have made it but think it died.
Andrew Korf: http://ecorner.stanford.edu...
Mike Maney: "Open Sources" podcast from @mjasay and @daveofdoom at http://www.opensources.com/
mike dunn: http://www.podiobooks.com, http://www.somethingtobedes, http://www.thebitterestpill, http://www.evilgeniuschronicles, http://www.deltaparkproject.
Hanna Wiszniewska: Changesurfer Radio http://bit.ly/OF7d, Pop!Casts http://bit.ly/liEk, TEDtalks http://bit.ly/vUTq
Tony Bain: venture-voice
alexislyon: Coffee Break Spanish!
McMatt: Sci. Am's "60 Second..." series. Informative, leads to other info and very chipper. http://tinyurl.com/5vgr79
Shaun Trennery: Twit, No Agenda, ZA Tech Show, Tech 5
Sarah Wood: Diggnation, Totally Rad Show, The Stealth Mac, We Need Girlfriends, KEXP song of the day
aussiesasha: social blend @ mixxingbowl.com :)
Sea-Fever Consulting: For Immediate Release, Six Pixels of Separation, No Agenda, You Look Nice Today, Just One More Book
Will King: TEDTalks, FastCompany.TV, MacCast, NPR Planet Money, KRCW LeShow
Sherif Mansour: 1) The Scoop (Aussie) http://tinyurl.com/594dwx 2) Instantiate Podcast (Aussie) http://instantiate.platform... , 3)TWiT (US)
arikhanson: For Immediate Release; Marketing Over Coffee
Chris from Germany: http://www.podcast.de/podcast/8995/Sci_xpert_-_Leschs_Universum
it's in German, a Munich university professor, over 30 parts, 15mins each
Steve Spalding: You Look Nice Today - Merlin Mann's podcast, Buzz Outloud, TWiT
Aaron Hockley: TWIP, TackSharp, Hanselminutes, .NET Rocks
Bram Pitoyo: strangelovelive
Chris O'Rourke: StrangeloveLive, Webb Alert, The Microsoft IT Manager Podcast
Chris Judson: FOSS Weekly, Reduced Shakespeare Co, YouLookNiceToday, Speaking of Faith, Wait, wait...don't tell me (last two are NPR types)
Michele: The Moth, Splendid Table, This American Life
dieselboi: Strangelovelive is a fun, insightful and sexy podcast
Brett Roberts: TED, Ask a Ninja
dekkerd: GDGT weekly, TwiT, loaded, Buzz out loud, geekbrief.tv
Shelley O'Connor: www.polyweekly.com
Jon Burg: FIR, Six Pixels of Separation, Cranky Geeks, NBC News, Naaleh
Finally, if you're wondering who is the guy who got a podcasting RSS tattoo, it is Drew Olanoff!
Comments
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Lately I've been listening to podcasts when I work out. It makes the time go by super fast and takes your attention away from the burning sensation in your legs.
Thanks for posting this topic today... I am always looking for the best podcasts out there as mainstream media (including NPR/PBS) sinks into complete irrelevancy. Agreed Gillmor Gang (spell check above) is one often some of the best discussion out there along with RRW's own RWT. I can't recommend the excellent Stanford podcasts as well ( http://ecorner.stanford.edu ) linked above.
"can't recommend enough (the Stanford podcasts)"
Thanks Andrew re the Stanford podcast recommendations. I must say tho that I disagree with you that NPR is sinking into irrelevancy. I absolutely love the All Songs Considered podcast and generally I think NPR puts out some excellent content.
If you could only listen to one podcast, it would be Keith and the Girl. An awesome daily comedy podcast show from NYC.
It is pretty offensive, so if you don't like that type of humor then its not for you.
Having started the audio podcast a year ago, the video "tail" has been wagging our "dog" for quite some time. I admit that this has been surprising to me. What is the attraction? Is it community participation (the backchannel chat) during a live session, or is there something more that folks get out of watching rather than just listening to a podcast?
I see a great future for radio on the web. I think the term "podcasting" hurt us quite a bit, we spent all of our time explaining something that was rather easy. There's a lot of great content out there, and people like Leo Laporte have proven that great "talk shows" are great talk shows, no matter what medium they're on.
I'm flattered that you used a pic of my tattoo, viva la podcasting!
Best Podcast I've ever listened to: Distorted View: Daily Comedy Podcast
RSS
On NPR/PBS - I may have been a little harsh - certainly Fresh Air, Bill Moyers Journal, NOW, Frontline and some other regional programs do a decent job of exposing and presenting the news and ask the critical questions we need - that said often I find the coverage watered down, not hard hitting, and often after the fact. The many of the offerings by KPFK, Democracy Now, and then the myriad offerings on the web by individuals in form of podcasts often outshine NPR and PBS - while their counterparts in the UK, the BBC, produce content of much higher quality and depth.
Thrilled to be mentioned on RWW again, thanks :)
(and awesome to see Drew's tattoo)
Dear Thank you very much for such participation